Black Mage: Elvaan Black Mage Guide by Theferret

This is a page to hold tips for those people who are especially challenged: the Elvaan Black Mages.

Some people may think that Galka White Mage is the stereotypical "tough challege": however, Elvaan Black Mages have it worse. Galkas pretty much only have to worry about getting extra MP. Elvaans have to worry about MP, and INT.

Elvaans have the lowest int in the game. Even Galkas are ahead of them.

The bad news: Not the Intelligent choice
Intelligence is Crucial to a black mage, even more than Strength is to a DD. Intelligence determines Magical Accuracy, which determines if a nuke spell hits fully, or for half, or quarter damage.

Comparison of stats, stolen from the Intelligence page:

Humes, Mithra, and Galka all start with the same INT: 8 Elvaans start with 7.

By the time they hit level 75, Humes and Mithra have 63. Galkas have 60. Elvaans have 57

That's sort of comparable to a DD job at level 75, vs 73, vs 71. There's a LOT of catching up to do, for an Elvaan BLM.

I've played a tarutaru BLM. That was a beautiful thing, even only to level 25. A Hume BLM is "challenging", when compared to a taru BLM. An Elvaan is... well... Incredibly Tough ?

So, if you are really set on trying to level up Elvaan BLM, you had better have some serious dedication. and gilz for the best gear. and best food. Plus it doesnt hurt to have another level 75 job. I have a 75 PLD, that I had previously put two merits into MP for. I then decided to put in the time for 2 merits of INT. That means, 2 extra points of INT. It's still incredibly ugly.

Soloing between levels 40-50
I should mention that I am *NOT* doing the "sub ninja" thing. I think that is cheating. Not only is it expensive, but having a DD/Tank type class, in a supposedly magic user class, offends me. Not to mention, you could use the extra mp!

For straight soloing, I initially tried /RDM, for an extra point of int over /WHM, and blink once i got to BLM46/RDM23. But it was still really difficult. I ended up playing around with gravity and nuking, on [[Decent Challenge] beetles in Altepa for a level or three.

I just couldnt get Gravity to stick on Even Match or higher mobs very well, if at all.

Challenge at level 50
I had heard a lot about "One-shotting beastmaster pets", once you get Ancient Magic.

I just reached level 50, the hard way. From 40 onwards, its almost impossible to get any regular party invites. So i've been doing a combination of soloing SLOOWLY, Campaign Operations, level sync parties, and then capping magic skills through things like Besieged and [[Campaign Battles].

Even on top of that, I chose Balrahn's Ring as my ToAU reward. It's almost the only pre-60 item that gives you Magic Accuracy bonus, which is crucial

Then I aquired Freeze, and happily headed off to Gustav Tunnel, since I read it was a great place to kill pets, starting at level 49.

I died horribly.

So then I tried going to a lower level place for pets, Cape Teriggan.

And died horribly. It tended to leave just a sliver of health left. The bunny would then kill me.

Finally, I got to level 51. AND capped my elemental on Besieged/Campaign (take off tags and small-nuke mobs). AND bought an ice staff. AND subbed /SMN, for an extra point of INT.

and finally, it worked! I can now do the decent challenge ones, without food.

Safety Tips for level 50
With /RDM, use Blink and Aquaveil

With /SMN, use Garuda Aerial Armor The tradeoffs for using /SMN instead of /RDM or /WHM are: - Minus: No protect/shell - Minus: No free sneak/invis, so may be harder to get to camps - Plus: more mp, more INT, auto-refresh.

I've just starting using BLM/smn. For Elvaan BLM, it might be the best choice.

MP safety margin notes:

Freeze + SleepII + Escape = 307 + 29 + 125 = 461 MP Freeze + Sleepga + Escape = 307 + 38 + 125 = 470 MP

We cant hit those at lvl51 with RDM subjob, unless we use food and possibly MP merits.

(so, sometimes, use pies instead of Cream Puff )

Note also the weather. Firesday = BAD !!!

At BLM51/RDM25, I tried to Freeze a leech in Gustav Tunnel, on Firesday. With Int of 52+27, I did NOT finish it all the way, even with no resist. It had 5% life left. (This means that I had decent Magic Accuracy to hit it, but not enough Magic Attack to finish it off in one shot. See Calculating Magic Damage for more details)

I COULD one-shot kill it on earthday. However: When my food wore off mid-cast.. after successfully one-shotting 10 in a row... this one left a sliver of health. Mass aggro, dead Elvaan. So, unless you are completely buffed out with food as well as gear, forget about one-shotting VTs and so on, even with the level 51 extra bling that I have.

Gear at level 51
The gear I'm using, is:


 * Main: Ice Staff = Elemental Magic +10, INT +4, and bonus to Freeze
 * Ammo: Morion Tathlum = INT +1
 * Head: Seer's Crown +1 = INT+3
 * Neck: Black Neckerchief = INT +1
 * Ears: Cunning Earring x2 = INT +1 each
 * Body: Magna Jerkin = INT+1
 * Hands: Seer's Mitts +1 = Int+2
 * Rings: Wisdom Ring = INT +3, Balrahn's Ring, Magic Acc+4
 * Back: Red Cape = INT +2
 * Waist: Reverend Sash = INT +2
 * Legs: Mage's Slacks = INT +1
 * Feet = Magna M Ledelsens = INT +2


 * [+20 MP, merited.  +2 INT, merited]

INT bonus from gear = +24 total, without food. Base int = 53 (BLM/SMN with 2 merits to INT)

A Hume BLM/WHM at the same level, has a base of 55 int.

A Taru BLM/WMN would have 65 base.

General Pet camping strategies
Always use a reraise earring, especially in a new zone. 1 charge lasts 2 hrs, unlike the spell. If you are really close to zone, AND you've practiced saving your rear a few times, it might be safe without it.

The best camps would seem to have the following features:


 * 1) Within running distance to a zone
 * 2) An area filled with beastmasters, and non-aggressive "other monsters". That way, you dont have to keep watching for the goblins, AND other mobs at the same time.

Mobs go through cycles of movement, where the rest periods seem to be about as long as it takes to cast Freeze :( So for your safest kill, wait until the beastmaster has just finished moving, before casting. If you're not ready to cast at that moment, then wait until he moves-and-stops, before doing your one-shot cast.

When getting into position, it's kinda tricky to keep the view stable. Keyboard makes this a bit tricky. If you are using the keyboard to move, you might consider using "strafe" mode. That is to say, get into first-person view, then hold down Shift to lock camera view. You can then move sideways/back/forward, while still keeping mobs in view.

When lining up for your kill, you should consider potential links from same-type mobs as the pet, in addition to whether the beastmaster mob noticing if you fail

Also, watch the mobs for a bit, and notice their normal track pattern of walking. Then pick a place to stand and cast, that is outside where they would normally aggro you. Happily, your magic range, is just a LITTLE longer than their aggro range, normally.

Best Food
Best food, would seem to be Cream Puff, for INT +7

To see all INT affecting foods, check Food Effects/Intelligence

This page originally created by theferret