Tank looking to get into Black Mage

[SarenyiaSarenyia]

Like the title says I mainly tank however if been wanting to play Black Mage. My concern is that the rotation will be to hard at 60, how is the rotation?

[Maero]

You will get mixed answers i am sure, but many of us find the rotation itself is fairly simple only thing is juggling timers and also know in advance that all mechanics will happen wherever you add leylines.
When played optimally blm can be very rewarding with high damage and since it is the job with less movement it is also good to practice with for side stepping for other jobs like Bard, etc...

[SarenyiaSarenyia]

How are the que times for df and stuff? I already know I'm going to be stuck leveling in potd I'm sure

[Hellkite527]

Well since you're changing into dps, expect that the queue times takes much longer than queueing as a tank

[LunaFaye]

How are the que times for df and stuff? I already know I'm going to be stuck leveling in potd I'm sure

it depends on the content you're trying to run and the time of day. When I play my dps (primal data center) I get most of the time queue's that pop within 10 minutes. I've never waited longer than 20 minutes and that was for a WT duty that's absolutely outdated by now. As a dps however, you want to enable the option of joining duties in progress, sometimes you find yourself queuing within 3 minutes, standing right in front of the boss because the group kicked someone, or that person had to leave. Making some of the leveling/expert roulette's as example a walk in the park.

When I play dps on aether data center as example, my queue times are between 20 - 45 minutes. Again depends on the day/time and content I sign up for. And that probably will also change with 4.0. My recommendation would be, if you have days that you don't have much time, use your tank to clear the content. If you have time on your hands and want to watch youtube, tv, twitch etc. on side while waiting, use your dps.

My personal opinion on playing blm, it is a easy job if you do a little bit of research. 1-50 is completely different than 50-60 and you probably find yourself wondering if it's even still the same job. Just level in potd or at least spend couple of days in there, look at the job itself and see if you actually like it, to the point that you want to actual switch.

[Risvertasashi]

Generally the leveling queues for DPS are the worst, at least that's my experience. Expert roulette is hit or miss depending on the time of day. Alliance raids are fast for DPS, 8-man content can be but that is also hit or miss.

Of course, there's PotD to get around the queues...

[seekified]

The Black Mage rotations, even at 60, are very simple. BLM has probably the lowest skill floor of all jobs - you can get away with about 12 keybinds and still push some serious DPS, if you really wanted to. It can also be an incredibly intricate job with heaps of room for optimization and little things to consider, which makes it very fun and engaging for those who choose to care. Basically, BLMs hate having to move, so using your shields (Manawall/Manaward) and your teleport skill (Aetherial Manipulation) to avoid having to manually walk out of AoEs and such is very important for optimizing casting uptime.

The queues for DPS jobs are definitely a lot worse for most content, though 24-mans tend to be very fast since there are so many DPS slots in those. Expert roulettes can take anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes to pop depending on when you're queueing. PotD is a good but tedious way to level, though I do recommend going through it at least once so that you can set up your hotbars ahead of time and avoid changing things too much later.

[Madrone]

Blm rotation is very simple. You have to get good at dodging and minimize moving, which are contradictory. Meanwhile your rotation fits into a narrow window of time, due to timers on your buffs. So when crazy stuff is happening all around you, you have to master the art of salvaging your dps and rapidly decide which skills to use to do so. Executing said rotation is easy anytime you can stand still, and also very difficult and frustrating when mechanics happen to you and mess you up.

[Silverquick]

It is actually a pretty simple rotation,

The biggest problem is getting caught up in the big numbers, you tend to press the button over and over watching the huge number spam, and then suddenly the button stops working and you go...Oh WOOPs... better transpose and and go Ice get everything back.

Also you're looking at the tank always going... Oooo more... more... bigger pull bigger pull... I do that with SMN too... but you get caught up in watching the big bang so much you want to see more.

I know as both SMN and BLM that I've given Rec's to tanks on sheer numbers in the pull alone heh.

I LOVE fireballs... and BANE... and Fester.... and Blizzard and... errm woops... got carried away again. Heh...

That's BLM in a nutshell.

[Kahnom]

Master lvl 50 rotation before you move to lvl 60 rotation.
You need to understand how mp ticks works,how to slide cast,etc etc.
Need a lot of practice but you'll get there.