Black mages. . . .

[Xeia]

Let's say I want to enfeeble the enemy's stats or poison it or weaken it a bit before I start throwing spells at it. I don't have that strategy available. I can't work with elements or exploit an enemy's weakness or do anything cunning or strategic. I can just keep pressing "lightning" over and over and over and over.

I dont even think conj should get water magic, but meh, i guess it fits their 'from gridania' image. Even so, I think BLM should have access to ALL elements of elemental destriction, not just fire ice and lightning, else they cant give BLM Flood, Quake, or Tornado sensibally, since those elements 'belong' to conjorers.

They should just get banish/ga and holy/ga. Unless the mob is holy based,when would they be resisted?

Every time this topic is raised I see the closest thing we ever get to a consensus in these forums. Sure, people are against it, but there's actually no name calling in this thread. And people seem to want black mages to be the elementalists, and white mages to stick to healing, buffing, and holy damage.

Because 1 out 14 Final Fantasy games should be the one to decide Conjurer/Whitemage shouldn't?

Final Fantasy XI is the only game where Blackmage has equal prowess in Earth Wind and Water compared to Fire, Ice and Thunder. Blackmage in any other game has only ever possessed one or two of the other elements at any one time and usually is just a single spell e.g Quake, Tornado, Water and Aero.

While it's true that they're not the ever-present staples of the Black Mage class, that's not really an argument for leaving them in the White Mages' corner. They do appear as Black Magic more often than they appear as White Magic. Aero is an old White Magic spell, true, but has been Black Magic significantly more often. Neither Water nor Stone have ever existed as White Magic to my knowledge, and Water has all the appropriate tiers (Water, Watera, Waterga) available as Black Magic in X.

Just because traditional FF Black Mages aren't masters of every element simultaneously doesn't mean Water and Stone aren't traditionally Black Magic. And Aero's on the fence, I admit, but I'd still prefer to have my White Mages using light or holy magic rather than elemental.