Black mages, A7 and its mechanics.

[TheGodchild]

This was actually an idea given to me by a GM after reporting someone for excessive trash talking/attacking another mage for their low dps numbers on a floor 7 DF run and its something alot of people don't seem to be aware of presently:

Alex floor 7 is black mage hell. Most (if not every) mechanic in that final boss fight is geared towards keeping them from being able to maintain their enochain buff/rotation and hampers their dps numbers immensely as a result. From the boss flying off and going untargetable, to the add spawn times during his grab phase...to the giant rolling balls of death and how big that room is without the spikes active, each of those facets come together to make mage life difficult when trying to maintain optimal dps.

The amount of trash talking about mage dps on that floor is somewhat distressing, having parse numbers rubbed in our faces is both rude and doesn't reflect the class properly giving how the mechanics of the fight work against them.

[Nekotee]

Last week i needed my token on that floor
Went à Blm and keep being top DPS on pour 4 or 5 wipe
(And there were only 2 first timer)

But yeah this floor is... Simply put : you're not gonna DPS with enochian ! You shall stick to 2.0 rotation
But i had fun on it !
Heavy the Kitty heart, teleportation on tank to avoid balls, enochian Fire IV the alarum that is stick with me in the cage XD

It's an awful floor but good for training xP
(But yeah staying 850ish is painful)

[FunkyBunch]

Last week i needed my token on that floor
Went à Blm and keep being top DPS on pour 4 or 5 wipe
(And there were only 2 first timer)

But yeah this floor is... Simply put : you're not gonna DPS with enochian ! You shall stick to 2.0 rotation
But i had fun on it !
Heavy the Kitty heart, teleportation on tank to avoid balls, enochian Fire IV the alarum that is stick with me in the cage XD

It's an awful floor but good for training xP
(But yeah staying 850ish is painful)

You can DPS with Enochian, but you have to severely clip the rotation to keep it up. If you go for 6 F4's you'll drop it. You can't go above 4 at least I can't, because you have just enough time for four F4's B3 T1 and B4 before he flies away. And then you have to refresh again as soon as he lands.

[Olorin]

I'm not seeing it. I'm a main BLM and haven't had any glaring issues keeping my F4/Eno rotation going. Of course, there is a learning curve to the fight and I am still optimizing my movements, but that's to be expected. The new content has been out for a week. It'll take time to figure everything out, regardless of job.

[Almalexia]

Only the first two add pops have a long cycle time; the rest are instant. Try to stick your next Fire right before Zoomydoom finishes charging then use Swiftcast on the add that pops. It's maybe ~9s after the NM takes off. Similar idea for MNK, but with Form Shift (or Tornado Kick to play it safe).

As for the cat mechanics, that's on the tanks. There is no point moving the NM constantly. The cat could very well move to a reasonable distance on his own during the 3-4 times he scoots around. BLMs would do well to keep themselves seated and keep firing on boss until the heart comes into casting range.

Not that this will ever happen in DF, but if you roll with some pals they can make it work for you.

[OoglieBooglie]

You guys are having difficulty with it? It's not that hard for me, but I main black mage. a fair amount of the time, I'll lose enochian before I can refresh it in my opener because he just HAS to put someone in the prison at that crucial point in time, but it's not THAT bad most of the fight. The big balls really don't offer me much trouble because I'm watching for them as they roll around. Then again, my static has the dps to be able to easily skip the bomb phase in normal mode, or at least just burn through the last couple percent of health to finish before the bombs go off, so we do have a fair amount of skill.

[FunkyBunch]

You guys are having difficulty with it? It's not that hard for me, but I main black mage. a fair amount of the time, I'll lose enochian before I can refresh it in my opener because he just HAS to put someone in the prison at that crucial point in time, but it's not THAT bad most of the fight. The big balls really don't offer me much trouble because I'm watching for them as they roll around. Then again, my static has the dps to be able to easily skip the bomb phase in normal mode, or at least just burn through the last couple percent of health to finish before the bombs go off, so we do have a fair amount of skill.

You can keep Enochian up, but you can't do a full opener AND keep it up. I save Ley Lines for my second cast of Enochian and do the opener there.

[TheGodchild]

Yeah, I'm still finding my ideal rotation for that floor. Cutting the eno rotation short to upkeep's been kinda the way to go unless he cages me first then its just a crap shoot. The second week of the raid hasn't even passed so people are still learning what works in different situations...but still, my biggest issue is the amount of shit talking aimed at mages who are still learning how to deal with the mechanics.

And honestly, its a DF issue more then anything, I never had any real issues learning with my static but I still need my drops when they aren't around so...plenty of time to practice and deal with assclowns.

PS: The tips are quite helpful, thanks for the pointers.

[IllyriaKnotfred]

Are we talking A7S... or A7 normal...? Because if it's normal then I can't disagree with you more. I NEVER lose my Enochian on this fight unless i get grabbed and thrown into a cage. More often then not I'm also topping dps in my raid- I of course know this by my... amazing on the spot math skills.

[ToniRomo]

It was rough my first kill. The second time around I did better keeping enochian up. I think I will get better with it as I do the fight more. I am finding there are times when I have to cut the rotation short so it does not drop off. It seems doable, but we have a higher learning curve on the fight then the other classes for pushing good DPS.