My first ever FF14 character was a Black Mage. Enticed by the allure of elemental magic having played everything from Ice Mage to Shadow Priest in World of Warcraft, it felt like the perfect fit. As I pulled up to Ul’dah and Sultana Dreaming began to play, I knew that Eorzea was something special. But as of late I’ve found myself drifting away from spellcasters, and Black Mage specifically, favoring Monk and Ninja over ranged DPS. But, as spotted by eagle-eyed fans during the last Live Letter and now confirmed in the latest round of FF14 patch notes, Black Mage has been reworked considerably, splitting the playerbase down the middle.
During the latest FF14 Live Letter (which my colleague Ken covers in amazing detail here), some players clocked a series of Black Mage changes when producer Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida was playing. Rumor has swirled ever since, with players wondering whether one of the MMORPG‘s OG classes was, in fact, getting a rework.
The latest round of patch notes have since confirmed this, and while newer players or returning fans like me will likely appreciate the adjustments, some long-time players feel like they’ve been left out in the cold.
The main issues are the job’s longer cast times, as well as the Astral Fire and Umbral Ice buffs, which you used to have to carefully manage to keep the spells flying and the damage ticking. A brief period of downtime would see your stacks fall off, meaning you had to start from the beginning again if you were dodging away from incoming attacks, or slowly channeling your next one.
The result is a twofold rework: various actions have lower cooldowns, and the Astral Fire and Umbral Ice statuses “will no longer expire.” This is a result of the fact that “future battle design may cause difficulty with casting spells,” implying that upcoming instances may focus more on fast-paced fights that don’t give you a lot of downtime to channel long cooldown spells. The general buff to melee DPS roles, which increases their attack potency, seems to suggest this, too.
While this simplifies Black Mage quite considerably which, on paper, sounds like a good thing, some long-time players have described it as the “end of an era for Black Mage,” with the Astral Timers being the primary focus of complaints. Given they’ve always been a core part of the BLM fantasy and the fact that Square Enix is looking to double down on individual job identities in 8.0, it’s understandable that some have been left disappointed.
As noted in the Live Letter, the Pictomancer has also been hit with a bit of a nerf despite Yoshida noting that “they tried so hard not to nerf it.” Their offensive kit has been taken down a few pegs, but their more standard uptime skills have been buffed to compensate.
The attack potency for Sage, Scholar, and White Mage have all been increased, too, with the hope of “achieving better balance within the healer role.” You can read the full list of job changes here.
If you’re still as intrigued by Dawntrail’s art-inspired DPS as I am, check out our FF14 Pictomancer job guide for some tips and tricks. Alternatively, if you’ve sped through all of the new content already, here’s a list of all the best free MMORPGs if you’re looking for something new but equally as expansive.
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