Back in Black - A Black Mage Guide

[Garotte14]

So through the years the Black Mage job has changed quite a bit, and there are bits and pieces of information scattered amongst the interwebs. As some of you may already know, I have created a new Black Mage guide that will be maintained and managed well into the future. The purpose was to compile any and all information into a single place. For veterans, those new to the class, and those new to the game in general. A lot of the Black Mage community has been great and contributed a great deal to this. Any feedback is welcome, and if there are any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, inputs or any questions you may have, I am always available on reddit, twitter, the forums or in game on Sargatanas.

Anyways, this is in no way to detract from what Aikaal has done with The Black Mage Sanctuary thread. I just wanted to create this post so those of you out there looking for answers can have access to this information. Please enjoy and a huge thanks to all of those that have contributed.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

And here is the Reddit thread started as well:

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

[IceSpear]

Thanks for making this, as a player who choose to switch jobs based on raid team I really didn't know where to start so this helped me a lot to get back into the class.

[Zilon]

For a noob like me, this is perfect.

Thank you a lot for making this...

[Garotte14]

Thanks. I'm very glad I could help

[SesuRescue]

Hey!

I remember when you put your guide on Reddit, and I just want to say I love it! Your analysis and calculations of the 3.0 openers really helped me fix what was a ridiculously subpar opener (I was originally taught the Blizz 3 opening x.x) and the face target point was something I never knew was possible to fix!

Keep up the great work!

[Kaebora]

Ok, question/comment: When doing AoE, would it be worth it to do Fire 3 -> (No mp tick) -> Thunder -> Flare -> Transpose? Obviously, The ideal AOE rotation is Fire 3 -> (mp tick) Fire 2 x 2 -> Flare -> Transpose -> Repeat, but adding in the Thunder lets you use MP and the time that would be otherwise wasted waiting on the Transpose - to me, it seems like a good idea, but there might be something obvious I'm missing. I mean, I am playing around with extra piety, but that shouldn't be the reason I can fit in a Thunder on a quick mp tick.

[Garotte14]

Ok, question/comment: When doing AoE, would it be worth it to do Fire 3 -> (No mp tick) -> Thunder -> Flare -> Transpose? Obviously, The ideal AOE rotation is Fire 3 -> (mp tick) Fire 2 x 2 -> Flare -> Transpose -> Repeat, but adding in the Thunder lets you use MP and the time that would be otherwise wasted waiting on the Transpose - to me, it seems like a good idea, but there might be something obvious I'm missing. I mean, I am playing around with extra piety, but that shouldn't be the reason I can fit in a Thunder on a quick mp tick.

Hmm. This is incredibly tricky, especially with our Spell Speed continuing to rise. I'll have to do some serious testing. Obviously if you don't get the tick, casting a Thunder is better than doing nothing at all for 2 seconds. Plus you have the added benefit of possibly getting TCs which would be an advantage.

The thing I'm struggling with though is, would it be more beneficial to wait an extra second to guarantee you get the second Mana tick. My theory is, it would completely depend on how many mobs you are fighting. For this you have to weigh 2 x Fire IIs against Thunder with a 10% chance at a TC for each mob. You also have to then take into consideration how long the mobs will survive for. I will take a look at the numbers and get back to you on that. Good point though.

[Waliel]

The thing I'm struggling with though is, would it be more beneficial to wait an extra second to guarantee you get the second Mana tick. My theory is, it would completely depend on how many mobs you are fighting. For this you have to weigh 2 x Fire IIs against Thunder with a 10% chance at a TC for each mob. You also have to then take into consideration how long the mobs will survive for. I will take a look at the numbers and get back to you on that. Good point though.

Thunder alone probably isn't worth it. I did some notepad math on Eno upkeep during AoE against six mobs, and you had to get a third mana tick for 3xF2 Flare per rotation for it to be comparable to just the normal F2x2 Flare and even then it was a tiny bit worse. F2x2 with B4 added in was just bad.

[Garotte14]

Yeah, I would def never recommend trying to keep Enochian up during AoE. You wanna hit that flare as quickly and often as possible.

[Waliel]

You wanna hit that flare as quickly and often as possible.

Made me want to test F3 F2 Flare. Same three poor dummies in Central Shroud.

1811.08 14% (15% Flare) crit 5:02
1788.15 12% (13% Flare) crit 4:50

Flare casts went from 20 to 25 (good)
F2 casts went from 41 to 27 (bad-ish?)
F3 casts went from 20 to 25 (bad)

The bad outweighs the good in this case. Timing is also super strict and I had to try a few times to get clean runs. PPS against six mobs is 289.2 compared 306.3 with normal.

Some hybrid (F3 F2 F2 Flare when Eno is up, F3 F2 Flare when not) thing I wanted to test:

1850.75 15% (17% Flare) crit 4:52
1828.71 14% (17% Flare) crit 4:52

I guess it was expected to fall between.