The Black Mage/Wizard kicks a$$ (all hail the almighty NUKE!)!! The absolute worst character in FF1 is the Black Belt. He doesn't get good until about level 10, which takes ages in the NES version. I'd sooner use a Thief for his fleeing ability.Originally Posted by Black Mage FF1
Yep the Bm's in FF1 blow big time, so discuss
Talk about the worst/crappiest/useless character in FF1. AKA the Bm.
What it really boils down to for me is the fact that, despite what you may think, NUKE/Flare really doesn't do all that great of damage. Not as much as I feel it should do, at any rate. Then we factor in that a BM doesn't do more damage with his spells than a RM (since stats in FF1 do nothing; everything is based on your current Level). THEN, we factor in all the useful White spells a RM can get that a BM cannot: AFIR, AICE, ALIT, any CURE spell, LIFE, EXIT... I'll trade CURE and LIFE and EXIT for a bunch of instant-kill spells that don't work and NUKE any day.
I want to love the Black Mage, I really do. I love the concept of the faceless, Catclaw-weilding magical badass, I do. But in my experience, the Red Mage adds more to the party overall: better battle skill, better HP, better Defense, better spell selection (sans NUKE).
Which is why the best party in the game remains 3 Fighters and either a Red Mage or White Mage. GG Chaos, we're Level 19.
No profanity in sigs please.
Sigh. What profanity? I quoted Sephex's post from Eyes on Each Other from about a year ago, and any "profanity" in his post was either **** or ***** anyway. Whatever. And you wonder why forum traffic is way down.
I must say, it all boils down to where the game will be easiest. It is easier to begin with the red mage (or two) but in the end, the game is simpler with a black mage (and a white mage). In the beginning, the red mage can learn all the same spells as a black and white mage AND has much better stats. But as time goes on, he begins to weaken. His progress from level to level would look much like a "square root" graph on a calculator. He accels nowhere. He has average stats, average equipability, average magic. At the end of the game (using Kn, Ma, RW, WW), I had him using the Masamune and still doing MUCH less damage than everyone else, except WW, who was healing and stat-enhancing. I mean, for crying out loud, his best weapon is... the Sun Sword? He cant equip anything special. On the other hand, The Knight has the Excalibur, the Ninja has the Sasuke/Katana, the Master can get in about 8 hits and do more damage than a Knight with the Masamune, the Black Wizard has the Cat Claw and insanely powerful magic, and the White Wizard has Thor's Hammer. The Red Wizard is simly an easy start to the game. I would suggest as a party: Fighter(Warrior), Black Belt(Monk), White Mage, and (depending on how you want the difficulty to be in the beginning and end of the game) either the Black Mage or the Red Mage. I would only be the Theif if you are looking for a challenge in the beginning.
Firstly, I'm pleased that Unne rose to the black belt bait, as he sure didn't when I tried the thief approach. Meh.
Secondly, since Unne is right most of the time, I'm gonna back him on this one.
Well, you can have another person trying to exploit his strange weakness to BANE.-Dark_Paladin_Cecil
Alright, I've read all that crap, you know, about Kary being weak against sleep and stun, and Tiamat to Bane, and both are a hoax, I'm afraid to say. By the time you get it to work, You're gonna be dead, LIT3 style.
and Black Mage still has relatively little MP so I often hesitate to use his spells.-Sephiroth1999AD
WRONG!!!!!! If you think the BM has little MP, have you tried playing with a Red mage, for crying out loud? I remember playing a party once
that consisted of FI/RM/WM/BM. Just cause I hadn't really fooled with the Red mage all that much before, and if he sucked too badly, I had the other three that excel at what he attempts to recreate. I made it to Earth Cave before I quit that party. Ok, the most obvious point is how completely inferior he is after you get class change. Even you BM haters can't compare a blast of Nuke to his pitiful Sun Sword, which, in fact, he shouldn't be using until you get Xcalibur. Even before class change he is quite horrible. The thing I most noticed, especially at Elfland, was how expensive he is. You can try to buy him all this great stuff, Silver swords and FIR2, but he can only use one per turn. And what's more, the stats do matter, because he can barely use the sword. I remember trying to kill an ogre with it, and he did it in one hit less than 1 in 15 tries. Do you mean to say I wasted half an hour getting gold for this crap?
Besides you got to understand that Red Mage is the "jack-of-all-trades, but the master of none" -DragonFire
Oh, god, what a piece of wisdom. That should be on a fortune cookie. I LOVE this quote. I completely lost my train of thought...
Oh yes, the MP issue also becomes more pronounced the farther you go. Black Mages increase at least one spell in one level every level up.
My brother played a party similar to mine, with Black Belt instead of the White mage,(Which was crazy after level 10 or so. The fighter/BB combo is wonderful.) and when he got to the Sea Shrine, the Black Mage had 3 more LIT3's than the Red did. The Black destroyed everything while the Red healed. That was about it. And when Kraken rolled around, he didn't even use the Red's LIT3, he used fast on the Belt, and LIT3'd with the Black Mage. Three hits, one kill.
The armor comes to mind. Isn't the best armor for the Red mage the Ice/Fire armor? If you actually decide to get them, which is a pain in the ass, especially the Ice, since who stays in Ice Cave longer than they absolutely must? God only knows how pleased I was when I got out. I suppose you could settle for the Silver, which you can find in a box in Dwarf Cave. Oh boy, what a risk you're taking, going into Dwarf Cave, for some armor! Man, there are no monsters in there! Whoa, free armor, how could can that be! Honestly, how many items do you find without a fight that you can't buy somewhere? And how many of them are not the best in the game, (unless, of course, you're you're using a thief, or god forbid, a Red Mage.).
I suppose I should be boosting opinions of Black mages instead of bashing RMs.
Something to think about at the end of this sermon. Why is it that Phantoms, Eyes, ManCats, Evilmen, and Warmech, all very unpleasant to face, use spells the Black Wizard can use? Huh, it's got me baffled. Really hard magical enemies, and the Black Wizard can use them...
Besides you got to understand that Red Mage is the "jack-of-all-trades, but the master of none" -DragonFire
This deserves a medal, or a Ciddie, or something. Dragonfire, you... are.. something very, very good. Crotchety Geezer good.
Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someones neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what is that thing. - Jack Handy
Its been awhile since I have posted here. Better catch up...
Actually I prefer The Sun Sword/More Hp/ Better Defense/ The ability to cast both spell types (most spells) to 1 or 2 casts of Nuke. Actually sometimes in my party I give my Red Mage the Sun Sword and my Knight the Defense. Why? Because the Defense gives the Knight more hit% (The Defense gives 35 compared to the Sun Swords 30). If that extra 5% gives my Knight an extra hit, I give him the Defense and my Red Wiz the Sun. BTW The Sun Sword isnt that Bad.
Umm the Black Mage is more expensive then the Red Mage. The Black Mage needs all those spells, Bracelets and crap like that. The Red Mage only needs the Chain Mail, Short Sword and a few spells and he is good to go. No need to buy the Silver sword right away. You will gain enough money for it after the marsh cave or later on.
No actually the Red Mage/RW cannot equip the Ice or Flame armor. Their best armor is the Opal Bracelet.
Yes and notice how mostly all of those spells are useless. Like XXXX, Quake, Stun,Brak. OH MY! What a great list of spells! Why I wish every class can use those! Really the only useful spell that Bw has that the Rw doesnt is Nuke. Even that isnt that great.
Last edited by Black Mage FF1; 06-25-2004 at 07:24 AM.
Ok, I admit that that last enemy spell thingee was weak, but Unne left me out to dry here.
Ummm... The Black Wizard can equip the Opal Bracelet, too. I suppose with the gauntlets and such, the Red Mage will absorb more, but his evade is also weakened.
As for buying the bracelets in Elfland, they are a waste of money. You can find one in Marsh Cave. His evade is so high it doesn't really matter too much anyway, especially when on the back row. Besides, you can get the other bracelet in Melmond.
This topic has just about been exhausted. But I must say, I've never had a game where I've said, "Man, I wish I took a Red Mage!" It's usually something along the lines of, "Man, I wish I had the White/Black Mage!" You anticipate for the lack of balance while choosing your party. I suppose you can throw in a Red Mage, but I think it really comes down to how you play and what you like. We're so biased at this site. So stubborn...
Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someones neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what is that thing. - Jack Handy
You all have your opinions and i respect everyone of them. However, opinions differ from person to person. Let me tell you how it IS. Some one said earlier that blackbelt sucked and i just want to say while your fighter is fumbling with his sword my black belt is scoring 20+ hits and its critical doing about 800-900 dmg. Next in the line up is a red mage. Not because he is better than anyone. He is there to give a little extra magic boost my my group while still taking hits so the usefull characters can work unhindered. Then there is white mage for her healing, and protective powers, and black mage just blows away everything that stands in his way. I will have to admit that black mages aren't much better than red mages. However, Black Wizards are death incarnate and they are the coolest looking.
Why do hot dogs come in packs of ten but hot dog buns come in packs of eight?
Don't laugh at people's pain, laugh at their face.
I used Bane against Tiamat the last time I played, and it worked.
Black Mages suck, and Gigli was the best movie to ever come outYep the Bm's in FF1 blow big time, so discuss
Talk about the worst/crappiest/useless character in FF1. AKA the Bm.
The black mage is tied with the white mage for utility, the only spells they have over the RM are NUKE and LIF2 which are paltry conpensations for both magics and a half decent def/atk rating.
Red Mages are really bad! Near the end, they get weak(worthless equipment and low strength stats) and bad spells(only up to level 5 and not even all of them for those levels and bad magic stat), so I tend to stay away from Red Mages.
I tried this party once, and it rocked. RM/RM is better than WM/BM I think, hands down. The two RMs do about the same damage as a fighter...so it's like having 3 fighters in your party. The same cannot be said for a WM/BM. RM and WM have about the same hps, and have the same armor at the end of the game, though RM have better armor earlier on....but the RM has far better hps than a BM, and much better survivability in the early game.
As far as spells go, you don't need to use as many spells when you can attack for 1/2 fighter damage or so. Seeing as fighters kill most things in one attack, you can kill 3 things in each round with F/F/RM/RM. When you get attacked by a lot of critters, both mages have access to the elemental magics. Since I can fight through most battles easily, I don't need much black magic, and still have pleanty for healing. And being able to fast both fighters in one round is awesome...can't do that with BM/WM. You also have the option to double up on healing. Not an issue in the late late game when WM has cure4, but earlier on it can be useful.
In fact, the only times I missed having one of the pure mages is early on against the stupid undead that can paralyze you. Then I was missing WM and Harm, which is a great spell.
Of course, part of my feelings on this is due to my playstyle, I'm sure. I hate running...I generally like to fight about 95% of the battles I face. Because of that, I just don't have enough magic with BM to get very far; the reliability of RM's fighting damage is a good thing, not to mention his greater survivability compared with BM.
The RedMage cannot learn higher Lv Spells and he has lower MP than the BM does at a high lv..yeah the RDM has Melee, Whoopie Doo! He sucks at it! Black Mage is my favorite class in FFI other than the White Mage.
Its been awhile since anyone has posted on this. Anyway
Like I have said again and again. The higher level spells that the Bm can learn that the Rm cannot learn ARE NOT THAT GREAT. They are highly overrated. OMG NO NUKE? NO SABER? A SPELL THAT DOES NOT WORK? What a loss. The Rm amount of mp is not an issue at all. Yeah Bm gets a little more mp than the Rm but if you have a good party then the amount of mp the Rm has is more then enough. Oh and the Rm does not suck at melee. He has the 3rd best throughout the whole game.
Wm and Bm your favorite class!?! AHAHAHAHA! Why is that? You like weak characters who sit in just about every battle doing nothing? At least when the Rm waits for his spells to be needed (Like healing), he can attack and contribute to damage. What does the Wm do when no one needs to be healed? Sit and lose hp? Attack for terrible damage? Same goes for Bm he sucks up so much heal spells/potions. The only thing he can do is casts spells but once his mp is all up(which happens very fast) than what?
Really I wonder what is so great about the Wm and Bm.....
There is no class that sucks. They all have their ups and downs, so to say that one is better than another isn't really fair. There may be some that you're better with using, but that doesn't make him better.
For example, I knew a guy who had a team of all fighters, and he got by fine. It was easy as heck for him. I prefer to have a Fighter, BB, BM, and WM. I tried the all fighters thing, and it didn't work for me.
The only classes that I'll say that I dislike are the thief (not as much hp/phy def as Fighter) and the Red Mage. The Red Mage's fighting ability is less than that of the Fighter, and his magic ability is less than that of the white or black mage, so he's a mutt of sorts, and I'd prefer the purebred.
Feion
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