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Black Mage (BLM) Actions, Traits and Role Actions
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.
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.
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 explantory 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.
Stances
Before we get into rotations 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.
Actions
Actions are skills that the Black Mage 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 Mage actions are exclusive to that job. MP scales with level.
MNK NIN PLD RDM SAM SCH SMN WAR WHM
| Name | Level | Cast | Recast | MP | TP | Range | Radius | ||
 | Thunder III | 45 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | |
| Deals lightning damage with a potency of 70. Additional Effect: Lightning damage over time Potency: 40 Duration: 24s Additional Effect: 10% chance after each tick that the next Thunder spell of any grade will add its full damage over time amount to its initial damage, have no cast time, and cost no MP Duration: 18s Only one Thunder spell-induced damage over time effect per caster can be inflicted upon a single target. |
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 | Ley Lines | 52 | 0 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 3y | |
| Connects naturally occurring ley lines to create a circle of power which, while standing within it, reduces spell cast time and recast time, and auto-attack delay by 15%. Duration: 30s |
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 | Sharpcast | 54 | 0 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | |
| Ensures the next Scathe, Fire, or Thunder spell cast will, for the first hit, trigger Scathe's additional effect, Firestarter, or Thundercloud respectively. Duration: 15s |
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 | Enochian | 56 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | |
| Increases magic damage dealt by 15 %. Also allows the casting of Blizzard IV, Fire IV, Despair, and Umbral Soul. Additional Effect: Grants Polyglot if Enochian is maintained for 30s Can only be executed while under the effect of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice. Effect is canceled if Astral Fire or Umbral Ice ends. |
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 | Blizzard IV | 58 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | |
| Deals ice damage with a potency of 300. Additional Effect: Grants 3 Umbral Hearts Umbral Heart Bonus: Nullifies Astral Fire's MP cost increase for Fire spells and reduces MP cost for Flare by one-third Can only be executed while under the effects of both Enochian and Umbral Ice. |
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 | Fire IV | 60 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | |
| Deals fire damage with a potency of 300. Can only be executed while under the effects of both Enochian and Astral Fire. |
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 | Between the Lines | 62 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | |
| Move instantly to Ley Lines drawn by you. Cannot be executed while bound. |
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 | Thunder IV | 64 | 3 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 5y | |
| Deals lightning damage with a potency of 50 to target and all enemies nearby it. Additional Effect: Lightning damage over time Potency: 30 Duration: 18s Additional Effect: 3% chance after each tick that the next Thunder spell of any grade will add its full damage over time amount to its initial damage, have no cast time, and cost no MP Duration: 18s Only one Thunder spell-induced damage over time effect per caster can be inflicted upon a single target. |
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 | Triplecast | 66 | 0 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | |
| The next three spells will require no cast time. Duration: 15s |
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 | Foul | 70 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 5y | |
| Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 650 for the first enemy, and 25% less for all remaining enemies. Polyglot Cost: 1 |
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 | Despair | 72 | 3 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | |
| Deals fire damage with a potency of 380. Additional Effect: Grants Astral Fire III Duration: 15s Can only be executed while under the effects of both Enochian and Astral Fire. |
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 | Umbral Soul | 76 | 0 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | |
| Grants Umbral Ice and 1 Umbral Heart. Umbral Heart Bonus: Nullifies Astral Fire's MP cost increase for Fire spells and reduces MP cost for Flare by one-third Can only be executed while under the effects of both Enochian and Umbral Ice. |
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 | Xenoglossy | 80 | 0 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | |
| Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 750. Polyglot Cost: 1 |
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As well as these the Black Mage can also equip Thaumaturge actions.
Role Actions
Since the A Realm Reborn expansion for FFXIV, cross class actions were removed and replaced with the concept of "role" actions. Role actions are more generic as they don't belong to specific classes, but instead to roles such as melee DPS, magic DPS, healer or tank. The Black Mage can equip up to 5 of these.
| Name | Level | Cast | Recast | MP | TP | Range | Radius |
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 Mage. There exists even more PvP actions and even traits but these are not unique to the Black Mage. You can find these further down the page.
| Name | Cast | Recast | MP | TP | Range | Radius | |||
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Cometeor | 2 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 8y | ||
| Deals magic damage to enemies near point of impact with a potency of 4,000 for the first enemy, 25% less for the second, 50% less for the third, and 75% less for all remaining enemies. Additional Effect: Increases target's damage taken by 25% Duration: 15s Can only be executed while the Adrenaline Gauge is full. |
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Sleep | 2.3 | 2.3 | 0 | 0 | 25y | 0y | ||
| Puts target to sleep. Duration: 3s Cancels auto-attack upon execution. |
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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 | |||
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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 | |||
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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 | |||
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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. | |||||||||
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Muse | 0 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0y | 0y | ||
| Restores 25% of maximum MP. | |||||||||
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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. | |||||||||
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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. | |||||||||
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 | |
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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%. |
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Increased Damage Dealt | Increases damage dealt by 3%. |
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Increased Healing Potency | Increases spell-based HP restoration by 5%. |
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Increased HP | Increases maximum HP by 5%. |
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Increased MP Regeneration | Increases MP regeneration rate by 25%. |
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Increased Resistance Duration | Increases duration of resistances by 50%. |
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Increased TP Regeneration | Increases TP regeneration rate by 40%. |
Black Mage Equipment
The best equipment for your Black Mage constantly changes depending on what was added in the latest patch so it is important to do your own research on top of this guide. We have broken the equipment down into tiers in order to give some indication of what you can use before you get up to that item level tier.
MNK NIN PLD RDM SAM SCH SMN WAR WHM
Comments
The following comments are from our legacy commenting system.
Xenor
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Jul 07, 2015 - 23:55:08 | Location: Durham, United Kingdom |
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You get them from the job quests. Look for Lalai at the THM guild. |
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Mo [Anon]
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Jul 06, 2015 - 14:16:48 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Where do you learn the new blackmage skills? Im level 57 and cant find the person to learn them? Please help |
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| Morganna [Anon]
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Apr 07, 2015 - 10:02:37 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Hi thanks a lot am using raging strike for the fact it increases attack by 20% and works well in tight spots as for hawk eye I have the skill on my archer but for some reason I can't cross it over to my blm |
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| skylar McClo [Anon]
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Oct 11, 2014 - 22:46:26 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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this came in handy thx gor posting |
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| FFPurist [Anon]
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Jan 25, 2014 - 08:42:17 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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You're forgetting quelling strikes and how overwhelmingly WEAK every other cross skill is. Virus is good, but chances are someone else in the part will have it. As someone else pointed out Raging Strikes is not made for mages. Ruin is even weak as hell for ACNs and I don't know why it even EXISTS, period. I would never even consider wasting global cooldown on it. So what you end up with in most situations is #1. PHYSIC to heal yourself if the WHM is too busy raging or being too much of an IDIOT to realize s/he can't RUN AWAY from the BRD a soon as s/he does Mage's Ballad for him/her (as in XI days) because it only works while s/he's in close proximity to the BRD (something many WHMs still don't know by ENDGAME then bitch at the BRD for not keeping their magic up...but that's another whole rant. #2. QUELLING STRIKES because you want to generate as little enmity as possible because BLM is a very powerful dps and you will run into some very poor tanks who do NOT know how to m get/keep/maintain hate (or label mobs, which just makes everyone's jobs harder--esp the poor mage who has to psychically know which one to sleep IF the tank has the sense to pull the rest away from it before/IF he flashes again, which is doubtful. 3. HAWK'S EYE or VIRUS (it's situational) because a shield will give you better stats and keep you alive longer, and with the added buff this provides (which isn't much but is better than anything else you have available, except perhaps Virus, which you can swap out if you want in cases when you don't have an ACN or someone else using that cross skill already in your party. A little communication goes a LONG way at the beginning of a fight, and that time bonus everyone is so worried about has PLENTY of leeway, so talk things out before you get started and you'll have a far more successful and friendly/fun experience with fewer wipes and rage quits. |
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| Pheith [Anon]
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Dec 26, 2013 - 09:20:26 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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You cure BLK Mage with Physick, is the cross ability from the archanist at lvl 4 |
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| Magik [Anon]
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Nov 28, 2013 - 04:01:35 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Can anyone tell me how to cure being a BLM |
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| Anonymous
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Sep 26, 2013 - 14:19:25 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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About Raging Strikes: I'm using it on my BLM, and it does increase your damage. When you mouseover Raging Strikes ingame it says "Increases damage dealt by 20% for 20s. It's not just for physical damage, it works with everything and thus, it is awesome. |
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| akito [Anon]
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Sep 25, 2013 - 18:11:34 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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why? to show you there is crossed skills in this game , to make players discovers other class because they maybe prefer an other class its not stupid its only you who dont see |
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| Anonymoussss [Anon]
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Sep 24, 2013 - 14:55:49 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Isn't "Raging Strikes" useless for a Black Mage, because when you use "Raging Strikes" and mouse over the buff it says "Attack Power Increased" and if you mouse over "Attack Power" in your character stats, it says "Affects amount of damage dealt by physical attacks" and since we use "Magic Potency" I don't think that buff does anything for us, unless you are hitting the mobs with our staffs. All our skills also state that "...damage with a potency", which in our case would be "Magic Potency". Sooooo wouldn't using "Raging Strikes" be a waste of a Global Cooldown? |
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| Anonymous
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Sep 16, 2013 - 20:27:21 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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I don't understand why is 15 archer needed? Kind of stupid IMO |
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| Ryan R [Anon]
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Sep 15, 2013 - 02:17:04 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Hawk's Eye can be used by every other class.. that is why it is listed. |
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| The Grinder [Anon]
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Sep 11, 2013 - 01:57:00 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Hawk's Eye can be good in situation areas. If you use a Shield, Dex helps increase Black so essentially you take less damage. That is the only reason it can be "okay". |
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| Xenor
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Sep 10, 2013 - 21:14:47 | Location: Durham, United Kingdom |
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Yeah I don't think Hawk's Eye serves any purpose for BLM. But it can still equip it for some reason. Maybe I'm missing something. |
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| TOGB [Anon]
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Sep 10, 2013 - 07:39:27 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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It is still worth leveling ACN to 12 to get Virus... it's a very good spell |
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| Katsuyo Suru [Anon]
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Sep 09, 2013 - 07:26:32 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Hi Xenor, I'm well aware of cross skills, haha. I am just curious about the benefits, I don't see how dex would add value to a BLM as dex increases long range attack damage. Thanks for the reply. |
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| Sydious [Anon]
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Sep 05, 2013 - 15:55:27 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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I can't imagine Hawk's Eye being of any use for a BLM who's stat priority is INT. |
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| Xenor
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Sep 03, 2013 - 21:13:50 | Location: Durham, United Kingdom |
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BLM can use cross class skills from Archer, Hawk's Eye being one of them. |
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| Katsuyo Suru [Anon]
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Sep 03, 2013 - 08:54:50 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Hi, I am curious why do you have Hawk's Eye ability as a cross class ability. Please shed some light. Thanks. |
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| Madd Kush [Anon]
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Sep 01, 2013 - 09:02:36 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Im a 47 BLM you need Archer as the 2nd Req not Arcanist |
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| Sephy [Anon]
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Sep 01, 2013 - 04:29:19 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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@Porky to get Black Mage Job you NEED lvl 30 THM and lvl 15 ARCHER. This info is still correct. |
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| Teratel [Anon]
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Aug 31, 2013 - 19:06:26 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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The requirements are not old. I recently became a BLM and I thought it was ACN from another site and found out that it is really 15 ARC the hard way. |
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| Anonymous
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Aug 31, 2013 - 18:11:57 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Just unlocked it now with 30THM and 20 ARCHER. I do not have Arcanist unlocked. |
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| Anonymous
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Aug 31, 2013 - 18:04:03 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Black mage need 30 thaum and 15 archer but you can level arsonist and use spells from it to |
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| calendra [Anon]
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Aug 31, 2013 - 17:24:57 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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int and mind in virus are a arcanist class trait. so it's only str/dex |
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| Porky [Anon]
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Aug 30, 2013 - 20:23:13 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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The info that BM needs Archer are old and only from Beta. BM needs 30 THM and 15 ACN. |
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| Neotidus [Anon]
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Aug 30, 2013 - 19:15:23 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Where is the location of npc for quest lvl 45? |
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| Xenor
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Aug 26, 2013 - 14:14:38 | Location: Durham, United Kingdom |
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Black Mage needs Archer like Jyu said. Some of the requirements on here were incorrect but I have updated them all as people discovered the real requirements. |
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| Nami U'sha [Anon]
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Aug 26, 2013 - 07:26:17 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Where did you find that the black mage needs Arcanist and not Puglist? |
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| Jyu Viole [Anon]
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Aug 25, 2013 - 19:56:41 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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The conditions to BLM are 30 THM and 15 ARC. |
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| Xenor
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Aug 19, 2013 - 17:52:31 | Location: Durham, United Kingdom |
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Good spot Mabori, I've fixed that. The skills weren't wrong just the text due to how we template the job pages. |
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| Mabori [Anon]
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Aug 19, 2013 - 16:19:39 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Under Cross Class Abilities, it says "White Mage" |
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| Xenor
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Jul 22, 2013 - 19:16:25 | Location: Durham, United Kingdom |
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To be honest no one knows what the job quest requirements will be in ARR as the quests don't exist yet. The Lodestone is outdated for 1.0. With BLM the classes in which it can take its skills from changed in ARR. This is why it only has ARC for cross class skills. Apart from WHM all other jobs can take skills from 2 classes. ACN will fill this gap, and this is where the speculation for ACN being the job requirement comes from. |
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| Anonymous
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Jul 17, 2013 - 12:28:05 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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ARN 15 not ARC 15 |
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| Anonymous
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Jul 17, 2013 - 12:25:05 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Just wondering why you show the requirements to BLM is THM 30 and ARC 15? The Loadstone actually shows THM/PGL what info do you have and where do you get your info to make us trust your source considering they have not released any info out about obtaining a Job and how can your info be more accurate then that of the FFXIV SE website? Sorry, for all the QnA but I'm just wondering which website is more accurate yours or the games? |
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| Anonymous
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Jun 16, 2013 - 22:04:31 | Location: Nowhere, In a Box |
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Does the subjob have to be pgl.... that sounds kind of weird. |
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