So you wanted a DPS role, but one with a bit of flair and the essence of "exploding" into the fray. You've concluded, based on your research, that a Black Mage checks those boxes, and you'd be correct! After completing the "Taking the Black" quest in-game, you will be able to access this new, hectic job. This job can be so unpredictable that you might not know what to do with everything you're given! With the help of this guide, you'll be able to overcome that obstacle and enter this job with the confidence of a pro!

 

50. Understand your primary phases

Video Guide 

Understanding the gauge of your fire and ice phases is fundamental to being a Black Mage. This gauge will teach you how to be more efficient at work! You will fall on your face far too often if you do not understand this.

 

49. Maintain your stacks the best you can

You'll be burning through your stacks as a new Black Mage. Maintain those stacks with some of the provided spells! This job is all about finding the right balance.

 

48. Guarantee yourself a proc 

A "proc" is a method of ensuring yourself a bonus on your next action. This is a very situational gift that can be used in a variety of situations. The more you practice the technique, the closer you will be to success.

 

47. Gain as many Umbral Hearts as you can

Video Guide

As a Black Mage, MP is important to you. Not only that, but you're also a DPS; you must continue to deal damage! It would be beneficial if you could figure out how to make the most of your MP's cost.

 

46. Refresh your gauge timer

This is critical for maintaining your "opener" in battle. You will be told numerous times that you must maintain a pool of MP! This allows you to return to your ice phase and regenerate that MP.

 

45. Keep ‘Despair’ as a final blow

You must keep this cast as your final move due to the cost. Casting this at any other time will leave you completely vulnerable to failure. Fortunately, there is a way to save yourself from the situation!

 

44. Keep ‘Umbral Soul’ going

This spell prevents you from tripping during your runs! By gaining an "umbral heart" through this method, you save MP the moment you enter battle. In that regard, umbral hearts are very similar to White Mage Lillies.

 

43. Become best friends with ‘Ley Lines’

As a DPS, you must maximize the amount of damage you can deal. This spell enables you to do so! You can't go wrong with casting this whenever you can.

 

42. Follow ‘Ley Lines’ up with ‘Between the lines’

As a Black Mage, you'll already have mobility issues. This, in turn, can expose you to a slew of attacks! So, after casting the ley lines, make sure to follow up with what lies between the lines!

 

41. Use ‘Triple cast’ when low on MP

As much as you'll enjoy seeing explosions, they'll cost you a lot of MP. The triple cast will be your savior! This also gives you more mobility, which is necessary for your role.

 

40. Stack two ‘Polyglots’ 

This method will assist you in dealing with mobs! Because you'll be spending time dealing damage to massive mobs, the technique in the video is an easy way to do so! This is a great method for boss fights, but not for mobs.

 

39. Use ‘Amplifier’ any time you can

Casting amplifier when it returns from cooldown is critical to your damage success. What this spell has to offer accelerates what your polyglots have to offer! This is true at any point during the battle.

 

38. Cast ‘Paradox’ at the end of your fire phase

This spell can also be beneficial when used during your ice phase. However, switching from your fire phase provides you with greater benefits! This means that fewer resources will be required.

 

37. Use ‘Aetherial Manipulation’ to move

This is the most effective way to work around your mobility issues. As a black mage, you'll notice that this is your primary concern. Casting this way also ensures that the majority of the party is less concerned about your role.

 

36. Keep ‘scathe’ for farming 

Scathe is only useful for farming one-shot items. Regardless of what this spell has to offer, it is completely useless in the endgame. This spell is also a complete waste of DPS.

 

35. Keep ‘Manafont’ for your fire phase

 

Much of what it takes to be a Black Mage will revolve around MP and damage boosting. Using manafont during your fire phase is the best way to combat MP usage during this phase. Make good use of this!

 

34. Cast ‘Manaward’ when no shield is on you

Some classes have the ability to cast a shield or regen area on a single or multiple targets. For example, if you're paired with a White Mage, you can rely on their 'Asylum' spell, which is a regen bubble rather than a full-fledged shield. If those options are not available, manaward is an excellent substitute.

 

33. Make a song of fire and ice

When you have "Enochian," you can do the most extra damage in both phases. It's an excellent "finisher" for increasing the damage of each move! This role is very focused on that aspect of your damage per second.

 

32. Get a solid opener down

Openers are essential to every role, especially yours. Opening with spells that have long cooldowns is usually an excellent way to go about this! This will immediately help put a dent in your boss's fight as soon as you start.

 

31. Don’t worry about long ice phases

It is common for new Black Mages to be worried about staying in an ice phase for too long. After all, who wants to leave a phase that only gives them MP, right? If you keep ice phases short, you’re cutting yourself short.

 

30. Know when its time to use AoE attacks

This is something that isn’t frequently thought too much about. Sometimes you want to spam everything you can to cause as much damage as possible! But knowing the difference between knowing when to cast single target damage versus AoE damage will make all the difference for you. 

 

28. Open with Fire, not Ice

The last thing you want is to run into battle doing minor damage. This easily ties in with finding good openers, but this is a must when finding those good openers. You will have to grow out of the feeling of having to top off your MP constantly. 

 

27. Figure out a good ‘sharpcast’

A sharpcast is a black mage ability that ensures an additional effect of certain spells. Knowing how and when to trigger a sharpcast will be vital to maximizing your spells! Don’t waste time attempting this on spells you’ll get less out of.

 

26. Understand how much DPS you should be doing

Some players like getting down to the finer details of their role, and this is a crucial question for those players! If you learn to understand this type of information and how to calculate what you should do, you will be the best in your class. It’s more than okay to think about these things!

 

25. Know when to do standard rotations 

Knowing something like this is very situational. Even though each fight will be different, knowing when and how it’s different will prove victorious or a big fail. If you can learn when specific rotations are best for each fight, you’ll be dancing around the enemy!

 

24. Learn when to use the ’10 F4 Single transpose’ opener 

This coincides with the earlier tips for finding good openers. This is an excellent method for fights that don’t involve "knockback" mechanics. Knock-back fights are battles that shove you out of place.

 

23. Learn to deviate from the norm

This clip is an excellent explanation of thinking outside the box you were taught about! This method simply shows you how to use ‘transpose’ to swap between your phases. Changing your phases as such will minimize MP costs on weaker spells so that you can save that MP for your big guns!

 

22. Gain more potency in your AoE spells

Casting on two targets at once will increase the potency of your spells (making them more effective). As much as players spam AoE attacks (and they do), they end up not maximizing the total power these spells can put out. Black Mage spells are incredibly intricate in this way.

 

21. Cast your three ‘high fire 2’s’ 

This method deviates from the standard way of obtaining your flare buff. You could theoretically use one astral fire to get that buff, but you’ll be missing out on some additional damage. 

 

20. Start getting a good ‘parse’

A parse is a third-party program that tracks and calculates what you do! By using this tool, you’ll get into extreme detail about how you perform in your roles. The more you study yourself through a parse, the more you can dial yourself in, and if you have an excellent parse, you’ll know you’re doing good!

 

19. Utilize the fire 3 opener for certain boss fights

Casting sharpcast before fire 3 will mean hitting the boss instantly. This means you’ll have a strong DPS immediately! Follow this up with thunder, and you’ll see an increase in that DPS.

 

18. Use AoE for wall-to-wall pulls

The method in this clip will show you how to deal with trash mobs and make the most of them. Targeting the biggest enemy within the mob will maximize your damage and make your position far better. This will also cause fallout and damage to the rest of the mob around them!

 

17. Understand the level 50-60 Blizzard/Fire rotations

Starting at level 50, your rotations change from how you have been playing up to this point. These rotations change every 10 levels! This clip is a simplified guide to learning to become more advanced with the changes.

 

16. Understand the level 60-70 utilities

These are the levels where you gain some spells to help with that mobility issue you will have. Understanding the basics of them will not only help you out with mobility but will also help you maximize your strategies. 

 

15. Your next significant change to rotations at level 80

Utilizing the skills given at this level will provide you with reliable procs! At this point, sharpcasting will also allow you to have shorter cooldowns; there is much to gain from these abilities! At this point, you’ll have a deep understanding that everything related to this job points to maximizing your damage output.

 

14. Learn your stat priorities 

You’ll feel you can get away without prioritizing specific stats as a DPS. However, by reaching these higher levels, you’ll be severely crippled by not taking advantage of this knowledge.

 

13. Try not to get caught in animation locking

"Animation locking" is when you get locked into an animation after casting an action. This will hinder you from being able to cast additional abilities, which will cause you to fall over yourself in battle. Thankfully, there is a way around that!

 

12. Find ways to work around lousy ping

Sometimes it seems like there is not much you can do about lousy ping! Thankfully, there are programs and other outside methods to help with this. This is a pointer for Black Mage players because the awful ping will make it hard for you to clip GCD spells.

 

11. Work around the definition of ‘utility’

Due to common belief, many players would say a Black Mage can’t bring much utility to the fight. This, however, doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to make your utility! If you don’t figure out how to do so, you will struggle in the late game.

 

10. Choose your Black Mage style

The linked video here is in its entirety. The more you learn about the black mage, the more you’ll realize there are a couple of ways you can play this job! This means you can decide on a playstyle best suited to becoming an effective black mage to your liking.

 

9. start weaving

Weaving is using abilities while your global cooldown is turning. Learning how to weave correctly will allow you to keep your speed up with your damage! You can also double-weave using two abilities during your GCD turning. 

 

8. You don’t have to ‘transpose’ for a good parse

Upon further research, you’ll find that many people will recommend specific methods for a parse. However, one method isn’t always the case, and it doesn’t have to be complicated!

 

7. Triplecast for an AoE rotation

This method will allow you to skip a step in the rotation process! The more time you save, the more time you can dedicate to making your next move. This will mean everything in battle. 

 

6. Understand the issues with transpose openers

This kind of opener involves a few more complicated steps to pull off. You can work with this kind of opener, but you must understand what they will require of you. Failure to understand them is going to make you stumble.

 

5. Use a fire 3 proc in astral fire 1

Simply put, this saves you the resources of accomplishing something in one step versus two steps. Save yourself time and energy, and try avoiding astral fire 1!

4. Use ley lines and amplifier more effectively 

These spells were discussed earlier in this article. However, at this point, it's now time to know how to utilize them even better! Learning this method will not let you overcap polyglot stacks when weaved effectively.

 

3. Get a good mindset

This is important in every role! What makes Black Mage different on this front is that you must have patience with yourself most of the time. This job is one of the more difficult ones in the game, so you have to keep a good grip on your mind through the process.

 

2. Don’t sit on stacks

As a Black Mage, you’re focused on stacking and cooldowns! You will often feel overwhelmed as a beginner because so much will happen simultaneously. So, the most solid advice here is to utilize those stacks as they come. 

 

1. Don’t let your fire drop

Keep your fire going, rotate to your ice phase, and combine everything you learn. If you let that fire go down, everything falls. Like they always say: “Always be casting!”

 

 

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