I was thinking about trying Black Mage in FFXIV, until I stumbled on this video by Kougaon.
Why You Should NOT Play Black Mage | FFXIV ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEUFhbxYkFs&ab_channel=Kougaon
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Twitch ► https://www.twitch.tv/krojak
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32 sec ago
What do I think about BLM? Let's see… I've been playing one for 1215.8 hours. It started off as my main, and it's STILL my main. What does that say? It says… BLACK MAGE FOREVER!!
Having levelled EVERY FRICKIN' job to 90, I feel that I can give at least a little bit of an infomed opinion.
The game LOVES to make you run around. Loves it. Almost every fight, including some early dungeons, teach you about those orange areas that are bad to stand in. Later, some bad areas are BLUE! just to confuse players.
Anyway, so the game likes to make you run around, and they ALSO make a class that hates to move. That ABC thing? Yeah, that. If you have a 3 second cast, you're not going to move. if you have a 1 second cast, you're not going to move. This is why they had to give Black Mages Triplecast (Next 3 casts are instant) Swiftcast (Next cast is instant) and The manipulation thing (Moves you to a target). Otherwise it would be pretty impossible to play.
You need to know the fight intimately, so you know when you can stand still. Or, you know that there's NO time to stand still at all. You bring NO utility to the group, so you'd better be damned sure you're pumping that damage out otherwise what's your reason for being there?
For me, I love Red Mage. Respectable damage, and wodges of utility, from multipe instant rez, to party buff, to powerful AOE and Single Target damage, and the sublime Dualcast mechanic which makes your next cast instant with NO COOLDOWN. Make a short cast, UBER Damage long cast is instant. IT's SO much easier to ABC than a Black Mage.
I also like Dancer quite a bit. It's very much a support job with lowish personal damage, but you buff another DPS (your partner), every 1 minute you buff the party and every 2 minutes you super buff your partner. It's very very mobile with all skills instant. It's also very fun to play.
Every bad thing everyone says about Black Mage is not wrong… but y'know what, it's still worth it to me. No other job best simulates the feeling of being a powerful wizard brimming with fire, ice, and hubris. When everything goes right, you feel amazing. When you put your leylines down in the wrong spot and lose uptime and stumble around and flub your rotation, you feel like scummy garbage. The lows are low but the highs are SO GOOD that I continue to try and main BLM, even in new content, even when I really shouldn't.
As a Black Mage main, it is pain, I still suck, unless you want to really devote a ton of time to improvement dont take that soul crystal
Oh boy and here I am trying to get from 80 to 90. Time to buckle up.
As a BLM main, answering that question at ~4:30, no, it's not nightmare fuel, tbh, I like what I'm seeing xD… well, it IS a bit sad to have to leave the leylines, but atleast it's only for a second or two, and I get to use Aetherial Manipulation and insta-casts (I LOVE AM)! Honestly, the only problem with AM is that when I play almost any other job I get myself killed cause I forget I don't have my "Zooooom-ability".
There's one advice I always mention to aspiring BLMs, assuming you're using KB and Mouse. Macro Aetherial Manipulation with "mouse over" and keybind it to a mouse button, it will allows you to teleport to other players with a mouse click without the need to change target from whatever you're killing (it can be a bit clunky and you lose time if you gotta change target first before using the spell).
He didn't mention this one, but at higher lvl you get Umbral Soul, which helps you keep the ice phase up at 3 stacks indefinitely, so it's not hard to keep your phases up even if the enemy takes a tea break. Using transpose works too at lower lvls even if it's less optimal.
Also, standing close to the boss isn't always a bad thing, for instance, bosses that do several attacks around them one side at a time, putting leylines down under boss allows you to stay in the lines while also mini-dodging to whichever side under the boss that is safe. Some bosses got doughnut/close range alternating attacks, putting leylines at max melee can help then (can be good if there are stacking mechanics too).
Tiny footnote: A lvl 90 BLM… has 2x Triplecast aka 6 insta-casts, + 1 swiftcast, adding 2 stacks of xenoglossy, the sharpcast+thunder combo, and the ice phase paradox, playing your cards right, you can pull off a maximum of 11 spells in a row with instant casts, that's… about 25 seconds of instant casts, depending on your GCD🤔(ofc, in general you don't use them in one go but will use some here and there during needed movement). Honestly I feel more mobile on BLM than on RDM currently.😂
i lvled blm to 90 and i hated it in instances/dungeons where there were mechs. casting = fun, feeling like i could do nothing while moving = not fun
I chose to main BLM for two reasons only:
1. It's a mage doing big booms with fire, ice and lightning.
2. To show those other puss- I mean, players, that BLM is good. If I can live through savage then RDM doesn't have the right to die.
BLM in ARR was more fun and terrible at the same time. Your fire spell did no damage to Ifrit. Why? Because Ifrit is fire incarnate, so….. WHAT!!!
I've leveled both BLM and RDM to 90 (+ others), and I still prefer BLM. RDM's spells don't feel as "punchy" as BLM. RDM has much more of a streamlined rotation while BLM keeps your brain engaged with the procs (Thunderstorm, Firestarter, Enochian timer, Polyglot…). And finally my favorite element in RPG is actually ice, which is at least an integral part of the BLM rotation.
Also BLM's mobility is actually not that bad at mid-to-high levels… Aetherial Manip. is a lifesaver, and Triplecast really lets you do some casting while running out of the AOE's.
The best thing about black mage is that it has been simplified less than other classes.
4:42 nah, at high levels you learn Aetherial manipulation that teleports you to a target party member and after you can teleport back to your magic circle (laylines). For me it's super fun. Also you have 2 triplecast skills that allow 3 insta casts so you can run while spamming your fireballs without losing much.
I got BLM to 90 through Wonderous Tales and Frontline dailies. I didn't have to actually play it because I loathe it that much. I understand how to the complexity of the job and the way it turns fights into puzzles about the perfect place to stand makes some people to love it and I love it for them, but for me I'd rather never play it again. I would say it try it Kro, that's the great thing about FFXIV. Your time is never wasted. Give it a go and see how you feel about it. You may love it, you may hate it.
If you are a masochist, which as a DRK you definitelly are, you will like BLM xD