How to Be a Black Mage on Final Fantasy XIV

A Black mage(shortened BLM) is a Disciple of Magic class in the mmorpg game Final Fantasy XIV. It is obtainable by having the Thaumaturge(THM) at level 30, and the Archer(ARC) class at level 15. Once both level requirements are met, the class quest will pop at the Guild Receptionist which will unlock the Black Mage class. The Black Mage is an upfront DPS who deals a great deal of damage once a good strategy for spells is found. A basic strategy would be detailed in this page.

Steps

Black Mage on FFXIV Step 1

1Understand your abilities. A Black Mage has two buffs that must be understand 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.

Black Mage on FFXIV Step 2

2Organize 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.

Black Mage on FFXIV Step 3

3Learn the MP cost and cast times. 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.

Black Mage on FFXIV Step 4

4Assess the situation. 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.

Black Mage on FFXIV  step 5

5Experiment with new strategies. 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

Tips

As far as gear goes, a Black Mage should focus on obtaining equipment that has intelligence, critical hit rate, and determination. All of these help to increase the damage. Once you go far enough in the game, having more vitality would also be necessary.
One basic strategy at level 50 to cast is as follows: Thunder 2, Fire 3, Fire 1(until MP gets below 1000), Blizzard 3, Thunder 2.