This video will walk you through all the casters available to help you pick one suited to your playstyle. This is explicitly not a tier list, but assistance in learning more about the available options.
00:00 Introduction
01:44 Summoner
04:27 Red Mage
07:55 Black Mage
11:33 Closing Thoughts
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I main SUM and WHM for raiding/harder content… I like easy 😛 I always find it strange when people (usually pretty casual players at that) look down their nose so hard at SUM because "it's too easy". I prefer it because I'm also newer to the higher end of difficulty in the game, being able to focus on mechanics is super helpful getting through that barrier. I did force myself to learn how to BLM and leveled my trusts that way.. I actually learned it and even enjoy it, but I dislike how punishing it is to play.. aka if you aren't playing fully optimal every step of the way your damage suffers a LOT for it, not much room for error. RDM is just plain fun and not super difficult, but.. atm SUM just does more damage and is slightly less stressful to play.
I find Black Mage just terribly frustrating with how their rotation keeps changing every few levels. Joining the roulettes that can put you into lower level content is just so freaking annoying because you constantly have to change around your skill setup due to the game not just upgrading your skills as you level but giving you new versions that coexist next to the lower level ones. I wish there was a better way for their skill progression like with the other jobs where your skills get downgraded but the same button will generally do the same thing just with varying power.
Brilliant video as always, thank you!
Great video, as always!
I play the game very casually and the only caster I've played is RDM, which is a lot of fun! The mobility of it really speaks to me, plus I feel pretty cool being able to hop in close and slash with my sword 😀 (gonna giv SUM a go after seeing this, thanks!)
Great video with very good descriptions, especially for a clueless person like me.
I always play healers. I don’t really care about DPS and Tanks but I want to try somethkng else cause sometimes I don't want to have the pressure to not perform well enough with my healers . I think red mage would be perfect for a change and having his healing abilities at the same time.
(Sorry for my english, I am french canadian)
In my oppion with the healing capabilities of Summoner and Red Mage, i would actually say Red Mage is better at it for the sole reason, that they can initiate healing when they need to, instead of being locked into a 2 min rotation/cooldown. However i have not played Summoner as much as i have done Red Mage, but i can definitely see the big healing the Phoenix can do, I just wish their healing spell (Physick) they got back from Arcanist actually scaled with the level.
Useful video! Red mage was my first caster (and my second level 90 after white mage), and I've picked up black mage and summoner in my recent 'level everything' window. They're both at level 50, and I vastly prefer summoner at this point – in fact, I find black mage to be at least half as good as summoner – though that was mostly at level 40 (before firestarter), when I was doing hunt logs and found summoner was happily killing everything whilst black mage had a 50/50 chance of dying. This was same level, same equipment. It's useful to be told 'black mage gets good' but annoying that you need to go so far into the job to get that.
One thing: could you pick background music without lyrics? As much as this song slaps, it's definitely more than a little distracting.
On my first trip through the MSQ I leveled a Summoner. I found it very fun but frustrating as the self heal is underwhelming. The fight against Venat in Elpis was very frustrating so I switched to Scholar (despite not knowing how to play the job) and was able to get through it quite easily. I leveled all the other healing classes to 90 and then all the ranged dps. I still have the tank classes to go. But I really wanted to learn Scholar and rather than subject strangers to my stupidity I started a new character and have just finished Shadowbringers on Scholar. Out of all the healing jobs I like Scholar the most.
I have two Black Mages. One at 90 and an alt at 80. I found that leveling the BLM was easier once I unlocked Borzja and I gained access to a self heal via memories that are unlocked in the area.
As has been mentioned before it's frustrating that the job mechanics/spells change every ten levels. It's my least played job. Between Summoner, Red Mage and Black Mage I prefer Red Mage with the self heals for leveling and the instant cast ressurrection (via dualcast) , the party buff and the movement mechanics. A good Red Mage can heal the tank if the healer dies, then rez the healer or half the raid if the healers disconnects. It's a great all around job that gives White Mage a run for it's money.
the one you like the most.
Hope they add another caster in 7.0.
rdm is the most useful caster for hard content during prog. u can save a run with the instant rez.
i still dont think BLM is the hardest job in the game. if the only reason people think its hard because of prog learning & optimization, then its still easier than every melee since you're not dealing with having to keep melee uptime or learn how to perfect mechanic snapshots for better uptime. between your triplecasts, thunder procs, and xenoglossy BLM doesnt even struggle with standing still as much before
I started the game last year with BLM and I stuck with it as my main even as I went into my first savage tier (the current one). It's definitely a super punishing experience and I often end up beating myself up over my performance but finding people in pf who cheer me on for trying my hand for the first time at savage with BLM more than make up for it!
I ran into a problem with the black mage. After I got the rhythm for red mage and summoner I tired for black mage.
I FINALLY got the rhythm for black mage. But I lost the rhythm for all of my other jobs in the process.
I actually find melees harder to play than black mage. Burst windows get messy, so much to keep track of. Black mage, I put my leylines down and do what I've been doing. Ideally throwing up a triplecast and a couple xenoglossies. The way I see it, black mage doesn't get its "fun buttons" only during burst windows, its always fun. Though having not much variance in its rotation means some people can find it boring, and having to change your rotation to suit each fight and having to use damage like xenoglossy and triplecast for movement can make it frustrating for some.
I do sometimes switch to summoner when I want something more stress free, but I really enjoy the learning curve of black mage. Getting good at it isn't just pressing buttons in the right order, at least it doesn't feel that way. Despite its difficulty, I feel like you also have a lot of control over your rotation, where if you're in panic mode, you can use umbral soul to "pause" your rotation. Obviously, you lose damage, but its there if you fuck up or if you have to move and simply don't have anything. Then you can just start your rotation again. Feels less punishing to me than some melees where it feels like if you accidentally hit something in the wrong order then your rotation is just fucked for the rest of the fight.
Also, I wouldn't even say optimizations are particularly necessary even in current savage. Standard rotation can absolutely get you a clear, probably even half decent parses, its just if you want to get to the tippy top, you'll have to learn all sorts of weird shit.
Playing Summoner for long periods is a form of torture outlawed by the Geneva Convention. Nothing changes rotationally for the player from level 30 to level 86 and even then it's still not rewarding.
Playing Black Mage is on another level when you are at high levels of gameplay. It has so many odd little tricks you can do to negate certain mechanics. I would say though to only really play it at level 70 or above if you have a choice. Under 70 Black Mage is very clunky and the amount of DPS it can do is honestly inferior to other classes unless you optimize the hell out of it, and even then it’s only on par with other classes for like twice the effort. Also under 70 you don’t have any of the movement tools that make the class able to efficiently do mechanics.
BLM was my first secondary class I started leveling. Definitely don’t let everyone say how hard it is to perfect in endgame discourage. Casually it’s still a great class. SMN I don’t have any experience with yet but for RDM I definitely found it easier than BLM but more monotonous for sure. However, the satisfaction of quick rezing someone is always a great boost.
I had no clue Black Mage was one of the most difficult classes. I see memes of people saying they hate the class but never knew why or they are only leveling it for the mount then stopping. Waaaaay back in ARR it was my starting class and I'm very comfortable with it tbh Doesn't mean I'm efficient though for end game content or anything, honestly doubt it. Still, it's a class I guess filled with nostalgia because I go back to it occasionally just because it was my first class. I really like ranged dps in general so hope to learn Red Mage one day and recently had a lot of fun with summoner leveling it up.
BLM is my main DPS so I'm biased but SMN and RDM are too simple for me to play so long although they both have great utility and being easy also means being consistent but the big D damage you can get on BLM and the fact it kinda changes the game in making prediction and staying 2 steps ahead of the boss while your rotation is on autopilot in a way, is really fun for me and feels rewarding. That said, BLM should get raise IMO, it's hard enough to warrant the damage cap without losing all support since it's way harder than SAM. But long story short, BLM is my pick for being the complex caster, the other 2 get boring after a while IMO.
Every job I try was too easy until black mage. Its the only one that gave me a challenge. Other jobs were fun but if you want a personal challenge on top of everything, nothing compares. You reach skill cap with other jobs so fast and they dont feel rewarding. Its a "selfish" job but at the end of the day, DPS is DPS. Play with a good healer and you can do some serious damage.
Summoner is very pretty but there is something about black mage that is so much fun. Casting fire IVs and slide casting makes you feel so powerful.