Black mage, white mage

[Tobold]

I am currently leveling my subjob black mage. Last two evenings I leveled from 12 to 14 in Valkurm dunes. Some observations:

A level 14 Blm with level 7 Whm sub and Taru race (me) is a better healer than a level 14 Hume Whm. I literally had twice as many MP as the Hume Whm. Our Cure spells healed the same amount of 30 HP. The only disadvantage of being only a sub Whm was not having Cure II, but that spell should be rarely used at that level anyway.

But I found playing a black mage less interesting than a white mage. True, a black mage never knows if his spells will not be resisted, a problem the white mage doesn't have with his Cures. But a black mage can set his own timing for his spells, as to not draw too much aggro. A white mage doesn't have the choice whether to cast or not, when the tank is in the red. That makes the white mage a lot more intense and exciting to play for me.

What do you think?

[Issaac]

I liked beeing a black mage, dondt have to look all the time to the hitpointsbar and actualy be able to look at the fight, making some screenshots )

But you are right, its less interesting because as a blackmage you normaly only do one thing. Nuke. You healed for 30? Didnt you changed your mind items against int items? Even with a maxed heal magic skill you would not be able to heal for 30...but i dont remember ) To long ago *g*. Most other races beside taru will close up later in game with their mana pool. I had a galka in crawlers nest that had only 100 mana less then me as a blackmage.

[Icemage]

Don't discount black mages. While the BLM job is definitely easier to play than WHM, it has some interesting perks to it. Lots of interesting utility spells, and some of the most interesting job abilities and traits (Manafont, Elemental Seal, MP Conserve). Playing BLM is all about pacing your spellcasting, and being aware of what you are doing with respect to elemental weaknesses.

And if you want to see tricky, wait till you see a BLM successfully Magic Burst some Ancient Magic. My XP party last night had a BLM who was Magic Bursting Freeze for 1000+ damage on virtually every fight. Pretty impressive stuff.


Icemage

[Meriadoc]

Icemage makes a good point..

Blms don't seem all that much fun at first, but once you start bursting.... mmmmm
I play whm/blm... but there are days when I'd like to go blm main just for blasting things and bursting. I'm burst happy.
Do Fusion renkei in my PT, and I'll most likely burst with Banish II. >
In a way blm may seem like an easier job, but I Think it stacks up about the same. Learning to not overdo the nukes can be difficult.. and bursting just adds a fun twist to it. :>

[riceburner4540]

as a blm/whm...i really enjoy playing blm main, blowing up crap and stuff...but leveling my whm sub was indeed a challenge, and pretty fun too. after doing so, i have a newfound respect for whms. All you whm mains out there, i bow to you m(-_-)m. early on, valkurm and such, you probably won't get aggro too much even casting spells fairly quickly. However, you'll start to notice that each spell draws aggro much easier once you get to qufim...and past that, hate control on blm is pretty difficult...but it does make it a little more exciting. Also, doing multiple MBs in one skillchain is pretty awesome and u can kinda show off your skills that way =). for example....

fast blade > red lotus blade > combo = liquefaction and fusion...i MB fire, fire II, then dia for 3 mbs in that chain ^_^ uber fun.
dia MB is pretty useless, i do it mostly for kicks

on a side note, i dunno if it was my tank or what but...i can almost chain cast level I spells (blizzard/thunder) on beetles in crawler's nest and hardly ever draw aggro (prolly did like once in 2-3 levels), but as soon as i cast my blizzard II, i get aggro, even if i did absolutely nothing the entire fight except enfeeble. i tried testing this out...

fight starts, i cast my usual shock, slow, paralyze, blind, bio, dia, and then burn. paladin is curing himself with cure IIs for extra hate, using provoke whenever it comes up. then, right after he uses a provoke i cast my only nuke during that battle, a blizzard II for about 240 damage...immediately, i get aggro. as far as i can see, the tank is doing a fine job...maybe i shouldn't use my II spells except for MBing?

[Calianeri]

I played BLM main in beta, up to level 34, and there are days I really miss it. So leveling my subjob is lots of fun for me. My biggest problem with BLM recently is getting a group in Qufim to stay together long enough to figure out and execute a skillchain that I can burst off. Oh man... there are WARs and PLDs out there who can provoke or do skillchains, but not both! But show them the damage and they start to see the light. With the right party, even in Qufim hell, BLM is just loads of fun. Get two good BLMs and destroy clippers and pugils while the melees look on in awe. I'm about ready to start burning up some mandragoras in Yuhtunga.

BLM is a great change of pace from WHM, but also similar enough that experience as one helps a lot when playing the other.

[Falconi]

I'm currently leveling my BLM Sub in Valkurm.

I also heal for 30 HP with Cure1 since Level 13 (with some MND equipment) but now at lvl 14-16 I really need a second healer, normally a WHM since Cure2 is a must in certain situations.


Can anyone tell me why I mostly nuke for 6-12 dmg ? I tried different spells on different monsters but normally my lvl 13 Fire Spell should does around 50 dmg, but when my group fights an IT snipper I barely do any dmg. Even when we fight a Tough one it doesn't make too much of a difference.

This really sucks since I can't rely on my nukes. And 24 MP for Fire is a lot when you only got 170 and have to debuff and toss in a heal from time to time.

Oh and can someone explain the use of Elemental Seal (I know wrong forum but maybe someone know it) to me?
I used it but the nuke did the same amount of dmg (sometimes even less then normal)

[Issaac]

On IT Clippers you can get resisted a lot. When i lvled my sub in valkum we had a IT Clipper where a fellow black mage used Mana Font and nuked and nuked and nuked all over and we all died. As lvl 26 black now im nuking mandras in Kahzam for 93 to 106 dmg and sometimes get resisted which drops dmg to 30. Crabs are week on fire and when you get resisted they are just to high for you.

So dont worry, looks like there are no major problems here ) Fight lizards and goblins at konschtat border to lvl 14 you will hardly be resisted at any time. Pass lvl 14 you can enjoy the hitpoints bar drop of your nukes

[Icemage]

Most monsters have at least one elemental weakness you can exploit to avoid too many resisted spells. In the case of crabs and pugils, your best bet is Blizzard (Crabs are weak to Ice and Lightning, but you won't have access to Thunder until BLM level 21).


Icemage

[Falconi]

thx for the replies.

Issaac you could have told me via /ls :p

[Issaac]

Did you asked? If so im sure it went down in battle spam. Had a realy nice party yesterday in kahzam where the white mage was only nuking all the time to get rid of the mana flow

[Coinspinner]

WHM is, imho, much more difficult to play than BLM. And also not as fun, for me, because I dislike having the responsiblility of keeping everyone alive.

Once the skillchain is decided, I take a few battles to evaluate how much aggro the tank can draw.. I love PLD beacuse they are self contained aggro machines, WAR and NIN seem to require the services of a THF to build up decent aggro (not a bad thing, THF do sick damage too ). If the melee are having accuracy issues I Shock >> Frost at the start of every fight, if not then I Burn >> Shock >> Choke.

After that it's cruise control...I just need to adjust my MP use, refresh debuffs and watch for the SC.