The Black Mage is a classic magic damage dealing job making use of the elements of Fire, Ice and Lightning as well as crowd control mechanics such as Sleep and Bind. This guide will talk about how to play the job at level 50 and it should be noted that it may not be the only way to play it. Others may disagree, but see it as a starting point and build on it from there.
Attributes
Black Mage GuideAs a Black Mage your main attribute is going to be Intelligence (INT) as this increases magical damage. You should be placing all of your attribute points into this stat because the benefits of INT outweigh the defensive benefits of Vitality or the extra MP from Piety. Due to the way Black Mage works you will regain MP very quickly and you should not really be getting hit.
With equipment however you could focus on more stats than just INT. Attack Magic Potency, Determination, Critical Hit Rate and Spell Speed are the main stats to consider in addition to simply boosting INT. With the exception of Determination, the names of the attributes are self explanatory in what they do. Determination will boost the amount of damage dealt by all attacks and the amount of HP recovered when healed. It is not yet known whether this is better than attack magic potency for increasing your damage so for now it is best to go for a mix.
Stances
Before we get into rotations it is important to understand the two main stances of the Black Mage. These being Astral Fire and Umbral Ice. You will switch between these during almost every fight. Astral Fire is designed for maximum damage output while Umbral Ice is designed for recovering MP. There are also three different levels of potency in each stance, each being more beneficial than the last. In short:
Astral Fire: Increases fire damage and MP cost of fire spells. Reduces ice damage and ice MP cost. Umbral Ice: Increases MP regen, decreases MP cost of fire spells, increases MP cost of ice spells.
You can use the Transpose ability to instantly which between stances. I recommend using it to switch from Astral Fire to Umbral Ice, then switching from Umbral Ice when ready to an Astral Fire III by using the Fire III spell. This is because Transpose may not yet be ready for a second use.
Skill Rotation
For a full explanation of skills see our Black Mage and Thaumaturge pages.
As a BLM your elemental spells are Fire, Ice and Thunder. Fire is your primary damage element, Ice is your supportive element and Thunder is your damage over time (DoT) element. They all serve their own important roles. It is important to understand when to use each spell.
My ideal rotation at level 50 is the following:
Thunder II Swiftcast Fire III Fire … Fire Blizzard III Thunder II Scathe Repeat from Fire III
FFXIV: BLM Hot bars An example hotbar layout for BLM abilities.
Firstly, why Thunder II and not Thunder III? Thunder II costs less MP than Thunder III and is faster to cast. When the Thundercloud trait kicks in this is when you use Thunder III as you do not want to simply overwrite your DoT but add a new one. The Thundercloud trait means you get to cast it instantly and for 0 MP cost. You could certainly switch the two spells around but this is my preference.
Next, the reason you use Fire III first is so that you instantly get to Astral Fire III, instead of casting three Fire spells to get there. This works out better over all. I instant cast this rather than Thunder II because it saves me 0.5 seconds of cast time.
So why switch to Fire afterwards? The trait Firestarter means you have a 30% chance that upon casting Fire, you will get an instant cast Fire III with 0 MP cost. It makes sense to aim for this. Fire does less damage than Fire III but has a shorter cast time and with the free Fire IIIs you will end up doing more damage. Keep casting Fire until you are almost out of MP.
Now it is time to switch stance as mentioned earlier. Blizzard III will get you straight into Umbral Ice III, meaning fastest MP recovery. Now is the time to reapply your Thunder DoT and cast the occasional Scathe. Blizzard spells don't do much damage but you can use them instead if you prefer. Switch back to Astral Fire III and repeat.
This is the basic rotation for the Black Mage. You can spice it up a bit for example by using Flare before Transpose, but this is only recommended if you have Convert available. Why? Because Flare reduces you to 0 MP and you will need MP to cast Blizzard III. If you are doing this then Swiftcast may be better used with Flare.
Fire II is not listed because it is an Area of Effect (AoE) spell which is meant for cases where there are multiple monsters being fought. If this is the case then it may be more worthwhile to use this instead of Fire. Blizzard II we'll cover later.
Lethargy is another very useful skill as it will add Slow and Heavy to the monster and it is instant cast. This is more important on boss fights than trash mobs and it is an ability that will slot in anywhere in your rotation.
Crowd Control
Part of being a Black Mage is managing multiple monsters. This is called crowd control. If your party is being overwhelmed by monsters, IE has more hitting the tank than the party can handle then you need to step in with Sleep and Bind.
Monsters that are asleep can not attack but they will wake up after a set time. The effectiveness of Sleep will also be reduced each time an enemy has been under the effect. If any party members attack the monster it will also wake up. From level 36 this spell becomes an AoE.
Monsters that are bound can not move, however they can still attack you if they can perform ranged attacks. This effect can be useful for getting away from monsters. Bind can be added via the spells Blizzard II and Freeze; there is no Bind spell. Both of these ice spells are AoE damage and do not have to be cast on a monster. Blizzard II is an AoE around you while Freeze can be positioned on the ground.
I found that Blizzard II was very useful in F.A.T.E.s because it would keep monsters near me and allow me to deal damage while not worrying about whether a monster will die before my spell finished casting.
Cross Class Abilities
BLM can take cross class skills from the ARC and ACN classes and at level 50 you can equip up to 5.
What is extremely useful from Archer is Raging Strikes. This will increase your spell damage by 20%. It is a good idea to use this right before you start spamming Fire. Quelling Strikes is also useful for reducing the amount of enmity you are accumulating. If your tank is good then you may not need to use this.
From Arcanist you should equip Physick as healing spells are always useful to have. For your final ability I would recommend Virus as it has very nice benefits for yourself and the party by increasing damage for 10 seconds.
Materia
In FFXIV: ARR all materia can be added to any slot so this guide only lists the materia that is useful for the Black Mage rather than where to put it.
Intelligence - Magic damage Piety - MP Quicktongue - Spell Speed Savage Might - Determination Savage Aim - Critical Hit Rating
As you will be limited by how much of a certain stat you can apply to gear through stat caps it is a good idea to use a variety and add stats to gear which aren't already on the piece.
Light Bringer Admin replied
555 weeks ago