Black Mage Guide

I) What is a Black Mage? - The general Facts of Black Mages.

The Black Mage is a character class that delves in the art of Black Magic. Black Magic is primarily used for causing bodily harm to your enimies, by means of spells that cause eruptions of elemental energy controled in the way you see fit. Elemental magic, however, is not the only type of magic in the arsenal of the Black Mage, he also gets spells to lower his enemy's abilities, heal himself, and only himself (by means of draining enemy HP), and restore his own MP(by draining enemy MP), not to mention spells to teleport to convenient locations, like your current Home Point or to the enterance of a dungeon. Black Mages are indeed versatile characters.



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II) Average fight as a Black Mage - General Strategical requirements of a Black Mage.

The fight sequence of a Black Mage is, generally, as follows:

1. Sit in the back and cast your 2nd or 3rd highest elemental spell.
   
   
2. Use then your Highest or second highest Elemental spell.
   
   
3. Wait for the fighters to attack and possibly taunt.
   
   
4. Continue to cast your good elemental spells.
   
   
5. Occasionaly wait for the fighters to draw some hate.
   
   
6. Cast more Elementals.
   
   
7. If you are ever attacked just sit there, casting will only draw more hate.

Note: Which elemental you should cast is also based on MP efficency and Weaknesses of certain elements by the enemy. For example if a Stone I costs 8 mp and does 20 damage to an enemy, yet a Water costing a bit more MP does as much to some eniemies, thusly Stone is better for those enemies.

Also Note: In the beginning slightly weaker spells are used because the Fighters need a chance to draw hate, if you start out with your best spell you are likely to be attacked.



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III) The Black Mage and you - Black Mages interaction with other classes.

Inter-class relations is relatively simple with a Black Mage.

Class - Relation a Black mage has with them.

White Mage, Red Mage - The Black Mage generally has top-priority for curing, as they cannot take many hits.

Tanks - Take hits for the Black Mage, the Black Mage providing great damage in exchange.



Others - Little interaction with Black Mages, other than telling him before you start a skillchain.



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IV) The Black Mage and the Rest - The assumption that it is easy to be a Black Mage.

In the beta, and in those following the game slightly in locales where this game hasn't been released yet, it's popular belief that Black Mages are near an easy class to play, however this is not so. being a successful Black Mage requires a great deal of planning and skill, especially once partys get demanding on the Black Mage to be able to do an MB or two with every Skillchain, which is a rather hard feat to do, requiring practice and good timing. These assumptions of an easy to play class that does the best damage create many low-level characters that try to be a Black Mage and quite a few of them failing, and reverting to a combat oriented job. Due to this the beta community had a shortage of high level Black Mages, a shortage that caused frustration to many as they could not find a Black Mage for their party. Black Mages eventually become a necessity for every party, for they are the ones that do the damage.



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V) Weapons for a Black Mage - Choosing a weapon for a Black Mage.

Now, time to look into equipment for a Black Mage, more specifically a weapon. Most Black mages will choose a Club or Staff, yet there are other weapon choices for a Black Mage. Here I wil present these choices.

Dagger:

• Pros - Fast attack speed.
  
  
• Cons - Weak damage, which means 0 damage as a Black Mage usually.

Staff:

• Pros - Moderate damage, great high level staves.
  
  
• Cons - Slow Attack speed.

Club:

• Pros - Bonuses that help casting, moderately fast speed.
  
  
• Cons - Weak damage.

My preference is a Club, since Black Mages wont attack once they start partying, since the bonuses are quite good. Later on some staves are stellar tho so you may want to check them out as well, such as the Dark Staff.



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VI) Black Mage spells - A more in-depth view of spells.

Now a chance to look at some of the Black Mages basic sets of spells, the primary use and objective having already being discussed here I will detail some of the basic spells.



Enfeebling:

• Bind - Holds the enemy, allows you to cast without geting hit.
  
  
• Blind - Decreases attack accuracy, quite useful considering its MP cost.
  
  
• Poison - Does damage over time, good but I prefer dia.
  
  
• Sleep - Puts the enemy to sleep, good for running.
  
  
• Shock, Burn, Choke, Drown - Lowers an enemy's stat and does damage over time. Also lowers an enemies resistance to one element; Note, you can only have one of these on at once.

Enhancing:

• Elemental Spikes - Does Elemental damage when you're hit, not good.

Dark:

• Bio - Lowers attack and does damage over time, high MP cost.
  
  
• Drain - Absorbs HP from the enemy, very good, long recharge time.
  
  
• Aspir - Absorbs MP from the enemy, very good, long recharge time.

Elemental:

• All elemental - Incredibly Good, the spells you cast most.

Spirit:

• Warp - Instantly transports you to your home point, nifty!
  
  
• Escape - Intsantly teleports your party to the enterance of a dungeon.
  
  
• Warp - Instantly Teleports you to your homepoint.

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VII) Balancing a Black Mages Budget - What you should buy.

As a Black Mage one should always consider their role in a party when making any transaction. As a Black Mage you should spend very little on armor, and even less on a weapon.



What not to buy:

Armor in excess, no need to get new armor whenever you can afford better, only buy new armor every once in a while.

New weapons in excess, same as armor, also you should buy your weapon based on what bonuses to stats they give rather than damage.



What to buy:

Elemental spells, buy these with top priority.

All other spells.



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VIII) Questing for a Black Mage - Highly rewarding quests for Black Mages.

Windurst:

Aspir Quest, Fuepepe; Aurastery, Windurst Waters. Gives the spell Aspir.



Star Onion Brigade quests, Behind the Warehouse in Windurst Woods. Do these for the Blaze spikes.



Note: Do the first two quests ASAP.



Compound Eye Circlet Quest, Koru-Moru's Manor in Windurst Walls.



Shantotto quests,Shantotto's Manor, Windurst Walls.

Do these for a Hypno Staff, Warp II, and some other stuff.



Hypno Staff Quest, Paku-Nakku, Aurastery Roof, Windurst Waters.

Only if you wish to use a staff.



Bastok:

Warp quest, Unlucky Rat; Cement Factory, Bastok Metalworks.

Gives the spell Warp.



Sandoria:

Drain quest, Novalmauge; Dungeon under the Chateau.

Gives the spell Drain



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IX) Epilogue - A reflection to Black Mages.

Black Mage, a class that is very versitile and dangerous. Most believe that it will be easy to play a Black Mage, yet it is not so; For to play a successful Black Mage one must have wits and one must play not as a self, but as a team.This FAQ may have glorified the Black Mage yet this was not the purpose; the purpose of this FAQ was to inform the populous of Black Mages and help new Black Mages make informed decisions, in this most of all I hope I was successful. I hope everybody enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed making it.

-Hope This Helped,

Adamwsat(AKA Gumberculese)