Thaumaturge/Black Mage Starter Guide for Level 1-50: New to the Job? Start Here! [FFXIV 6.45+]

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I have remade this guide for Dawntrail, please check the guide linked here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJrIlZmVasx0o7s Please enjoy!

[@shiokarai5920]

i swear, every time i try to pick up a new class and watch your videos, when it gets to min maxing and combos i always feel like such a clown, not understanding anything beyond the simple combos, only to finally have it click after actually leveling and then revisiting your guides 😂😂 great guide! your guide series has helped me a lot in leveling lots of jobs 😊

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is totally understandable! That's like in school reading a subject, doing exercises and then re-reading it and then understanding it! 😄 I'm glad you find my guides helpful! Thank you so much! 🥰

[@mikigirl18]

I like how simple you put this. The last video I looked into on Black Mages was chaotic and threw so much text at me that I couldn't even pay attention to what he said or vice versa.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad to hear that my guide helped at least! Thank you so much! 😊

[@JasoniusRexington]

Thank you for this guide as well. I really appreciate your info. You explain things in a very easy-to-understand and calm way, which I really appreciate. I just started levelling BLM and I'm happy that your guide has given me some ideas for how to best use my abilities. Thank you.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm really glad to hear that! I hope you enjoy your journey with learning black mage! Thank you so much! 😄

[@willrobinson4859]

Coming into this as an xbox player just cleared ARR and had no idea I was mot using the later spellls at all correctly! Thanks. On to the advanced video and you earned the sub easily :)

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad you found it helpful! Thank you! 😁 And I hope you continue to enjoy your journey! 😄

[@mikigirl18]

I hope you enjoy the game!

[@VashimuXIV]

My very first job and caster, the memories of killing small monsters in Ul’Dah and watching more Lalafell drama unfold takes me back. It’s a slow burn, but if you can on mastering your Leylines and never stopping Enochian, then you’re a real one.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Black mage is quite an adventure! And also the kind of job that I feel like, those that stuck with it from the very start, and stayed, really truly do love the job! 😄

[@VashimuXIV]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Technically I never left the dark side because I went from Black Mage to Dark Knight. I suppose I like the balance because my other two best jobs are Paladin and Summoner.

[@ZGaMeR2k3]

Oh man this is the best guide Ive seen for this class. This is exactly the guide I needed! Thank you so much!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad to hear that! Thank you! I imagine some things might be slightly off with the rework to the job, however, I have a remake of this guide coming out tomorrow actually!

[@Grimnoire]

Saw this video a while ago but wanted to add one thing: Sleep is basically bootleg interject and stun. It's good for surviving encounters, interrupting casts, stalling when the tank messes up, it's the oh no ability, one of your only two, and I use it constantly in sirensong sea when the tank refuses to use interject on thr final enemy before the last boss

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is a pretty good tip! The stalling effect might be very rarely effective since any damage breaks it, but the pseudo interject of it is quite handy when used on enemies it works on 😁

[@tsbulmer]

I find Sleep also very effective for saving dungeon groups from wipes when the tank goes down. Sure, the other DPS is going to break the first Sleep, but using all three can buy enough time for the healer to get the tank back up and for things to stabilize. I feel like I have a better than 50% success rate with it.

[@elbiggamehunter]

Thank you so much for this updated video! I’ve wanted to try BLM after coming back after a few years. I just unlocked BLM at 30 and this is a huge help!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Welcome back to Eorzea! I'm glad my guide helped you! 😄

[@DrClawizdead]

I just started playing FFXIV and chose Black Mage. I was playing it as a traditional mage trying to conserve mana. This video was a real eye opener!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad you found it helpful! And I do hope you enjoy your journey with black mage! 😄

[@alyishiking]

I just started playing BLM (got my jobstone yesterday!) and this video is super helpful. Subbing!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you so much! I am glad you found it helpful! And I hope you enjoy your journey of learning Black Mage! :D

[@walwal6449]

i love black mage skills but the amount of deaths and hits ive eaten because i thought id be able to slide cast my way out of aoe circles and similar or id be able to finish casting before it can hit me 😢it just does not feel right to cancel mid casts... i feel like a floor tank 😭 thanks for the guide btw, i always watch your guides whenever i start new classes^^

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's a tough job to master! If you do enjoy it I do think you should keep trying! 😊 Thank you! 😄

[@UltiLock]

Let's goooo!!! I just recently got my blm to 90. First one out of all the casters too. Hard to master but incredibly satisfying when you do it well. Oh and you get to do your best Megumin impression. EXPLOSION!!! 🔥 🔥🔥

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Explosion! And you get to repeat it many times! 😄😄😄 That's awesome to hear Ulti! It certainly sounds like you have been enjoying it too! 😄

[@SilentMusicNote]

THANK YOU FOR THE UPDATE

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you found it helpful! 😄 And I'm glad to hear such nice feedback! 😄

[@angexiety4815]

im completely new to this game and chose this class thank you for explaining it so well I actually have an inkling of what im doing now XD

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Welcome to Eorzea! I'm glad my guide helped you get started! 😄

[@ryvyr]

Fantastique refresher, I ran on house dummy for a bit and feel ready for video refreshing me up to lvl 80 :>

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

A great approach! I'm glad my guide could help you! 😄 Thank you!

[@RoxiieReadsLore]

i just started leveling this yesterday, the timing is unreal

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yay! I hope you enjoy learning black mage! 😄

[@dalgona4819]

I started BLM on one of my alts, and I'm loving it, despite how slower it felt compared to RDM or SMN.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

In a way, a slower job can make your attacks feel more significant due to how you have to commit more to them! I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it!

[@lasaintechips9577]

I've been waiting for this one :D Thanks sir !

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yay! I hope it was worth the wait! I hope you enjoy your journey with learning Black Mage!

[@fishbread9208]

The only bad thing to come from the Endwalker Black Mage adjustments was that, below 58, freeze feels SUPER pointless for how early you get it.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's very strange, because it is just like a filler spell instead of serving a specific purpose 😅

[@grottosstuff]

I mean hey it’s 20 more potency when you miss the MP Tick bus

[@KokoKrunchs]

Thinking to play as BLM and this video help me alot! Thank you for your hardwork 🎉

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you! I'm glad to hear that! Enjoy your journey with black mage! 😄

[@TheOdinsLance]

I've always found it pretty funny that the first spell you get as a black mage is blizzard. The entire class is based around avoiding using it and it's the just so weak, but your first kill as a BLM is always with blizzard.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is a pretty good point! I suppose the poetic (?) progress you make is that ad you get more and more spells, you can distance yourself more and more from it, but you start with it as your only choice! 😄

[@KARADTZ]

Hello mister, i just wanted to say your content is amazing ^-^ im new to the game and just asked my friend what does good damage and black mage is what i got. Close to lvl 50 and i love it, your videos are so informative and helpful, thank you for making the experience a bit easier. Its awesome to see the potential of the job after lvl 50 too, in your other videos, its exciting, though lots of walking to and from quests for that :P. Have a great day

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you so much! That makes me very happy to hear! 😄 Welcome to Eorzea and I hope you enjoy your journey with black mage! 😁 Yeah the side questing streams go a bit slower, but I'm glad they are still fun and entertaining! 😊

[@DannyPotato]

This job feels so awful early, and only started getting more interesting after thundercloud. Firestarter is also so nice. I’m enjoying the class a lot now.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's good to hear you started enjoying it! 😁

[@BlackSkullArmor]

I started levelling BLM for the promised big booms

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Well you start getting the big booms at 50! And then you get more and more of them! I hope you enjoy it! 😁

[@legacymse7095]

Thank you, I just started black mage yesterday, I’m level 45 now and I think I have the rotation down. I would say the hardest thing is to always be on your guard for the firestarter proc, you barely have time to react. I didn’t know flare=use all your remaining MP, I thought you had to be at full MP in order to use it. I see how it works now. But can we all agree that freeze is almost useless at this level?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad you found it helpful! Yeah freeze is very very niche. Like you need to be in ice state, already have set up thunder, and be looking for a filler to cast. This can happen, but in this level range, it isn't uncommon for the fight to be over by that point if you already were in a fire state! 😅

[@jeremytsai7891]

Thank you so so much for this video!! I'm a total beginner just reached lv.55 with Black Mage and this video helps soo much!! May I ask does this means that Transpose will not be included in all the rotations after reaching lv.50 and higher? Or does it come back into the rotation when at higher level?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad it helped! Transpose will stay useful to "stay in a mode" while there is nothing to attack like between dungeon packs or while the boss isn't attackable. But as a core part of an attack rotation it will be quite limited. At level 60 there is a trick you can use in a very specific situation which makes use of transpose. This trick becomes more advanced and complex as you level up but is optional. At max level these tricks evolve into the advanced subject we call "transpose lines" which again are optional, but can lead to a small gain in dps 😊 I go over these things in my high level guide for black mage, and also talk a bit about the transpose lines in a somewhat recent short I posted 😁

[@jeremytsai7891]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh omg I wasn't expecting for such a detailed response!! Thank you so much for this!! I assigned Transpose to M5 for easy access, now I know I can consider to free that button if needed, thank you very much!!

[@SoulPvPGangstar]

bro, this is more than a a full day of lectures for a student

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It is a complicated job! At least I split the second half in a separate video! 😂 I am sure you can do it!

[@stepanmosh]

Great video! I just have one question regarding the opener. Isn't it better to start with Blizzard III and then cast a free Fire III so you start the Fire phase with 10k mana instead of 8k?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you! 😁 The free fire 3 does 30% less damage for being cast in umbral ice! 😊 Generally to maximize the damage of black mage you want to minimize the amount of ice spells you can as much as you can. This can be done by starting with fire. With 8K mp you only have enough for 5 fire 1s, and with 10K, you have enough for 6. Ultimately, the damage difference is probably pretty small, so if you prefer the comfort of opening with blizzard 3 instead, that is probably fine. The main reason the presented opener focuses on opening with fire 3 strictly, is partly because at higher levels, the all out burst openers will always assume you start with fire 3, so not getting too used to opening with ice every time might be a good thing for muscle memory! Even so, what is best can depend on a fight too. Anyway that's a lot to think about quite early in the leveling process and I am sure many of these considerations will come up naturally as you get better at the job!

[@stepanmosh]

oooooh, right! That makes sense. Thank you

[@Wanderingsage7]

Do you think they'll change the class to upgrade fire/blizzard to 3 in later expansions? If only to cut down on buttons needed. I don't know what they'd have to charge around for that, firestarter would beed to charge or be removed, but that's the only thing I can think of off hand.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I don't think they will do this, as they have added paradox which replaces blizzard 1 and fire 1 in the rotation at max level. I don't know if they will do any drastic changes, but the one button I could imagine being killed off eventually would be blizzard 1, since without paradox it loses most of its usage by level 58 😅

[@iambecomegameend2972]

I’m super guilty of cancelling my fire1 casts when firestarter shows up lol. I just didn’t want to lose another possible firestarter proc. But I guess that would be pretty rare. I’ll let the cast finish now when I get synched down.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I do it too! 😂 It hurts so much when you overwrite a Firestarter you already have! Ultimately whether it's a loss or not depends on whether your fire 1 cast turns out to give another Firestarter proc, but that is the less likely scenario. If you catch it while the fire 1 cast is still not very far, I think it's worth canceling, but if you're like halfway through the cast, it is definitely not worth it! 😊

[@tsbulmer]

It doesn't help that the floating combat text for it appears *so* late! I use one of my hotbars to put icons for F3 and T3 right above my job gauge and near my character's feet just to monitor for procs, since the glowing border shows up fast enough to (usually) react to.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Indeed, I am not sure how well it works with latency, but on a good connection, the borders appear around half a second before the spell finishes (in the slide casting window so to speak! 😊) It is certainly awkward!

[@therealkoga2519]

Can somebody explain how the hotkeys work? i see three rows of 1-9 and hes able to slect which one without clicking? I've never played a true hotkey based mmo so this is the only puzzling thing that i can't seem to find an answer on that's stopping me.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

By default, one hotbar is bound to the buttons 1-0 on your keyboard, and the final two are intended to be bound to the two final keys in that row before the backspace. I specifically use an mmo mouse with a grid of 12 buttons, where I use six of them to reach the right side of my hotbars. The two other rows I have set the key binds myself and they are simply the same as the first row, while holding shift and alt respectively 😊 While in the game, there is a systems button where you can find the keybinds menu where you can set all this up yourself as you prefer!

[@therealkoga2519]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Thank you Caetsu! I guess i should invest in a Naga myself.. lol. I've been playing melee dps out of fear of the insane hotkeys so far but i think ill switch over to my first interest which was Black Mage. Thank you again

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@therealkoga2519 that is a good idea! 😊 Most of the jobs in the game get close to 30 different actions, regardless of role, so letting this dictate what jobs you can play would be no fun anyway 😊 Personally I use a corsair scimitar as my mmo mouse, so that is also an alternative if you don't specifically want a Naga 😊 While it is an older video on the channel, I go over how I decide my keybinds in some detail in this video, in case you would find it helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJqcl2ZsqZKEqMUsi=pQXoUT1jKQSl0e9s Enjoy! 😄

[@exodere9105]

Would you say Aetherial Manipulation can be weaved or your "perfect" gcd rotation is broken anyway even if you you feel you weaved it? Same question with Between the lines. (I hope I m making sense)

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

They can be weaved yes, but it isn't uncommon to clip your gcd when you use them. The thing is that in nearly all situations where you use these abilities, it is more important to get that mobility than having the perfect rotation 😅 If you weave them right after an instant you can often make it work without clipping though! To clarify, clipping the gcd is when your next gcd is delayed by the use of an ogcd usually 😊

[@exodere9105]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh and so most spell with a casting time won't enable a proper weaving? I tend to do that a lot by mashing my weaving button during the end of the cast since it looks Ok, but I guess it isn't.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@exodere9105 if the cast time leaves less than a second of recast time at the end, then you typically cannot weave anything afterwards without it coming at a cost 😅

[@exodere9105]

@@CaetsuChaijiChthank you for your time!

[@pwk50]

I noticed u always use Blizzard I twice which I think is not necessary (?). One is usually enough to feel up the MP.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It depends a bit on randomness, so I demonstrate a slightly excessively sequence to be sure! The reason is that after Blizzard 3, you need to be in umbral ice for 2 mp ticks. Which can, depending on randomness, be anywhere between 3.1 seconds and 6 seconds. By using blizzard twice and then fire 3, you are guaranteed to spend 6.7 seconds in umbral ice, removing the randomness. However, if you can see that you are fine on mp before that, you have no reason to cast blizzard twice 😊 This can also be dealt with by finding other things to do in umbral ice like reapplying thunder 😁 Why is the mp tick a random thing? Because mp recovery happens every three seconds, regardless of whether you can receive it or not, and umbral ice simply massively boosts the amount of mp given by these ticks. So if you are lucky and enter umbral ice just as the tick is about to happen, it'll take you one additional tick to cap out. If on the other hand you perfectly miss it, it'll take you two full ticks of time to cap! I hope this makes sense! 😊

[@pwk50]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh thanks for that explanation. I was still leveling my BM, but now that I played it for a couple weeks I can see it indeed depends. Sometimes one blizzard is enough, sometimes it isn't. I noticed that especially during Leylines, when ur cast times are shorter, u can fit in more blizzards before switching back to fire (although u rarely have to due to xenoglossy and thunder procs that need to be spent).

[@reissyboi7527]

I picked up BLM last year and barely levelled it (around 32), came back to it after a while and forgot everything, NOWHERE does it say that Astral Fire buffs fire spells. I read the Aspect Mastery 3 trait and just assumed I was supposed to swap between Fire/Blizzard 3 for the free MP and halved cast time because they have the same potency

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

When you hit level 2 with thaumaturge, a text pop up that is four "pages" long, briefly mentions the astral fire thing somewhere in the text 😅I doubt many people read it! It is incredibly weird umbral ice and astral fire don't really explain themselves anywhere obvious 😕

[@reissyboi7527]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh yes but that popup was last year when I first levelled the job. If you have to go through multiple menus just to find a tutorial window that only shows up once on how the job works rather than just looking at the tooltips, then something is wrong

[@exodere9105]

12:10 You use thunder procs as soon as you get it regardless? You don't keep it for DoT refresh during ice phase? Why?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

In this level range, a thundercloud proc thunder 3 is so much stronger than all your other options that the dot refresh is a side bonus. If you use the proc you make space to have another proc (which of course deals tremendous damage too!) You can also simply refresh thunder normally if you are unlucky with procs, when needed! 😊 In the high level guide, I do make sure to clarify when this strategy stops being recommended!

[@exodere9105]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Oh wow thanks for answering yourself! You guides are great. I m really trying hard to not suck at Black Mage and you sure are helping.

[@Grimnoire]

Honestly my favorite thing to do is three flares in one fire phase at level fifty

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Oh yeah with an ether? That's super fun! 😁 I always lug around ethers for more triple flares at max level too! You can just see the chunks of damage on the enemies! 😁

[@ChristinaWeger-l5s]

Once you hit lvl 50, do you still use transpose to switch between fire and ice?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Once you have blizzard 3 and fire 3 at level 35, you can switch with mainly these spells 😊 transpose will mainly be used to stay in "a state" between fights and the like. There are some tricks you can use later on, but that's later than level 50! 😁

[@JH-ok5lx]

I keep hearing the term thunder proct. Can someone clarify that a little more for me. I'd greatly appreciate the help

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Every time thunder deals damage over time, there is a chance (at level 28 and above), that it grants you the thundercloud effect, causing your next thunder spell to be instant, free, and on top of everything it normally does, adds an additional amount of damage equal to the full damage of the damage over time component 😊 A randomly activated effect is in gaming often referred to as a "proc" ("programmed random occurrence), and refers both to the random activation, but also to the result. Meaning that thunder can proc thundercloud, but we also refer to thundercloud itself as a proc! 😊 I hope this clears things up a bit!

[@JH-ok5lx]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh ok yea that clarifies things. Thank u so much! Really appreciate the help

[@tikers9417]

I think it's a good video but for non english native speakers you talk a little too fast (at least for me) even with sub on... i had to rewatch several time to fully read the dialogue and pay attention to the gameplay... maybe it's just for me... thanks for the guide!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you! I think it might just be that there is a lot of information to take in! I imagine it doesn't help that there's both me talking and bonus information on the screen at times too! I typically do recommend reviewing stuff in the guide to make sure you got it, so I think you approached it just right regardless! I hope you enjoy your journey with Black Mage! :D

[@exodere9105]

You can also slow down KZbin player

[@SwordOfPersona]

Didn't know they changed blizzard 2 to be on target and not self aoe.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

They changed this with the release of endwalker actually! 😊