Calling Black Mages

[Nabril]

How is your end game Black Mage experience? I used to have a lvl 60 BLM years ago and lost the account long after I'd quit playing because the e-mail account to which it was tied no longer exists. (E-mail bombs would hit me daily so I got rid of it)

I'm level 63 on a brand new account (once again playing the masters of destruction) and I'm now remembering the frustrations I had with the job so long ago. Mistakes are very costly which I can accept- don't screw up and you're good. In other words, get better- try harder.

The real frustration lies in perceived mistakes. If I have to move, I lose my rotation. If I get interrupted at the wrong time, I lose my rotation. And the higher the level of the dungeon, the more mechanics, and us Black Mages seem to be priority number one for AoE attacks! I did a dungeon Trial a couple of days ago where the boss intersected blue lines over and over during the whole phase and over half of them were intersected right underneath my feet. Several of the others merely had me standing on one of the blue lines as they extended from another player and only 3 casts had me where I didn't have to move at all. I spent the whole phase trying to launch into my rotation. Meaning I did little if any damage at all.

With Enochian and Fire and Blizzard IV, mistakes are very expensive. I don't yet have triple cast so every second counts in order for me to maximize my use of Fire IV and not lose Enochian.

I must admit that I'm getting pretty frustrated and considering a class change. Any encouraging words?

[DrWho2010]

play a different class? if you're frustrated with it and it's not fun for you try something else. i personally prefer SMN and RDM over BLM anyday as I don't like having to keep up Enochian as I think it's annoying.

[Sigma-Astra]

Black Mage is an intuitive class that expects the player to have a mindset in which they need to learn how the fights operate towards an almost finely detailed level of clarity and focus. You're either able to start memorizing the mechanics and fight patterns of certain bosses and learn to also improvise on the fly, or you can't.

The class isn't for everyone and really, the only way you can learn to get better or possibly enjoy the class is if you don't mind practicing to get better and learning or finding ways to keep your uptime going even as mechanics and mistakes are happening, even when other party members are being absolutely detrimental towards you and trying to kill you.

It's a love/hate relationship. You either like it or you don't. It's not a perfect class and it's definitely not tuned for everyone to be good at or enjoy. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

[Kakiko]

Ah, black mage. I love my class. I also hate my class. I struggle with it immensely and anyone around me knows how much I struggle. I can't swap mains though, I just can't. I know I physically can, I emotionally can't.


For end game, o5 can go bleep itself. O6 is much much better for black mages and a lot of the boss mechanics line up with a lot of our rotation. The changes to cool downs of Aetherial Manipulation and Transpose have been a godsend (although I have learned to avoid transpose like cancer and instead rely on swiftcast more). Having aetherial manipulation on a mouse over macro has also been helpful. The new primal isn't TERRIBLE on black mage once you know the fight. Learning it on black mage was rage inducing as was Byakko (Byakko moreso, actually. He has farrr more movement mechanics ((balls, large aoes, etc))).

Black mage opener and rotation are easy to learn but difficult to master and do well with. It's a class that requires you know the fight inside and out and so, for that reason, I have swapped to healing for progressions. I've done very well with AST in the new primal and it's the class I learned the fight on (I started with BLM, then moved to RDM, and then said screw it, went Healer. MUCH easier).

If you're getting frustrated with it, maybe give it a break for a little while and pick up something more mobile and see how you like it?

[Cerbolt]

BLM is definitely one of the more frustrating jobs. You really have to know the fights to be effective. I got mine to 70 and never touched it again. I'd recommend trying smn and rdm out and then deciding which you prefer. But if you really like BLM, stick with it. There are some really amazing BLM out there.

[Vidu]

Honestly, I dont know how my boyfriend manages to main a BLM, specially when I'm running dungeons within on my bard and see how much I have to move. I'm asking him from time to time and he mainly tells me that yes, it takes a lot of practise and that he basically has the more difficult fights 100% memorized so he knows excatly when to move, when to hit the next cast and how to handle every mechanic without losing dots and buffs.

Personally, I couldnt do that - I stick to my bard (or actually my paladin...) which gives me a lot more freedom to move around and not worry to much (keeping songs&dots up is easy enough - you hear me, bards out there?!).
That comes at a price though: My bard will never be able to hit the numbers of his BLM.
A properly played BLM is one of the classes that deals the most damage. You put in a lot - you get out a lot. You need to be willing to do that though - BLM is one of the more complicated and complexes classes out there.

So no, sorry - I dont have any real encouraging words for you (besides the whole: If you're good at it, you'll deal an aweful lot of damage) because what would be the point of it? Why should anyone encourage you to play a class that frustrates you - for very good reasons, I might at! Why would you even want to play a class that you dont enjoy? Just because you always played BLM?
Not every job has to appeal to everyone - and BLM doesnt has to appeal to you anymore with the changes they've made since HW. Dont clinge to something thats not fun to you anymore, just because its habit. Leveling is fast, RDM starts at 50 and is both fun to play (subjective opionion, obviously) and much more forgiving (actually a fact).

My only advice would be: Get your BLM to 70 and see how you like Foul and Triple-Flare. Its pretty amazing. Dont sweat over dungeon-runs to much - losing Enochian once in a while isnt the end of the world and dungeons are a place to learn. As long as you're no ice-mage you're fine.
But dont force yourself to play a class you dont enjoy anymore - and maybe ask yourself what you do enjoy in a class and pick one that fits the bill better!
There is no shame in droping your mainjob in a videogame - find something that you truely enjoy!

[Corue]

BLM has a simple rotation and unless you mess up Enochian you can easily recover from mistakes with a quick Transpose.

The only issue is that you have to put more effort into learning the fights than other classes if you want to maximise your DPS. Fortunately that's only for endgame raids and since dungeons are braindead easy you can save yourself from messing up you rotation with a Swiftcast or slidecasting.

[Nhadaly]

Black Mage takes a lot of practice to do well with, you will either click with the class and start memorizing fights and act accordingly or you will struggle a lot, its a very rewarding class to do well with, you deal the most dps in the group by a country mile.

Most end-game statics dont take them though, because "muh utility" and "muh parses" so dont expect recruitment to be smooth if you stick with it, finding a static as a black mage is a very frustrating expirience, ull see people much worse than you enter statics better than ull ever have just because they have utility and you do not even if you compete for the same spot.

Well, the 2nd sentence was more of a small vent but yeah, Black Mage is difficult but very rewarding.

[NephthysVasudan]

Black Mage Woes

It's not that hard....you got it made in the shade.

Pre 4.xx?? (not sure..cant remember) Transpose had a longer cooldown.
Now its "stupid" easy to keep your enochain up.

No...I didn't mean that in a "git gud" context... I'm saying you need to work on your rotation. As in DONT GIVE UP....KEEP PRACTICING....you'll get it nailed down soon enough.

And don't treat it like its a "set in stone" - you have to be fluid. If you end up moving - you kick transpose or flip the gauge to its opposite with various means you have at your disposal.

And don't forget Scathe....scathe is your friend if your on the move and can't fire off anything.

Its quite fun....you just need to think on your feet.
Aside from that - black mage is only fun at 70.....pre-70 - is just not worth it for me.
Get to 70....its worth it.

I'm no pro black mage....but I hit harder than most.

[Nabril]

Thanks for the responses. I read every post. Lots to think about