Bad job?

[Tarryme]

Is the job I've picked not very good as I have a hard time completing story instances even when I drop them to 'very easy'? I have no problem with combat in the open world.
I think I am at the right level but do very little damage. I am now at the 'duty, honour, country' instance were I can't even scratch the enemy even on very easy.

I know I am either missing something or the job I've picked is a bit naff. Any advice welcome.

Also is it possible to auto attack with spells? When I right click the target all I can do is cash them with my wand.

[Jirah]

Is your Ilvl (item level/ armor and accessories) up to date? Because no job in the game is “bad” in that definition

[Tarryme]

Not really no. Most of the gear I was given looked awful so I sold it and bought something more appealing. I'm not sure of it's level, I will check. I know one piece is high in gathering which I suppose doesn't help me in combat.
So, you recon it's all down to my gear? I can take damage the problem is I can't give damage to those in instance battles. I know my weapons are along side my level.

[Jirah]

Not really no. Most of the gear I was given looked awful so I sold it and bought something more appealing. I'm not sure of it's level, I will check. I know one piece is high in gathering which I suppose doesn't help me in combat.
So, you recon it's all down to my gear? I can take damage the problem is I can't give damage to those in instance battles. I know my weapons are along side my level.

What’s your current Item level and what quest ?

[Iscah]

Assuming "Thaumaturge Lv 18" is still your current class, your easiest way to get gear is from the "Hall of the Novice" challenges. Talk to the Smith NPCs (they'll have an icon over their heads) at the Quicksand in Ul'dah or outside Copperbell Mines near Horizon. You'll do some short practice battles that reward you with mage gear and an EXP-boosting ring.

Your problem may also be in the sequence of spells you are casting, because the guild doesn't do the best job of explaining it. You need to cast Fire spells until you're low on MP, use Transpose to switch to ice state (which restores your MP), then Blizzard, Thunder and Transpose to start the cycle over again.

Your spell sequence will change several times as you level up, so you might want to search for more information on that.



Also, re. gear looking awful, you can fix that. If you keep going past Horizon to a town called Vesper Bay, you can take some quests from a woman named Swyrgeim that will allow you to apply dyes and glamours to your gear – you can make them look like any other gear of the same or lower level, as long as you can equip it. And if you visit the inn room at the Quicksand, there's a system for storing and setting up outfits.

If you look on the marketboard (unless you're on the free trial and don't have access) there are a lot of level 1 all-class gear pieces purely to be used for glamouring, or you can use things like the gathering gear you mentioned buying.

[Frizze]

Ok, i pulled your character data. Your gear is basically fine. The gathering shirt is basically worthless(and shirt IS the 2nd most important piece behind weapon), but at level 15 the difference isnt huge. So lets do advice to clear this quest in 3 phases.

Phase one: Not required, but worthwhile. At the Quicksand there should be an NPC named The Smith who has a sprout icon over his head. Talk to him, and he'll let you do some short training missions. They may or may not actually help you a ton with figuring out the combat system, but they do give you a complete set of left side armor and the best ring youll find until level 50. You can actually do the training with each seperate role(so tank, heals, caster, melee, ranged) and get separate armor pieces(they all share the ring). It has an ok look, and the stats can carry you until around level 30.

Phase two: Probly more important then phase one. Your casting rotation. Thaumaturge/Black Mage has a right way to play, and many wrong ways. So lets go over the right way real fast. You have 2 stances: Astral Fire and Umbral Ice. Umbral Ice reduces the strength of Fire spells, and increases mana regen(at your level, 3 ticks to full mana from 0). Astral Fire turns off mana regen, reduces the strength of ice spells, and increases the cost and strength of fire spells. If you dont currently have one active, you gain either stance by casting a spell of the right aspect(fire spell for astral, ice spell for umbral). Next up is your spells. THM/BLM spells dont work or upgrade the way you might think based on previous FF games. Enemies dont have elemental strengths or weaknesses, so you use the same rotation on a fire elemental as you do on a wolf. And a spell having a number next to it doesnt mean that its an upgrade, different spells have different uses. Fire is your basic nuke spell, Fire 2 is an AoE that does much less damage to one target(but more damage overall if you have 3+ targets you can hit at once). Bliz works the same way as fire but does less damage, Bliz 2 is a worse AoE then Fire 2. Thunder is a DoT rather then a nuke. Scathe is basically worthless. Sleep is handy for small scale solo instances, but in a group combat setting it proves ineffective as any stray hit will wake an enemy early. And finally, you have the ability Transpose that swaps between your fire and ice stances.

So putting that together, your typical combat scenario would see you spam Fire until your mana ran out, Transpose to ice to regen, then swap back when ready. Something like Thunder, Fire, F1, F1, F1, F1, F1, Transpose, Thunder, Bliz, Bliz, Transpose, and repeat from Fire. For a group scenario where you know you can trust the tank to keep the enemies focused on them and you have at least 3 enemies bunched up together, you would do Fire 2, F2, F2, Transpose... if the enemies are too dangerous to be close to put Thunder on 3 of them then Transpose and repeat, if you can stand close(this matter because while Fire 2 is an AoE centered on the target of the spell, Bliz 2 is an AoE centered on you) then Bliz 2 three times instead and Transpose and repeat Fire 2's. The BLM rotation changes every 10 or so levels, but what i just typed will last until 30+. When you get a new spell, read the description and if you cant figure out how to use it then ask someone.

Phase three: You need to learn the Glamour system. This would let you project the appearance of gear you like onto the actual gear you should be wearing for stats. So you could keep the gathering vest appearance while actually having a caster robe or somesuch on. In Western Thanalan if you follow the path out of Horizon away from the city you will eventually come to the port of Vesper Bay. A female roe NPC named Swyrgeim in the central area here should have a quest that unlocks the glamour system, and a second that unlocks the dye system.

And boom, hopefully that takes care of the problem. If not, pay attention during the fight to anything the NPCs might be saying. Its possible that you arent supposed to fight the target youre looking at, and should instead be focusing on something else. If there are other NPCs in the fight who are on your side, stay somewhat near them as one of them might be a healer who can keep you standing. Black Mage is arguably the strongest class in the game, but that doesnt always mean one on one fights will be easy. With that said, the devs balance these fights to be clearable by any class. BLM might burn down a target quicker to survive, WHM might heal through more attacks while slowly whittling the enemy down, PAL might use defensive skills to outlast an enemy. And as such, youll find different classes think different fights are the hard ones.

[Iscah]

You can actually do the training with each seperate role(so tank, heals, caster, melee, ranged) and get separate armor pieces(they all share the ring).

...

Something like Thunder, Fire, F1, F1, F1, F1, F1, Transpose, Thunder, Bliz, Bliz, Transpose, and repeat from Fire.

There are only three sets of training courses (tank, DPS and healer) and three sets of gear (tank, DoW and DoM) to be earned – the mismatch between courses and rewards means that if you do it with a caster first you'll do the DPS course to get your DoM gear but then you have to do the same course all again to get the DoW set, while doing the healer course will give you nothing new.

Also you'll have to manually redo the first shared lesson on dodging AoEs if you want the gloves for the later sets.

The gear from the first dungeons has the same stats as the Novice gear, though.


Also re. rotation, I would put Blizzard before Thunder so your MP starts recharging faster once you can have two stacks of Umbral Ice. From memory you don't need a second Blizzard then.

[Jeeqbit]

Your helmet is a Friendship Circlet. The problem with this is it's item level 1, while you are level 19. I suggest buying a new helmet from a "Merchant" NPC.

Your body is a Gathering top. You should get one with the Intelligence stat on it instead, again from a "Merchant" NPC.

The rest of your gear is fine. I recommend pressing C to open the Character window, then click the Recommended Gear button, which looks like a picture of a silver adventurer with a star. This button automatically equips the best gear from your armory chest, which is usually where all your quest rewards and dungeon loot go into.

Your job is a "caster", which means it casts things and doesn't do physical attacks. Don't walk up to them and auto-attack them because that's not what a caster does. The auto-attacks are based on the Strength stat, which is not found on caster gear so it's pointless and auto-attacks are suspended while casting. The auto-attacks also require you to be in melee range which is not where a caster normally is.

Like others have explained the basis of a Thaumaturge is that it uses all its MP on Fire (which does more damage than Blizzard), then uses Transpose to switch to Blizzard which restores its MP, once its MP is restored it uses Transpose to switch back to Fire.

It gets more complicated later, with Transpose falling out of use, Blizzard being used for an even shorter time and damage-over-times to maintain (Thunder), but for now that's the most important thing to understand.

If you want to try a different job, you can do that quite easily by visiting the guilds of the other jobs. In Ul'dah, your starting city, you can also pickup Pugilist, a DPS which uses fists and becomes a Monk or you can pickup Gladiator, a tank which becomes a Paladin.

[Tarryme]

I am near level 20, subbed and even have the expansion on pre-order (early access). I also have a tiny girl doll that follows me around. I was going to kill it but it is rather cute. So I should have access to everything.

I knew or learned a lot of the above but there was a few things that tied other things together. So thanks for the in depth information.
I have just learned how to use glamour and dyes but never thought of disguising the ugly stuff to keep my gear levelled up. So my next 2 jobs are a trip to the shops, get my gear sorted and then go and see the smith guy for some training.

BTW: The quest that was beyond me was were I had to keep the king alive and there was no way I could, even standing in front of him so I could take the damage for him didn't work and my fire spells done nothing but tickle the Bandit boss. I knocked it down to very easy and I think I got a 'ouch' out of him but no joy winning the quest.

Edit: I don't think I rise above one stack of fire and ice.

[Jeeqbit]

You may not rise above one stack at first, but eventually you can get three.

At level 20 you can stack two.

At level 40 you can stack three.

(However, Fire III allows you to get 3 stacks earlier, at level 34. The cast time of Fire III is high, but the cast time is reduced in Umbral Ice - so at level 34 you can use Fire III to return to Astral Fire and get three stacks).

You don't cast Fire III while in Astral Fire, you would still cast Fire when spamming your fires. Eventually, Fires produce Fire III procs which remove the cast time completely.