The Black Sacrament -- A Guide To Black Mage

Sadly you wont have a Earth Shot for every -ja and T6, I would prioritize T6 and possibly have your GEO cast after you to benefit off the shot as well, you have a 10 second window just try not to hit the wall.

Yes casters not warlocks, the one that is +Fast Cast, and we do it for lowering recast since you won't be casting nukes in FC gear.

Something else I noticed, and this applies to every V20 fight, everyone needs to modify their idle sets to not only cap DT, but also have a ton of Defense / MDB / MEVA. Refresh is the lowest priority, having tons of defensive stats will make a night and day difference in these fights.

Little late on replying to this, but would be awesome if the Scythe had "Entropy" on it. Close darkness with that in a high mp set, burst death, fun times.

Careful, Weew has a bridge he's looking to sell as well.

Thanks for the tips! I already got v25 nyame done, but haven't killed v20 ongo yet haha.

Oh yeah, what food you guys eat for ongo?

Bit of an odd question, but I'm noticing the MB Burst Max set seems to be over capping MB1 by favoring Agwu hands and boots over Amalric +1.

Unless my math is wrong, it looks like the set mentioned has MB1+50. Is the overcapping intentional / Agwu that much of a gain to use over Amalric? Or am I not adding something right (possibly the MB+10% from Neck+2 being MB2, and I never noticed?)?

Trying to figure out new sets and the math ain't mathin

There's no downside to overcapping MB1 if you're not losing stats in the trade-off.

The difference between Agwu's hands/feet r25 and Amalric hands/feet +1 is something like +6 int, +60 macc, -9 mab, +20 mdmg, -1 mb2, +4 fc, -14 elemental skill, which is compelling. That's ignoring MB1 which is likely capped in either set.

I'm assuming you are referring to this set in the OP.
ItemSet 351869

agwu hands r25: mAcc+50 INT+33 MAB+58 MBI+8 MBII+5
amalric hand+1D: mAcc+20 INT+36 MAB+53 MBI+0 MBII+6 ele.skill+14

To me assuming MBI is cap'd before looking at hands, dmg difference is negligible. the mAcc difference is a little nice.
The big thing to me is when I lock staff (which I do all the time) for tanking or myrkr, the MBI+10 from club goes away.
I have the +2 neck but would probably swap to Sibyl scarf. nvm, thought scarf had mAcc on it too.

so slight mAcc boost, dmg pretty much the same, assuming you have high rank agwu hands.

I just redid a ton of numbers, and I think I must have done something wrong before. The numbers make a lot more sense now. The magic accuracy is a good selling point there, and with the added MB1, it allows for easier use of AF body being used when needed for MP.


Right, I'd initially overlooked the magic accuracy part. I have Laev, so I'm usually locked with staff full time as well. I think I was lazer-focused on the Magic Burst aspect of Agwu and missed the rest of the stats.

Sorry for the necro ping - it makes a lot more sense now!

So here's the BLM empyrean set consolidated into one post



The only takeaway I have from this is the whole set is a huge let down, although the body and legs have some merit for upgrading. We already use the legs for the extended -aja effect duration (I know I do when I fight ongo) so better nuking stats over the +1 is welcome, but it's still just going to be used for -aja and nothing else. The body may fit into a magic burst set because of the magic burst damage II. But I'm not particularly excited about it either. Compare it to ea +1 and you gain a fair chunk of magic attack and accuracy, but it has less MDB II in total. I look at the set and every single piece just looks like "inferior agwu's" to me. I'm pretty sure the earring isn't even worth slotting in over our standard malignance/regal combo.

Now to be fair, if your not sporting the highest tier augs on agwu's it's better than the relic gear, but still.... it's pretty disappointing overall. It doesn't really push the boundaries of what we can do any. They added a whole bunch of -dt to the set sure, and that's nice and all. But the role our empyrean has for us is nuking, not meleeing. We already have access to nyame if we wanna melee, and it serves the purpose far better.

I've been hoping for years for SE to make "magic critical hit rate" sets a viable option for non-bursting, but forever it was a choice of legitimate macc/MAB/INT or +magical crit rate. Rarely if ever getting both on the same piece to make such a debate even worth having. I'm still not convinced its a feasible build, but the Empy Hands definitely are a move in a direction where it can be discussed- maybe with the same "it doesn't work" result, but a conversation nonetheless.

The feet I think are a massive boon. Getting -DT in a high value number on the exact piece needed to be worn while Mana Wall is up is a great pairing. Its not like the upgraded feet now have a new use and replace something- they just do their existing job better.

And the legs I agree with you on, I'm just more optimistic. Getting real bursting stats while not losing the cumulative damage bonus on the empy legs for -ja spells will drastically help in fights like Ongo in my book. Again, the theme I see across most jobs with the Empy+2 is that these upgrades rarely give us new uses for the gear we already were using...they just allow us to use them for those purposes better.

Sure, I agree with that. But mana wall isn't something I get use out of for extended periods of time, and there really isn't a meta for blm mana wall tanking stuff. Whenever I need to use it my current set is more then sufficient to defend me and my mana restoration is plenty sufficient so I doubt I'll even notice the difference. It's the right stats on the right piece, but unlike the dancer tiara, or the ranger body, or the thief body for example... the impact on the job's performance is just much less significant.

The legs are the one piece I'll be gunning for out the gates. I definitely want the extra nuking stats for my -aga's. But the rest of the set is just...meh. I'll pick up the feet sometime because ...no reason not to. But it's one of the lowest pririties of all the empyrean pieces I have my sights on. And I doubt the magic crit on the hands will amount to anything significant, while the hat is just disappointing. Body will have to be seen, but compared to some of the better pieces in many of the other job's lists the whole set is lackluster.

Ihe thing about mana wall is that the job ability itself is the important thing. It reduces damage taken to zero. You can't reduce damage below zero, so the feet just make mana wall a bit more mana efficient. Sure that's great and all, but like I said... mana restoration is not an issue for me. When I'm nuking I have Myrkr, and when I'm meleeing I have spirit taker. If I can aspir III something I get back 1k-1200 MP on a full return, and I have the 2 lower tiers of aspir as follow up if I really need. The mp drain from mana wall isn't that big of an issue to me so that extra -10 dt on the feet is more of an eye candy than it is a major functional upgrade.

I do agree it's nice though. Just... I was hoping for more out of the set is all.

I'm not sure what gear SE could release for BLM to really fix many of the issues we all agree on. It doesn't feel like a lack of gear options that has BLM in the gutter these days- its style of content combined with game mechanics holding us back.

Honestly I just wanted the set to be ea+1 or super close to it but it's not even that the +3 more than likely gonna make us feel worse. Like it's been stated it's not even just gear it just mage job is stuff with too many stats to begin with trying to get all of them on one piece has been impossible til the legs. I just don't personally see the view when magic crit works or not it's not like a dd when they crit it just feels like normal nukes. I was hoping the most for boots to be the replacement to what we currently us but just se thinking tank mage still.
Either SE has no clue what they wanna do with mage nuking jobs or they just don't like the job. It looks the same for geo gear like nuke and geo skill everywhere for no reason.

Issues with BLM are systemic, no gear is going to fix it.

I really like the legs, finally decent nuking stats on a piece we are using anyway. Feet for mana wall which is a life saver.

Gear could fix it if they were willing to affect said systemic issues with new stats. For example, imagine a piece that made magic bursts inflict a Rayke effect for 10 seconds, or a piece that gives "Break Damage Limit" for nukes.

It's not something SE will do, but it's possible.

If we had an old school "doublecast" ability seen in prior FF installments that allowed a breaking of the damage cap that could really be some fun stuff in my book. I was also really hoping for one of the empy pieces to extend the duration of Subtle Sorcery or reduce recast- that ability does give us a nice tool, but the duration and frequency of using it is so limited that benefit is almost non-existent.

I like the hat for precast, maybe non-burst nuke too.
Legs actually get to be used again since I preferred higher nuke dmg over increased duration since we can already get recast so low.
Hat, Hands, & Feet might be nice for idling but ManaWall is still not going to lock the feet simply because Hippo. Socks exist and so does our SU4/5 weapon.

I beg pardon? Hippo Socks? I just looked them up, am I missing something?

Not to be that guy but don't we got enough non burst nuke pieces at this point? Think that's why I'm most disappointed with the gear because I thought this would be the final chance we could get a mbd2 burst set with almost all the magic stats. In turn we got just another free nuke set which let's be honest we didn't really need.

Flee. I often pull in all waves of DynaDivergence on BLM. Not having flee means we'd have a lot harder time full clearing the whole zone.

Just out of curiosity....

Mana Wall pulling, Occult Acumen set, Cataclysm cleaving?

The -16% elemental spell speed/casting time reduction on the hat is the same thing as our elemental celerity job trait. It lowers cast time but not recast time, so its strictly better to rely on fast cast in your precast set. The cap of 80% cast time reduction is the same either way, so fast cast is a better way to go. And damage wise our artifact +3 hat probably beats it (or is at worst case breakeven). The difference is 7 more MaB on the artifact versus 21 magic damage on the empyrean. But R25 Agwu's cap is flat out better, boasting 12 more magic damage and 12 more MaB than the +2 empyrean hat.

All 5 pieces are worse than rank 25 agwu's for free nuking. That was the baseline I was comparing them against when I made my earlier analysis. There are pieces in other jobs that surpass the rank 25 odyssey sets, or otherwise surpass other BiS alternatives in other sets (monk legs is new BiS TP leg for example, dancer feet is better than malignance feet, corsair legs is better than malignance legs, thief body is better than R25 nyame for rudra's storm, etc). None of our pieces surpass existing options for nuking stats, so they serve a more niche use than what most other jobs got. The legs are good for -aja's, the feet are already autoinclude in mana wall, so they make it a little better, and the jury is out on the body and hands while the hat is really not worth perusing.


This summs it up in my book. It's a free nuke set that's strictly inferior to R25 agwu's, so it doesn't push the envelope much because our existing options are already better. The legs are the most appealing to me, they just don't entice me like some of the stuff I see on other jobs.

Doesn't make sense at all. Fast cast only works for recast if it's in midcast, not precast, so it has no advantage in precast over elemental casting time.

I think the idea behind the comment is the cap having the elemental cast reduction is kinda useless either way so having a fast cast piece to finish would be better which again depends on the spell I don't use alot of fast cast on blm anyway.

More of just ManaWall pull once everything hates others, run back out to get more before it runs out. in the off-5min, ya Occult Acumen + EarthCrusher/Cataclysm depending on what happens to deal the most. Generally Cataclysm's bad on w3 mobs but fine on the first two waves. Think it's bastok that EC just does better to all three waves.

Edit: on the hat, was thinking it might be nice to precast that since it has DT-10 but thinking more, I know I wouldn't actually bother making a 2nd precast set for only elemental spells.

Exactly. If you cap spell speed it doesn't matter how you do it. The stats on the empyrean hat are no different from our existing options, and by now we have them in such vast quantities on so many pieces that capping spell speed should be a given. Fast cast just has the added benefit of affecting recast if you get caught in it for whatever reason, be it gearswap not kicking in or server lag or miscalculating the delay on lower tier nukes which already cast in less than a second or whatever else. The point is that either way, the empyrean hat offers nothing new.

Tbh if I lag in precast on nuke, I would rather have 46mab, 51macc, 21mdmg and 30 elemental magic skill, than something else with fast cast instead of elemental casting time imo.

I'll be honest I'd rather be caught on another job than those stats either way tbh.