This is the part 3 of ffxi power leveling Black Mage Guide.
Designing your Black Mage - Selecting a Subjob
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There's very few subjobs that compliment a Black Mage. Anything melee oriented
is bad, period, among other reasons because nearly all melee classes have no
MP. Don't bother asking, no. I'll list the viable combinations I know of here:
BLM/DRK - Some MP, pretty good INT. Not the best choice, but not awful.
BLM/THF - I know I said no melees, but subbing thief has some decent rewards.
Thieves actually get moderately high INT (higher than any class except BLM,
RDM, SMN, DRK). Taru have enough MP that you can get away with the MP loss in
some situations. A group trying to get quest or cash items might really
appreciate your Treasure Hunter class abilities.
BLM/BRD - Bards are pretty damn cool, but bard is pretty nerfed as a sub. Plus
you'll have to get to 50 as a BLM to be able to play mana regen song. Also,
the int is iffy, and you don't get much MP at all.
BLM/RDM - Great INT, extra magic atk boost. MP is a little less than other
caster classes. Spells are an issue though: You'll get some spells later than
you would if you subbed WHM, and miss some important ones entirely. It limits
your solo survivability too. (Did I forget to mention you get Blink also?
Huge plus.)
BLM/SMN - Awesome INT, great MP boost, and auto-refresh later on. However,
summons really kinda.. suck, especially since, as american players, we don't
really have access to the better summons. And not having spells like Cure,
Raise, and Blink is a pain in the ######. Still, it may be worth it for the MP,
especially if you choose a non-taru race.
BLM/WHM - Really the best and most common choice. INT isn't too great, but you
get a pretty good MP boost, as well as magic defense. Most of all, you get a
wonderful selection of spells to back up your black magery. Depending on your
level, a BLM/WHM can go so far as to act as the main healer of your group.
This is one of the best choices, and the most respected. And yes, you get
Blink, and you get it earliest this way.
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III - Types of Magic
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Types of Magic - Damage
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These are your nukes. These will fall under Elemental Magic. Not much else to
say, make stuff go boom.
Types of Magic - Area Effect Damage
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These are the same as normal nukes but hit all monsters in a certain radius.
In addition, they do higher damage than their equivalent, standard nukes, but
at a much higher MP cost. Damage also seems to be reduced among higher numbers
of targets. A spell doing 250 to a single target might only do 160 each to 7
targets.
