[Guide] Black Mage - Because, heavy deeps, that's why.

[Kaputnik]

There's really no good source of BLM theorycrafting.

It hasn't been that long, but is this still the case? The "best" I've found is that Puro vs EMX discussion on reddit (BiS stat weight thread), but that never really convinced me either way - and it also ground to a halt 2 months ago.

I'm aware that this thread would probably be updated with any new infos, but I thought I'd ask anyway as I'm about to finish my novus. Unless something else has come up regarding det and BLMs I guess I might as well stick to my original plan of a budget novus with high/max speed and split the rest between acc and crit.

[Taim Meich]

I'd not compromise a BLM Novus with acc, considering the low acc requirements of BLM. Regardless of what stat is actually better, the truth is that no one of the 3 is really bad (like skill speed on melees, on long battles). If I had to do a BLM Novus now, I'd do full Critical and Spell Speed. If the chance to miss the last Crit materias is too much for your budget, I'd put Determination the moment the chance of Crit went below 100%.

This is, of course, from the perspective of someone that hasn't done and will probably won't do a Novus ever, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Kaputnik]

I'm definitely splashing accuracy on mine as I'm main WAR which means caster HA won't be going to me anytime soon... so looking at my obtainable gear list I'm gonna end up a bit short.
Besides, adding acc can be thought of futureproofing anyway.

What I'm after is which the better third stat would be, between crit and det. Either way I'll only add 20 or so of it so I guess it doesn't really matter that much.

I'm also definitely going for a 3-way split because 600k vs 6m gil is kind of a big deal when I'm doing 3 of the damn things.

[Xerlic]

I'm a WHM main, but my coil group has me running on BLM.

Last night was my second time on BLM for T8 and I parsed ~340 which I was told is OK, but looking online I see that other BLMs break 400. Are there any tips for bumping my DPS up? I'm pretty sure I have all the basics down: FS+TC whenever they proc and have 252 PIE with a SCH. I'm on mine tower duty and I use sprint and scathe to pop the tower and AM back to the party. I'm also in charge of detonating any mines that pop near the party. I use RS on the first and third dread.

We clear it no problem, but I'd still like to be doing the best that I possibly can. Here's my gear:



Weapon, body and legs are unweathered. My ACC is overkill at the moment, but I'm out of soldiery after buying the weapon. Avg ilevel is 100.

Thanks in advance.

[Shaano]

Doing that much is more than good compared to some BLM's I've played with. Really just looks like gear upgrades to push you that much further.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Yeah considering he has to grab towers and pop a mine near the party (manaward time usage too) his DPS is really good. It really is just straight gear upgrades at this point Xer. Evenstar Hat, HA boots, HA accessories. Not much more can do there until stuff drops imo.

If impatience is a thing, consider this (acc/crit/det in that order):
-Full Evenstar right side (+HA Ring): 51/39/26
-Full HA right-side (+Evenstar Ring): 76/45/9

If you're already more than 25 over cap due to staff, then Evenstar right side is a viable option, assuming you want to spend the soldiery on BLM and then hunt for oils until the end of time (no pun intended) (wait, who am I kidding, yes it was intended). It won't be top-tier and not front-loading the accuracy that way might hurt when you get a HA staff. Just keep fingers crossed shit drops before then? lol

[Crizto]

Try to cheat as much as you can when you need to proc a tower to reduce the distance you need to run so that you can (hopefully) run into the tower in between a GCD. I run into a lot of towers and am a main landmine person so I also try to save Swiftcast for heavy movement as opposed to using it for Flare on the add (unless they both overlap).

[Serenseven]

Try to cheat as much as you can when you need to proc a tower to reduce the distance you need to run so that you can (hopefully) run into the tower in between a GCD. I run into a lot of towers and am a main landmine person so I also try to save Swiftcast for heavy movement as opposed to using it for Flare on the add (unless they both overlap).

In the same vein, try to coordinate with your tower co-pusher (assuming the tower in questions needs 2 pushes) so that you can move to the outer edge of the tower area while he goes in enough to activate it. Doing this will only require you to move 2 or 3 steps, which you can fit in that half-second window at the end of each of your casts where movement doesn't interrupt you. Similarly, as long as your co-pusher vacates the tower area swiftly, you can stay on the outer edge for your next cast and move back to the party during that cast's window.

One other thing that sounds obvious, but I catch myself doing it all the time: You can cast while Ballistic Missile is happening. I'm #1 priority for missile positioning in our group, and I generally ignore DPS while I'm trying to decipher the way-too-similar circles, assess whether the two bound players are in each other's circles, etc. It's just too much risk to not focus completely on the positioning, at least for me. But once I'm standing where I need to be, I have a habit of standing there waiting for the actual missiles to drop as if it were Blighted Bouquet - which is a totally unnecessary loss of DPS, of course.

[TheDirtyHobo]

Since I'm a few days away from finishing my Animus, I figured I'd ask now. How well will a 108 with Animus BLM parse compared to a 109 SMN with Book of Spades? For an idea, my last t8 kill I believe I hit 386 on SMN, but was i106 at the time. Just wondering if I'd need to sink the soldiery into a Laevateinn (which I really don't want to, since I'm already around 475 acc with no way to get rid of any because of shitty drops) until I can get the Novus or if I can still remain fairly competitive with just the Animus.

[Bikpik]

Since I'm a few days away from finishing my Animus, I figured I'd ask now. How well will a 108 with Animus BLM parse compared to a 109 SMN with Book of Spades? For an idea, my last t8 kill I believe I hit 386 on SMN, but was i106 at the time. Just wondering if I'd need to sink the soldiery into a Laevateinn (which I really don't want to, since I'm already around 475 acc with no way to get rid of any because of shitty drops) until I can get the Novus or if I can still remain fairly competitive with just the Animus.

Book of spades has the higher weapon damage, that would win imo, but it would really come down to which you play better when they are that close.

[OWS_Tonx]

I'm i104 with animus only and pull in about 406 avg in t6 since update, 450-460 on solo target dummys. My smn is much lower, I think balls to the wall I was pushing 380 on the dummy with i95 levi weapon. Weapon does make a huge difference though, I've saved my sand and the soldiery to buy the book of spades next week and unweather immediately

[Kaputnik]

I'm i104 with animus only and pull in about 406 avg in t6 since update, 450-460 on solo target dummys.

Solo, no buffs, i103 with novus, 244 pie - had a few short runs (2 cycles of raging/convert each) on dummy and ended up with an average of about 380.
According to your results I should be around 500 then since I have an i110 weapon?

I'm nowhere near the best blm in the world but I pretty much know what I'm doing and I sure as hell am not 30% off the mark when it comes to damage.
Doesn't sound right to me, or do you want to explain your magic formula?

[OWS_Tonx]

Pretty much what is in the OP, thunder2 > fire3 > fire spammage > blizz3 > thunder2 > fire3 > raging > fire spammage > swift flare > vert > fire > blizz3> repeat

I'm at work now but when I get home I'll get my buddy to run it again and get a screen cap for me. I fully expect to be hitting 500s on dummy with an i110 weapon though. Naturally, numbers can vary from procs. The longer you stay in AF3 the higher your DPs is going to be

[haroldsaxon]

I'm i104 with animus only and pull in about 406 avg in t6 since update, 450-460 on solo target dummys. My smn is much lower, I think balls to the wall I was pushing 380 on the dummy with i95 levi weapon. Weapon does make a huge difference though, I've saved my sand and the soldiery to buy the book of spades next week and unweather immediately

I'd love to see the parse of the Animus 450 dps.

[Kaputnik]

Pretty much what is in the OP, thunder2 > fire3 > fire spammage > blizz3 > thunder2 > fire3 > raging > fire spammage > swift flare > vert > fire > blizz3> repeat

I'm at work now but when I get home I'll get my buddy to run it again and get a screen cap for me. I fully expect to be hitting 500s on dummy with an i110 weapon though. Naturally, numbers can vary from procs. The longer you stay in AF3 the higher your DPs is going to be

The only difference is I skipped flare and did vert > fire > fire. No SC used but thats hardly gonna make up 120 dps is it.
I did 5 6-minute runs which came out at 378 - 385, so pretty damn consistent.

Sounds like your numbers would be right in a pt with full-time foe.

Edit: did same test with choco out for INT bonus, got in the 390-395 range.

[OWS_Tonx]

It definitely wasn't a full pt, but give me a sec. I just texted him if he had that log saved, this was about 2 weeks ago. I can't recall if I had foes on or not. If I did, I'm still sitting at like 400 somethin. either way, I'll run it again tonight

[SamanosukeShiva]

I'm a WHM main, but my coil group has me running on BLM.

Last night was my second time on BLM for T8 and I parsed ~340 which I was told is OK, but looking online I see that other BLMs break 400. Are there any tips for bumping my DPS up? I'm pretty sure I have all the basics down: FS+TC whenever they proc and have 252 PIE with a SCH. I'm on mine tower duty and I use sprint and scathe to pop the tower and AM back to the party. I'm also in charge of detonating any mines that pop near the party. I use RS on the first and third dread.

We clear it no problem, but I'd still like to be doing the best that I possibly can. Here's my gear:



Weapon, body and legs are unweathered. My ACC is overkill at the moment, but I'm out of soldiery after buying the weapon. Avg ilevel is 100.

Thanks in advance.

Yeah pretty sure I can hit 400 w/ i100 on blm w/ i95 weapon, make sure you save that double flare for dreads, on T8 I use HQ mega ether instead of X pot, 1st dread = flare convert swift flare, 2nd dread = flare ether swift flare

[Black]

question, how much DPS increase would be going from ilvl100 to 110? i got 110 weapon

[SamanosukeShiva]

cant say for sure since blm dps is so random, but I'd say about 15-20 single target?

[OWS_Tonx]

a jump like that for a weapon is huge. BLM is always back and forth because procs, but a 15-20 sounds about right.

For my 460 earlier, I was mistaken. That had to be with foes because the highest I got retesting on dummy was 420 and that was with some good procs during raging