The FFXIV Black Mage Rotation Guide

Black Mage is a new job in the latest Shadowbringers expansion of Final Fantasy XIV and adventurers can unlock this job after reaching player level 30 in Thaumaturge profile. Black Mage is a complete powerhouse that can deal a lot of damage to your enemies and it has the highest DPS stats in the whole game to end a difficult boss fight in fewer attacks. Follow this FFXIV BLM Rotation to start your Black Mage rotation.



It is easy to learn the job and you can damage a single target at one time to defeat all the enemies one by one until the level is cleared. As a Black Mage, spell speed and max crit are the best slots for you as the difference between the DPS of both slots is 1%.

The base rotation of Black Mage is simple as compared to all the other jobs but it will start getting difficult as you progress in the game. It doesn’t rely on other teammates to put up the best performance and a large number of powerful resources are always there to give Black Mage a burst movement. Besides that, if you aim to boost your account speedily then you have an option to buy FFXIV Gil or FFXIV Power Leveling at a reasonable price to the level you are up and enjoy premium tools.

How to unlock Black Mage in FFXIV?

First, start the game as Thaumaturge class, then complete the job quest named “One Golem to Rule Them All” which is the main DPS role quest to achieve level 80 magical. After completing the above quest and the main scenario quest of Shadowbringers, speak to Lalai at Ul’dah – Steps of Thal (X: 12.9 Y: 13.5) to unlock the Black Mage job quest and get one step closer to your goals.

FFXIV Black Mage Rotation

Just like Red Mage, Black Mage doesn’t have a fixed rotation process but you still need to follow some guidelines to do things accordingly. After the basic rotation, there will always be room for adjustments based on procs of rotation and these adjustments will come in handy as some players want to increase the movement speed of their characters.
Mobility was a big issue for the black mage job after the first release but the latest updates included some pretty nice abilities to increase mobility. This FFXIV black mage rotation guide includes each and everything you need to perfectly rotate your black mage and get the most out of it without wasting your time.

Base rotation

There are two different parts of the base rotation and each part has its advantages. The first fire phase uses all of your mana and it cannot regenerate it but the ice phase comes in handy in this situation as it will generate enough mana to get you through.

Ice Phase

Ice phase is an important FFXIV BLM rotation phase and during this phase of Black, Mage rotation try to gain as many umbral Hearts as you can and refresh the third thunder spell from time to time. Try to save MP to cast the fourth fire spell six times by avoiding the third thunder spell at the end of the Ice Phase.
If the enemy dies or the dot has six seconds left or even the phase gets enough use, skip using the third thunder spell. Don’t use the fourth blizzard spell if there is not enough time to use the fourth fire spell six times before you kill your enemy. You are allowed to do two different fouls after using the third blizzard spell and before using the third fire spell.

Fire Phase

The firing phase of black mage rotation is a collection of six perfectly timed fourth fire spells and you can even use the first fire spell after casting the fourth fire spell three times to refresh the astral fire. Using foul in the fire phase of rotation is better when a foul will overwrite before reaching the ice phase.
Using thundercloud proc will give you benefit when you use it when the dot is finally falling off or when the proc is close to falling off. In a single-target situation, using an overwritten thundercloud proc will not make you lose any DPS, and use all your firestarter procs to get a movement speed boost.

Your goal is to cast at least six fourth fire spells during the fire phase but don’t let it distract you from using any procs that will expire soon. Mistakes are made by even some professional players so don’t worry about them and try to discover new ways to avoid all such mistakes next time.
Don’t drop your three-stack astral buff even if you have to downgrade the fourth fire spell to the first fire spell. Extend your three-stack astral buff by using firestarter procs as well as you can cast them in the end just before entering the ice phase of rotation.

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AOE Base Rotation

In AOE rotation, most players cast the fourth thunder spell, fourth thunder proc spell, and foul spell to cast the highest damage to enemies. You don’t have to wait for proc and dot timer to use the fourth thunder spell at a single target. To wait for MP while keep casting your spells, hold foul for as long as you can especially after Transpose.

You have to choose to either use swift or triple for the movement of your character or can use them to reduce the recasting time of spells. In the vacuum, a second fire spell can help you gain some extra DPS in a situation where the HP of your enemies is limited and mitigation of downtime is possible using the foul, fourth thunder proc spell, or the instant cast flare.

The main difference to note is that you usually don’t use Sharpcast for Firestarter instead of Thundercloud in the opener (it is unnecessary to keep AF at 70), and in most cases, once you reach 68, you usually don’t use Fire 2 for AoE. When you reach 66, use Swiftcast instead of Triple Cast.

Conclusion of FFXIV BLM Rotation Guide

This black mage rotation guide will help you in your journey to level your black mage but first, you will start as a Thaumaturge and can later upgrade your in-game character to completely transform it into a black mage by using soul crystals. First, upgrade your Thaumaturge to level 30 and then complete the “Taking the Black” quest as many times as you can to gather enough soul crystal to upgrade your black mage in one go.