Losing eno? Being forced out of Leylines? This guide does nothing for you, then! However, if you’re looking for a Black Mage Best-in-slot gear guide – you’ve come to the right place! It’s kind of sad that Spell Speed was nerfed quite a bit, but what can we do…
Navigation: Black Mage BiS
BLM BiS | Discussion | Esoterics Buy Order | Crafted
Heavensward Black Mage Best-in-Slot
As an unspoken rule to this BiS list, Goetia Gear <=> Gordian Gear serve as natural filler gear to each other.
| BLM Slot | BiS SS | BiS CRIT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Gordian Staff | value | Gordian Staff |
| Offhand | - | - | - |
| Head | Gordian Crown of Casting | value | Gordian Crown of Casting |
| Body | Goetia Coat | value | Goetia Coat |
| Gloves | Gordian Gloves of Casting | value | Gordian Gloves of Casting |
| Belt | Gordian Belt of Casting | value | Gordian Belt of Casting |
| Legs | Gordian Brayettes of Casting | Goetia Chausses | |
| Boots | Goetia Thighboots | value | Goetia Thighboots |
| Neck | Gordian Necklace of Casting | value | Gordian Neckband of Casting |
| Earrings | Fabled Earrings of Casting | value | Fabled Earrings of Casting |
| Bracelet | Fabled Bracelet of Casting | Gordian Wristband of Casting | |
| Ring | Fabled Ring of Casting | value | Fabled Ring of Casting |
| Ring | Gordian Ring of Casting | value | Gordian Ring of Casting |
| Food | Marron Glace / Creme Brulee | Baked Pipira Pira |
BLM BiS Discussion, Notes & Options
I placed a CRIT BiS on the right side. I feel either set is really poweful, and it’s up to you to test it out. I personally cannot recommend either, and use your research/experience to find out what works with your personal preference / team strat. SS build DOES have the added functionality of possibly saving yourself from dropping ENO once in a while.
“B-b-but Mahiko Senpai how can there be 2 BiS!?” Chill – the difference is two damn items.
Item wise, there isn’t much difference between sets, since they share the same sub-goal of AVOID DET. BLM’s out there, let me know which set seems to perform better for you! It’s quite easy to eventually get both sets up and running… since again, two items… The only downside to the crit build is an overcap of ACC.
Personally, I feel SS is better when your teams strategy allows you to tunnel with near max uptime (and provides a small margin of error for ENO drops), while CRIT is better for groups who are unaware of the special needs children we call BLM.
It’s hard to discuss each piece of gear as a single entity (in the case of BLM). As I mentioned CRIT and SS scales off themselves quite a bit. But here’s a few slots worth discussion…
Weapon: Lunaris Rod will MAYBE do better for a pure SS build. It’s never bad to own one – but my gut feeling says Gordian Staff will win regardless of build.
Legs: Honestly owning both isn’t a bad call. They’re integral to either set above. Use the ESO if you’re way over ACC, use the Gordian otherwise. I can’t even call it an accuracy ‘FILLER’ since the stats are crazy.
However, from here on, discussions will focus on the SS set. (though optimal filler buys to complete the crit set will be noted)
A1S Pages: Neck > Wrist (for Crit) > filler
A2S Pages: Gloves > Belt > 3x Gobcoat
A3S Pages: Legs > Head > 2x Gobtwine > Filler (+1 Gobtwine for Crit)
A4S Pages: Weapon > Gobdip > Body
3.0 Black Mage Esoterics Buy Order
If you’re wondering what to buy with the ESO you’ve saved up for your BLM:
- Weapon: Lunaris rod might not be BiS, but its pretty damn close. Worth every ESO spent.
- Body: Careful when buying these since they provide zero accuracy.
- Boots: No accuracy here, either….
- Accessories: Bracelet > Earring > Ring
- Everything else is OPTIONAL and non-bis
- Legs for crit set, acc filler to boot.
BLM Melded Gear Viability? VIT Accessories?
You want your Black Mage to be less squishy huh? We identify the “worst” accessories in your BiS, to replace with crafted. That would be the Gordian Ring of Casting and Fabled Earring of Casting. So replace them with… (This is for the Spellspeed freaks)
Chrysolite Earrings of Casting: VIT IV | VIT IV | VIT IV | SS IV | SS IV
Chrysolite Ring of Casting: VIT IV | VIT IV | VIT IV | SS IV | SS IV
BLM Crafted 180 Left: Melding and notes
While these things cost an arm and a leg, I might as well put it up. If you’re poor you can downgrade the materia.
Aurum Regis Circlet of Casting: CRIT IV | CRIT IV | CRIT IV | ACC III | ACC III
A great filler piece. It caps at +12 accuracy. The last 2 slots can be the above or…
1) ACC IV + CRIT IV
2) CRIT IV + CRIT III (disregard bonus accuracy)
Astral Silk Doublet of Casting: SS IV | SS IV | ACC/CRIT IV | ACC/CRIT IV | ACC/CRIT IV
poor stats, again, you can inject accuracy in there anywhere,
Astral Silk Dress Gloves of Casting: SS IV | SS IV | SS IV | SS IV | SS III
Not too bad. Can still cap SS, and it comes naturally with capped ACC.
Griffin Leather Corset of Casting: ACC IV | SS IV | SS IV | SS IV | SS III
Surprisingly good for BLM. Again, with the melds above, it becomes quite good.
Astral Silk Bottoms of Casting: SS IV | SS IV | CRIT IV | CRIT IV | CRIT IV
It’s maxed out on ACC, but you’re not capping crit on these without V’s. If you’re rich…
Griffin Leather Boots of Casting: SS IV | SS IV | SS IV | SS IV | SS III
This meld caps SS, but it does fit +12 ACC if you feel like it.
Summary of Usefulness:
Head: Value investment. ACC CRIT SS? Yes please.
Body: Better than 190 if melded crit, but 0 accuracy will be hard. You’re buying ESO anyway. SKIP These.
Hands: 190 smashes this. Don’t bother with these.
Belt: Amazing filler piece that can last you a long time.
Legs: SOLID choice especially if A3S is a long way. Meld with SS > CRIT and you’re good to go!
Boots: While possibly solid, the 190 will OUTDPS this (the only upside of this piece is ACC).
To be honest, all the pieces are surprisingly ‘usable’ for BLM. If you’re one of those BLM’s mad for crit, check out the Summoner BiS for crit-centric melds.
Navigation: Black Mage BiS
BLM BiS | Discussion | Esoterics Buy Order | Crafted
Good luck gearing up your Black Mage! Remember, BLM’s greedy for one last cast – never get loot!!
If SS is to be prioritized, why not have 2 primal rings of casting? 1 Augmented, and 1 regular. Then you’d have 97 SS from your two rings combined (+51 i240 ring, +46 i230 ring) instead of the 63 SS you have listed here. Just wondering if the 51 ACC is that important. Or at least as important as maximizing SS.
This is an option, though it isn’t always a “welcomed” one. The unaugmented ring trick is OKAY. I tackle great pains before recommending it on these posts, though. Would you like to hear ’em? haha
Howdy! Do you plan to update this, taking into account the gear for 3.3, or is this BiS still relevant for the new patch? Thanks in advance!
The only possible change 3.3 can have is the relic weapon. It is better than Midan but not by a huge margin. Some could argue that it’s not that significant or may not even be an upgrade at all.
Will update the BiS’s
Awesome! Thanks so much for the reply! :D
Where is a good place to get quicktongue v materia? The market board never has any of the quicktongue’s.
If you use HQ Apple Strudel as your food again, you can replace one of those ACC V materia Melds with a Crit V
Summoner BiS Mahkio-san <3
Error: There is no Goetia Neckband of Casting. (Clicking on it takes you to Gordian Neckband of Casting).
Right! Typo fixed, – but the xivdb tooltips don’t seem to be working… lemme see what’s up with this.
If you are going for a huge amount of Spell Speed the better weapon choice would be Lilith Rod Zeta with Spell Speed on it.
unless I misunderstand what you’re referring to. dread and zeta weapons have the same spell speed.
Your BLM General Guide & FAQ links here as well, is that intentional?
Not intended! Thanks for the heads up.
Happy to help!
There’s a mistake, casting gloves drop from t12 not t10
In ring section there’s the Diamond Earrings in the accuracy fillers ಠ_ಠ
melded :), though use the i110’s now