Black Mage: Guide to Playing the Job

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Job Overview
Through devastating magic spells, Black Mages bring tremendous firepower to the battlefield. A Black Mage's job is simply to cast offensive spells and destroy enemies. In battle, Black Mages are often called upon to participate in skillchains by finishing each chain off with a magic burst, adding even more destructive power to a party's repertoire.

Strengths

 * Black Mage has access to many powerful offensive spells, making one useful in almost any situation.
 * Offensive spells are not hindered by enemies' physical defense and evasion, making it impossible for a Black Mage's damage to miss, although they can be resisted.
 * Warp spells make returning to one's Home Point painless and easy.
 * Has an edge against enemies that are highly resistant to physical attacks.
 * At higher levels (60+) Black Mages can take on at least Tough monsters, with a combination of Sleep and then Nukes.
 * Escape is a dungeon crawler's Godsend and can prevent party wipeouts due to links, pops, or aggro from wandering mobs.

Weaknesses

 * Damage is limited by MP, so resting is a very common activity in a Black Mage's daily routine.
 * Physical defenses and HP are extremely low, making Black Mage's very easy to kill in battle.
 * High damage spells equals high enmity.
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Race Selection
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Tarutaru
Pros - Highest MP pool allows for more spell casting without healing and highest INT leads to a slight boost in damage and fewer black magic resists. Cons - Lowest HP leads to survivability problems.

Mithra
Pros - Tied 2nd highest MP pool and INT allows for decent spell casting and a moderate boost in damage. Also the high AGI can help in evading attacks. Cons - As with Hume, middle of the road character, though due to slightly worse Race Specific Gear when compared to Hume, is slightly worse in terms of INT and MP gear.

Galka
Pros - Highest HP and VIT leads to best survability of any race. Cons - Lowest MP pool and 2nd lowest INT means often needing MP equipment and spell damage will be less than those races with higher INT
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Elvaan
Pros - Good survability matching that of Hume and Galka and the highest STR allows for minimally extra melee power. Cons - Lowest INT and 2nd lowest MP pool means spells will deal the least amount of damage and care must be taken when casting in large amounts.

Hume
Pros - Tied for both 2nd Highest MP pool and 2nd highest INT. Balance of survivability and nuking power being strong enough to take some hits with moderate spell damage modifiers. Cons - Middle of the road stats.
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Stats at Level 1

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Stats at Level 75

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Information obtained from [JesterX's Guide to Vana'Diel]

Support Job Options
While not the only choices for Support Jobs, the following are the most commonly chosen for Black Mage.

White Mage
Black Mages chose White Mage as their support job because it gives a decent amount of MP. It also gives boosts to their Mind stat and gives them access to Healing spells, allowing them to play backup healer when the main healer is hard pressed.

Red Mage
Black Mages chose Red Mage as their support job because it gives some extra MP, as well as an additional boost in INT. It also gives them access to certain Red Mage only enfeebling spells (E.g. Gravity) as well as Healing spells, once again allowing them to backup heal, although not to the same extent as if they had chosen White Mage. Fast Cast is a double edged sword, good for increasing damage, but bad if the mage is already prone to overcasting of spells.

Summoner
Black Mages chose Summoner as their support job because it gives the biggest boost to their MP pool. The boost in INT it gives also helps give their spells that extra push, and the ability to summon spirits and avatars helps a Black Mage more extensively deal with links as well as provide some support to the party. The Auto Refresh Job Trait at level 50 is also attractive to many.

Note: Although Carbuncle can provide limited healing abilites, the lack of other healing options may harm invite rates.

Ninja
Black Mages chose Ninja as their support job because of Utsusemi. These extra shadows protect the mage from enemy blows, and the Dual Wield ability allows them to equip two one-handed weapons at a time, and gain any stat bonuses such equipping options allow them.

Note: Lack of healing abilities might hurt invite rates.