Quick Geo Question

I am thinking about coming back. I am/was a career blackmage.

Can someone clarify a few things for me?

1: Can you explain the difference in playstyle between Black Mage and Geomancer?

2: Is Geomancer considered a good sub job for Black Mage? how about the other way around(Geo/Blm)?

3: Will i want to change my main to Geomancer or is Black Mage still have plenty of validity to it?

1. GEO has very, very, very powerful buffs and debuffs. BLM is a stronger nuker. GEO specific AOE spells center around the caster, as opposed to the target, so your AOE nuking is a bit different. I would largely argue that nuking on GEO is secondary to their buffs/debuffs.

2. GEO isn't a good sub job, at all. GEO/BLM severely lacks defensive spells, /rdm and /whm and /sch tend to be better options.

3. GEO and BLM are different jobs. You play them in different situations. You'll play both. They share a lot of the same gear anyway.

So in regards to question 1, I should think of Geomancer not as a Nuker but as a Support job?

They're supports with decent nuking options. They are not a full damage job, no. This is kind of a sloppy comparison, but imagine them as a mix of BRD and BLM, with more emphasis on the BRD aspect than the BLM side.

gotcha gotcha


I have been playing FFXIV lately and... I guess I don't care for the actual activeness of the boss fights. The tactics in this game were a bit different.. In 14 you need to have a good connection and able to move out of attacks. That exists in this game but minimally, mostly its just having good gear, gear sets, and having the right spells up and active. I prefer this games style more lol.

I played Bard in FFXIV, despised the support side of the job^^

In a lot of events, yes, GEO is primarily support. You still nuke, and you have enfeebling skills, but no native enhancing or healing.

The thing is, the MP cost of GEO spells is fairly high, so it can be unfeasible to be nuking constantly when you're also trying to maintain debuffs. The most commonly used geo spells all have MP costs over 200mp, and that adds up.

I often take GEO/RDM to Yorcia delve in a 4-6 man setup, and this is what I typically do in a run:

1. -def, -eva debuffs on most of the bosses
2. haste, attack, refresh and sometimes accuracy buffs on players
3. magic accuracy down on Belladona NM, magic evasion up on players for that same NM, and sleeping charmed players
4. Dispelling the mandragora's regen
5. Blinding Xag'nar
6. Water nukes on Laevid to trigger Leafstorm for damage
7. Sneaking in MB'd fire 2 and 3 when I can off the light skillchains that are used extensively on a run.

... in other words, it's a complex job with a lot to do. A skilled GEO can actually fulfill the role of two players if they're organized and have proper gear sets, it's one of the ways we work out low-man strategies for a fair bit of content.

GEO is also extremely useful in a lot of the new high-tier battlefields. A big advantage of GEO is that the buffs cannot be overwritten, and the debuffs cannot be resisted, which opens up some interesting strategies. It's a fun flexible job with a lot of potential for complex play.

Or you can play it boring as hell and just stand there making bubbles :)

GEO might not be your favorite, then, if you dislike support positions. Unfortunately, almost all mage jobs are relegated to support roles in the current endgame activities.

Bubbles? did you say bubbles?


Lol sounds like i will def give Geo a try but I think i will likely stick to Blm.. When I left I remember the only other job I was actually trying to get into and be good with was Samurai.

Even Black Mage? I remember when I left Black Mage we had to keep up Bio and 3 elemental DOT's, Thats about the extent of our 'Support' has this changed?

Sorry to say, but I haven't seen BLM in any activity other than R'Kaznar skirmishes in months. They've been sorely forgotten by SE and lack a true place in endgame.

I saw that you also were looking into SAM. That is basically the pinnacle of melee DDs at the moment, so if you're looking for a job to allow you access to basically any event, SAM is your go-to. If you greatly prefer mages, WHM, SCH, RDM, and BRD are also very popular choices.

Ok thanks, So I will Main my Samurai then and kinda use it to fuel gearing up my BLM lol, appreciate it

BLM's a good sleeper/DD in Incursion ... great job for Puppet in Peril v2 ... I would go poke the folks in the BLM forum, career BLMs do all kinds of crazy things in endgame I think you'll get some good feedback!

Sch- enhancing magic, embrava, regen5, stunlock, ---nukes
rdm- merited enfeebles, refresh/haste/strong cure, stuns ----nukes
Geo- buffs, debuffs, stuns -----nukes
dnc- dmg, cures, statuscures, debuffs
cor- buffs, dmg, mini-nukes
common theme: party contribution for something greater.

blm- nukes... no diversity[/b]. that is the problem with BLM.
The stand-alone novelty trying to fit into party play. /failmage

if all blm is good at is, nukes; then they need more glass cannon capability. I propose every 4th nuke of the same element becomes supercharged. say they nuke t1, t2, t3 then on t5 it does double dmg or something... it needs something to make it either spectacularly superior in magic dmg or some type of diversification.

brd can go to melee battle mode if they wanted.
whm's yagrush puts it into a whole new level of ease and superiority

Blm has no purpose to be apart of a 'team' for a greater cause.

samurai gets kingshit fudo, nonelemtal dmg weapon & ranged capability... blm gets a nuke thats diluted by other jobs because they can do the same thing while being able to do something else that enhances party play.

All the other nukers in some way are able to interlock with other jobs for a greater purpose other then it's own. blm doesn't. just like the bst pet without haste. it's been left in the dust. because no one is standing up to SE and saying the obvious problem.

blm has become the new bst. bst got left to the wayside because the pet never got any party enhancements; particularly haste; finally SE wizened up and gave more pet haste gear... But all the other above jobs enhance the party beyond doing dmg, they contribute to some-kind of interlocking enhancement with other jobs for a bigger purpose. blm has been left as a stand-alone novelty. It has no interlocking role with any another jobs other than needing MP buffs. That is the problem.

You all need to stand up to SE and point out the flaws blm has or nothing will ever be done. That is how bst got fixed.
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my OG job was BLM back in sky era, but i digress; I really don't care if blm ever gets fixed because I've moved on. I'm just saying what needs to be said if the people who really love blm want it to be fixed. they need to make noise about these problems.

Blackmage had purpose in Sky Era like you said.. the thing that killed blackmage and it NEVER has recovered was when people started opting out of doing TEAM SKILLCHAINS(and they were timed with a BLM Magic Burst) Over time Samurai and BlueMage learned to self skillchain, and others learned to just spam Weapons skills every time they hit 100 tp. Now gamewise this stuff isn't a bad thing at all, but this is what caused the death of Blm and it has never recovered since. Part of the novelty of blm was to entice people to save weaponskills to do the skillchain and be timed with the magic burst.

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Honestly I don't care for blm to be a Support, they are dps nuke, they have SOME enfeebling. So if they get love ever, it needs to be straight dps. The biggest thing, is give us such a huge bonus to Magic Bursting that it entices people to work with us again.

Could be a really easyy fix to BLM. Just give them Magic Burst Bonus tiers, and make Level 99 Tier VII or something. Allow for the JPs to break this tier to an unbelievable amount.

I wouldn't be opposed to a 25k skillchain/60k dmg nuke Magic Burst. Would really help players prioritize of spamming.

BLM was killed by not magic bursting. Really magic bursting only increases the damage by a small amount, its more for lowering the resist rate.

We stopped using the old pld, blm, add control strategies and switched to a more mobile and melee friendly though process. When you have so many people who wont play anything except melee then you have to do something to keep going.

That and SE broke PLDs ability to keep hate above everything else. Combine that with the higher level mobs that have super high magic evasion yet 0 resistance to skillchain damage.

Skillchains happen all the time now, most people can magic burst on every t1 cast.

We even still use magic bursting to break delve boss auras.

every job is what you make it. yes there are some popular beliefs but in the end its the player not the job that is useless or sucks.

Elemental Debuff Stats
Elemental Debuff Damage/Stat Reduction
INT Damage Over Time Stat Reduction
1-39 1 HP/tick -5
40-69 2 HP/tick -7
70-99 3 HP/tick -9
100-149 4 HP/tick -11
150+ 5 HP/tick -13

They could give elemental debuff stat reduction a major boost for blm main's; this would enhance blm's party enhancement.

negative 13 stat is quite pathetic at our current ilv119
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i agree about magic bursts... they are happening all over the place; there's no reason you couldn't magic burst quite easily.. and yes the magic burst dmg wasn't anything more then a small increase. so saying that blm's 'need the planned skillchain' is hogwash. the extra dmg is just from MB is just to marginal to make that be the difference maker

I get it that you can 'magic burst' all the time now but, generally this is lower tier spells with faster cast times, or a very independant blm who has a very good eye for catching them.

So my question is for those that say 'magic bursts still happen all the time' Does this statement apply to Tier V's and AM2?

But still the main thing that blm's are good for in a party is Magic bursts, this needs to be improved to make them more viable, along with improving there Ele Debuffs AND there Spikes.