The Let's Play Archive

Final Fantasy X-2

by BrainWeasel

Part 5: Job Talk 2 - Black Mage

Job Talk 2

Black Mage

HP 13th MP 1st STR 12th MAG 1st DEF 12th MDEF 2nd AGI 11th ACC 12th EVA 9th LUCK 6-7th

You know how this job works. Lots of MP, lots of Magic, elemental attacks, nothing else. Black Magic suffers from the same digitization problems as it does in FFX and basically every other FF game ever. Being tied to a fixed spell strength modifier either makes spells overpowered early or underpowered late, and your mage will founder in doldrums of uselessness between each new spell level. The most powerful Black Magic isn't even available from the job itself, but has to be unlocked every battle through Garment Grid gates. Maybe it's supposed to be for balance purposes, but this is one job that didn't really need balancing.





deals fire damage to enemies


deals thunder damage to enemies


deals ice damage to enemies


deals water damage to enemies

This is pretty much all the Black Mage has to work with. At least X-2 lets you multi-target magic spells again, so the Black Mage can clear out a whole field of enemies at once. Try boosting the damage of spells by exploiting both elemental weaknesses and combo chains.

increases user's magic by three levels

You really have no excuse not to learn this immediately and use it two or three times in every boss battle.

steals MP from one target

The other benefit of the Black Mage job is practically unlimited resources, particularly against bosses and their deep MP pools. This ability is free and 100% accurate, so osmose away. If you've been grinding AP and your spells are above the expected power curve, this helps circumvent MP limits at low levels.


decreases charge time of spells

While these definitely can't hurt, the way the ATB clock runs plus the constant animation logjams you get from all-target abilities mean you won't get the returns on these abilities you'd expect.