Am I missing something? The game doesn't feel ... fun

[Swimfan91]

Thanks for all your replies.

I was actually thinking trying Red Mage later on.

I think I'll also give the class another chance - at least until lv 40 after I have played the real Blackmage class for a bit. I have also noticed that I haven't gotten any passives yet. Maybe that stacking fire attunment will make the difference?!
I hate giving up :-P I was just really frustrated.

[Mhaeric]

Thanks for all your replies.

I was actually thinking trying Red Mage later on.

I think I'll also give the class another chance - at least until lv 40 after I have played the real Blackmage class for a bit. I have also noticed that I haven't gotten any passives yet. Maybe that stacking fire attunment will make the difference?!
I hate giving up :-P I was just really frustrated.

When you get to the point where you have 3 Astral Fire stacks from the two Magick and Mend traits you will notice a big difference. Having 3 of these stacks up on you gives an 80% boost to your fire damage spells. And that's on top of the base damage increase that the trait Magick and Mend also provides just from itself. It's why looking at the numbers on the tooltips doesn't really give a good idea at how much damage a BLM can output.

[Frizze]

Thanks for all your replies.

I was actually thinking trying Red Mage later on.

I think I'll also give the class another chance - at least until lv 40 after I have played the real Blackmage class for a bit. I have also noticed that I haven't gotten any passives yet. Maybe that stacking fire attunment will make the difference?!
I hate giving up :-P I was just really frustrated.

The stacks really do add up. At level 40 with full(3) stacks your Fire 1 spell(its the spell you spam until 60 for single target) is actually a potency 421 hit. Then the level 42 trait makes it sometimes(40%) proc a free insta-cast of Fire 3 at potency 561(this isnt your spamming spell though because it costs 2.5 times as much mana and casts slower). At max level, your spamming spell(Fire 4) is coming in with a potency over 800. You said you didnt feel the impact of your spells. As a Black Mage levels they feel this impact more and more strongly. I can be fighting a 24 man raid boss with millions of hp, but when i land a solid crit the health bar drops a noticable amount. Regular dungeon bosses? Even my light hits move the bar.

Oh, and dont sleep on your thunder spells. Even at your level, a Thunder 1 that lasts its full duration is the equivalent of a potency 270 hit. Thats stronger then a Fire 1, just spread over 18 seconds(it also keeps going, even if the target goes off screen or you have to stop attacking for some reason). A really strong use would be to cast Thunder while in your ice stance recovering mana, then transpose back to fire(when you have the mana) and let it do its thing. The level 28 trait makes this even more important, because every server tick you have a thunder dot running you have a chance to proc an even stronger thunder.

In the end you may find another class is right for you. But this class has yet to show you its true potential.

[Swimfan91]

I actually started to notice a difference right after I got my second stack at level 20.

Just to clarify and to see if I got the job so far:
I start with Thunder for big mobs, burn stuff into the ground with Fire and switch to Ice to get MP by using that insta spell that switches attunment. After I filled my MP, I exchange my ice stacks for 1 fire stack and repeat?

[HeulGDarian]

I actually started to notice a difference right after I got my second stack at level 20.

Just to clarify and to see if I got the job so far:
I start with Thunder for big mobs, burn stuff into the ground with Fire and switch to Ice to get MP by using that insta spell that switches attunment. After I filled my MP, I exchange my ice stacks for 1 fire stack and repeat?

if i remember if you cast fire on umbral you just remove the umbral stack so i think you first use the insta attunement spell and then start casting fire. but dont quote me on that

[Rongway]

I actually started to notice a difference right after I got my second stack at level 20.

Just to clarify and to see if I got the job so far:
I start with Thunder for big mobs, burn stuff into the ground with Fire and switch to Ice to get MP by using that insta spell that switches attunment. After I filled my MP, I exchange my ice stacks for 1 fire stack and repeat?

That's the basic idea, with incremental adjustments as you hit certain milestones. As you level, the AoE rotation changes quite a bit more than the single target rotation, and we could go on for pages and pages about the AoE rotations.

As for single target, which is much more straightforward to explain, here are level-specific rotations if you care to read them.


Through Lv33:

----(Arriving in Ice mode: start here)
Thunder
Blizzard until full MP and Transpose ready
Transpose into Fire
----(Arriving in Fire mode: start here)
Fire spam until OOM
Transpose into Ice
Repeat

Transpose between pulls to keep an element up, so you can just jump in with Firespam or Thunder-Transpose-Firespam as soon as you get to the next encounter.

Lv28+: Thunder ticks have a chance to proc a free+instant Thunder that does its normal damage and is also front-loaded for its full DoT damage. The instant version is your most powerful spell if it gets even just a few ticks in. Normal version does 30 direct + 240 DoT = 270 total. Thundercloud proc is 30 direct + 240 direct + 240 DoT = 510 total if it ticks for the full amount. Later, Thunder III is even better (710 max). Use this throughout all levels.

Lv34:

Thunder
Blizzard until full MP
Fire III (puts you at max Fire stacks immediately--no need to Transpose into Fire anymore)
Fire I spam until OOM (not Fire III)
Transpose into Ice
Repeat

Fire III takes 40% longer to cast than Fire I but only does 33% more damage, so spamming Fire III is a damage loss. Only use it to switch immediately from Ice/NoElement directly to full Fire stacks.

Lv35-Lv39:

Freeze (puts you at max Ice stacks immediately)
Thunder
Blizzard until full MP
Fire III
Fire I spam. Save enough MP for Freeze!
Repeat

If you drop below the MP cost for Freeze, you'll have to Transpose, which is something we want to learn to avoid from now on.

For AoE, basically just put up Thunder II and then spam Freeze forever. No more fire spells for AoE until you can cast Flare.

Lv40-Lv57:

Blizzard III (puts you at max Ice stacks immediately, more single target damage than Freeze)
Thunder
Fire III
Fire I spam. Save enough MP for Blizzard III!
Repeat

At Lv40 you also get your third stack of Fire/Ice, which boosts Fire spells by 80% over the listed potency. From Lv42 on, Fire I can also proc free+instant Fire III. Use when available.

And it remains basically unchanged until the just-slightly-more-involved rotation that comes with Enochian and tier IV spells, which you can worry about later if you find the +80% fire spell boost satisfying enough to continue playing the job.