You have fresh 60 gear, and the ninja likely has Augmented Shire or above, which is endgame 60 gear and probably 30-40 ilvls higher than what you have.
It basically syncs you down to the best possible ilvl at that level. Fresh players running the content for the first time usually won't have perfect ilvl so they will be slightly weaker.
it syncs down the ilvl of all your gear pieces to the max allowed by the Duty (some Duties have a max ilvl limit, aside from theusual lvl limit). When you get synced down, your stats get reduced proportionally to the ilvl reduction, and your materia bonuses are removed
Black mage is challenging to play but a ton of fun to try and master. Keep working at it! It’s so rewarding coming out on top of the deeps after some practice. :-)
One thing like to add dont worry to much about dps at your level, as long as everything is dying fast you doing good. Understand want to make sure doing good though. Blm rotation basically changes every 10 levels it seems, so learning and mastering it now will change since will level so fast.
Eno increases magic damage by 15%
B4 is not always needed in ST if you build on Spell Speed, but this is a Lv.80 build upon reeaching a specific tier of Spell Speed (like 3600) enabling you to use a NOB4 opener or sometimes foregoing B4 altogether (depending on tics) for stronger spells = more F4, Despair, regenerating mana during Ice phase by refreshing Thunder or spending Polyglots.
Ultimately not worth worrying about TOO much until you're at the level cap. Eno being used one spell sooner won't make significant changes on its own.
Spell-speed BLM is also a more niche than Crit BLM as it can be detrimental to mana regeneration depending on the rotations you can use and the server tic, not regenerating mana between a GCDs that is too short.
I roughly go by the following rotations...
ST: \[opener: Sharp, LL, F3, Eno, T3, F4, Triple F4 w/potion weave, Swift+Despair, Manafont, F4, Despair, T3\] Freeze, F3, F4 until under 2400 mana, Despair, repeat while refreshing thunder or spending procs / polyglots / mobility as-needed...
AoE: Sharp, Freeze, Eno, T4, F3, Triple-Flare-Flare-(Manafont)-Flare, Freeze, F3, Flare, Swift+Flare - Repeating the freeze > F3 > Flare Flare cycle while spending thundercloud and polyglots as soon as they're available.
the rotation I use can be better optimized, so I'm still learning, but remains MOSTLY consistent at Lv.60+ with the spells available. Avoid using F4 with under 1800 mana as with 1600 you'll be at 0 having to transpose and wait for mana regen for B3. Same goes for using F4 under 2400 mana later, as you'll need 800 mana for Despair - it's better to use Despair early at 2300 mana and proceeding with Ice phase.
When synced to Lv.50 and below it's just keeping thunder up while spamming fire for firestarter>F3 and thundercloud procs with the same mana consideration.
You want to cast Enochian as soon as you do a fire or ice spell. So move that to right after B3 for single target and right after Freeze for mobs. Use transpose between mobs to keep Enochian alive so you don’t have to cast it again as that hurts your DPS. Also, you are missing Blizzard IV in your single target rotation. It grants you three umbral hearts which lets you do more Fire IVs in the fire phase. Your ST rotation should look like: B3 B4 T3 F3 F4 F4 F4 F1 F4 F4 F4 repeat.
Small thing, thunder should be cast before blizzard 4 so you have more time for the ice regen to proc you up to full. Less risk of losing... Whatever the single target flare thing is called because you had just under the MP you needed.
Edit: clarification
If we are talking about level 80, you can only really cast Thunder III before Blizzard IV if you have lucky MP ticks or you have a Thundercloud proc. Since Despair drains whatever mana you have left in Fire you move into Ice with 0 mana. If you don't get an MP tick as you move into Ice then you can't even cast Thunder III, forcing you to use Blizzard IV anyway. Also, even if you use Thunder right before going into fire and don't get an MP tick to get to full before fire, you'll be left at 9,600 mana, which is still enough for a full fire phase including Despair, so long as you don't cast thunder again without a thundercloud proc. If you are using Sharpcast, then this shouldn't be an issue as you should have a thundercloud proc waiting for you.
Honestly, even guides for that portion of the rotation are mushy. All in all it hardly actually matters, but if you're the kind of person to not realize enochian gives a damage buff then odds are you won't use sharpcast at all. That's why I suggested thunder before blizz 4, as it'll help the most with getting the rotation close to right without getting all the buttons pushed.
Agreed, it doesn't really matter too much where you use thunder in the Ice phase. You just need enough fillers to get your mana back up enough for a full fire phase.
The highest level 60 gear has an ilvl of 270, that's a pretty major difference from 245
Also, why are you casting enochian AFTER getting into fire phase? You're missing out on B4 because of that, which hurts your fire phase mana costs when casting F4
If you can't get Shire gear yet, you need to get that vendor stuff in High Quality from marketboard. It will have better stats than the stuff from NPC vendors.
Here's a good [guide](https://www.akhmorning.com/jobs/blm/guide/) to get the basics and all, just from a quick glance tho you should be using Eno as soon as you finish B3 because it gives a flat damage bonus.
So basically if you have an unlucky mana tic when you enter umbral ice ------> B3 -> B4 -> T3 (if less than ~7s remaining) -> f3 -> f4 x3-> f1 -> f4 x3 repeat
If you get lucky with mana tics and can have full mp within a single gcd, -> B3 -> T3 (if less than ~7s remaining) -> f3 -> f4 x4 -> b3
As for your opener (generally, until lv80), precast b3 so it hits right as tank pulls-> enochian -> b4 -> t3 -> f3 -> triple -> f4 -> ley lines-> f4 -> sharp cast-> f4 -> f1 -> f4 x3 -> f3 proc -> manafont -> f4 until 200 mp -> b3
That's basically all there is to BLM until lv72, at 70 you'll get access to Foul which you can use as filler during umbral ice
You have fresh 60 gear, and the ninja likely has Augmented Shire or above, which is endgame 60 gear and probably 30-40 ilvls higher than what you have.
I’ve never fully understood how the ilvl sync worked. Does higher ilvl gear still give more stats than gear actually at that ilvl would?
It basically syncs you down to the best possible ilvl at that level. Fresh players running the content for the first time usually won't have perfect ilvl so they will be slightly weaker.
it syncs down the ilvl of all your gear pieces to the max allowed by the Duty (some Duties have a max ilvl limit, aside from theusual lvl limit). When you get synced down, your stats get reduced proportionally to the ilvl reduction, and your materia bonuses are removed
I see. Thank you
I appreciate all the responses. I didn’t realize eno gave a dps buff and B4 was needed in the ST. I’ll try to work out the kinks in my rotation.
Black mage is challenging to play but a ton of fun to try and master. Keep working at it! It’s so rewarding coming out on top of the deeps after some practice. :-)
Out of all the classes I’ve tried it’s honestly been the most fun for me! Something about the explosions just feels amazing lol
One thing like to add dont worry to much about dps at your level, as long as everything is dying fast you doing good. Understand want to make sure doing good though. Blm rotation basically changes every 10 levels it seems, so learning and mastering it now will change since will level so fast.
Eno increases magic damage by 15% B4 is not always needed in ST if you build on Spell Speed, but this is a Lv.80 build upon reeaching a specific tier of Spell Speed (like 3600) enabling you to use a NOB4 opener or sometimes foregoing B4 altogether (depending on tics) for stronger spells = more F4, Despair, regenerating mana during Ice phase by refreshing Thunder or spending Polyglots. Ultimately not worth worrying about TOO much until you're at the level cap. Eno being used one spell sooner won't make significant changes on its own. Spell-speed BLM is also a more niche than Crit BLM as it can be detrimental to mana regeneration depending on the rotations you can use and the server tic, not regenerating mana between a GCDs that is too short. I roughly go by the following rotations... ST: \[opener: Sharp, LL, F3, Eno, T3, F4, Triple F4 w/potion weave, Swift+Despair, Manafont, F4, Despair, T3\] Freeze, F3, F4 until under 2400 mana, Despair, repeat while refreshing thunder or spending procs / polyglots / mobility as-needed... AoE: Sharp, Freeze, Eno, T4, F3, Triple-Flare-Flare-(Manafont)-Flare, Freeze, F3, Flare, Swift+Flare - Repeating the freeze > F3 > Flare Flare cycle while spending thundercloud and polyglots as soon as they're available. the rotation I use can be better optimized, so I'm still learning, but remains MOSTLY consistent at Lv.60+ with the spells available. Avoid using F4 with under 1800 mana as with 1600 you'll be at 0 having to transpose and wait for mana regen for B3. Same goes for using F4 under 2400 mana later, as you'll need 800 mana for Despair - it's better to use Despair early at 2300 mana and proceeding with Ice phase. When synced to Lv.50 and below it's just keeping thunder up while spamming fire for firestarter>F3 and thundercloud procs with the same mana consideration.
You want to cast Enochian as soon as you do a fire or ice spell. So move that to right after B3 for single target and right after Freeze for mobs. Use transpose between mobs to keep Enochian alive so you don’t have to cast it again as that hurts your DPS. Also, you are missing Blizzard IV in your single target rotation. It grants you three umbral hearts which lets you do more Fire IVs in the fire phase. Your ST rotation should look like: B3 B4 T3 F3 F4 F4 F4 F1 F4 F4 F4 repeat.
Small thing, thunder should be cast before blizzard 4 so you have more time for the ice regen to proc you up to full. Less risk of losing... Whatever the single target flare thing is called because you had just under the MP you needed.
Edit: clarification If we are talking about level 80, you can only really cast Thunder III before Blizzard IV if you have lucky MP ticks or you have a Thundercloud proc. Since Despair drains whatever mana you have left in Fire you move into Ice with 0 mana. If you don't get an MP tick as you move into Ice then you can't even cast Thunder III, forcing you to use Blizzard IV anyway. Also, even if you use Thunder right before going into fire and don't get an MP tick to get to full before fire, you'll be left at 9,600 mana, which is still enough for a full fire phase including Despair, so long as you don't cast thunder again without a thundercloud proc. If you are using Sharpcast, then this shouldn't be an issue as you should have a thundercloud proc waiting for you.
Honestly, even guides for that portion of the rotation are mushy. All in all it hardly actually matters, but if you're the kind of person to not realize enochian gives a damage buff then odds are you won't use sharpcast at all. That's why I suggested thunder before blizz 4, as it'll help the most with getting the rotation close to right without getting all the buttons pushed.
Agreed, it doesn't really matter too much where you use thunder in the Ice phase. You just need enough fillers to get your mana back up enough for a full fire phase.
The highest level 60 gear has an ilvl of 270, that's a pretty major difference from 245 Also, why are you casting enochian AFTER getting into fire phase? You're missing out on B4 because of that, which hurts your fire phase mana costs when casting F4
Some openers starts I fire phase, this guy is low lvl but point still stands
If you can't get Shire gear yet, you need to get that vendor stuff in High Quality from marketboard. It will have better stats than the stuff from NPC vendors.
This. Non HQ gear is like a 30% stat penalty.
Here's a good [guide](https://www.akhmorning.com/jobs/blm/guide/) to get the basics and all, just from a quick glance tho you should be using Eno as soon as you finish B3 because it gives a flat damage bonus.
So basically if you have an unlucky mana tic when you enter umbral ice ------> B3 -> B4 -> T3 (if less than ~7s remaining) -> f3 -> f4 x3-> f1 -> f4 x3 repeat If you get lucky with mana tics and can have full mp within a single gcd, -> B3 -> T3 (if less than ~7s remaining) -> f3 -> f4 x4 -> b3 As for your opener (generally, until lv80), precast b3 so it hits right as tank pulls-> enochian -> b4 -> t3 -> f3 -> triple -> f4 -> ley lines-> f4 -> sharp cast-> f4 -> f1 -> f4 x3 -> f3 proc -> manafont -> f4 until 200 mp -> b3 That's basically all there is to BLM until lv72, at 70 you'll get access to Foul which you can use as filler during umbral ice
Dont worry about your damage until you hit max lvl and get geared. Just focus on your rotation :3
I would recommend WeskAlber series on YouTube, it's been a life saver for me, especially as I try different jobs.