The Black Mage Rotations

[kurama3435]

knowing how to level up a black mage is hard not to metion being lvl 31 but i mange i wanted to know how to level real fast with black mage and what gear i can get to be
and look black mage material at level 30 -40

[Aikaal]

knowing how to level up a black mage is hard not to metion being lvl 31 but i mange i wanted to know how to level real fast with black mage and what gear i can get to be
and look black mage material at level 30 -40

There's two mentality:
Crit>Det>Spell Speed. Most BLM use that build and it's better if you don't have a lot of Spell Speed.

Spell Speed>Crit>Det. What I believe is the superior choice. More spells means more procs. People will argue that in reality, you have to move during fight and you lose casts meaning you waste your stats. I disagree. This is where your skills to get as many cast possible while moving comes in play.

[Synovius]

There's two mentality:
Crit>Det>Spell Speed. Most BLM use that build and it's better if you don't have a lot of Spell Speed.

Spell Speed>Crit>Det. What I believe is the superior choice. More spells means more procs. People will argue that in reality, you have to move during fight and you lose casts meaning you waste your stats. I disagree. This is where your skills to get as many cast possible while moving comes in play.

I haven't looked at the math in a bit but I'm fairly certain DET is way behind both SSp and Crit in any build. In the previous tier, I went pure crit. This tier, I'm trying out pure SSp. SSp has proven especially nice for fights like Turn 8 where I'm basically standing still for 95% of the fight.

[Aikaal]

SSp is definitely the way to go in T8. There is a lot of movement in T9 but you can counter it with Aetherial Manipulation. Det is a good stat and I won't say no to it. But I,m standing at 2.3sec cast time, 2.14 with Selene buff xD

[Zencurse]

In a PERFECT WORLD Spell Speed outstrips crit fairly quickly and scales much better into ilvl 90+ gear...That said the amount of movement required in T6/7 MAY cause some BLM to want to itemize crit to get the most out of their uptime. I personally prefer a SS based build as I like to get off as many spells as possible when I can stand still and after ~26-27 casts SS outstrips crit (massive luck withstanding) and we cast that many fires easily within the first minute or two of the fight. As we enter ilvl 110 gear though we're more starved on spell speed gear to the point where we'll likely have similar amounts of crit as ss if we itemize towards ss, so the point may be mute by the time we are reaching our bis lists.

[Aikaal]

I made some calcs, I'll have about the exact same SS than I had in 2.1, about the same crit in 2.1 but I'll have more Det. I confirmed last night that T8 and T9 share the same accuracy cap for BLM. I'll assume it's the same for anyone.

[LetBloodline]

As far math is concerner we now (2.2) have SS and crit paired (crit a little higher) then det was left behind since it didn't scale. You can find more in the relative topic in this section

[CyberMatrix]

but, for info, best gear set lv 90 BLM?

[JonBigwood]

Hi, thank for this thread, it's very interesting. (Fresh level 50 BLM, my main is PLD, second WHM.)

It would be interesting if you mention also the buffs or debuffs that are useful or necessary, because probably you need or it's advisable to use them in the middle of rotations.

I see manawall nullifies 2 physical attacks for 60s, and its wait time is 120 s. I suppose this means you not only don't get damage but also don't get interrupted, so it is very useful, isn't it? Should it be used every time there's risk of a physical attack, just in case? Or reserved for a known future moment where it will be necessary? (Does manawall also nullify Titan HM attacks? Not yet started the relic quest for BLM.)

You also don't mention raging strikes (except somebody who recommends not to use it to avoid unwanted enmity.) Should it be always avoided in AoE attacks (but not in one-target attacks)? Or when should it be avoided?

Also tips about swiftcast and surecast use would be useful.

Thanks in advance.

[Maero]

I usually use Raging Strikes after i cast Fire 3 and if you are worried at all about this you can also pop in Quelling Strikes
Myself for speed runs i do use Raging Strikes and have not had too many issues.
Surecast is very rarely used but i mainly have only used it in Brayflox hm on final boss were large bomb drops, here i pop in Surecast and lb it.
Ideally swiftcast i try to fit in my rotation so it is available after i cast my 1st flare, so after Flare you can transpose and either wait for a mana tick (which i have been having issues with lately) or just transpose> convert> swiftcast> and proceed with rotation so either another flare or Ice 3, etc.

Myself i have been going for Crit with my gear for now.
Also for rotations have been trying out Freeze, do any of you use it for aoe?
It seems fine for the most part