Did you get yourself into Black Mage in Final Fantasy 14, and keep dying because you don’t know how the heck to work with your abilities while dodging attacks? Cool, then welcome to part two of my guide on being a Black Mage! (Be sure to check out Part 1 of our Black Mage Guide first! Today we’re going over how the heck to manage the most infamous part of the class, which is simply moving around as a Black Mage.
Yes, of course this deserves a whole article here on MMORPG.com. Black Mage has earned its reputation in FFXIV as the class that simply does not want to move, and for good reason. With long cast times required to pull off attacks, it’s easy to get cranky about having to take a few steps at the cost of uptime, and uptime is the be-all end-all of any FFXIV class, especially since BLM maintains damage boosts through maintained uptime.
This is not a guide on how to skip cast times altogether, or to suddenly have the mobility of a ranged DPS class. The opposite, even: it’s a guide on how to maintain damage despite lacking that mobility. There’s no single magic trick! It’s a series of techniques that frankly requires a lot of practice and getting used to. But once you manage, Black Mage continues to be one of the most respectable classes out there.
Read Your Tooltips
We went over the fundamentals of Black Mage in the prior parts, of course; but while you may know your Fire IVs from your Flares, having a deeper understanding of what you have at each interval of gameplay will help you know what you need to adapt.
For example, starting in Endwalker, the best part of your toolkit for movement and maintaining your uptime and Enochian is available pretty early on. Level 1 grants you Aspect Mastery, which makes it so spells of the opposite element cost zero MP. At 35, you earn Blizzard 3 and Aspect Mastery 3; Blizzard 3 slaps on 3 stacks of Umbral Ice, and Aspect Mastery 3 cuts casting time of the opposite element in half.
In short, it’s a free flip between elements that only takes about a second and a half to execute if you have a targetable enemy available. It’s a great tool for boss fights if you need to move around; just take a pause.
This is just the best example of how knowing your toolkit will help you push it to its limits, and we’ll go over more abilities and traits that’ll help you. In short for now, as you level, just make sure you know what abilities you have available to you.
Pay Attention To the Battle
As much as you can know what you’re doing as a Black Mage, you’ve probably parsed by now that the rotation is easy, and maintaining it when you’re moving around is the hard part, which is why we’re here at all.
Here are the reasons why, as important as getting your casts off is, you need to actually pay attention to the fight and its mechanics and not die:
- Many attacks interrupt your casting.
- If you die, you lose DPS because you can’t cast when you’re dead.
- Once you’re revived, when you have the Weakness debuff, it’s a minute with reduced damage due to an Intelligence loss.
- It’s just embarrassing.
Admittedly, learning to cast and pay attention is a bit of a skill that even my ADHD brain falters in sometimes.
As for following through and moving, as I’ve discussed elsewhere in regards to mechanics, FFXIV is a game about learning to learn. What I mean by that is, you may not always get what’s going on in a battle, but as long as you pick up what’s being put down (literally) in each fight, you’ll carry that with you as you progress through the game. This is especially important as a Black Mage, as you’ll start recognizing sound and visual cues that’ll help you react as you need to.
In regards to being proactive about DPS in a fight, you have to basically be looking at three things at once to avoid enemies: the arena for attack markers; the boss, for animation-based bits; and the enemy cast bar, for upcoming attacks. Personally, I’ve moved the Enemy Cast bar down to the bottom of my HUD and blown it up to 200% so that I have little to no excuse to miss certain attacks, and that accounts for 90% of knowing when to maneuver.
For the rest of it, it’s really just learning fights and positioning yourself in a way that’ll make it so you can cast as long as possible with little movement. And don’t be all the way out if you can help it, so you can be in range for the healer’s casts.
Learn To Slidecast
If you’re a caster, you’ve probably heard the term “slidecasting.” It’s easy to understand, but hard to master; think of it as a “channeling cancel” or “animation cancel.”
In short, it’s a short amount of time at the end of an attack where the attack will go through no matter what, meaning you can actually move in that short timeframe. It usually lasts between 0.2 and 0.5 seconds, depending on server ping and the actual length of the attack. Some will call this an intentional game mechanic, but official or not, it sure is there.
Learning to slidecast is pretty easy: go up to a dummy and start practicing. You attack, watch your cast timer, and then see at what point for each attack you can safely move.
It may seem small and odd, but it can make a world of a difference if you’re dealing with heavy-hitting bosses. Letting your attacks go through by slidecasting keeps the damage rolling, Enochian running, and you out of harm’s way. It’s really the number one off-kilter tip I can offer. It also makes you sound and look smarter.
(Ab)using the Aetherial Manipulation Macro
Just… take this. Put it somewhere on your hotbar. It makes it so whatever target your mouse is on, you go towards, followed by the specified party members on your list. Trust me. Scare your friends. Scare your raid members. It’s good.
/micon "Aetherial Manipulation"
/macroerror off
/actionerror off
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <t>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <tt>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <2>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <2>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <3>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <3>
(Note: Change the 2s and 3s depending on how you have party members, if you’d like.)
Using Your Abilities Wisely
This is where we get more into the thick of how to use your abilities to their fullest in order to navigate your fights. People go, “Oh, Black Mage has no movement ability!” but they either haven’t played in five years, or they just don’t have the big brains to know what’s going on. Either way, you’re probably here for this, so let’s get right into it.
Your Thunder attacks and Fire 1 and 3 all have instant-cast procs, meaning there is a small chance that Thunder damage-over-time ticks grant a free, no mana recast of a Thunder attack, and a 40% chance that Fire 1 grants a free Fire 3 with the same perks. You can activate these procs guaranteed if you utilize the Sharpcast buff, and it’s often recommended you use Sharpcast to keep either of these procs up so that you have something to cast instantly if you need it. You get a reduced-timer Sharpcast buff at level 74 and two casts at 88, so at level 90 you should always have something up.
As mentioned earlier, Aspect Mastery is a trait that you get upon getting the Black Mage class, but it evolves as you level up (20, 35, 82 for a multi-enemy attack upgrade, and 90 for Paradox). It’s the most powerful tool you have for ensuring your buffs stay up. Transpose comes early as well and does the trick (until the late 70s) when there’s no enemies, but you’ll drop some Astral Fire and Umbral Ice stacks down to one, so only use it sparingly.
If, at early levels, you’re desperate to move from A to B, here’s my personal advice (that could be wrong, but it’s what I do):
- Cast a quick Transpose if you don’t have a targetable enemy to attack.
- Use Fire 1 if you need to re-up Astral Fire.
- Toss out a quick Blizzard 1 if you’re low on mana.
Swiftcast is a caster (and healer) ability that gives you… well, a swift cast, with zero casting time. There is an “animation time” of about 0.3 seconds to actually use Swiftcast, so it’s not perfectly instant, but it’ll do the trick in an emergency or if you’re forced to move.
There’s limited uses for Between the Lines, which moves you back into your Leylines. But there are uses. Sometimes the use is just funny. You’ll figure it out.
Triplecast is your biggest movement tool, as it removes cast times from three attacks in a row. You should always have used one; you get two casts, and it does speed up your DPS, since cast times are longer than global cooldown times. Hell, if you think a fight is easy and that you can make do with just Swiftcast and the rest of your toolkit, you don’t even have to keep one available! But I personally like to keep one use up, just in case.
Starting at level 76, spam Umbral Soul if you gotta keep uptime without an enemy. That’s the paragraph.
At level 80, you get Xenoglossy and an upgraded Foul, both of which you can use instantly with zero cast through the Polygot upgrade. Of course, the whole point of Black Mage uptime is the Enochian bonuses that give you damage boosts and access to these abilities, so don’t let them go to waste! You should never let your Xenoglossy “overwrite,” meaning if you have two, use one somehow before the Enochian timer resets. However, it’s good to have one up so that you can keep DPS rolling while you’re moving. You can also use Amplifier at level 86 to get a free one; the recommendation is that this is always off cooldown.
Finally, at level 90, you get Paradox, which gives you a super-boosted attack through your Fire 1 button if you meet the casting requirements. It’s deceptive on that button, because it’s just a super-powered Fire 1 attack when you’re in Astral Fire. However, when it’s up, you can also activate it in your Ice phase, and that version of it is a free, zero-cast attack that resets your Umbral Ice timer. Do it. It’s good. Always use Paradox.
The Question of Spell Speed
So here’s the big question: what about Spell Speed stats? If the intent is to go as fast as possible, shouldn’t I bump up that stat?
First of all, if you’re below level 90… don’t even think about it yet. Seriously. Unless you plan on doing synced Extreme and Savage at-level below level 90, there’s nothing the game really presents that requires you to be coordinating your gear and materia to optimal stats. It’s fun if you really want to have a hilarious time with your spell speed, but unless you have a lot of gil, it’s a lot of effort for a stat that’ll eventually grow and evolve.
But if you plan on sticking around for current content, then the answer is: it’s a matter of personal preference. The most official word is from Naoki Yoshida, the director himself, who says he stops bringing up Spell Speed and prioritizes Crit because when executing quick-fire endgame mechanics, the effectiveness almost becomes negligible.
In that same vein, that’s my personal general preference. However, I’m finding in Ultima Weapon (Ultimate), or “UWU,” a bit of extra spell speed lets me safely pull off the tight movements required while still finishing attacks here and there, mixed with my movement techniques.
The go-to resources have builds for bringing both Crit and SpS to maximum efficiency, so you do have some support in that regard. The general recommendation is that you should bolster yours a little bit so you aren’t a complete drag; mine’s always above 1350.
In short? While there are some general recommendations, it’s really up to you how much you want to put into Spell Speed.
Bottom Line: Practice Makes Perfect
I can give you as much advice as you think you’ll need to be the swiftest Black Mage in the land, but truth be told, it’s really about practice.
The challenge in Black Mage, again, lies in being able to constantly execute damage with the difficulties of a class that requires you to stand there and cast your attacks for two or more seconds. Obviously, the solution won’t, and can’t, be “find a way to stand still forever.”
The way to be good at Black Mage is to get creative without freaking dying. And you’ll know what works best for you as you progress! Go hit some Training Dummies, fight some high-level enemies, do your dailies. With time, you’ll defy randos’ expectations and keep those explosions blasting.
Feel free to leave any other tips you may have as a Black Mage or another caster!
