Back in Black - A Black Mage Guide

[Waliel]

There isn't anything else to use your time and mana on in that case so you might as well cast Thunder then. You were able to do F1 - Flare in 2.x, but not anymore. RIP.

Fun fact: enough SS (around 900, not sure what the minimum is) lets you do F3 - F2 - F2 - Flare - TC - Transpose (Transpose - TC makes your GCD to go on too long) and fit all that inside the 15 seconds. You still get the instant mana tick after Transpose and my 938 SS puts me at 14,57 seconds for the whole thing. The GCD from TC ticks down during the time that would otherwise be spent waiting for the mana tick and sligthly more to guarantee enough time for two ticks before F3 goes off. If you could somehow guarantee always having TC at that point, I wonder if Thunder would always be worth the cast regardless of pack size.

[Waliel]

I was bored and went to test stuff (and also noticed I did a pretty big rotational error with my notepad math) against three dummies and got:

Eno refresh F3 - F2 - F2 - F2 - Flare - B4
1789.85 17% (11% Flare) crit 5:07
1840.57 20% (16% Flare) crit 5:06

Eno no refresh F3 - F2 - F2 - Flare
1852.39 14% (20% Flare) crit 4:59
1851.18 14% (15% Flare) crit 4:57

Thunder added
1909.58 17% (15% Flare) crit 5:04 3 TC procs
1935.39 18% (17% Flare) crit 5:07 5 TC procs

I could see the gap getting slightly smaller as pack sizes increase, but I Don't think it can ever catch up, though, as 50% Flare is still more PPS than F2. I wanted a run with more TC procs, but got hungry.

[Maero]

Well sharpcast thunder for multiple adds and if those crit,, oh my
I was lucky enough the other day to have my thunder crit, lol
It really to me does depend on what situation if you want to keep enochian up or even use it for aoe.
F3>F2>F2>Flare>Convert>Flare> etc... works well enough for certain situations

Keep in mind i do not always do this, just situations like mentioned*

[Garotte14]

Updates to the guide have been made for 3.2

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ck_mage_guide/

[Pyroclastic]

I dont get why this isnt the main BLM thread. This guide is way more indepth and detailed than Aikaal's guide + Aikaal hasnt updated in months.

[Maero]

Well that would be because Aikaal left the game unfortunately. But yes Garotte or Alayna i guess? Has done a great job with the guide

[Garotte14]

Yes, the main reason I wanted to create this guide is because I wanted to have something that wasn't solely for level 60 Black Mage, but also could help new ppl. I knew Aikaal was leaving the game as well so it just seemed like the best time to build a guide. I don't plan on leaving this game. I just hope it helps ppl enjoy the class and the game in general.

[Phyra]

thank you! This guide is just what I need now.

[randysquirrel]

Just a suggestion, I think you would be better putting the pot values for HQ rather than NQ. Any self-respecting BLM will be using HQs

The +127 int from max-pot is pretty op

[Garotte14]

Just a suggestion, I think you would be better putting the pot values for HQ rather than NQ. Any self-respecting BLM will be using HQs

The +127 int from max-pot is pretty op

I can do that.