Favorite Black Mage (Gameplay-wise)

[Karifean]

What it says on the tin. Ignore all story relation they might have (otherwise Vivi would win without any sort of contest), what Black Mage is your favorite in the whole series purely by how they play like?

[Saber]

Lulu has double cast on her grid right? That and 99,999 damage cap makes her the idea damage dealer. I just don't like her character that much.

[Ayen]

Still Vivi. Never had any trouble with him.

[Saber]

Still Vivi. Never had any trouble with him.

How about his ultimate spell that kills most players called "doomsday"?

[Wolf Kanno]

Still Vivi. Never had any trouble with him.

How about his ultimate spell that kills most players called "doomsday"?

You get Absorb Shadow gear on your party and you now have a character who deals max damage to the enemy while healing your party, double damage if you have Steiner use Doomsday Sword in the same round.

Yeah, Vivi might be my favorite since his Focus stacks indefinitely, his magic damage is actually quite potent (better than magic in VII and VIII at least), he's your best choice for elemental damage for most of the game, he is tied with Eiko as the best damage dealer in the game in terms of highest damage output, and he's cute as a button to boot, he can multi-hit targets (unlike Lulu), and the game is kind enough to nerf the token summoners to the point he stays viable throughout the game.

My other choice would probably be the Black Mage in FFIII (Famicom) as they do pretty good damage; and the class doesn't have much competition from other classes since Red Mage is more balanced and has harder magic choices, Caller and Geomancer are too random, and Magus and Summoner show up by the point the class is starting to become obsolete. I ended up keeping a Black Mage in my party far longer than I thought. Not to mention they cast magic like they are throwing Hadoken/Kamehameha attacks.

[Depression Moon]

I was going to say Lulu, but then Wolf Kanno pointed out how Vivi is better than her in every area outside of double casting. IX could have added in more multi enemy encounters so the multi casting could be more relevant. At the end of the game I think all monster encounters are single outside of Yans.

[Fynn]

Yeah, I don't think I have a favorite, I just like Lulu the least because she's pretty much the only one who can't target multiple enemies, and really, what other point is there to a black Mage?

[Forsaken Lover]

Yeah, I don't think I have a favorite, I just like Lulu the least because she's pretty much the only one who can't target multiple enemies, and really, what other point is there to a black Mage?

Exploiting elemental weaknesses because no other type of attack is effective.

[Fynn]

Which is important for, what, an hour into the game? In most FFs elemental advantages stop being a thing part-way through and the real use of a black Mage become full-party damage. Lulu fails in that regard.

[Shiva95]

Lulu because of her dual-casting ability, and she's also very strong even without it. She's closely followed by Rydia (I love that she can use eidolons) and Vivi.

[Spuuky]

Rydia has summons and is able to get to reach physical defense stats that are nearly impenetrable for whatever reason, so she's always been my favorite black mage.

[Forsaken Lover]

Which is important for, what, an hour into the game? In most FFs elemental advantages stop being a thing part-way through and the real use of a black Mage become full-party damage. Lulu fails in that regard.

Elemental weaknesses never stop being useful in FFX until...um, Zanarkand?

Also maybe those other FF games are just terrible for letting you bruteforce everything by mashing X.

[Fynn]

Funny. I remember Wakka and Aurom being able to smash through anything before Lulu even got her 3rd-tier spells

[Depression Moon]

From what I recall, but it's been a hell of a long time, there are enemies from beginning to end in Final Fantasy X that are highly resistant to physical attacks. You have Dark Flans in that cave right before Zanarkand, I think robots are weak to lightning, and then those weird elemental creatures, and Wraiths are weak to magic too.

[Saber]

Reasons for Lulu
1. You can have 99,999 HP, 9,999 MP.
2. Her ultima spell hits all targets. Ultima is a black magic.
3. She can have 1 MP cost.
4. She has double cast and Fury Brand overdrive
5. Her attack can be just as powerful if you train her right.

[VeloZer0]

I'll go with FF4. When I am looking at a fight using black magic only makes sense if the MP cost of the spell is less than the MP I would have to spend to heal the extra damage I take by duking it out with melee weapons. FF4 was one of the few games that actually made spending the MP in random encounters worth it.

[crashNUMBERS]

https://youtu.be/-5TMMP4uOYE


The guitarist

[Elly]

Lulu without a doubt... she was the first useful BM ever in the series... before her, managing enough MP to keep up with the brawlers was near impossible unless you wanted to spend mad loads of Gil on the most expensive Recovery items in the series (MP Recovery items)... no, until Lulu, Black Mages were completely useless, especially early game...

[Depression Moon]

You are definitely, definitely wrong about black mages being useless until Lulu. Right now I'm playing V and had 0 trouble maintaining MP. My black mage in V is actually the strongest one on my team.

Before that with IX, similar thing there and IX out of most Final Fantasys there is never really a problem with keeping enough MP because the game gives you way too much Ethers. I mean way too much.