How to Be a Black Mage on Final Fantasy XIV
Understand your abilities., Organize your spells., Learn the MP cost and cast times., Assess the situation., Experiment with new strategies.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Understand your abilities.
A Black Mage has two buffs that must be understood well to do well.
Umbral Ice and Astral Fire are buffs both gained from spells that have two different primary goals.
Fire spells give Astral Fire buffs, which increases damage and stops MP regeneration.
Blizzard spells give Umbral Ice Buffs which speeds up MP regeneration, but do not do much damage in comparison.
Switching between the two buffs is the key characteristic of any BLM strategy. -
Step 2: Organize your spells.
Your spells should be organized in a way that when you switch spells, it leaves no room for error and yet deliver what you want.
The idea is to organize such that your Fire spells are together, and the Blizzard spells are together.
Some spells like Blizzard 3 and Fire 3 are normally used in sequence, so having them both near each other for quick access is very helpful. , Learning both can be a huge lifesaver on many situations, especially more so in boss fights.
For example, knowing that Fire spells have half the cast time as normal if you have am Umbral Ice III buff up and vice versa. , As a BLM, you have access to both hard hitting AoE and harder hitting single target.
You generally want to use AoE only in certain situations as it costs much more MP and generates a lot of threat for you.
Most of these situations will be when there are 3 or more enemies near each other. , Try out new combination of spells together or in certain orders and find your own strategy.
Doing this would give you a better understanding of how your spells play out, and would leave more room to change if an ability was added or changed. -
Step 3: Learn the MP cost and cast times.
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Step 4: Assess the situation.
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Step 5: Experiment with new strategies.
Detailed Guide
A Black Mage has two buffs that must be understood well to do well.
Umbral Ice and Astral Fire are buffs both gained from spells that have two different primary goals.
Fire spells give Astral Fire buffs, which increases damage and stops MP regeneration.
Blizzard spells give Umbral Ice Buffs which speeds up MP regeneration, but do not do much damage in comparison.
Switching between the two buffs is the key characteristic of any BLM strategy.
Your spells should be organized in a way that when you switch spells, it leaves no room for error and yet deliver what you want.
The idea is to organize such that your Fire spells are together, and the Blizzard spells are together.
Some spells like Blizzard 3 and Fire 3 are normally used in sequence, so having them both near each other for quick access is very helpful. , Learning both can be a huge lifesaver on many situations, especially more so in boss fights.
For example, knowing that Fire spells have half the cast time as normal if you have am Umbral Ice III buff up and vice versa. , As a BLM, you have access to both hard hitting AoE and harder hitting single target.
You generally want to use AoE only in certain situations as it costs much more MP and generates a lot of threat for you.
Most of these situations will be when there are 3 or more enemies near each other. , Try out new combination of spells together or in certain orders and find your own strategy.
Doing this would give you a better understanding of how your spells play out, and would leave more room to change if an ability was added or changed.
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