I think I suck at the dungeons

[Dakuderp]

Okay, so I've been pouring so many hours into this game, but I still feel like I'm a complete noob. I've played quite a bit as a Marauder before giving up on that, then tried Rogue, but it wasn't for me, and finally settled into being a Thaumaturge. But even after finally finding a class that I enjoy, I'm still extremely rough at it and honestly, I feel bad for people who take on dungeons with me.

And after just getting through The Stone Vigil and dying about 4-5 times, I feel like all I'm doing is dragging the game down for others. Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying the rest of the game, but whenever I see that there's a dungeon to continue with the story, I completely dread it.

I try to work with Fire & Fire III, make sure to transpose to Umbral Ice to regain MP, and try to remember to activate Manaward when I can. But even with all of that, I feel like I'm not doing that much for my party. I'm hoping that anyone will have some tips for getting better at dungeons or anything like that.

[Kanehana]

So I'm checking your gear out through the Lodestone; I can at least tell you a couple things.

- Since you are playing a Magic DPS class, your important main stat is Intelligence. You're wearing Amethyst accessories (right-side equipment) that would be better off on another class. I'd suggest getting the Zircon accessories or the Black Pearl accessories -- that will help you use the stat that Black Mage needs.

- The Body Equipment is often the most important piece of equipment, and responsible for the bulk of your stats. All equipment is important, but if you're looking to do any gear updates, body piece should be the first focus. You're currently wearing level 37 robes, and that's really outdated for a level 48 BLM.

- It makes a little change, but don't forget to meld. I'm not sure how expensive materia is on Cactaur, but if your FC mates have extra materia laying around, I'd recommend it. It's not always necessary, so if you don't have materia available, no sweat! MSQ will eventually give you them like it's Halloween.

Otherwise it sounds like you've got the basics of BLM down - burn mana with fire, recover mana with ice, thunder DOT, rinse and repeat. Best of luck to you in dungeons!

[Hasrat]

Eh, OP mentioned Stone Vigil, 37 robes aren't that outdated. At 48, could have better, but, you only really need to gear for the content you can run. Quite likely just a case of outleveling MSQ.

And, really, would argue gear has minimal impact on staying alive. At least, the small improvements that could be made there, especially with being synced. At that point, what's more important is just not getting hit. Which, as a BLM really shouldn't be that hard. Probably the worst Stone Vigil has to offer is the first boss that you should never be standing in front of.

Unfortunately, that's really the best/all the advice to give. Stop taking avoidable damage. If you have to stop casting to get out of the way, get out of the damned way first. You don't do any damage when you're dead, rarely worth squeezing out one more spell if it means getting hit. Maybe it's lag, maybe it's ping, w/e, it's up to you to learn how much time you need to move out of an incoming attack.

Additional point, just to make sure, you're not spending all your MP on Fire 3, right? Since you brought it up, just wanted to be sure you're not repeatedly casting that one. Fire 3 is only for transition from ice to fire phase, and when you get a insta-cast proc. It takes far too long and costs too much MP outside of those situations.

[Iscah]

I try to work with Fire & Fire III, make sure to transpose to Umbral Ice to regain MP, and try to remember to activate Manaward when I can.

By level 40 you should have both Fire and Blizzard III and using them instead of Transpose to switch between your astral and umbral states.

Basically for single target:
Thunder
Fire III
Fire until low on MP
Blizzard III (or Transpose only if you ran out completely)
Repeat.

MP should be full by the time you've cast Thunder and Fire III again; Blizzard is only useful in low-level dungeons when you need an extra turn in Umbral state. The main variance is using extra Thunder and Fire III spells as they trigger randomly.

For groups at low levels it's much the same but with the AOE spells - Thunder II, Fire II, Freeze. (And eventually Flare but I never remember what to do with that one.)

At this point you're also up to doing your level 45 BLM quest to obtain relic gear, which is better than anything until you hit level 50 content (outside of buying over-50 gear from the marketboard).

[Frizze]

So its widely accepted that BLM is a fairly easy job to learn, with a high ceiling to true mastery because of a ton of little things you can improve on at the high end. With that said though, the proper rotation changes significantly at a few points and it isnt always obvious without either studying tool tips or being told. At level 40 your single target(boss) rotation should be Bliz 3, Thunder(this will be replaced with Thunder 3 shortly), Fire 3, Fire 1, F1, F1, F1, F1, F1, B3 and repeat. Whenever a firestarter proc hits, use it for your next Fire 1 cast. Thundercloud procs can either be used or saved for your next application of the DoT(but do try to use them before they expire). The idea is that youre using B3 and F3 to swap with full stacks, so your mana will regen fully in 2 ticks and when you go back to your burn phase you do so at full strength(dont just remove Transpose from your bar though, as it still has uses). For now Fire 1 is your main damage spell rather then Fire 3 because it casts faster and costs less mana(one cast of F1 is 60 less potency, but you can cast more then twice as many times so you more then make up for the lost damage plus the quicker cast time makes survival much easier), and dont overlook the damage your DoT can add over the course of a long fight. Manaward can be used to eat an occasional attack without dying if you dont have time to escape(escape should almost always be plan 1), and Manafont can extend your burn phase(most useful when you have a party member giving you a buff like the dragoon crit buff).

Your class doesnt have a lot to offer the other classes in your group aside from your damage contribution. So if thats whats making you feel like you arent doing much for the party, work to improve your rotation and your survival(and learn to accept that buffs just isnt something you can do - you can level another class for the days you feel more like buffing then burning). BLM is one of the strongest classes, so you do potentially have a lot to offer. A lot of explosions. Best of luck.

Edit: Note regarding gear. When improving gear your weapon is by far the most important piece to upgrade. It not only does the most to improve your spells via the weapon damage stat but it also offers the largest stat upgrades too. After weapon your chest and legs are the next tier down, then your gloves hat and boots, then your jewelry. You want as much Int as you can get, and at high levels the two main builds are max spell speed and max crit. Speed lets you get off more spells over a long enough period of time(as a class with infinite resources this is appealing), and finishing casts quicker also makes dodging easier. Critical hits happening more often and for more damage(especially as a class with hard hitting spells) is self explanatory. At your level, you wont have enough of any of these stats to truly matter so just get the most Int and highest weapon damage you can get.

[ItMe]

If you're dying a lot consider switching to tank.
That's what I did.
Become something more oops-proof (maybe a ranged if standing still is leading to problems) while you're learning and making more mistakes, then after you have better grasp of the game move back to a more fragile class, like a mage that focuses on not moving.
Best of luck.

[Brightamethyst]

If you're dying a lot in dungeons it's probably a mechanics issue rather than an equipment or spell rotation issue. A LOT of damage in dungeons is telegraphed and avoidable. Are you dodging AoEs, avoiding fire/poison/etc puddles, and such? If you're not sure about how a dungeon or boss fight works, just say you're new and ask. Most people will be happy to help out and explain.

[Stepjam]

Assuming your healers aren't asleep at the wheel, sounds like you are likely dying from avoidable damage. If that's the case, you should try to focus less on pushing out as much DPS as possible and focus more on the fundamentals of avoiding damage.

Avoid standing in AoE markers. Even if it means cutting a cast short, cut the cast short. The biggest part of learning Black Mage is knowing fights so you can avoid as much damage as possible while still being able to cast. And remember, cutting a cast off early is a small DPS loss but being dead is a big dps loss. So try to focus on what's happening around you. Also as a random thought which is probably pointless since you are a caster and not phys, don't stand in front of bosses. They often have untelegraphed cleaves that a Tank survive with cooldowns, but DPS and Healers will get shredded by.