Black Mages - Tell Me About Your Job...

[Stormfur]

So I have a character that I was hoping to make a Blue Mage when it came out, but I'm also interested in doing semi end-game stuff (not savage but at least recent dungeons and whatnot).

I'm looking at Black Mage and wondering if I should level it up. I like doing tons of damage and big explosions, but I want to learn a bit about the job itself first. Is it pretty fun to take into level 70 dungeons? Is it fairly straightforward to learn? I'd probably get a job boost for it, but I want to learn more about it first. Why do you love/hate it?

[Squigley]

BLM is all about moving as little as possible and thus requires extensive knowledge of the fights for optimal play. The rotations are very simple. Basic dungeons are easy and fun, you just nuke everything. Raid and ex trials learning phases can be a pain as you spend most of the time dead or doing puny damage.

Many people say black mage is the hardest job of the game and I tend to agree. The feeling when you get everything right is awesome, though!

[LazyTitan87]

Start rotation->AoE death mechanic->Move->Start rotation->AoE death mechanic->Move->Lose enochian->Jump off edge of platform.

I kid, but positioning knowledge is something you'll have to have to make the job more fun. BLM is the most punished by movement out of the casters, but it is fun once you get it down.

The basics of its rotation are:
Maintain Enochian
Maintain your thunder debuff
Use your MP on Fire IVs
Restore your MP in Umbral Ice

Its like playing a pendulum. Largely consistent rotation that is changed more by the fights than anything else. It isn't my favorite caster, but it has its own fun associated with it.

[HiroesX81]

Its really fun especially combining it with Aetherial Manipulation, Casting Foul, triple Flare and fire 4. Makes dungeon runs pretty smooth in my opinion. Mana Wall is great and ive personally found it the most fun in doing expert roulette and Eureka Pagos and Anemos.

[Brightamethyst]

Tell Me About Your Job...

Well, on paper I'm a Captain in the Order of the Twin Adder, but I'm also a ranking member of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and mostly work as a freelance mercenary. I can't tell you much else because a lot of what I do is classified. Sorry.

Is it pretty fun to take into level 70 dungeons? Is it fairly straightforward to learn?

Fun will always be a matter of personal opinion. There's no way to know if you'll like it or not until you try it.

As for how complicated it is, that depends a lot on the level and the situation. Pre-60 it's brain dead simple. Spam fire spells until you're out of MP, switch to ice to refill MP, and repeat. At level 60, Fire 4 comes into play and changes things up a bit, but it's still not that complicated. If you look around you'll find endgame guides with complicated looking rotations and openers, but that's mostly about optimization in high end content. You don't need to memorize and follow all that if you just want to blow stuff up in dungeons and the occasional normal mode raids.

[Stormfur]

Is there like a level 60-70 guide for the job that isn't focused on savage-level rotation?

[Frizze]

Is there like a level 60-70 guide for the job that isn't focused on savage-level rotation?

If we ignore openers for a second, the basic rotation is very easy to learn.

Single target: You want to cast all the Fire 4s you can without dropping Eno, you want to keep your thunder dot ticking, and you want to minimize the time you spend in your umbral stance. So you use Fire 4 as your primary damage spell. Ideally after every 3rd cast youll use Fire 1 as a filler to maintain Eno(you can trim this to after every 2nd if the fight requires you to adapt). When your mana is out you use Bliz 3 to switch stances. Thunder 3 is your dot, cast it during your ice stance. Bliz 4 gives you a buff that allows you to cast a little bit more in your fire stance - its often a net gain but not always. And finally, Fire 3 is your spell to switch back to your more damaging fire stance. You also have 2 procs, firestarter and thundercloud. Generally, the fire one makes a great substitute for a normal Fire 1 in your rotation(though you can use it almost anywhere in your damage phase and it isnt a total loss) and the ideal use for the thunder one is often when you would normally renew your dot(if its going to expire then using it anywhere that wont cause you to lose eno is generally ok, the less ticks remaining on your current DoT the better) - though both are adaptable to fit the fight situation. If you get that much down right, then use of your buffs(triple, swift, sharp, sure, and wall) should come fairly naturally. And just doing the rotation right(without optimizing) already puts you on good footing - better DPS then some of the lower classes and far beyond the people who play BLM wrong. In practice, this is what it looks like minus the opener.
F3 F4 F4 F4 F1 F4 F4 F4 B3 T3 B4 repeat

Multi-target: You want to cast all the Flares you can without dropping Eno, you want to keep your thunder dot ticking, and you want to minimize the time you spend in your umbral stance(this should sound familiar). Until level 66 you use Fire 2 as your most cast spell(though not your primary damage). Flare is primary, but its casting cost forces you to work around it. Thunder 2/4(one replaces the other) is your DoT(procs can be used as needed). You can use Bliz 3 to phase change, but often youll actually be casting down to 0 mana so instead that forces you to use Transpose to switch. Bliz 4 is ignored before level 66, and becomes very important after(the mana buff allows you to double flare every time through your rotation). And finally, Fire 3 is the ideal way to get back into your damaging phase. Lets look at the rotation.
Pre-66: F3 F2 F2 Flare Trans T2/4 repeat(hardcasting F3) Post-66: F3 Flare Flare Trans T4 B4 repeat(hardcast F3) In either of these, you can add Convert Flare and Ether Flare after the final flare when they arent on cooldown.
You can also add 2 F2s into the post 66 rotation(before the 2 flares) if you need to. If youre dealing with 6+ targets this ends up being a small damage gain(and if youre dealing with a weak tank and cant use lucid/diversion, this helps slow down your enmity growth a tad).

Then at 70 you get Foul. Big hard hitting AoE. Use it during your ice phase for both single target and multi.

[PyurBlue]

If youre dealing with 6+ targets this ends up being a small damage gain

Fire 2 is never a damage gain over Flare in a realistic sitaution. The 6th+ enemy will take more Fire 2 damage than Flare damage, but the damage dealt to all 6 enemies is 988 potency for Flare compared to 480 for Fire 2. In terms of potency per second Flare is a 154% increase provides 154% of the damage done by Fire 2. Flare is really powerful. It's even a damage increase over Fire 4 against just two enemies (but only a pps increase if swiftcast is used).

As far as BLM in general goes, it's a pretty simple class to play. I would even say it's a little too simple before level 60, but once you gain Enochian and the related skills it starts to become interesting. You may need to adapt to its stationary nature if you're more used to a mobile class, but I wouldn't say that you need to have a fight memorized perfectly to avoid dying and deal decent damage. Planning your moves steps by step really only comes into play when you're trying to seriously optimize. Slidecasting, triplecast, swiftcast, sharpcast, Aetherial Manipulation, Between the Lines, and procs give you a fair amount of mobility. The worst things that might happen to a new BLM are excessive casting of Fire 1 vs Fire 4 just to keep Eno up and losing Ley Lines by putting them down at bad locations/times. You won't be the top damage dealer doing this but you'll be far from useless, and contribute much more than a BLM that drops Eno or dies.

[Rongway]

A well-played BLM is one that is intimately familiar with the fights, to the point that you know when and how to make the most use of the variety of buttons that have "Additional effect: Ignores mechanics." Fights on BLM might seem stressful at first, but you have lots of buttons for helping you deal with things. Teleports are on short timers, so you can move around without walking. Some AoEs you can eat with Manaward. Ignore knockbacks with Surecast. Just keep calm and use your cooldowns.

You can also add 2 F2s into the post 66 rotation(before the 2 flares) if you need to. If youre dealing with 6+ targets this ends up being a small damage gain

It becomes a 1 potency/second gain at 23 targets, though.

[Seraphor]

Is there like a level 60-70 guide for the job that isn't focused on savage-level rotation?

Its the same stuff, just not necessarily as strict. I wouldnt even worry about a strict rotation until you're trying to optimise your DPS. Start at the beginning, dont jump to the end.

Personally i find BLM to be a fairly easy and fun job to learn casually. Spend time getting to grips with it before end game, before you even attempt to raid.
Then when you do raid, you only have the fight mechanics to worry about, then its just a matter of knowing where to stand.