FF14 Black Mage Rotation Guide (2023)

Do you know why the Thaumaturgist only has Lalafells?

Before we embark on the journey to master the darkest art, let's first pray answer the question: why does the Thaumaturgist only have Lalafells? Not because they're evil (that's kind of true) or addicted to aether, but because Lalafell had the stat bonuses that allowed them to use an extra Fire skill before entering the ice phase compared to the other races. that the Black Magician is responsible for them. To add more 'wow' to the fire, Yoshi P plays Lalafell and also plays Black Mage. Throughout the expansions, Black Mage has been the most consistent class, and I wonder why that is. Another fun fact, the Black Mage has been there since the first Final Fantasy, making this class the most Final Fantasy of all Final Fantasy. Now, let's move on to the darkest art of all.

rotate a target

You want to learn about Black Mage, you'll learn about Selfish Magical DPS because there are no utilities, just big burst damage. First, let's go with your skills to the only goal.

Fire: Deals 180 firepower damage. Grants Astral Fire or removes Umbral Ice. There is a 40% chance that the next Fire III will require no MP or cast time for the next 18 seconds.
Thunder III: Deals lightning damage at a power of 70. Deals damage over time (DoT) at a power of 40 for 24 seconds, with each tick having a 10% chance to grant the next Thunder spell will add its total damage over time from time to its original damage value and requires no MP or cast time within the next 18 seconds.
Fire III: Deals 240 power fire damage. Grants Astral Fire or removes Umbral Ice.
Fire IV: Deals 300 power fire damage. Can only be performed while under the effect of Enochian and Astral Fire.
Despair: Deals 380 firepower damage. Grants Astral Fire III for 15 seconds. Can only be performed under the influence of Enochian and Astral Fire.
Xenoglossy: Deals 750 power faceless damage. Cost 1 polyglot.
Scathe: Deals faceless damage with power 100. Gives 20% chance to double power.

Black Mage has 2 phases, Fire Mage and Ice Mage. Fire is the time you spent on your MP and where the damage is. While Ice is where you recharge those MP. The objective is to use as many fire spells as possible. I remember! Being an ice mage is not good.

AoE rotation

Now, these are your AoE skills:

Fire II: Inflicts 80 Fire damage to the target and all nearby enemies. Grants Astral Fire or removes Umbral Ice.
Thunder IV: Deals 50 Lightning damage to the target and all nearby enemies. Deal damage over time (DoT) at 30 power for 18s, with each tick having a 3% chance to grant the next Thunder spell, will add your damage over time total to the initial damage and requires no MP time or transmission between the next 18 .
Blizzard II: Deals 50 Power Ice damage to all nearby enemies. Grants Umbral Ice or removes Astral Fire.
Freeze: Grants Umbral Ice III and removes Astral Fire. Grants 1 Umbral Heart, which negates Astral Fire's MP cost increase for Fire spells and reduces Flare's MP cost by one-third.
Flare: Deals Fire damage to the target and all nearby enemies for 260 damage to the first enemy and 40% less damage to all remaining enemies. Grants Astral Fire III and removes Umbral Ice.
Foul: Deals faceless damage to the target and all nearby enemies, dealing 650 damage to the first enemy and 25% less damage to all remaining enemies. Cost 1 Multilingual.

Yes, Black Mage doesn't have many buttons to push, but it's still hard to play optimally, why? To discover the answer, we must proceed! In the next topic, Meter.

Metro

The Black Mage Gauge is called the Elemental Gauge. The gauge itself indicates whether you are afflicted with Astral Fire (after casting a Fire spell) or Umbral Ice (after casting a Blizzard spell). While under the effect of Astral Fire, all fire spells will hit harder but require more MP to cast. While under the effect of Umbral Ice, allows you to increase your MP recovery. Your "Enochian" action will allow you to unlock powerful spells like Blizzard IV or Fire IV. Enochian disappears when Astral Fire or Umbral Ice expires.

Elementary meter.

Other skills

Black Mage doesn't have many abilities outside of GCD. This GCD Mage, however, has the most variety when it comes to openers. Here is the skill list:

Transpose: Exchanges Astral Fire for a single Umbral Ice or Umbral Ice for a single Astral Fire. Reshape in 5 seconds.
Manaward: Creates a barrier that nullifies damage totaling up to 30% of maximum HP for 20 seconds. Recast in 120s.
Manafont: Restores 30% of maximum MP. Reformulated in the 180s.
Ethereal Manipulation: Dash to the side of a target party member. Reshape in 10 seconds.
Ley Lines: Connects physical ley lines to create a circle of power, which while standing on it, reduces spellcasting time and recast time and autoattack delay by 15% for 15 seconds, on itself. Redesigned in the 90's.
Between the Lines: Instantly move to the Ley Lines you draw.
Sharpcast: Ensures that the next Scathe, Fire or Thunder spell will trigger, for the first hit, the additional effect of Scathe, Firestarter or Thundercloud, respectively. Rebuilt in the 1930s.
Enochian: Increases magic damage dealt by 15%. It also lets you cast Blizzard IV, Fire IV, Despair, and Umbral Soul. Grants Polyglot if Enochian is sustained for 30 seconds for up to 2 stacks. Can only be performed under the effect of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice. The effect is canceled if Astral Fire or Umbral Ice ends. Rebuilt in the 1930s.
Triple Cast: The next three spells within 15 seconds require no cast time. Redesigned in the 60's.
Umbral Soul: Grants Umbral Ice and 1 Umbral Heart, which negates Astral Fire's MP cost increase for Fire spells and reduces Flare's MP cost by one-third. Can only be performed under the effect of Enochian Ice and Umbral.
Sleep: Put the target and all nearby enemies to sleep for 30 seconds. Cancel auto-attack when running.

Skills are all important except sleep. Now we move on to Role Actions because everyone has one.

Role Actions

Each Magic DPS has this role action:

Addle: Reduces the target's Intelligence and Mind by 10%. Redesigned in the 90's.
Swiftcast: The next spell is cast immediately. Redesigned in the 60's.
Lucid Dreaming: Gradually restores own MP. Redesigned in the 60's.
Surecast: Spells can be cast without interruption and cancel most pull and pull effects for 6 seconds. Recast in 120s.

You rarely, if ever, need to use Lucid Dreaming. As I mentioned before, Black Mage has 2 phases. Fire, where you spend your MP, and Ice, where you recharge it. Now we move on to the opening and practice of the Black Mage.

Once you go black you never go back

Have you ever heard of skill floor and skill roof? Skill Level is the minimum amount of skill needed to understand the concept of the class, while Skill Cap is the amount of skill needed to fully maximize your potential. Well, Black Mage is one of the easiest jobs to pick up (low skill minimum) but difficult to master (high skill cap). With that said, I should add that your opener will depend a lot on how much spell speed you actually have. As for this guide, I will give the average spell speed which is 2200-2400 opening. Yes, what I'm trying to say is that in some ranges of spell speed you will experience a different aperture. It is what it is, this job is very specific to the Spells Speed situation. Now, if you've reached a certain amount of spell speed, promise me you'll look for a different opener to optimize your damage output, okay?

For single target: Cast Sharpcast between 12 or 5 seconds BEFORE match, Blizzard III 4s BEFORE match, Enochian, Thunder III, Fire III, Triplecast, Fire IV 2x, Ley Lines, Fire IV 3x, Despair, Thunder III, Manafont, Fire IV, Despair, Blizzard III, Blizzard IV, Xenoglossy. To regain MP use: Blizzard III, Blizzard IV, Thunder III, Fire III. Then go back to normal rotation, Fire IV 3 times, Fire, Fire IV 3 times, Despair. Remember to always use the Xenoglossy before replacing it with a new one (maximum capacity 2).
For AoE you can choose between a) Freeze, Thunder IV/Foul, Fire, Flare, Flare. For up to 4 enemies. Or b) Freeze, Thunder IV/Foul, Flare, Flare on 5 enemies and more.
Between the break of a fight, always use Umbral Soul. If you end up in Astral Fire, use Transpose to switch to Ice. This is to preserve your Enochian.
Last but not least, if you somehow lose your Enochian, here's the quickest to recover: Freeze (yes, even though it's single target it still uses freeze), Thunder III, Fire III, Fire IV 3 times Fire , Fire IV 2 times , end with Despair. If possible, don't waste your Enochian, but mistakes can happen.
Between draws, always use Umbral Soul!

Now that was hard to type! The abilities I failed to mention are probably useless. It's not over yet, we're not leaving without some tips!

TIPS:

Don't stay in AoE.As they say, the worst damage you can do is death!

The list of slides.Slide casting is a feature in the game that allows you to complete casting even when you move before the cast timer expires. This system is created to compensate for the delay. However, how far you can move before the broadcast ends depends on your internet connection, hardware, how close you are to the data center, etc. On medium and stable internet connection, you can move your character 0.5 seconds before casting finite. Note that it will somehow make the second spell available to cast a little longer than when you don't. However, use it when necessary. Why; Back to point one. You are good for nothing if you die.

Know the pattern of the dungeon and the boss.Yes, it is recommended as a Black Mage that you know the boss pattern and dungeon to know the safest way to cast Ley Lines. However, it is better to use Ley Lines when available, even when not optimized, than not to use Ley Lines for a full cycle (a full recast time) for fear of errors.

This is not to discourage you, but playing Hard Mage is really difficult, although some people insist that it is rewarding to master. I don't think it was as satisfying as they claim. Why; Well, since your total damage will still lose to a Samurai and not to mention all that immobility, then why bother? If you have the right attitude, you bother because you want to and enjoy it. Otherwise, I believe, it can be very difficult to master the art of black. As I always say, what matters is having fun and enjoying what you're playing!