Black Mage

I need a place to get my thoughts down and seeing as how neither Jean or I has posted on this in well over a month, might as well write something.

Black Mages, like many DD jobs are currently suffering from a lack of invites into what you could consider the normal XP pt setup these days. However for BLM it's different because there are several factors affecting this.

1. The traditional XP pt is mostly dead post-Aht Urghan. Yes the good old xp pt where you make skill chains and magic bursts do not really exist once you hit Aht Urghan content. This is where BLMs shine pre-60 and now that's no longer the case. People realize it's much faster to just spam your best WS for spike damage than to coordinate TP and weapon skills and magic bursts.

2. Colibri. Yes these birds that give excellent xp in the low to mid 60 range reflect magic. Since these are what almost everyone wants to pt on this range, BLMs take a hit in invites here. This is the starting stage that contributes to their lack of invites in pts.

3. TP Burn. The truth is mp is just plain inefficient. In a TP Burn post-70 the melee jobs can just burn through a monster fast, then move onto the next. A BLM, while able to keep up damagewise with Rampages and Asuran Fists, have to rest back that mp when they're done. This creates downtime and is extremely hindering to the TPBurn pt style. The bards and main healers don't expend as much MP per battle as a BLM and due to the high refresh (sanction, items, subjobs, refresh whores) they can typically keep up with their role in a roaming TPBurn.

However what many people don't realize and as I've been pting (making all my pts) I do see people pointing this out a lot, BLMs don't just stop xping at 75. It's true you don't see them in Caedarva Mire and Bhaflau Thickets because those are both TPBurn areas. They have adapted to the Aht Urghan changes to pting and as a result can get just as much xp as a TPBurn can in their own areas. Unfortunately the BLM has to actually make it to 75 before they can join these nice areas.

Currently 68 and slowly making my way to 75, still very rare that someone wants me but pting with LS members and making pts is making the process go somewhat faster.