Guide to Black Mage in Final Fantasy XI
Who doesn’t want to pick the mage job in Final Fantasy XI? Well, the black mages are extremely powerful and have spells that can destroy anyone and anything upfront. Being someone new to the game, you might be tempted to go for this job, but in reality, there are various difficulties you will face upfront. Therefore, to help you understand Black Mage, we have here a Guide to Black Mage in Final Fantasy XI. So, without any further ado, let’s hop into the details.
What actually is a Black Mage?
Black Mage is one of the standard jobs in Final Fantasy XI that you can select from the start of the game. From the name itself, you might have understood that they are extremely powerful, coming with devastating magic spells and firepower. In simple words, they focus most on the offensive magic side of the game and their main goal is to destroy anything that is upfront, especially enemies.
Butter on top, the most useful things about Black Mages are the skill chains and each chain finishes off in the magic burst. This adds up to the destructive power of Black Mage and makes them even more powerful in the team.
Starting with the Black Mage, you are presented with two things; a Scroll of Stone and an Onion Staff.
Details on Black Mage
The main aspects of Black Mage can be well defined by their Pros and Cons, which are;
Pros
Black Mages have the best spells for offense, while they are also suitable for a support role, making them versatile
The evasion or defense (physical) of the enemy doesn’t affect the offensive spells. Therefore, this job doesn’t miss but higher-level enemies can make them resistant through spells
Black Mages are best against enemies with physical damage resistance.
Using a combination of nukes, sleep, and enfeebling spells, you can dominate the toughest enemies when 60-plus level
Cons
The only thing that you will need is MP because Black Mages depend on it the most, and running out means you will have to rest between spells
Black Mages have lower health and defense, making them vulnerable without tank team members.
Being someone with the most damage and destruction power, the enemies will mostly focus on you.
Guide to Black Mage
Race Selection
In Final Fantasy XI, the players get to further choose between the races and each one has its own sets of pros/cons, related to the stats. You might have guessed it right, each race has a better connection to specific jobs, while some don’t pave a better way for you.
If you have the right equipment and right skills to tackle the race, you can excel in any one of the five races.
Tarutaru Race
This race is the best possible choice for Black Mage, coming with a good Intelligence stat and more MP than other races. Before you drain yourself and go to rest, you will be able to utilize the devastating spells, making it a great deal for parties. The drawback with this race is its lower health, making it somewhat not desirable for solo combat.
Mithra Race
If you don’t want to go for the Tarutaru Race, you can pick the Mithra because it is nearly similar when talking about stats. Here, you also get MP and Intelligence, but not on par with Tarutaru. The one thing you get as an extra here is evasion. The only drawback here is your gear. You are getting slightly worse gear for this race making you suffer in gear Intelligence and gear MP.
Hume Race
Hume is the middle road you can take to become a decent Black Mage in Final Fantasy XI. There is nothing exceptional and nothing worse here, everything is balanced. The drawback here is that you might be good with this race, but not the best.
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Elvaan Race
Elvaan is not the right pick for Black Mage, but if you insist on going the hard way or for the sake of trying this race with Black Mage, it is still not the worst choice. Rather, it is the 2nd worst choice for Black Mage, coming with the lowest Intelligence and 2nd lowest MP. There is good strength here making it good for melee power, but that isn’t what you need with Black Mage.
Galka Race
Galka is the worst choice for this job because it comes with the lowest MP, while it is the 2nd lowest intelligence pick. You get good Vitality and HP here, but that is exactly what you don’t need with Black Mage. Still, we don’t recommend going for Galka, rather go for Elvaan, if you want to challenge yourself.
Best Location to Get Started
For a Black Mage and honestly, any other job, the best location is none other than Windurst. It has all the stuff for you to make your Black Mage strong. Here you have mage quests, monsters for mages to fight, and all the spells you will need for this job, without having to worry about pricing or availability.
The second best choice is none other than Bastok, where you can get reasonable spells at the cost of expensiveness. The drawback here is that you don’t get quests here that can give you the right items for your Black Mage. Yes, you can enjoy the Warp Quest to help you travel.
The final one is San d’Oria. You can quickly level up your Black Mage and get that Drain Quest here for this job to outshine. The only issue with this location is that you don’t get the availability of spells here that are available on Windurst.
Black Mage Equipment
Once you start leveling up your Black Mage, you will need a good set of equipment and spells. On the Spell side, you need to focus on spells like Water, Stone, Aero 3, Fire 2, and so on.
You also have to get status spells like Drown, Burn, Blind, Shock, Bio, etc. At that time your main focus should be on the spells as a Black Mage without going for other distractions like increasing your HP, survivability, and so on. Black Mage is all about firepower and you should focus on that.
On the equipment side, you need to focus on the items that boost your Intelligence or MP. Wands are your best friend here and you need to focus on them the most. For food, you need to go for Apple pie 1 or plus, as they are the best for Black Mage because they regenerate Mana and give you Intelligence.
Sub-jobs with Black Mage
The most common choice for Black Mage in the term of support jobs are;
White Mage: this sub-job comes with the second best MP, while giving you a path to becoming incredible support and healer with Blink and Stoneskin perks in addition.
Red Mage: just like White Mage, here you get extra MP, with the addition of Intelligence. You also get to enjoy Phalanx, Gravity, Stoneskin and Blink, and so on.
Summoner: as a summoner, you can summon strong avatars to help you in combat, along with the boost to your intelligence and MP.
Ninja: to make yourself survive in combat, you can go for the ninja sub job, as the shadow protects you from the blows of enemies. You can also equip dual weapons or two wands.
Final Verdict
Black Mages are easily one of the strongest jobs in Final Fantasy XI and also among the easiest to use. The only thing to keep in mind is that they are also the weakest when it comes to survivability and health. Once you start making sure to stay ranged, save yourself from enemy attacks, and behind your party, you are sure to dominate the battlefield. To help you understand the Black Mage in detail, we have here a guide on how to black mage in Final Fantasy XI.
