Black Mage thoughts

BLM:67 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

I have a new love for BLM now. But there are several big reasons that BLMs love their Ice Staves and Distortion. One, it adds Elemental Skill +10 bonus which makes a monster ability to resist your spells less. This only works however if you have the staff equipped. So if they are doing a Fragmentation skillchain and you are MBing with Thunder, you give up Elemental Skill by trading to a Thunder Staff, which will make your Thunder spells more effective but maybe not stick so much. So sticking to the Ice Staff is preferable.

Also, since the Ice Staff casts Blizzard spells more effectively, casting Aero spells with that staff are less effective. BASTWF is the elemental circle key that I use to remember the order. It sounds like "BASTok WtF". Blizzard Aero Stone Thunder Water Fire are the names. It's confusing when they say Lightning and Wind and then always say Fire for Fire. These are the names of the spells so I stick to remembering this representation of the circle.

Thirdly, you lose +4 INT when you switch to a Thunder Staff. It's a big hit to take in INT when you are fighting IT mobs and esp if you are at the low end of the party level which usually tends to be the case if the party is set up right. More on party setup in future journals. So if you plan on using ANY other staff with your MBs, it's almost stupid to not use Burn before you MB.

Well this is a problem cuz how many BLMs out there have seen TP 95% and started to cast Burn only to miss your MB with your big spell? Ya just as I thought, all of you. I can still catch the MB in time and MB with like a Blizzaga or something (because casting time is shorter) but man you just wasted casting a Burn that would have for sure doubled your damage from doing a pathetic Blizzaga. So usually I add a "call" to my Burn macro just to give them a heads up on HEY BLM OVER HERE WOULD LIKE TO MB WITH SOME GA III SPELLS [Can I have it?]

So, this is why you will see a BLM wince ( or /no emote ) when people call out a Detonation skillchain, because they gotta give up their Ice Staff to do their MBs effectively. If they do, I just pull out my Rose Wand+1(+6 INT) and use that with my Dark Staff instead.

In sum, a Distortion skillchain, on a mob that is weak to Ice, while equipped with your Ice Staff, equals Blizzaga II goodness that is really quite efficient on MP or Waterga III meanness if you happen to be on chain 4 and have been really responsible with saving enough MP for the BIG HIT on the final 2 or 3 mobs of the chain.

I have a story to tell about some people that were telling me that their skillchain was doing more damage than my MB because they had chosen a Detonation skillchain that used Spinning Slash, but I will save it since I gotta go to work.