Black Mage DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Dawntrail 7.05

This page covers the endgame rotation for Black Mage. The base rotation for Black Mage is fairly simple, structured around maintaining Astral Fire/Umbral Ice while using long, potent casts like Fire IV and Despair. The rotation has some flexibility which can be utilized in order to keep the High Thunder DoT up, use Xenoglossy as needed, and overall provide some level of leniency. As a Black Mage, your goal is to take advantage of this flexibility as well as other personal utility and resources to keep casting as much as possible amidst mechanics, making as few concessions to your rotation as possible.

Below is an overview of various high-level concepts and resources utilized by Black Mage throughout the rotation.

Astral Fire provides increased damage to all fire-aspected spells while doubling their MP cost. Ice-aspected spells have lowered potency and are free in Astral Fire. At three stacks of Astral Fire, ice-aspected spell cast times are reduced by half. Astral Fire halts regular MP recovery other than Manafont and Ethers. Below is a table displaying the effects of Astral Fire:

Umbral Ice allows for MP recovery via casting ice-aspected spells, while lowering the damage of fire-aspected spells. Ice-aspected spells are free in Umbral ice, and at three stacks of Umbral Ice, fire-aspected spell cast times are reduced by half. Below is a table detailing the effects of Umbral Ice:

Enochian grants a passive damage bonus while Astral Fire or Umbral Ice is active. Enochian remains active while switching between phases, and it is only lost when letting the Astral Fire or Umbral Ice timer run out. Maintaining Enochian for 30 seconds provides a charge of Polyglot, allowing for the use of Xenoglossy and Foul. Due to this, it is a high priority to maintain Enochian throughout your rotation, as well as during downtime.

Umbral Hearts are obtained in single-target by using Blizzard IV, during AoE via Freeze, and built up during downtime via Umbral Soul. Umbral Hearts negate the increased MP cost of fire-aspected spells (other than Flare/ Despair) in Astral Fire, using up one Umbral Heart per spell. Casting Flare with Umbral Hearts will use up all remaining hearts and lower the cost of Flare by a third.

Paradox replaces Fire and Blizzard on your hotbars when conditions are met. It should be used in the middle of your Astral Fire phase to refresh the timer. You can generate a charge of Paradox by swapping from Umbral Ice III with three Umbral Hearts back to Astral Fire, as well as swapping from Astral Fire III to Umbral Ice.

Casting Fire IV generates one Astral Soul stack, and Flare generates three Astral Soul stacks. Upon reaching the maximum of six Astral Soul stacks, Flare Star can be casted, consuming all stacks in the process. Stacks end upon leaving Astral Fire.

The overall flow of the single-target rotation for Black Mage revolves around spending all of your MP in Astral Fire, ending in Despair then Flare Star, then switching over to Umbral Ice to recover MP. Since our main spell in Astral Fire, Fire IV, does not refresh Astral Fire, you must use Paradox in the middle of the phase to do so. This is how your base rotation should look:

1. Blizzard III
2. Blizzard IV
3. Paradox
4. Fire III
5. Fire IV x4
6. Paradox
7. Fire IV x2
8. Despair
9. Flare Star

Note that if starting a fight with Blizzard III instad of a traditional opener, you will not generate the initial Paradox as listed, and should just skip it.

Instead of having a set place in the rotation, High Thunder should be used when the DoT is about to fall off on the target. One Thunderhead buff is generated each time you enter Astral Fire or Umbral Ice, including switching between the two, but since the DoT does not need to be refreshed this frequently, the extra Thunderhead buffs should be ignored.

Like High Thunder, Xenoglossy does not have a set place in the rotation. Xenoglossy costs one Polyglot charge to cast and is your strongest spell, so it is vital to not miss uses in a fight. However, being able to hold onto three Polyglot stacks without overcapping allows flexibility in its use - since it is instant cast, it is useful for helping with movement, weaving abilities, and dumping excess charges under buffs. If not needed for anything specific, it should just be used before overcapping on Polyglot stacks, and all charges used up before the end of a fight.

Each Paradox cast generates a guaranteed Firestarter proc, which should almost always be used, and has some flexibility in usage. If needed, the first priority for Firestarter usage should be using it to refresh your Astral Fire timer if needed to prevent it from falling off. This becomes extra valuable in Dawntrail due to the importance of a full six Fire IV casts in one cycle to enable Flare Star usage.

However, if the proc is not needed this way, it is more valuable to hold your Firestarter until Umbral Ice and use it to reenter Astral Fire after a Transpose. Upgrading the weakened Fire III normally used in Umbral Ice III to one used in Astral Fire I is more of a gain than using it in Astral Fire III. Example of execution below:

1. Blizzard III
2. Blizzard IV
3. Xenoglossy or High Thunder
4. Transpose
5. Fire III

The off-global cooldown abilities for Black Mage do not directly deal damage or increase damage dealt. However, they increase the rate at which you can cast spells, as well as enable uptime while dealing with movement and mechanics. As a result, utilizing these abilities properly can have a large effect on your damage output.

Standing within your Ley Lines grants a buff that decreases both cast and recast time of all of your spells. Therefore, even instant-cast spells still gain benefit when used within Ley Lines, and there is no specific need to line it up with Astral Fire. Since you need to stay within your Ley Lines to benefit from them, timing and placement are important to consider to maximize your Ley Lines uptime in a given fight.

If you need to temporarily leave your Ley Lines, you can consider using Between the Lines to return to them. If you need to abandon them for longer, you can now relocate them using Retrace once per Ley Lines usage.

Black Mage has a few spells that have a longer cast time than recast - notably for single-target, Fire IV, Despair, and Flare Star. Since using Triplecast and Swiftcast removes the cast time for spells they are used on, you can gain a small amount of time with each Fire IV/Despair that you use them on. This will ultimately lead to more casts over the course of an encounter, so it is recommended to aim to maximize uses of both abilities in a fight. However, both of these abilities can also be used to keep casting uptime while moving. If using them in a given situation allows for extra casts that you would not get otherwise from using your other abilities, it can be worthwhile to plan for their use there, even if they do not end up on Fire IV/Despair/Flare Star.

Manafont can be used at the end of an Astral Fire cycle for a full additional Astral Fire phase without having to enter Umbral Ice for MP and Umbral Hearts, for both single-target and for AoE.

Amplifier should be used approximately on cooldown to allow for maximum charges of Polyglot in a fight.

Aetherial Manipulation can be used to quickly move to a party member, which can be very useful when a longer-distance movement is required for a mechanic where a party member may already be in a good position.

Transpose can be used when ending uptime phases in Astral Fire in order to use Umbral Soul during downtime or as a last resort with low Astral Fire timer to prevent dropping Enochian.

Manaward provides a personal shield to help live through some damage, either planned for proactively for big hits or reactively used in the case of mistakes.

The general purpose opener for Black Mage, generally referred to as the "Fire III Opener," is listed below. You may choose to alter the opener slightly based on fight-specific requirements/alignment. When running lower speed set, consider double weaving Ley Lines with potion in the opener.

The second use of Triplecast is ideally weaved alongside the Manafont, but can be moved or saved as needed for movement.

The multi-target rotation is somewhat similar to the single-target rotation, with some filler spells cut out in favor of an additional Flare.

For two targets, use the general single-target rotation. Consider using High Thunder II over High Thunder if you can hit both with it, as maintaining the single-target version on multiple targets can be difficult.

1. High Blizzard II
2. Freeze
3. High Fire II
4. Flare x2
5. Flare Star

Manafont has high value when used for an additional two Flare casts then another Flare Star. Use Foul for movement/damage when available/needed, and refresh High Thunder II when the DoT is falling off.

For a small optimization, consider using Foul or Flare Star to weave a Transpose to skip the High Fire II or especially the High Blizzard II casts in the above listed rotation.