While maybe the most famous class from the original Final Fantasy, the Black Mage didn't really hold up its end of the bargain in performance. Red Mages did everything important they could and then some thanks to INT not functioning: having better equipment, better durability, and can swing into physical offense in a pinch. Some parrot that Reds fall off towards the end, which is simply not true. The one advantage Black Mages have is some instant death spells - crapshoots at best in 95% of cases - and NUKE, which is of limited use and to even use it regularly you'll need levels you won't reach with any sort of normal gameplay.
In FFR, INT is now in play. It boosts spell damage by (INT÷2)% and adds (INT×2.5) to the status accuracy formula. That said? The math was still fine before, so Red Mages are still perfectly fine. Black Mages got some buffs of its own however, and unfortunately, a massive nerf I'll get into when relevant.
Prior to class change, the job may as well be unchanged. It gets the BLUFF battle command, but this is borderline pointless: it doubles INT across the party for one turn. Sounds good? The catch is Black Mage won't get to take advantage. If you're dealing damage, you're better off having the Black Mage cast too. If you're using status? Well, you can make a case I guess, but even then there's a way better option.
They also have the SORCERER trait. This increases the accuracy of elemental magic by some opaque amount; if I had to guess, it's a +80 to match the Red Mage's SABOTEUR (which I have some goddamn words for I'll say endlessly: it is bad theming for a job with little relevant status). On normal spells, accuracy determines whether the spell deals double damage. Status spells are explicitly unaffected, and it's unclear whether NUKE works with it as well. It's a nice bonus that makes them more reliable.
Name this time is Emma, to reference a character from child series Bravely Default.
I started her off with some basic stuff: a Wooden Staff, a Cloth, SLEP, and FIRE. Let's briefly talk about the spell damage formula. A spell can hit within a certain damage range; how this is listed varies between sources. In FFR, a spell's base power is the maximum it can do before doubling, and can hit between that and half. For FIRE, the range is 10-20. If it wins an accuracy roll, it will do double damage, hence the commonly listed 10-40. These numbers are multiplied by 1.5 or halved if weak to or resisted respectively.
The chance for a spell to hit is the same between status spells and offensive spells: you take 148, add 40 or set it to 0 if weak or resisted respectively, add spell accuracy, then subtract magic defense.
One of the biggest differences immediately apparent between this and the vanilla game wasn't in the new skills, but in bugfixes. In the original game, enemies woke up from sleep inmmediately. With this fixed, it now works the same as player characters: a random number between 0-80 is rolled and if it's less than their max HP, they wake up. This makes the spell usable early on (and SLP2 is still aggressively useless).
It made fighting IMPs a lot more consistent. Two problems though: hitting an enemy physically will wake them up. They'll even get a turn if they go after you. (This works in reverse too: if a player character gets hit out of sleep before their turn, they'll execute a FIGHT). For this reason, I had Emma equip a Wooden Staff! This was a point stronger than a Small Knife. Also, there is no indication on which enemies are asleep and which are awake, so you have to guess if some wake up. Or watch to see which enemies blink before their action.
My priority was just getting through the first few levels with passable stat gains. As it turned out, Emma got a perfect level on 3 and nearly perfect on 4 (missed some strong HP growth) the first try. I also had to be careful not to run out of money, which mainly boiled down to fighting more than one battle against IMPs while out. Still, it went nicely. Emma could even beat a MadPONY that would flatten most characters of her durability level by casting FIRE! This spell was enjoying the benefits of INT working and SORCERER's added chance of doubling. For example, at level 1, she was getting a boost of 10%. So instead of 10-40 damage, it would do 11-44. Modest for now, but it would quickly increase as Emma leveled. Black Mage always gains a point of INT every level, so there was no need to worry about rolling for it.
At level 4, I sent Emma into the Temple of Fiends to pick up the Cap. While it only added a single point of absorb, that still doubled her defenses. It took a few tries to pull this off. I nearly succeeded the first time, only to fail due to horrendeous run luck at the end. The second time she was near Coneria, I countered the IMPs with SLEP. It still tried to screw me over with another failed run and three waking up, but I just had Emma cast SLEP again.
After getting a bit of extra cash, I decided to take on GARLAND. I was fully confident that Emma could kill the notorious fraud himself right now, especially with the extra buffs to Black Mage. I bought a TENT and saved in front, expecting it to take a few tries.
The result? Emma did 40, and got hit for in return. Then she did 38 as GARLAND missed! Han She moved first on the first round for 28, and that was it. An easy victory. In fact, hypothetically? SLEP could be used here once he was weakened; he doesn't resist status or anything else.
I reached Pravoka on my first attempt to go there. After buying a pair of Gloves to increase Emma's absorb even further, it was time for the PIRATEs.
SLEP being usable made this an easy fight. Thankfully, enemies blink when they attack, so I could tell which stragglers to target. Due to their low absorb, every bonk with the staff was a one hit kill. Before posting this, I heard some people in the FFR Discord saying no, this doesn't work. It does work. They just got very unlucky and/or weren't alert enough to prioritize attacking things that manage to roll the escape. Of course, if too many wake up? Just cast SLEP again.
I bought ICE after, which was twice as strong as L1 spells. It was actually a little tricky to get back to Coneria. The next step was to earn 1500G. I did this with the good old KYZOKU trick, hard resetting (exiting to menu) to fight the first slot in encounter order repeatedly. It still took Emma several attempts to get through due to being so frail - too many of them were a death sentence, and SLEP was no longer reliable against their 50HP. Fighting SHARKs also helped, which she could often 1v1. Once she did build up the cash, she could go to Elfland for her next upgrade.
L3 spells hit all targets. With FIR2 in her spell list, she was handily wiping groups of enemies. I was able to have her pick up LIT2 and a Copper Bracelet. The latter is a purchase I rarely make: it costs a massive 1000G and only adds 4 absorb to someone. Only Dancer and pure mage jobs can benefit from this: everyone else gets Wooden or Chain, and it's just three points over Cloth. And said mages could instead spend that cash and 500G more on a L3 spell which will make a far greater difference. But may as well for the solo character. But with this, I decided to accelerate the grind even more!
Playing on the Peninsula of Power was a tricky endeavor for Emma. One of the easiest targets was FrWOLFs: if they didn't use their FROST special, she could wipe them in one blast of FIR2. But I managed to have her beat a group of three ZomBULLs at one point when all three somehow missed their physical. This happened after several attempts at that fight where one missed in the first round then Emma died to bad turn order, so we take those I guess.
How high to level? Really, I'm not going to try to low level this ever again, so as much as reasonable. Besides, it'll help in the later dungeons as well in spell charges, magic defense, and HP alike.
One of the worst opponents to fight here were GIANTs. They have a hefty 120 magic defense. Once when fighting four, Emma hit them all with ICE2 and survived. She moved first on the second round, only for resistance to kick in. This wasn't a problem with ZomBULLs, TROLLs, and FrWOLFs especially due to their weakness to fire and the latter's pathetically low magic defense. It's weird how I keep finding solos where these things are good to fight. It certainly helped that their chance of using FROST is actually lowish: with only 25%, odds were good of seeing few.
I sent Emma down into the Marsh Cave at level 14. She fought things that were dangerous, and ran against things that weren't. While this may sound backwards, she could easily kill the dangerous things with one of her spells. There was no sense clicking RUN against a group of SCORPIONs or GARGOYLEs, because that could fail, compared to the high chance of killing them outright with ICE2 due to their low magic defense.
The WIZARDs fell into this same category. Emma was able to one-shot all three that showed up. I never ran into a single stunning undead throughout the cave, which was pleasant to see. This was a first try attempt at the dungeon.
ASTOS was a chump. He can be a difficult fight for warriors who don't have a way to break his defenses, but the magically inclined can destroy him with status and damage. He does have a lot of magic defense, which meant Emma's ICE2s never got to double. But as soon as she landed that HOLD and it stuck, the battle was effectively over.
I ran the KEY errands and picked up FIR3 for Emma. This was a fantastic spell that was only going to make the grind go by much more smoothly. However, the biggest pickup from the KEY would be an adventure.
I've heard some people (Wrolyn in particular) vehemently advocate against returning to the Marsh Cave under any circumstances. Honestly? That's just nonsense. The Marsh Cave is not a dangerous place for most normal parties, being more of a test for how well you have prepared your party for it. Sure, there's stunning undead and some enemies hit hard, but they're entirely surmountable. They could be a problem in a solo, but if you're willing to do one and suffer through the Earth and Ice Caves, this isn't even half as difficult.
Which brings me to this. This is a massive and noticeable upgrade, and you save 5000G by going for this. You can argue against it depending on your party composition (parties that are all running Chains or better are fine just keeping those). Other than that, I feel it's worth it every time. You can put the money you save from grabbing this into spells or weapons.
As for the rest of the KEY-locked treasures? Renaissance adds a solid Bard harp here. You won't miss it much over the one in the northwest castle, and I guess that's it for the important stuff: the other two are a Silver Knife and 1020G. Still nice and like I said not too hard to get. But for a solo, I just wanted to get in and get out.
That said, I really didn't deserve to get this on the first try. A CRAWL hit Emma on the walk back and she resisted the paralysis on every single one of its seven hits! That's pretty nuts. A second one showed up and got fried before it could move, and she had to face one last group of stunning monsters before making it out, resisting a single GHOUL hit and killing them all.
After this, I went back on the grind. I can't expect that kind of luck all the time, so more magic defense would help. It went by much smoother with L5 and later L6 spells able to just obliterate the enemies on the Peninsula. I got Emma to level 24, giving her 66 MDef. It seemed fair for the Earth Cave.
It got me money to fill in her spell slots. Let's talk about this, though. I like STUN. If the enemy has or is under 300HP and doesn't resist status, it always works. It's a pretty nice finisher. But there's a big problem with it, or rather, FFR has a big problem: spells like this currently don't function properly. Their guarantee isn't a guarantee. So at this point and until that is finally fixed, I may as well stick with HOLD.
It was the third try at the VAMPIRE that made it through. As always, it was a matter of resetting until the paralysis didn't land. Emma had a major advantage over most characters as I alluded to before: instead of gambling on a RUN attempt (I had been making sure to manipulate it whenever reasonable), she could cast FIR3 (or LIT3 against COCTRICEs). It was a guaranteed way of 'escaping' from the battle, compared to the diceroll with running.
I got her up to level 25 on the outside because she was so close to the level, and obtained the ROD. Emma barely survived a group of undead on B4 and was able to reach LICH on the first try.
She moved first against the boneman with this massive fireball. One more settled it. LICH only ever got to cast his initial ICE2.
You can make a case for any order when it comes to the three midgame dungeons. That said, most will want to go for Castle Ordeals first for the beneficial equipment within, and Emma was no exception to this. The biggest thing in particular for her was going to be the Gold Bracelet. Adding a bunch of extra absorb is always worth it!
I had to deal with only one SORCERER death under sad circumstances: TRANCE into an instant recover into death. Most encounters could be easily defeated with one of Emma's spells, including the ZombieDs at the end. The dungeon being so short also meant she could attack with impunity: the dungeon was over long before she ran out of spell charges.
This bears repeating now that I have an actual class that can use spells, but as of the more recent versions of FFR, spellcasting items will no longer benefit from INT. It was changed for a bizarre reason (basically because I pointed out GHOSTs being hit by the Wizard Staff's CONF despite status-element resistance and somehow jumping to that). Whether it makes sense or is good balancing is subjective, but it is what it is now. It meant that simply spamming an unlimited spell charge would do noticeably less damage than an actual cast of the spell. They're still very good though - they always were!
Gurgu Volcano was my next stop. It's usually the best second option. Even though the equipment in there is questionable, the Fire-elemental stuff does marginally help for the Ice Cave under many full party circumstances, and it gets some extra levels in. As for solos? Well, it's easier and might get you an extra level, so you may as well. Granted, most of it would be sold by Emma, but that's still extra money for spells later. Every bit of gold can help with a mage.
Emma did have to take several trips in and out, mainly because she was going to level up. But any bit of magic defense you can muster against the paralyzing undead is a good thing. And it's more interesting than going back to the usual grind spots.
As for KARY? She is infamously resistant to all three basic damaging elements of the Black Mage. She is also weak to the status element, making her vulnerable to the likes of HOLD, SLOW, and CONF. So how to deal with her once she was locked down? Well, she resists the poison and stone elements. However, the earth and death elements are just fine. I mean yes, TMPR and FAST kills just as well. Whatever works. It was just more fun this way.
That brought Emma over to the Ice Cave which could have gone a lot worse. The MAGEs were absolutely relentless and responsible for every single reset. I didn't feel like encounter tracking to avoid them. It really shows the potential power of it though.
But oddly? Zero undead deaths or even stuns, and zero SORCERER deaths. Every time she encountered them, a single spell would destroy them in one round. I got a run through without too much trouble. Always is a relief to make it through there.
Airship access brought ICE3 into the spellbook. QAKE was a good spell to pull against the MudGOLs of the Waterfall Cave. Just like KARY, they resist the common elements but not earth. I had a very annoying death right in front of the Ribbon chest when a flock of PERILISKs SQUINTed Emma before she could zap them. Needless to say, that would never happen again once she was wearing the headwear.
So promotion: yes, no, or both? Both this time, maybe. There's a definite challenge to be had with the unpromoted run, but I want to show the absolute nonsense that Black Wizard gets after promotion because holy hell.
First, the huge nerf: they no longer take off their hats. This is unironically the biggest nerf to the class. You go from that surprisingly handsome man to an ugly copy/paste job. Literally, it was copy pasted without adjusting for the different perspective. And this is not optional: there's no secret way to take off your hat. It even retains the hair on the shoulders!
But then you check the skills. The LIMIT is whatever: MANAFONT gives you three turns of not expending (or needing) spell charges. It's better in a party setting where you won't be as high level in a solo, especially if you have something to set up with. Once per inn rest like all LIMITs.
Visiting Matoya gives the PRIMING trait. This is neat: whenever you cast a damaging spell, spells of the same element get a 50% boost to their base damage. This stacks and also works with NUKE. Granted, there isn't a lot that's going to survive more than two rounds of casting. It can be cleverly used with weaker magic though if you want to conserve spell charges.
Then... Then, there is this.
Okay, I like this in theory. ELEMENTAL SEAL gets around the action economy problem that a lot of things in FFR can have. The maximum damage thing is the important thing; there's very few enemies you can't hit in one of the three basic elements, so the resistance ignoring isn't as important. Here you can see it and PRIMING in action with NUKE: the first set of numbers is just a straight ELEMENTAL SEAL into the spell, the second is with the PRIMING bonus. However,
it works on status spells. Remember that most of the Black Wizard's status spells are instant kills. Outright status immunity does exist in FFR, but this is mostly seen on its original bosses. This speaks for itself.
The back half of the game really wasn't problematic. Pretty much every fight in the Sea Shrine could be won with a LIT3 or ICE3. I found that with PRIMING, the low level spells were fine as cleanup strikes if only one enemy remained. But usually? Those or even a NUKE were fine.
I'm still following my usual rule of no spellcasting items with promoted solos to keep things interesting. KRAKEN could be neutered with a SLOW anyway, and even HOLD if I wanted. I decided to try pushing PRIMING to the limit: this is how much a LIT3 did after 4-5 LITs into an ELEMENTAL SEAL boosted strike. Now this is extreme: in normal situations, it was going to be closer to two shots at most. Still, seeing big numbers are what we live for.
The randoms were no different in the Mirage Tower and Floating Castle. This is normally where a Black Wizard could obtain the Black Shirt, giving a absorb comparable to the Gold Bracelet while allowing unlimited free castings of ICE2. Even if I wasn't ruling those out, the bonuses to INT made the items unappealing except as cleanup strikes, and it gave less absorb than the Opal Bracelet from the Sea Shrine anyway. So it sat unobtained. I did grab the ProCape of course: more absorb is always welcome.
There was no WarMECH to harass Emma on the bridge. Shame, I wanted to show off killing it with ELEMENTAL SEAL instant death out of spite. I showed TIAMAT no mercy. BRAK is a really nice spell: it's the most accurate instant death spell of the lot with a big +64 to accuracy. Throw in her weakness to the stone element, and yeah. Again, I could've won with a bunch of NUKEs, but I was feeling ruthless.
Level 37 before the final dungeon. The last bit of the game went by real fast: I barely took any pictures and from the in-game timer, the whole thing took just under 45 minutes. That is some very suspect HP. But let's just go. I bought a Catclaw too, just in case Emma needed it.
In here, things weren't that much different from the previous two dungeons. Most notably, there were some enemies worth using BANE, QAKE, or BRAK on. WORMs were a good example: no weakness, and a damaging spell wasn't enough to one-shot, so may as well one-shot a different way. Other enemies, like the big groups of EARTHs and FIREs, were dealt with through a big elemental attack and a little one to clean up.
Here's a good example of a practical use of ELEMENTAL SEAL in action. Unless I rolled for instant death, LICH was going to be a two turn fight at the very least. But instead of spending two spell charges, I could buff up and use just one instead.
The first run through he did close to a max damage NUKE, and Emma effectively retaliated in kind. SLOW for KARY then another QAKE because why not? But she missed two SLOWs and died against KRAKEN. Second run through he wasn't as lucky.
I didn't even bother going for the Masmune. BRAK hit TIAMAT on the first try again and Emma walked over the pieces. Her fault for not resisting. If you want the math, I think Emma was at level 39 at this point. That means 58 INT, meaning 145 is being added to spell accuracy here. Plug it into the formula: [148 + 64 + 145 - 200]. Like a 78% chance of hitting.
Yeah. Identical odds for Kraken by the way, I just got incredibly unlucky with that double SLOW miss.
Now of course, like I said, ELEMENTAL SEAL could make the CHAOS fight a two-turn affair: just use it and an instant death spell, and battle won. I did want to give him a chance, though. I'd been careful to save enough NUKEs for this.
The battle started with a 508 damage NUKE against a 56 damage ICE3. Good start, and I think Emma can outrace that. He pretty much sealed his fate when he used a physical for 187 next, and Emma followed up with a 740 damage NUKE. Maybe his play was a critical hit, because another physical came out next for 134. It was smart...
...but he didn't get the job done.
Mmm, nah. I think I'll pass on the unpromoted run. It would be near identical anyway: I'd just have to use BANE on TIAMAT instead (or buff and smash), wouldn't have WARP's convenience, and would have to buff and smash CHAOS without NUKE. I'll probably do the same for all the vanilla classes because these ones are more about the demonstration. It's also why I'm not holding back with instant death and stuff for these specifically: I'm showing them at their full potential.
The INT changes do a lot for magic. With the critical hit bug being fixed on top of that, Black Mages can stand out a lot more on their own merits rather than being reduced to FAST bots by the end. Even in normal playthroughs, I noticed they were hitting thresholds they normally wouldn't. It goes for the other casters too. Red still isn't that far behind though, especially with their own nonsense. I do feel that giving incentive to actually cast instead of using spellcasting items was smart, even if how the decision came about is kinda silly. PRIMING was neat, but mostly only came into play with the solo or at the very end.
But status is kind of really stupidly dumb. Especially given that instant death runs on the same formula. That MDef fix/compromise went too far in the other direction: there sort of has to be a compromise to make Blue Mage work, but this takes it too far. 1.5xINT or even just 2x would be better I feel. It's less crazy at lower levels or with lower INT, but still. And ELEMENTAL SEAL's status cheese is something else. It stands out against the rest of the class' design: SORCERER and PRIMING are just for damaging spells. It's kind of ridiculous that stuff like this is allowed by Ozmo whereas Monk can't get simple attack buffs because that'd somehow be too broken.
Speaking of status, Archer is my next solo project here. It's one of the low points of the new classes in my opinion. Look forward to it.
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