I hate being a Black Mage

[Kassiekane]

If your main class is Black Mage, then you may find this post to be either an insult to your favorite class, successful in proving my own stupidity, or both. However I want to make it clear I am not implying that the class is broken or unenjoyable for others, I personally just can't use it and highly regret choosing it as my starting class.

Reason 1: Unfriendly to lag - As a black mage, or any castor class (in-theory), the only cast-canceling status more detrimental then Silence and Paralyze is a sketchy connection. My dps will severely suffer when participating in a crowded FATE. This is because my character is actually executing the skill long before the cooldown on my screen is finished, often resulting in recasting to fail, sometimes twice in a row. Because of this, I may even lose the chance of switching from umbral ice stacks to astral fire or vice versa.

Reason 2: Situational Skills - In example, Freeze. Despite looking through different forums and black mage guides it doesn't make sense to me. There are other skills similar to that; skills that should be used in special situations, and proper execution of these skills would, in theory, paint someone as a viable black mage user. I have a hunch that such skills would only be used in end-game, which, for me, is a terribly far journey (I'm also a bit jealous of players who have 3-4 levelcap classes already).

Reason 3: Sleeping enemies don't stand out - Needless to say, sleep is a very powerful skill. However, I don't know how to stop people from waking enemies up. I guess its important for tanks to use aoe to pull groups of mobs, but when the pull fails and the healer dies, we all die. The effective time for sleep gets cut in half everytime it gets used on the same enemy, and therefore it becomes a moot effort trying to recast sleep when the healer is getting attacked by enemies that are separated from the pull. Then again, this could be a result of a lack of coordination, but I've never been a tactical person.

Reason 4: Shares the same close range weakness as healers - In situations where tanks aren't available, such as underpopulated fates, I often get destroyed by bosses since I cannot move whilst attacking. I often scream in silence when I see dragoons and monks mocking bosses when they just laugh in their face as they swipe them while skipping merrily away from a massive area attack. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the closer range dps classes do more damage then the castor dps types?

Reason 5: AoE Attacks are not meant for solo play - If you do not have at least 2 tanks in the area or in your party, area of effect attacks is the worst thing you can do as a black mage since you cannot move while attacking, and higher level mobs are capable of canceling your casting. I think this class has the best AoE ability (not sure), but at any rate its not the smartest thing to do by yourself, at least, in my experience.

I'm pretty sure that with the combination of the high black mage population and the general amount of discussions of the class, a lot of people do in-fact enjoy using it. And I can see why, the class is well designed and highly dynamic. I just don't recommend it for stupid people, such as myself.

[HoroBoro]

Stick it out - BM top sustained DPS XD

You're at a bad time right now when transpose seems to be too slow and you don't have Ice 3 along with Magic and Mend II yet. Freeze and Lethargy are kinda useless, but the other skills are pretty good.

Manawall and Mana Ward can save you -> Apocatastasis, I swear, does more then it says (Or else perhaps SE's typing is fubar).

[Taemek]

If your main class is Black Mage, then you may find this post to be either an insult to your favorite class, successful in proving my own stupidity, or both. However I want to make it clear I am not implying that the class is broken or unenjoyable for others, I personally just can't use it and highly regret choosing it as my starting class.

Reason 1: Unfriendly to lag - As a black mage, or any castor class (in-theory), the only cast-canceling status more detrimental then Silence and Paralyze is a sketchy connection. My dps will severely suffer when participating in a crowded FATE. This is because my character is actually executing the skill long before the cooldown on my screen is finished, often resulting in recasting to fail, sometimes twice in a row. Because of this, I may even lose the chance of switching from umbral ice stacks to astral fire or vice versa.

Sadly, this has nothing to do with anything but you.

Reason 2: Situational Skills - In example, Freeze. Despite looking through different forums and black mage guides it doesn't make sense to me. There are other skills similar to that; skills that should be used in special situations, and proper execution of these skills would, in theory, paint someone as a viable black mage user. I have a hunch that such skills would only be used in end-game, which, for me, is a terribly far journey (I'm also a bit jealous of players who have 3-4 levelcap classes already).

Situational skills are part and parcel of any MMORPG, it is just how it is. However, you can put yourself in to positions to force the use of those skills more often, choice is yours.

Reason 3: Sleeping enemies don't stand out - Needless to say, sleep is a very powerful skill. However, I don't know how to stop people from waking enemies up. I guess its important for tanks to use aoe to pull groups of mobs, but when the pull fails and the healer dies, we all die. The effective time for sleep gets cut in half everytime it gets used on the same enemy, and therefore it becomes a moot effort trying to recast sleep when the healer is getting attacked by enemies that are separated from the pull. Then again, this could be a result of a lack of coordination, but I've never been a tactical person.

Lack of group coordination and synergy is not your fault, either tell your group members to stop waking them up or let them tank them and die.

Reason 4: Shares the same close range weakness as healers - In situations where tanks aren't available, such as underpopulated fates, I often get destroyed by bosses since I cannot move whilst attacking. I often scream in silence when I see dragoons and monks mocking bosses when they just laugh in their face as they swipe them while skipping merrily away from a massive area attack. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the closer range dps classes do more damage then the castor dps types?

Not sure what you are asking here, do you want to be able to tank fate bosses? If that is what you are asking which is how I am assuming it due to your paragraphs structure, we all know this is silly. Kite or die, simple.

Reason 5: AoE Attacks are not meant for solo play - If you do not have at least 2 tanks in the area or in your party, area of effect attacks is the worst thing you can do as a black mage since you cannot move while attacking, and higher level mobs are capable of canceling your casting. I think this class has the best AoE ability (not sure), but at any rate its not the smartest thing to do by yourself, at least, in my experience.

Hmmm, after what I have read to here, I am feeling you need some more experience playing a BLM maybe? AoE attacks for solo gameplay is never ideal unless you are capable of rounding up 4+ mobs, Freezing them and AoEing them down.

I'm pretty sure that with the combination of the high black mage population and the general amount of discussions of the class, a lot of people do in-fact enjoy using it. And I can see why, the class is well designed and highly dynamic. I just don't recommend it for stupid people, such as myself.

That is because it is the easiest class to play with very little skills used to maximize DPS, where other classes have some very intricate rotations that involve many skills.

BLM is literally a 4 button wonder, 2-3 if you macro your skills correctly.

[Tyl]

I definitly agree with some of this stuff, tho it's not what bothes me the most.

Even tho i wish i could sleep our melees with the mobs, so they dont wake them ~
What is frustratating: I with my eq (AF stuff and ifrit wep at least..) do lest dmg than our new lvl 50 (with the 45 af armor etc) bard it's kinda sad.

/edit
i'm used to mages with 30+ skills i have to actvly use, i miss that! T_T

[Pharacelcus]

Reason 3: Sleeping enemies don't stand out - Needless to say, sleep is a very powerful skill. However, I don't know how to stop people from waking enemies up. I guess its important for tanks to use aoe to pull groups of mobs, but when the pull fails and the healer dies, we all die. The effective time for sleep gets cut in half everytime it gets used on the same enemy, and therefore it becomes a moot effort trying to recast sleep when the healer is getting attacked by enemies that are separated from the pull. Then again, this could be a result of a lack of coordination, but I've never been a tactical person.

make a little macro using:
/mk ignore1 <t>
/ac "sleep" <t>

if they still don't get the mob is not to be touched, then it's better to let them die.
give it another chance i'd say, at the very least.. don't judge a class on how it performs during fates.

[KaosPrimeZero]

I definitly agree with some of this stuff, tho it's not what bothes me the most.

Even tho i wish i could sleep our melees with the mobs, so they dont wake them ~
What is frustratating: I with my eq (AF stuff and ifrit wep at least..) do lest dmg than our new lvl 50 (with the 45 af armor etc) bard it's kinda sad.

/edit
i'm used to mages with 30+ skills i have to actvly use, i miss that! T_T

I miss Voidwatch too...

[Malevicton]

You'll find most of these problems fade away at 50, except for Freeze being useless.

[Orophin]

You'll find most of these problems fade away at 50, except for Freeze being useless.

Sounds about right.

BLM is definitely my favorite class out of the ones I've played so far. I just love ripping off chunks of mobs' life bars. Sure, we have to deal with interrupting casts to survive attacks, but melees are in the same boat where they lose DPS time if there's an attack centered on a mob that they have to pull off of it.

I partied with FC people going through the story dungeons and once I got the multi-sleep trait at 36 they were happy with how much it trivialized trash pulls. You can't always get that level of cooperation in PUGs though, especially with a WAR tank who has to rely on Overpower for keeping threat, or overzealous DPS who want to hit whatever they feel like or spam AOE attacks.

There's nothing I can really say that can make you like BLM more, so if you're not enjoying how it plays as a whole you might want to try out something else. SMN has less of a role in crowd control so you won't feel pressured to get sleeps off and they also have components for AOE damage, but it's a different beast than BLM whereas there's a bit of a ramp up time in your damage getting started vs just blowing up stuff immediately. BRD is another ranged option, or you could always try out the melee DPS classes.

[Lgalang]

Well your never wrong this is actually cons of blackmage but its doesnt mean that it doesnt have pros. Every job has Pros and Cons its just not your playstyle.

[zaviermhigo]

Honestly I hate blm more in ARR than 1.0 Idk, people might disagree with me, but in 1.0 I felt the combos were better, and the spells were better, now its just meh. I switched to SCH I've been happy on that job, having thm before acn helped.