In days long past there existed an occult and arcane art known as black magic? A potent magic of pure destructive force which legend told was born forth by a sorceress of unparalleled power. Those who learned to wield this instrument of ruin came to be called black mages, out of both fear and respect for their gift. Yet then, as now, great power served to corrupt the judgment of mortal man and send him down the path of ruin.
And so it is that now, after many years, there are few left versed in the ways of black magic. Yet an old criminal soul, condemned to life in the dark depths of an Ul’dahn prison, has come forth claiming to be one of the last remaining black mages. He has emerged from his shadowy confinement…but to what end?
Patch 1.21 saw the introduction of jobs to FFXIV, which allows you to become one of the traditional jobs from the FF series after completing a quest.
A Thaumaturge can become a Black Mage by equipping the Soul of the Black Mage item after completing the first quest. The details for this quest are below.
| Quest | NPC | Location | Conditions |
| Taking the Black | Yayake | Ul’dah Merchant Strip, Thaumaturges’ Guild | THM 30 |
For each quest you complete, you will be rewarded with a new ability, while the latter quests will also reward you with artifact (AF) armour that is shown in the screenshot above.
Introduction to Black Mage
The Black Mage is a classic magic damage dealing job making use of the elements of Fire, Ice and Lightning as well as crowd control mechanics such as Sleep and Bind.
Black Mage Attributes
As a Black Mage your main attribute is Intelligence (INT) as this increases magical damage. You should be focusing on equipment with this stat. For secondary stats you should be focusing on the likes of Spell Speed, Direct Hit Rate, Determination and Critical Hit Rate in addition to simply boosting INT.
Spell Speed and Critical Hit Rate are self explanatory in what they do. For the other two, Determination is used to boost the damage dealt by all attacks and the amount of HP recovered when healed while Direct Hit Rate is Stormblood’s replacement for Accuracy. Instead of a simple hit or miss effect that Accuracy could give, having low Direct Hit Rate for a fight will reduce damage dealt so it is important to improve this stat.
Black Mage Stances
It is important to understand the two main stances of the Black Mage. These being Astral Fire and Umbral Ice. You will switch between these during almost every fight. Astral Fire is designed for maximum damage output while Umbral Ice is designed for recovering MP. There are also three different levels of potency in each stance, each being more beneficial than the last. In short:
Astral Fire: Increases fire damage and MP cost of fire spells. Reduces ice damage and ice MP cost.
Umbral Ice: Increases MP regen, decreases MP cost of fire spells, increases MP cost of ice spells.
You can use the Transpose ability to instantly which between stances. I recommend using it to switch from Astral Fire to Umbral Ice, then switching from Umbral Ice when ready to an Astral Fire III by using the Fire III spell. This is because Transpose may not yet be ready for a second use.
Black%20mage Actions
Actions are skills that the Black%20mage can equip to their bar and select to use at any time as long as their timer is available. Actions used in a combo will generate additional damage and effects. All Black%20mage actions are exclusive to that job.MNK NIN PLD PCT RPR RDM SGE SAM SCH SMN VPR WAR WHM
| Name | Level | Cast | Recast | MP | TP | Range | Radius |
|---|
Black%20mage Traits
Traits are not actions and can not be equipped to your bar. They are earned as you level up and are always active. As a result they require 0 cast time and have a 0 MP and TP cost. They are also all exclusive to the Black%20mage job.| Name | Level |
|---|
Duration: 15s
Duration: 15s
Duration: 15s
Duration: 15s
Duration: 15s
Duration: 15s
Black%20mage PvP Actions
From the Stormblood expansion PvP was revamped significantly and you can no longer use PvE actions during PvP battles. That means all of the actions above you can no longer use in PvP. Action Points (AP) were also removed.While some of the dedicated PvP actions do have the same name, they will have different potencies or effects. Below are the PvP actions that are unique to the Black%20mage. There exists even more PvP actions and even traits but these are not unique to the Black%20mage. You can find these further down the page.
| Name | Cast | Recast | MP | TP | Range | Radius | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death Warrant | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100y | 0y | |||
| Hollow Nozuchi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100y | 5y | |||
| All enemies standing in the corrupted earth of Doton take additional earth damage with a potency of 3,000. Requires the execution of a weaponskill, Hyosho Ranryu, or Goka Mekkyaku. Additional Effect: Heavy +75% Duration: 3s ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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| Holy Sheltron | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 5y | |||
| Honing Dance | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100y | 5y | |||
| Wildfire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100y | 5y | |||
Black%20mage Shared PvP Actions
The following is a list of PvP actions which are shared across all classes and jobs. These can only be used in PvP areas and you are limited to selecting two of them.| Name | Cast | Recast | MP | TP | Range | Radius | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Aetheric Siphon | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | ||
| Activates the instrument. | |||||||||
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Anti-gravity Gimbal | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Simulates the spell Levitate using Nero tol Scaeva’s odd contraption. | |||||||||
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Bolt | 0 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Movement speed is increased. Duration: 10s |
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| Chimatsuri | 4.5 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 8y | 0y | |||
 |
Concentrate | 0 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Creates a barrier preventing Stun, Sleep, Bind, Heavy, Slow, Silence, and knockback effects. Duration: 10s |
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Deflect | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 4y | ||
| Scatters potentially harmful aether. | |||||||||
| Doom Of The Living | 4.5 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 8y | 0y | |||
| Dragonsong Dive | 4.5 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 8y | 0y | |||
 |
Enliven | 0 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Restores 50% of maximum TP. | |||||||||
| Final Heaven | 4.5 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 8y | 0y | |||
| Delivers an attack with a potency of 9,000. | |||||||||
 |
Muse | 0 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Restores 25% of maximum MP. | |||||||||
 |
Purify | 0 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Removes Stun, Sleep, Bind, Heavy, Slow, and Silence from target. Can be used regardless of own status affliction. | |||||||||
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Recuperate | 0 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Restores 25% of maximum HP. | |||||||||
 |
Safeguard | 0 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Reduces damage taken by 25%. Duration: 10s |
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Smoke Screen | 0 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 20y | ||
| Throw an incendiary device that creates a blanket of smoke temporarily granting you the Stealth status. | |||||||||
| Ungarmax | 3 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 14y | 20y | |||
 |
Vril | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Use the aetheric residue lingering on your body to temporarily disguise yourself as one of Lakshmi’s loyal dreamers. | |||||||||
Black%20mage Shared PvP Traits
The following is a list of PvP traits which are shared across all classes and jobs. These can only be used in PvP areas and you are limited to selecting three of them.| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Decreased Damage Taken | Decreases damage taken by 3%. |
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Decreased Recast Time | Decreases recast time of additional actions by 20%. |
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Increased Action Speed | Decreases weaponskill and spell cast and recast times by 3%. |
 |
Increased Damage Dealt | Increases damage dealt by 3%. |
 |
Increased Healing Potency | Increases spell-based HP restoration by 5%. |
 |
Increased HP | Increases maximum HP by 5%. |
 |
Increased MP Regeneration | Increases MP regeneration rate by 25%. |
 |
Increased Resistance Duration | Increases duration of resistances by 50%. |
 |
Increased TP Regeneration | Increases TP regeneration rate by 40%. |