Black mage is simultaneously the most frustrating and satisfying class in the game. It takes a lot of practice just to perform. . . adequately. But, the rush you feel when playing immaculately is, to me, unmatched by any other class.
This is the really frustrating thing. The game actively is growing more hostile to the class with time, fights getting a lot more mobile and the like. And it would be a pretty frustrating class without the timers to manage simply because of the long cast times. When it lines up, it is pretty satisfying. But at the same time, I can have a pretty satisfying experience on a class that doesn't kick my teeth in all the time because I was half a second off on my rotation's timing. The class can be just as satisfying without being anywhere near as frustrating, and I feel it needs the frustration levels massively dropped on it. It's high time the class got the love it deserves.
@@OnyxBMW I think the struggle really adds to the payoff of performing well. I completely dropped SMN in EW cause they made it far too easy for me and I no longer enjoy playing it *at all.* I actually *want* at least a couple challenging classes that offer a lot of opportunity for optimization. I understand where you're coming from, the class is *hard* and not everybody is into that. . . But what pushes you away from the class, is exactly what draws me to it, so unfortunately I must disagree. Making all of its moving parts work together is what I love about it, and It'd genuinely break my heart if they do to BLM what they did to SMN. I don't think your complaints are invalid, I just enjoy overcoming the hardships of the class myself, rather than having the game simply remove them for me. Having played BLM since ARR, I'd say the current BLM kit is already the most accessible and least frustrating it has been in quite a long time. I'm hesitant to make it any easier, because I don't want its depth to be sacrificed.
@@Honey-Biscuit My issue with it is that there are parts of it that are hard that have no business being hard (AF/UI timers, primarily a skill floor thing). Whereas there's parts of it that are hard but make the class have strong payoff (Having to sit still to cast despite bosses wanting you not to.) See, the former makes the class difficult to approach, difficult to understand, and frustrating because it's a very easy and exceptionally punishing and frustrating way to fail. The latter is punishing to fail (the most punishing of any class to drop a single GCD) but it doesn't torpedo your damage if you do fail it. Like if you miss a GCD on SAM, it's not going to tank your damage and you can recover the rotation, but mastering it is actually the majority of BLM's difficulty. The latter is great, the former is why I actively stay away from the class or limit my exposure to it despite how good I am at it. And mind you, I'm actually a good Black Mage, at least statistically, as 90th percentile, 95th+ viable, and have seen 99th percentile parses in somewhat low-competition fights. Nothing is more frustrating than doing a boss and being the only class in the game that drops critical class resources and dumps potential damage outright because I lose control of my character. The newest expert dungeon's final boss is a fantastic example of a giant middle finger to Black Mages specifically. It's especially sad because literally every other class in the game has, at this point, lost this weakness outright. I also feel that said timers are actively holding back the class. They limit what the devs can do with the class because everything by necessity must fit within the timers. And just as with Monk and their timers, once you remove their existence, it opens up room for a more interesting class mechanic. See, I'm drawn to the optimization aspect of BLM. The find a safe spot, sit still, and cast aspects. Preparing for what bosses do in advance, etc. But I hate that the class basically hasn't changed meaningfully since Stormblood in terms of how its rotation progresses, and if you ignore the original implementation of enochian specifically, its actual core rotation hasn't meaningfully changed since then outside of Enochian. All while keeping a lot of the problems it's had since this period. Basically, I want BLM to actually move forward for once, instead of being the oldest class with one of the jankiest rotations objectively that just happens to be popular despite its massive jank.
@@OnyxBMW I'm someone who enjoys overcoming the challenges of BLM so much that I wouldn't play the game if I were any other class. However, you bring up perfectly valid and true criticisms a lot of other BLM mains just don't want to hear and outright deny for whatever reasons (maybe it's an ego thing, maybe they're afraid of what could change and how, etc.) But you are 100% correct on everything. My biggest worry in ShB was how fights were getting more movement oriented, but BLM still had no options. In EW, we got more options that felt great, but the new 6.2 EX fight, even its base version, is pretty much a "no BLMs allowed" zone. It's literally a giant "F U" to BLMs. I love overcoming the challenges of optimizing my class and predicting where I have to be, but that fight proves that once again, BLM is not equipped to handle where the game is heading. And it isn't just that one fight, the game has been outpacing BLM'a design for years now. I worry greatly for 7.x if something doesn't change, because if things are kept the same way, BLM won't be a viable option.
To effectively play Black Mage you need to know EVERY boss pattern and ALL mechanics of EVERY fight you are in. You also need to know the healers role (damage spikes) because you KNOW you're gonna stand in that pee pee puddle to get off that Fire4 and you need to make sure the they have the extra resources to heal your greedy ass. You're basically a DPS that needs a raid leader's knowledge on every fight.
Biggest problem with black mage for me is the cast times. When you're 3/4 of the way through a cast and have to move feels terrible. And when you're AoEing a group of mobs and every single time your spell is about to pop... enemy is dead. Well. Thats ok. I'll just go to another enemy and... oh. It's dead too. Wel. There's always scathe.
Yeah, leveling a BLM atm. And this whole cast wasting issue is so annoying. Happens a lot in dungeons. Meanwhile in all other content RDM and SMN are just way more fluid and SMN is even visually more pleasing. Also for synced content you gotta swap fire 1 and blizzard 1 back to main hotbars cuz fire and blizzard IV do not downgrade in synced... Of the dps I've tried so far BLM is the only one that feels bad to play.
don't aoe trash the return isn't worth, just use thunder aoe and your single target for overall higher returns, later against stronger adds use aoe but this requires knowing how much health the enemies generally have
Yeah I had the same problem until I figure out this, you spam the button like 0.5 milliseconds before your first ability ends it cast the next one faster
Late to this thread but i recently gave up trying BLM. I think BLM suffers a lot when leveling. Im only 600 hours into my FFXIV adventure so im still figuring out my main (though i have to say iv taken a strong liking to ninja recently). I found that when i was trying out BLM, the interrupted casts in dungeons because others kill the mob so much quicker...paired with the fact that BLM doesn't get any of its stronger spells till 60+ made the job the worst levelling experience iv ever had. I am still levelling it on the side slowly in my own time as maybe ill enjoy it more when i have more of the job actions, but tbh i feel myself going more towards the flowy movement of Ninja/Monk.
This list ticks off all of the boxes for me as to why I didn't enjoy playing Black Mage. I will say, however, that my opinion of the job drastically changed when I understood how to use Umbral Soul. I totally ignored it because I was bad lol. Spamming that to keep my maxed ice stacks and hearts between pulls and not drop my Eno kept me playing and trying to figure out how to get better
That's sorta on you, personally I just enjoy the massive AOE damage. But healer and track gives me more responsibility But toggling soul in-between pulls does keto the rotation simple
4:06 honestly, this is exactly the reason I don't play Black Mage. It's not fun casting a big spell just to have it not pay off at all. Feels like I'm doing nothing.
Yeah, the punishement for synched down content is real, like "wtf, why do I have to learn 10 different rotations to play a single class adequatly in all content?" That's probably my biggest gripe with the job.
I main blm and I love every second of it. Getting better at the job just makes it that much more fun and seeing the critical and direct hit from xenoglossy just gives me a feeling i cannot experience with any other class.
Black mage gets SIGNIFICANTLY better the higher level you get. It's similar to samurai where the experience really sucks at 50 and gets more and more fun as you level
@@Kougaon tbh it only really sucks below 35 when you get Fire 3. Above that it`s very chill to play. This is coming from someone who does potD-solo runs on BLM
yeah i made rdm my first magic ranged class. the dual cast mechanic helps with chaining spells seamlessly and rdm also has the bonus of being an emergency healer
My main issue with Black mage is how many things can force you to lose the umbral ice/fire phase or to downgrade the fire phase to ice in order to use that skill that gives ice phase stacks and refreshes the ice phase.
4:08 I have the same problem as a Healer. My Tank gets out of range of my heals and buffs and gets blown up, and because the enemies follow him, I can put my DOT on them, either.
I had to level black mage for a sick glam but god damn I cannot play black mage for the life of me. I’m just doing the Arkasodara beast tribe to level it because ain’t NO shot I’m leveling it any other way
I have been playing black mage for a while, am at level 58 and did ARR, but I notice I lack dps compared to other classes, its a class that has a lot of cons, but the pros are not that significant. Is that because am at a level below 60? Does BLM do way more dmg more at the endgame compared to early and mid?
for me, it was scholar to sage. Sage is so FUN!. and if the BLM dies because of standing in AOE while I'm focused on putting out dmg to keep the tank up with kardia all well.
Any BLM main here that plays with gamer pad can recommend me a WAY to use Aetherial Manipulation properly? I have it macroéd so it teleports to Tank1 Tank2 and then the rest of the party based on proximity bat that causes that a lot of times It just teleports me to unsafe zones.
I don't use a controller, and I don't know if it'll work, but I use a focus target macro for that. Healers in your light party group if doing raids/extremes are a safe target, or the melee in the same light party, to focus target. Doing it off of role like T1/T2 etc. seems weird and obtuse, you just need a single trusty person and you can change focus target at will. Assuming controller players can have a focused target.
I absolutely love Black Mage but am still struggling a bit with movement at some fights (Endsinger Extreme...). But since I enjoy the job, I keep at it and always try to get better 👍
I initially enjoyed Thaumaturge cause heehoo big number but the novelty wore off pretty quick. Fireballs and lightning etc are cool and all but why would I play Thaumaturge and go all the way to Black Mage when I can play Arcanist to get Summoner and have one of the Primals as my pet while also being able to straight up summon them?
I started out as a thaumaturge in ARR back when I had a shitty laptop that ran the game at 15 fps My patience as a black mage main is unparalleled, so much so that playing jobs with more movement feels slightly wrong I can imagine how learning black mage later on would be REALLY weird tho tbh, I'd argue you have to plan more as a black mage than healers do in Savage for just movement alone tbh
Learn the bosses, and you will be a master at black mage, or find a healer who doesn't mind healing you while you do your rotation and you will be a master at black mage!
I have previously never played a Final Fantasy game before, and BLM was my starting job. While I'm still practicing the level 90 openers, I really love the basic rotation. I find it sooo satisfying to pull off. I really feel like an force of supernatural devastation.. and I get a goth wardrobe?! 10/10
The only problem I have with BLM is the cast time, the lay line spell is meant to reduce cast time but it only does it by 0.30s which is a lot but it really it's so small for the duration it's up for. Would rather play summoner
Hi, funny vid. main Red Mage and Reaper here, you are right in almost everything, but BM, has a shield, and it can jump to your partner every 6 seconds, I made a macro to jump mostly to the healer (I figured out after much testing healers is the best option to jump) besides figuring out this, you spam the button like 0.5 milliseconds before your first ability ends it cast the next one faster (English is not my thing)
It's like playing a fighter in D&D all you do is damage, all your abilities are to allow you to do more damage or attack more, your optimized damage output is huge, but that makes you lack in versatility
I picked black mage as a new player not knowing it was the hardest job. I am barely 71 and I have started trying other jobs because I feel like I am not doing good dps. (I still don't know fights so I would rather stop casting and live thru mechanics so I can get back to dps after) I am only doing base level stuff, no extreme or savage for me lol. I have a really hard time with the regular stuff. But, all that said. I feel like I "Get" the job more than any other. I like the ice and fire stages. I like the back n forth of it. Not sure what to do. I love Black Mage, but I am sure groups might hate me. I have no idea how I am doing. I don't want banned so I don't have a dps parse etc.
I too found out the hardships of playing a class with no major party buffs or utility and eventually I had to give up on Black Mage for something else....... Samurai because I didn't learn a thing
Black Mage has been my favorite job in the entire FF franchise. I played blm in FFXI in it's heyday. When I got FFXIV, even before making a character, I knew I was going to main blm. Again, I came from XI, so it being slow and janky at low levels was fine for me, I didn't know any better nor how the other jobs felt. It wasn't until I was a few months in that I heard about it's rep as probably the hardest job in the game. When I heard it, I thought "how hard can it really be?" Almost 2 years later, I'm doing all the EW extremes and am trying to make my way through the current savage tier (one day we'll get past P7S) all as black mage, and you know what? This job is a freaking pain. I got every job at 90 now and pretty much every job is way easier than blm. My 2nd fav job is dnc and it's so great being able to move around wherever the heck I want and still keep up my ABCs. Yet, despite all of that, blm is still my favorite, and by a country mile. The feeling of clearing an extreme or a savage on this job is so freaking satisfying. Especially when I manage to get something higher than a grey parse. Black Mage is the best job in the game, and no one can tell me otherwise. Don't wuss out and play rdm. They aren't real casters. Be a real Chad and play Black Mage, just like our lord and savior Yoshi P. Although I do play dnc a lot when I don't feel like making my life hell lol.
I bought the game a month ago.. started as blm and now I'm done with the msq, lvl 90, and am currently grinding extreams for mounts... I as someone who has only played blm think it's pretty neet
I started playing FFXIV towards the beginning of 2022 and on my first character I started as a black mage. The combo of no mobility + ARR msq slog almost made me quit the game. Fortunately I met a XIV player on a discord server who was like "hey let's play together" so I made a dragoon on their server and never looked back. Love the aesthetic of black mage though. Maybe once I'm more invested I'll try leveling it
Pro tip as a decade old blm main: Don’t use your triple casts/swiftcast when you’re not moving, they’re you’re get-out-of-jail card to maintain your uptime during mechanics. Save your xenoglossy for burst window, when they’re about to go above 2 stacks and when you have to move, don’t blow them on cool-down. Use your teleports when you have to move long distances. It’s possible to have 99% uptime for pretty much everything as long as you play smart and manage your resources properly.
Problem with Black Mage is that they have not evolved with their time. Today's bosses have more mechanics, more stuffs thrown at the players, and mobility is key. With so many skills dependent on staying static, the BLM really struggles nowadays. Their rotation isn't really hard, at least its among the easiest to master i've found.
What's that rod glam ? really like it :) Nice vid tho, BLM is a high risk high reward class, especially in late game content. Very easy class to handle, very hard to master and optimize. You must know each fight to perfection to get appropriate uptime, otherwise you'll drop your dps a lot...
Paradox changed so much for this class. I've been progging UWU as BLM and it sucks! No Xenoglossy, no despair, Foul is a slow cast, no double 30sec sharpcast for perfect uptime on T3 without hardcasting it, and no Paradox! Frost phase is so bad without that spell! But in lvl 90 savage? I feel like there's so much mobility. Two stacks of triplecast, frost phase Paradox being instant, swiftcast, sharpcasted T3, two or three (or four if you're a complete chad) Xenos in a row? Almost as much free movement as a physical ranged. But, uh, yeah. Just never do synced content on it. Use any other job for that. Also RDM's aesthetic is lame, don't @ me.
I kept asking myself everytime im about to q up for something. Like, why should I go blm? When the dmg diffference is not that wide. If I go smn or rdm I can help healers raise. Other dps got utility. SAM is easier to play with big number. But yeah when I feel like I wanna hurt myself. Blm is the way 😂
I like BLM but i hate the rotation change in lower lovels on roulletes, so i think of change to RDM because i always liked the BattleMage build and the musketeer vibe 😎
Going into this job after hours upon hours of playing everything else is quite possibly the most difficult adjustment you'll ever encounter in this game. You're getting hit, casting the wrong shit, letting your buffs drop, not refreshing your DoT, not using CDs when they become available. Effin insane. Polyglot is such a cool mech that rewards you for not sucking for 30s. This is such a satisfying job to play when you do it right because of how utterly punishing it is when you do it wrong.
On the opposite hand, I've played for two years and have leveled everything but two tanks and all of the melee, so I already knew a great number of the fights going in, and it didn't take very many tries (used Duty Support) to essentially map out my strategy. I can't imagine playing this class first. Sounds like a recipe for winging everything and learning a bunch of bad habits I'd have to undo.
Tried red and it was ok to me at best but I just tried dragoon and I like it so far have ninja at 53 dark night at 30 warrior at 30 dragoon also 30 so yeah
as a red mage main i approve of the message that you should just play red mage instead ver-y much i have been trying to find as many ways as i can to put off leveling black mage from 61 to 90 even though that'd mean having all my casters at cap
I went down the black mage rabbit hole and while this job is a pain in the ass to play, the sense of accomplishment you get when your rotation is tight, you keep enochian up at all times, you use your ley lines optimally, and you do the big numbers GOD CHEFS KISS. or well, you can be a degenerate like me and just do paradox. Only Paradox. Just Paradox. Just Paradox.
Black Mage is alot easier then when it first came out and it was fun then too, I find its like playing the piano you have to get a rhythm Red Mage has been harder for me but I am finding my rhythm what sucks about Red Mage in Raids is I am doing my fast spells to build my sword power but instead of getting a free insta dmg i am rezing ABC so my dps has to be shit. Black Mage I just nuke everything as long as I can dance around the mechanics and the hardest thing for a caster to do is learn to do is forget the cast and move out of the yellow lol.
As a former Black Mage main from the beginning of ARR to about a quarter way through Endwalker. Unless it's a relic grind, I'm not going back. I used to love it but getting into higher end content I'm noticing how hard it can be to actually use BLM to its full potential and honestly, Reaper has been the absolute bomb to play.
1:14 another big positive is you get a big hat too. Unless your a vierra or hrothgar. Then you get no hats.
For that you gotta play Reaper
Astro still has the best hat at lvl60. Just my opinion. 😁
as a Vierra SMN I'm glad I can wear the hats, because we get some cool horns.
Give Hrothgar the BIG hats. I started playing FF XIV for BLM.
Standing is an aoe as a black mage is peak gaming experience
Standing in an AoE to the last posible moment is black mage peak experience.
@@cyphi474 going out of your way to set your Ley Lines up in an already broadcasted AoE is peak gaming experience
bruh manaward is OP
manaward bby
A a white mage you all anger me lol
Blessed be the creators that post on patch day
Totally did plan for this haha....
No
Black mage is simultaneously the most frustrating and satisfying class in the game. It takes a lot of practice just to perform. . . adequately.
But, the rush you feel when playing immaculately is, to me, unmatched by any other class.
This is the really frustrating thing. The game actively is growing more hostile to the class with time, fights getting a lot more mobile and the like. And it would be a pretty frustrating class without the timers to manage simply because of the long cast times. When it lines up, it is pretty satisfying. But at the same time, I can have a pretty satisfying experience on a class that doesn't kick my teeth in all the time because I was half a second off on my rotation's timing.
The class can be just as satisfying without being anywhere near as frustrating, and I feel it needs the frustration levels massively dropped on it. It's high time the class got the love it deserves.
@@OnyxBMW I think the struggle really adds to the payoff of performing well. I completely dropped SMN in EW cause they made it far too easy for me and I no longer enjoy playing it *at all.* I actually *want* at least a couple challenging classes that offer a lot of opportunity for optimization.
I understand where you're coming from, the class is *hard* and not everybody is into that. . . But what pushes you away from the class, is exactly what draws me to it, so unfortunately I must disagree. Making all of its moving parts work together is what I love about it, and It'd genuinely break my heart if they do to BLM what they did to SMN.
I don't think your complaints are invalid, I just enjoy overcoming the hardships of the class myself, rather than having the game simply remove them for me. Having played BLM since ARR, I'd say the current BLM kit is already the most accessible and least frustrating it has been in quite a long time. I'm hesitant to make it any easier, because I don't want its depth to be sacrificed.
@@Honey-Biscuit My issue with it is that there are parts of it that are hard that have no business being hard (AF/UI timers, primarily a skill floor thing). Whereas there's parts of it that are hard but make the class have strong payoff (Having to sit still to cast despite bosses wanting you not to.)
See, the former makes the class difficult to approach, difficult to understand, and frustrating because it's a very easy and exceptionally punishing and frustrating way to fail. The latter is punishing to fail (the most punishing of any class to drop a single GCD) but it doesn't torpedo your damage if you do fail it. Like if you miss a GCD on SAM, it's not going to tank your damage and you can recover the rotation, but mastering it is actually the majority of BLM's difficulty.
The latter is great, the former is why I actively stay away from the class or limit my exposure to it despite how good I am at it. And mind you, I'm actually a good Black Mage, at least statistically, as 90th percentile, 95th+ viable, and have seen 99th percentile parses in somewhat low-competition fights. Nothing is more frustrating than doing a boss and being the only class in the game that drops critical class resources and dumps potential damage outright because I lose control of my character. The newest expert dungeon's final boss is a fantastic example of a giant middle finger to Black Mages specifically. It's especially sad because literally every other class in the game has, at this point, lost this weakness outright.
I also feel that said timers are actively holding back the class. They limit what the devs can do with the class because everything by necessity must fit within the timers. And just as with Monk and their timers, once you remove their existence, it opens up room for a more interesting class mechanic.
See, I'm drawn to the optimization aspect of BLM. The find a safe spot, sit still, and cast aspects. Preparing for what bosses do in advance, etc. But I hate that the class basically hasn't changed meaningfully since Stormblood in terms of how its rotation progresses, and if you ignore the original implementation of enochian specifically, its actual core rotation hasn't meaningfully changed since then outside of Enochian. All while keeping a lot of the problems it's had since this period.
Basically, I want BLM to actually move forward for once, instead of being the oldest class with one of the jankiest rotations objectively that just happens to be popular despite its massive jank.
Yes, perfectly described.
@@OnyxBMW I'm someone who enjoys overcoming the challenges of BLM so much that I wouldn't play the game if I were any other class. However, you bring up perfectly valid and true criticisms a lot of other BLM mains just don't want to hear and outright deny for whatever reasons (maybe it's an ego thing, maybe they're afraid of what could change and how, etc.) But you are 100% correct on everything. My biggest worry in ShB was how fights were getting more movement oriented, but BLM still had no options. In EW, we got more options that felt great, but the new 6.2 EX fight, even its base version, is pretty much a "no BLMs allowed" zone. It's literally a giant "F U" to BLMs. I love overcoming the challenges of optimizing my class and predicting where I have to be, but that fight proves that once again, BLM is not equipped to handle where the game is heading. And it isn't just that one fight, the game has been outpacing BLM'a design for years now. I worry greatly for 7.x if something doesn't change, because if things are kept the same way, BLM won't be a viable option.
BLM is easily the most fun caster to play, but most fun often means hard to play too.
In order to play BLM effectively, you need to embrace your inner Lala, and become, a lala.
To effectively play Black Mage you need to know EVERY boss pattern and ALL mechanics of EVERY fight you are in. You also need to know the healers role (damage spikes) because you KNOW you're gonna stand in that pee pee puddle to get off that Fire4 and you need to make sure the they have the extra resources to heal your greedy ass.
You're basically a DPS that needs a raid leader's knowledge on every fight.
Biggest problem with black mage for me is the cast times. When you're 3/4 of the way through a cast and have to move feels terrible. And when you're AoEing a group of mobs and every single time your spell is about to pop... enemy is dead. Well. Thats ok. I'll just go to another enemy and... oh. It's dead too. Wel. There's always scathe.
Yeah, leveling a BLM atm. And this whole cast wasting issue is so annoying. Happens a lot in dungeons. Meanwhile in all other content RDM and SMN are just way more fluid and SMN is even visually more pleasing.
Also for synced content you gotta swap fire 1 and blizzard 1 back to main hotbars cuz fire and blizzard IV do not downgrade in synced...
Of the dps I've tried so far BLM is the only one that feels bad to play.
don't aoe trash the return isn't worth, just use thunder aoe and your single target for overall higher returns, later against stronger adds use aoe but this requires knowing how much health the enemies generally have
Yeah I had the same problem until I figure out this, you spam the button like 0.5 milliseconds before your first ability ends it cast the next one faster
that's the best part of it
Late to this thread but i recently gave up trying BLM. I think BLM suffers a lot when leveling. Im only 600 hours into my FFXIV adventure so im still figuring out my main (though i have to say iv taken a strong liking to ninja recently). I found that when i was trying out BLM, the interrupted casts in dungeons because others kill the mob so much quicker...paired with the fact that BLM doesn't get any of its stronger spells till 60+ made the job the worst levelling experience iv ever had. I am still levelling it on the side slowly in my own time as maybe ill enjoy it more when i have more of the job actions, but tbh i feel myself going more towards the flowy movement of Ninja/Monk.
I maxed BLM and I still don’t know what I’m doing while playing it
This list ticks off all of the boxes for me as to why I didn't enjoy playing Black Mage. I will say, however, that my opinion of the job drastically changed when I understood how to use Umbral Soul. I totally ignored it because I was bad lol. Spamming that to keep my maxed ice stacks and hearts between pulls and not drop my Eno kept me playing and trying to figure out how to get better
That's sorta on you, personally I just enjoy the massive AOE damage. But healer and track gives me more responsibility
But toggling soul in-between pulls does keto the rotation simple
4:06 honestly, this is exactly the reason I don't play Black Mage. It's not fun casting a big spell just to have it not pay off at all. Feels like I'm doing nothing.
Facts, which is why I hate casters lol
Been a Black Mage since launch of ARR and cleared every single raid before echo dropped. All I can say is, I like to torture myself mentally.
Yeah, the punishement for synched down content is real, like "wtf, why do I have to learn 10 different rotations to play a single class adequatly in all content?" That's probably my biggest gripe with the job.
It's actually completely intuituve once you understand the class.
I love Black Mage because its frustrating, wears black, and is its own enemy.
Basically my teen age angst all over.
I wasn't going to but now I'm gonna grind the hell outta the black mage job
imagine having a lvl 90 summoner and you still get another player to cast abilities for you
1:20
Epic bruh moment
I started black and then went red, do not regret, more so with Endwalker, RDM became even more fun, can do the melee combo a lot more often.
At lvl 90 you actually have a decent mobility rotation because of paradox triplecast sharpcast and transpose
Infinite Paradox was discovered a little later into the expac than I would have liked... but Infinite Paradox is great movement phase filler.
I main blm and I love every second of it. Getting better at the job just makes it that much more fun and seeing the critical and direct hit from xenoglossy just gives me a feeling i cannot experience with any other class.
As a RDM main, I agree. Just play RDM.
(Ominously repeats 'Just Play RDM' like Monika from DDLC)
You hate the struggle but you respect the challenge 😂
High Hrothgar? Fos Ro Dah? into a "thomb" "thum" "Who are you?" "no im not a rebel" DRAGGGEEEN!
4:28 you can transpose to reset your timer, it resets your stacks to one and the timer is 15 again but at least your polyglot is ticking?
i'm leveling BLM right now to 70 for the goddess of magic title and holy shit I HATE it even at level 50.
50 is the worse, i'm so sorry for you :(
🤣 I leveled it years ago for a title and I loathed it so much I never played it again.
The worst thing about BLM is that it feels like 4 or 5 different jobs depending on what level you sync to. It's fucking weird.
Black mage gets SIGNIFICANTLY better the higher level you get. It's similar to samurai where the experience really sucks at 50 and gets more and more fun as you level
@@Kougaon tbh it only really sucks below 35 when you get Fire 3. Above that it`s very chill to play. This is coming from someone who does potD-solo runs on BLM
I've been playing dancer for a year now and I love it!!!
yeah i made rdm my first magic ranged class. the dual cast mechanic helps with chaining spells seamlessly and rdm also has the bonus of being an emergency healer
My main issue with Black mage is how many things can force you to lose the umbral ice/fire phase or to downgrade the fire phase to ice in order to use that skill that gives ice phase stacks and refreshes the ice phase.
4:08 I have the same problem as a Healer. My Tank gets out of range of my heals and buffs and gets blown up, and because the enemies follow him, I can put my DOT on them, either.
I play Black Mage because if I play any other caster my static will think it's okay to die.
I had to level black mage for a sick glam but god damn I cannot play black mage for the life of me. I’m just doing the Arkasodara beast tribe to level it because ain’t NO shot I’m leveling it any other way
BLM is by far my fave job in the game, but going into a new encounter on it is borderline masochistic.
I have been playing black mage for a while, am at level 58 and did ARR, but I notice I lack dps compared to other classes, its a class that has a lot of cons, but the pros are not that significant. Is that because am at a level below 60? Does BLM do way more dmg more at the endgame compared to early and mid?
That emote trick.
I do not know of it. Thank you
Did Pint make you put this video out?
I was certain i would be a Black Mage main forever.....then i unlocked red mage and was like "....but moving around is fun..."
for me, it was scholar to sage. Sage is so FUN!. and if the BLM dies because of standing in AOE while I'm focused on putting out dmg to keep the tank up with kardia all well.
Explosion fetish
explussy
Omg that emote trick is genuis, I have to start using that
Any BLM main here that plays with gamer pad can recommend me a WAY to use Aetherial Manipulation properly? I have it macroéd so it teleports to Tank1 Tank2 and then the rest of the party based on proximity bat that causes that a lot of times It just teleports me to unsafe zones.
I don't use a controller, and I don't know if it'll work, but I use a focus target macro for that. Healers in your light party group if doing raids/extremes are a safe target, or the melee in the same light party, to focus target.
Doing it off of role like T1/T2 etc. seems weird and obtuse, you just need a single trusty person and you can change focus target at will. Assuming controller players can have a focused target.
Limsa Lomansa and Corpse Dancer cameo at 2:37 XD
Tell me you’re on Leviathan without telling me you’re on Leviathan.
Buut this glam though 😍 what’s the rod?
What is that black chest piece called that you wear at the start?
Ok but I gotta ask: what staff are you using on BLM? It looks amazing.
5:07 Standing still, uses triplecast
4:26 Mandatory movement, doesn't use triplecast, loses enochian for it
Actual skill issue :P
I absolutely love Black Mage but am still struggling a bit with movement at some fights (Endsinger Extreme...). But since I enjoy the job, I keep at it and always try to get better 👍
1:34 What is a skeel?
Black mage is truly the dark souls of ff14 jobs
Thank you for that emote slidecast tip.
SKIP MY FAVOURITE JOB!?! You’re INSANE.
You know we can’t subject new players to our BLM pains :(
I will stand still exploding bosses but natillas I die, and I don’t mean die in game.
Bro nooo don't post on maintenance day, I have withdrawal already and this is like torture
I remember one time I said have a black mage and a dancer and the people I was teaming up with told me, yeah no use your dancer.
instructions unclear stuck in blue outfit trying to learn boss abilities
I'm literally in the middle of my BLM ARR relic grind right now. As soon as maintenance is over I'm gonna finish up the Aurum vale light grind.
I initially enjoyed Thaumaturge cause heehoo big number but the novelty wore off pretty quick. Fireballs and lightning etc are cool and all but why would I play Thaumaturge and go all the way to Black Mage when I can play Arcanist to get Summoner and have one of the Primals as my pet while also being able to straight up summon them?
I started out as a thaumaturge in ARR back when I had a shitty laptop that ran the game at 15 fps
My patience as a black mage main is unparalleled, so much so that playing jobs with more movement feels slightly wrong
I can imagine how learning black mage later on would be REALLY weird tho tbh, I'd argue you have to plan more as a black mage than healers do in Savage for just movement alone tbh
Learn the bosses, and you will be a master at black mage, or find a healer who doesn't mind healing you while you do your rotation and you will be a master at black mage!
Glad to see you atleast still have some love for the class!
I have previously never played a Final Fantasy game before, and BLM was my starting job. While I'm still practicing the level 90 openers, I really love the basic rotation. I find it sooo satisfying to pull off. I really feel like an force of supernatural devastation.. and I get a goth wardrobe?! 10/10
What gloves are those?
i didnt know that about the emotes lighting up when you can slidecast!
anyways today i will continue to play red mage because they are just so badass
What staff is that you have for blm
The only problem I have with BLM is the cast time, the lay line spell is meant to reduce cast time but it only does it by 0.30s which is a lot but it really it's so small for the duration it's up for. Would rather play summoner
BLM is my main, after trying RDM, SMN and DNC which are the other classes I play I always go back to BLM because of the high risk play style
Still think this now in Dawn trail?
Guides: Stand still as Black Mage.
Me: SLIDE TO THE LEFT. SLIDE TO THE RIGHT. REVERSE REVERSE *Aetherial Manipulates to the other side of the map*
I like that staff where does it come from I have yet to see that, in case I cant find it researching it before you answer if you answer lol.
it's the asphodelos staff from pandaemonium savage (current tier)
Hi, funny vid. main Red Mage and Reaper here, you are right in almost everything, but BM, has a shield, and it can jump to your partner every 6 seconds, I made a macro to jump mostly to the healer (I figured out after much testing healers is the best option to jump) besides figuring out this, you spam the button like 0.5 milliseconds before your first ability ends it cast the next one faster (English is not my thing)
Always love the Persona Music
Pictomancer took our damage :(
It's like playing a fighter in D&D all you do is damage, all your abilities are to allow you to do more damage or attack more, your optimized damage output is huge, but that makes you lack in versatility
I love leveling BLM, i love the rotation. But i can't do PS with BLM...stay still is very very difficult....
I picked black mage as a new player not knowing it was the hardest job. I am barely 71 and I have started trying other jobs because I feel like I am not doing good dps. (I still don't know fights so I would rather stop casting and live thru mechanics so I can get back to dps after) I am only doing base level stuff, no extreme or savage for me lol. I have a really hard time with the regular stuff.
But, all that said. I feel like I "Get" the job more than any other. I like the ice and fire stages. I like the back n forth of it. Not sure what to do. I love Black Mage, but I am sure groups might hate me. I have no idea how I am doing. I don't want banned so I don't have a dps parse etc.
I too found out the hardships of playing a class with no major party buffs or utility and eventually I had to give up on Black Mage for something else....... Samurai because I didn't learn a thing
Black Mage has been my favorite job in the entire FF franchise. I played blm in FFXI in it's heyday. When I got FFXIV, even before making a character, I knew I was going to main blm. Again, I came from XI, so it being slow and janky at low levels was fine for me, I didn't know any better nor how the other jobs felt. It wasn't until I was a few months in that I heard about it's rep as probably the hardest job in the game. When I heard it, I thought "how hard can it really be?"
Almost 2 years later, I'm doing all the EW extremes and am trying to make my way through the current savage tier (one day we'll get past P7S) all as black mage, and you know what? This job is a freaking pain. I got every job at 90 now and pretty much every job is way easier than blm. My 2nd fav job is dnc and it's so great being able to move around wherever the heck I want and still keep up my ABCs.
Yet, despite all of that, blm is still my favorite, and by a country mile. The feeling of clearing an extreme or a savage on this job is so freaking satisfying. Especially when I manage to get something higher than a grey parse. Black Mage is the best job in the game, and no one can tell me otherwise. Don't wuss out and play rdm. They aren't real casters. Be a real Chad and play Black Mage, just like our lord and savior Yoshi P.
Although I do play dnc a lot when I don't feel like making my life hell lol.
I bought the game a month ago.. started as blm and now I'm done with the msq, lvl 90, and am currently grinding extreams for mounts... I as someone who has only played blm think it's pretty neet
I started playing FFXIV towards the beginning of 2022 and on my first character I started as a black mage. The combo of no mobility + ARR msq slog almost made me quit the game. Fortunately I met a XIV player on a discord server who was like "hey let's play together" so I made a dragoon on their server and never looked back.
Love the aesthetic of black mage though. Maybe once I'm more invested I'll try leveling it
Pro tip as a decade old blm main: Don’t use your triple casts/swiftcast when you’re not moving, they’re you’re get-out-of-jail card to maintain your uptime during mechanics. Save your xenoglossy for burst window, when they’re about to go above 2 stacks and when you have to move, don’t blow them on cool-down. Use your teleports when you have to move long distances. It’s possible to have 99% uptime for pretty much everything as long as you play smart and manage your resources properly.
instructions unclear ended up maining blm
Problem with Black Mage is that they have not evolved with their time. Today's bosses have more mechanics, more stuffs thrown at the players, and mobility is key. With so many skills dependent on staying static, the BLM really struggles nowadays. Their rotation isn't really hard, at least its among the easiest to master i've found.
I don't know why I cant rez w/ my black magic >.>
A typical love-hate relationship
What's that rod glam ? really like it :) Nice vid tho, BLM is a high risk high reward class, especially in late game content. Very easy class to handle, very hard to master and optimize. You must know each fight to perfection to get appropriate uptime, otherwise you'll drop your dps a lot...
I think its the staff from Pandemonium Asphodelos Savage.
Huh... Thats a Neato trick with the emote.
Didn't Pint do this already?
KEKW JK GUD VID
Burn My Dread? Yeah, that's a sub.
Paradox changed so much for this class. I've been progging UWU as BLM and it sucks! No Xenoglossy, no despair, Foul is a slow cast, no double 30sec sharpcast for perfect uptime on T3 without hardcasting it, and no Paradox! Frost phase is so bad without that spell! But in lvl 90 savage? I feel like there's so much mobility. Two stacks of triplecast, frost phase Paradox being instant, swiftcast, sharpcasted T3, two or three (or four if you're a complete chad) Xenos in a row? Almost as much free movement as a physical ranged.
But, uh, yeah. Just never do synced content on it. Use any other job for that. Also RDM's aesthetic is lame, don't @ me.
I kept asking myself everytime im about to q up for something. Like, why should I go blm? When the dmg diffference is not that wide. If I go smn or rdm I can help healers raise. Other dps got utility. SAM is easier to play with big number. But yeah when I feel like I wanna hurt myself. Blm is the way 😂
I have every job at 50 or higher.
Except Black Mage. Fuck Black Mage you can stay at 37 for the rest of eternity.
I like BLM but i hate the rotation change in lower lovels on roulletes, so i think of change to RDM because i always liked the BattleMage build and the musketeer vibe 😎
Going into this job after hours upon hours of playing everything else is quite possibly the most difficult adjustment you'll ever encounter in this game. You're getting hit, casting the wrong shit, letting your buffs drop, not refreshing your DoT, not using CDs when they become available. Effin insane. Polyglot is such a cool mech that rewards you for not sucking for 30s. This is such a satisfying job to play when you do it right because of how utterly punishing it is when you do it wrong.
On the opposite hand, I've played for two years and have leveled everything but two tanks and all of the melee, so I already knew a great number of the fights going in, and it didn't take very many tries (used Duty Support) to essentially map out my strategy. I can't imagine playing this class first. Sounds like a recipe for winging everything and learning a bunch of bad habits I'd have to undo.
What is that Staff 0.0
I am still leveling. Both my black mage and red mage are 80. Woo
Ok, waiting on my one million grills for my bbq rib party 🍗🍖🔥
Tried red and it was ok to me at best but I just tried dragoon and I like it so far have ninja at 53 dark night at 30 warrior at 30 dragoon also 30 so yeah
as a red mage main i approve of the message that you should just play red mage instead ver-y much
i have been trying to find as many ways as i can to put off leveling black mage from 61 to 90 even though that'd mean having all my casters at cap
I went down the black mage rabbit hole and while this job is a pain in the ass to play, the sense of accomplishment you get when your rotation is tight, you keep enochian up at all times, you use your ley lines optimally, and you do the big numbers GOD CHEFS KISS.
or well, you can be a degenerate like me and just do paradox. Only Paradox. Just Paradox. Just Paradox.
if you get best in slot gear, you can always swap to summoner and have mindless fun insteaddd
That thumbnail tho. 👌
Black Mage is alot easier then when it first came out and it was fun then too, I find its like playing the piano you have to get a rhythm Red Mage has been harder for me but I am finding my rhythm what sucks about Red Mage in Raids is I am doing my fast spells to build my sword power but instead of getting a free insta dmg i am rezing ABC so my dps has to be shit. Black Mage I just nuke everything as long as I can dance around the mechanics and the hardest thing for a caster to do is learn to do is forget the cast and move out of the yellow lol.
dont be a rez mage, you got healers for that, if your healer are alive don't rez anyone else.
As a former Black Mage main from the beginning of ARR to about a quarter way through Endwalker. Unless it's a relic grind, I'm not going back. I used to love it but getting into higher end content I'm noticing how hard it can be to actually use BLM to its full potential and honestly, Reaper has been the absolute bomb to play.
I love red mage
Was a Viera, couldn't rock the hat, so I fantasia'd to Lala. Haven't looked back.