Black Mage DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Endwalker 6.4
On this page, you will learn how to optimise your opener and rotation in both single-target and multi-target situations. We also cover the use of your cooldowns, to ensure you can achieve the best use of them every time as a Black Mage DPS in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (Patch 6.4).
Black Mage Rotation Guide
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
Thunder III
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.
Basic Black Mage Concepts/Resources
Below is an overview of various high-level concepts and resources utilized by Black Mage throughout the rotation.
Astral Fire/Umbral Ice
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:
Fire Spells | Ice Spells | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
MP cost | Damage | MP cost | Damage | Cast time | |
1 stack | 2x | 1.4x | 0x | 0.9x | 1x |
2 stacks | 2x | 1.6x | 0x | 0.8x | 1x |
3 stacks | 2x | 1.8x | 0x | 0.7x | 0.5x |
Umbral Ice increases MP recovery while lowering the damage of fire-aspected spells. At three stacks of Umbral Ice, ice-aspected spells are free, and fire-aspected spell cast times are reduced by half. Below is a table detailing the effects of Umbral Ice:
MP Recovery | Fire Spells | Ice Spells | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
MP cost | Damage | Cast time | MP cost | ||
1 stack | 3200 MP/tick | 0x | 0.9x | 1x | 0.75x |
2 stacks | 4700 MP/tick | 0x | 0.8x | 1x | 0.5x |
3 stacks | 6200 MP/tick | 0x | 0.7x | 0.5x | 0x |
Enochian/Polyglot
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
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
Paradox replaces both
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, as well as during Umbral Ice as a strong, instant cast spell. You can generate
a charge of Paradox by swapping from Astral Fire III to Umbral Ice, as well as from
Umbral Ice III with three Umbral Hearts back to Astral Fire.
Spell Rotation
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 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:
Blizzard III
Blizzard IV
Paradox
Fire III
Fire IV x3
Paradox
Fire IV x3
Despair
Thunder
Instead of having a set place in the rotation, Thunder III should
be used when the DoT is about to fall off on the target. Ideally, this is paired with
Sharpcast every 30s in order to maintain the DoT with Thundercloud procs.
Regardless of Spell Speed, there is extra room for two additional spells each Astral Fire
cycle (one between the Fire III and Paradox, the other between the Paradox and
Despair) which can be utilized to refresh Thunder even mid-Astral Fire without losing
out on any
Fire IV casts.
Xenoglossy
Like Thunder III,
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 two
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.
Off-Global Cooldown Abilities
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.
Ley Lines
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.
Triplecast/Swiftcast
Black Mage has a few spells that have a longer cast time than recast - notably for single-target,
Fire IV, and
Despair. 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.
Sharpcast
Using Sharpcast grants a 30-second buff. Using
Paradox
in Astral Fire while the buff is active grants a Firestarter proc (free, instant cast
Fire III), and using any thunder spell (including a proc) while Sharpcast
is active grants a Thundercloud proc (refreshes Thunder DoT with extra on-hit potency). It is
generally recommended to prioritize Sharpcast use with
Thunder III - Sharpcast
is a 30-second cooldown, the Thunder III DoT lasts for 30s, and a Thundercloud proc
lasts for 40s, which means it is viable to guarantee maintaining the DoT completely via Thundercloud procs.
However, if it is difficult/unviable to sharp Thunder in a given situation, it is still comparable
to sharp Paradox instead.
Other Abilities
Manafont can be used at the end of an Astral Fire cycle for an additional
Fire IV and
Despair for single-target, or an additional
Flare 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.
Opener
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 (e.g., prepull Ley Lines, Triplecast moved until after the first F4 to save one charge of Triplecast for movement, skipping the Xenoglossy, etc).
- Use
Sharpcast around 12 seconds before pull
- Precast
Fire III around 4 seconds before pull
-
Thunder III →
Triplecast
-
Fire IV →
Grade 8 Tincture of Intelligence
-
Fire IV →
Amplifier +
Ley Lines
-
Fire IV →
Swiftcast
-
Fire IV →
Triplecast
-
Despair →
Manafont
-
Fire IV →
Sharpcast
Despair
Blizzard III
Xenoglossy
Paradox
Blizzard IV
Thunder III
Multi-Target Rotation
The multi-target rotation is somewhat similar to the single-target rotation, with some filler spells cut out in favor of an additional Flare.
Two Targets
For two targets, use the general single-target rotation with the following substitutions:
High Blizzard II instead of
Blizzard III
High Fire II instead of
Fire III
Flare instead of
Despair if you can make it instant-cast
Thunder III should be used on both targets (
Sharpcast is very useful for this)
Three or More Targets
High Blizzard II
Freeze
Thunder IV
High Fire II x3
Flare x2
Consider skipping one of the High Fire II casts when using
Triplecast
to catch both
Flare casts.
Manafont has high
value when used for a third
Flare. Use
Foul for movement/damage
when available/needed.
Changelog
- 27 May 2023: Updated for Patch 6.4.
- 11 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.3.
- 28 Aug. 2022: Updated for Patch 6.2.
- 20 Apr. 2022: Updated for Patch 6.1.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Guide added.
Guides from Other Classes
Rika Vanih is a long-time FFXIV player, starting back mid A Realm Reborn, then maining Black Mage since mid-Heavensward. She has cleared all savage fights on the job since then, often within the first week or two for each raid tier, as well as all three ultimate fights. With a passion for helping others learn and improve, she is an active Black Mage mentor on the Balance Discord, more than willing to assist players new to the job, seasoned veterans looking to min-max, and everywhere in between. You can most easily find her there, on various other FFXIV-related discord servers, or directly via Discord DM at Rika Vanih#1340.
Tsutsumi Tsumi is a Black Mage main that has been raiding since Heavensward. He primarily enjoys progression and has consistently been clearing Savage week 1 since mid-Stormblood. He can be contacted for any questions regarding Black Mage through his dms on Discord by messaging The Scarlet Devil#2637.
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