I just want you to know...

...that I hate the Black Mage more than a goth hates himself.

Black Mage is a cruel joke. He's supposed to be this bad-ass wielder of many powerful spells. This is true 3% of the time. There's nothing I love more than having a character who has half the HP and defensive capacity of a Fighter, and the ability to do the same amount of damage as one just three times before needing to go to an inn.

At Elfland, he gets some pretty cool attack-all spells which can sometimes clear the field in a single turn. Again, he can do this about three or four times before needing to visit the inn, unless you level up way beyond the requirement for that area.

And what can the Black Mage do once those spells are exhausted? (And they almost always will be...) Stand in the back row hitting for single digit damage!

And what if you conserve the spells for when they might be needed in a boss fight? Why, same as before! Stand in the back row hitting for single digit damage, that's what! (NOTE: I'm aware that you don't conserve these spells for bosses; they're designed to make the trip to the boss easier, but once they run out you're back to attacking in the random battles anyway, and a character who dies in a boss fight after doing 3 damage isn't much fun)

It gets even better later on in the game: He gets spells that instantly kill all enemies without needing to deal direct damage, so now you can waste his MP wiping out random enemies rather than using them to help with bosses! (NOTE: Again, you won't need the MP for boss fights, but they'll still run out and leave you fighting again.)

And to top it all, the NUKE spell. An ability that deals massive non-elemental damage to all enemies. Wow, that's actually kinda useful. Too bad you have to be level 50 to use it more than three times! And at level 50 you don't need to be able to deal 300 damage to all enemies when your Fighter can deal 700 a turn! And if you've got two Fighters, NUKE is redundant anyway!

There's a silver lining behind this cloud of acid rain and whale diarrhea: Murdering Vampire in one hit with FIR3 is hilarious, and he does have access to the ever-useful FAST and TMPR spells. But wait, what's that? The Red Mage can cast those too! And he can attack for damage of more than single digits! Holy crap! Okay, so the Red Mage costs more, which is why it might be better to just bring a Thief along, who can cast FAST and TMPR later on when they're sorely needed. Man, I guess the Thief stole that silver lining.

In conclusion: The Black Mage is a rarely used liability throughout the entire game. You're probably better off with a Thief, as he upgrades to a Ninja later on, granting him access to FAST. Then there's the Red Mage, who can get this stuff right off the mark, once you can afford it all.

Anyone who's played FF5 and FFX-2 will probably tell you: Their Black Mages were utterly useless as there were stronger classes with equivalent attacks. FF9 had one, but he was soon upstaged when the White Mage learned to Summon. Black Mages look like a lame, sad rip-off of Marvin the Martian and Orko.

P.S. Lulu in FFX was actually quite useful as that game was made in a way that you had to use everyone. Go Lulu!

So far we've had a Black Belt, Black Mage and Thief hater threads. Only three more classes left to go. Mercy on the man who makes the one for Red Mages.

I like black mages. They may be pretty useless but Vivi (i know, i know, wrong game but hey) is the cutest FF character ever

BMs get lots of casts of level 1 and 2 spells (FIRE/LIT/ICE), which should replace physical attacks for them in the beginning. After Elfland or so I never run out of magic for my BM. Then the CatClaw makes BM an OK fighter later in the game. That leaves a very small part at the beginning of the game where they tend to suck, but everyone sucks early in the game.

Strictly speaking if you devote an RM entirely to Black Magic they're probably better than BMs in terms of stats. But Black Mages have a coolness factor that makes them worth using even if they are frail. The game isn't about stats, it's about fun. This is why Black Belts are still able to suck even though their stats approach or exceed a Fighter's late in the game.

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Originally Posted by Dr Unne

The game isn't about stats, it's about fun. This is why Black Belts are still able to suck even though their stats approach or exceed a Fighter's late in the game.

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True, very true. Black Belts are incredibly un-fun... except in the PSX and GBA versions; seeing them land twelve hits, with their flurry of punches animated properly and without stat modifiers is kinda fun, and this time round they don't look quite so hideous.

But hey, you get to hate Black Belts and I get to hate Black Mages. Fair do's :)

any good magic spell in FFI can be cast with an item.

Heal 2, Ice 2, Fire 2, Lit 2, Invis 2

only thing that can't is Fast.

I hate magic in FFI, and much prefer physical attackers, and because of this game, have been such way ever since, considering this was the first game I've ever played.

THE JACKEL

I think FIR2/LIT2/ICE2 just barely fail to kill some of the big groups of monsters that FIR3/LIT3/ICE3 can kill in one shot. (Groups of undead and water monsters.) Killing large groups of monsters is what magic is really good for. If only to preserve your sanity as much as possible after the 97,000th random encounter.

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Originally Posted by Dr Unne

I think FIR2/LIT2/ICE2 just barely fail to kill some of the big groups of monsters that FIR3/LIT3/ICE3 can kill in one shot. (Groups of undead and water monsters.) Killing large groups of monsters is what magic is really good for. If only to preserve your sanity as much as possible after the 97,000th random encounter.

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ok, but let's have my team use FIR2/LIT2/ICE2 all in the same round, most fights end after one round.

THE JACKEL

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Originally Posted by Dr Unne

The game isn't about stats, it's about fun. This is why Black Belts are still able to suck even though their stats approach or exceed a Fighter's late in the game.

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I fail to see how fighters are so much more fun to use than the bb. Throughout most of the game both characters do nothing more than *Fight*. Sure, after class change you can use crappy spells with the fighter. But you can easily do that with the bb by using magic casting weapons.

So, to say that the bb is boring, you would have to agree that the fighter is boring too.


Oh and I agree with the tc. The black mages suck, just like the white mages.

All hail the god that is the red mage.

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Originally Posted by Black Mage FF1

Oh and I agree with the tc. The black mages suck, just like the white mages.

All hail the god that is the red mage.

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Right out of Black Mages mouth himself!

See BB sucks to people, cause he dies easily, while fighter does not.

THE JACKEL

And then the Red Mage seems to be a Black or White mage who can wear a good amount of heavy armour, but lacking access to Nuke, which is rather useless by the time you have it, FADE, same story, or LIF2, which you won't need because if you have no BMs or WMs in the party, you don't need any good healers, ironically. Actually having a White Mage in the party is the one big thing that makes it necessary to have a White Mage in the party (uncyclopedia again). What's with that?

Don't get me wrong, I still fully and wholeheartedly concede to the point that the game's about fun. That's why I had three dead Black Mages in my party on my solo challenge; watching them stay dead was fun ^__^

How can anyone hate a Black Mage? They can balance out any party not just in FF I, but in any FF game(with the exception of VI, VII, and VIII for obvious reasons). Plus, they have strong spells. As many times I played through FF I, I always had a Black Mage on my team. I can't picture myself playing FF I without one.

How can I hate a Black Mage? Why, for all the reasons in that first post of course.

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Originally Posted by Psi

And then the Red Mage seems to be a Black or White mage who can wear a good amount of heavy armour, but lacking access to Nuke, which is rather useless by the time you have it, FADE, same story, or LIF2, which you won't need because if you have no BMs or WMs in the party, you don't need any good healers, ironically. Actually having a White Mage in the party is the one big thing that makes it necessary to have a White Mage in the party (uncyclopedia again). What's with that?

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lol thats pretty much how I feel. Whenever I bring a white mage or a black mage, thats pretty much where all my healing goes too. So there really is no need for a character dedicated to healing. A red mage with a few cure spells is more than enough.

Every character is inferior when you compare them to a fighter like that, but you don't want to play the game with 4 fighters, that's boring.

The low MP is only a problem for me for part of the game. If you need something useful for him to do, give him a magic-casting weapon.

it is not boring playing with 4 fighters... just expensive. Plus, you'd be just as well off with say, 2 fighters... seriously. I say 2 because twice the exp, half the price, and you don't have to worry about one guy getting stunned forever. Then when you make them knights, they both know cure.

Though best party ever, and fastest/easiest game is fighter, fighter, red mage, red mage.

THE JACKEL

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Originally Posted by ,,,

Every character is inferior when you compare them to a fighter like that, but you don't want to play the game with 4 fighters, that's boring.

The low MP is only a problem for me for part of the game. If you need something useful for him to do, give him a magic-casting weapon.

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Yeah I agree that four fighters is a boring team. My personal favorite is a Fi/Th/Rm/BB. No crappy white or black mages and no two of any character. That team is the most fun imo. That's pretty much a perfect team imo (Perfect team without using two or more the the same character).

Yes, I would definitely agree that the Black Mage is overrated at best. It's wonderful that he's a series mascot and everything, but he isn't too hot in battle, and this is especially true for the NES version of the game where Intelligence doesn't really do anything.

And of course, I'd rather use a Red Mage if I wanted to cast level 2 spells at random encounter # 4,529. :) :cat:

In FFV I found the black mage to be almost indispensable (the only other decent replacement was a summoner).

In FFX-2 and FFT he/she was a pretty decent support attacker, but not necessary.

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Originally Posted by robfinalfantasy

In FFV I found the black mage to be almost indispensable (the only other decent replacement was a summoner).

In FFX-2 and FFT he/she was a pretty decent support attacker, but not necessary.

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In FFV the best two magic are Time and Blue magic. If you learn all the blue magic, it's the best in the game by far. Time also has the strongest attack spell with meteor, as well as awesome support spells like haste.

THE JACKEL

This is why a smart Black Mage levels up like a madman.

I never really had a problem with Black Mages myself personally. They're alright for physical attacks early on in the game for use on enemies like goblins and skeletons, but on the stronger foes they're pretty bad, which is a problem as I tend to save MP for Garland as dropping the 30 Gil is too much to pay at that early point. Beyond that, Black Mages aren't a problem for me too much as I do a lot of levelling early on, so MP is never a problem. The only real crippling handicap for the Black Mages are the fact that they have no good armor to go with the lower HP count.

Is Final Fantasy I a game where you actually need to care how weak/strong a character is.

I mean there is a fine-line between having an inferior class and a unuseable class, but is a black mage merely an inferior class? All I gained from that post was that a black mage was inferior to a red mage. I never gained the fact he was unuseable. Unuseable as in using Edward against the final boss in FFIV, not unuseable as in difficult or choreful to use.

Now with that said, is a Black Mage an unuseable class? It may be inferior, but I think he is still useable.

He's plenty usable. I use one every time I play. I never find that he dies any more frequently than any other mage class. RM/RM/BM/BM is a fun party. I played as 4 BMs once back in the day, that was fun too.

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Originally Posted by Dr Unne

He's plenty usable. I use one every time I play. I never find that he dies any more frequently than any other mage class. RM/RM/BM/BM is a fun party. I played as 4 BMs once back in the day, that was fun too.

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Lucky, the Black Mage has one of the better looking mapman sprites. As opposed to that damn White Mage...

Black mages are amazing. Sure there atacks aren't that good. But magic is the most usfull part of the game. For example. the last attack on chaos ever time i've played is the black mages flare/NUKE

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Originally Posted by Maxx Power

So far we've had a Black Belt, Black Mage and Thief hater threads. Only three more classes left to go. Mercy on the man who makes the one for Red Mages.

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I think i'll take that chalange.