nicoraynor

@Valence: Thank you for some of the clarity. This game has a great deal to absorb and its ncie to find a sense of direction. Some of it us very much on me to note the sometimes quick details that rush by. I've been very excited to play the game since starting a couple of weeks ago, but I have to admit; WoW has tarnished my playstyle a great deal and I've been rushing through the lore. Something you mentioned: As for how hard it is to cast a spell... How hard is it to be a monk and open a chakra? How hard is to be a bard and sing a powerful and moving battle song? I'm afraid we don't have much clues about that except that well... it's a job, it has specific skills that have to be learned and mastered. This is sticking with me; it stands to reason that if any class were simply too overtaxing in combat to be viable, it wouldn't even be viable from a lore perspective. Like becoming doctor suddenly requiring a storehouse of knowledge exceeding 100x the current needs and reducing the number of available doctors to near zero. I'd think that being a black mage/rogue/samurai, etc would be a job that anyone could train in and master with proficiency.

Thanks for the reply. As to my sources; they are other players ingame who I've come across in the short time I've been playing. That said, I'll check the Eorzean Encyclopedia to serve as a source for further information. Your description of the Black Mage strongly suggests that it doesn't require much on the part of the mage to cast such powerful spells. I'd think, again just purely from what little information I have thus far, that black mages are just enabled to do so, either by innate natural talent or via the soulstone, or both. I've seen other instances in these forums stating that the practice of black magic is illegal and there is a quest line in the Black Mage path that references the pursuit and knowledge as being "forbidden", but aside from that, there's nothing outright stating "illegal". That said, the general community I've run across as well as random players seem to accept this as "fact". It's also entirely possible I may have completely missed a reference ingame to that effect as well. And please, I welcome holes being poked in crap. I want to have a character that has both license to explore creativity within the lore while being faithful to the source material's intent.

New to Eorzea and Black Mage lore, but as I'm writing my character, I'm running into some conflicting perspectives of how magic works from different sources. The question really comes down to: How easy is it for a thaumaturge / Black Mage to cast spells in either simple demonstrations and sustained combat? From an outside perspective, I feel like there should be some measure of balance; weaker spells are easily cast and can be done so repeatedly without even beginning to tip toward being exhaustive while stronger spells take more effort unless experienced or nuanced to the character within the constraints of the lore. Black magic requires the use of a soulstone and tapping the soulstream so that itself needs some clarity as to how easy it is for a black mage to wield that kind of magic. I would think a more experienced black mage would have little concern for even casting stronger spells, but with an obvious upper limit to again keep within the constraints of lore. The acquisition of the soulstone itself is more or less irrelevant I suppose as any attempt to use black magic without one would be more or less lethal from what I've seen on these forums. In short, my character has a soulstone and I'm actively working to resolve the character's story to make it reasonably plausible from a lore perspective that they'd complete whatever task necessary to get it. I'm loosely familiar with the idea that Black Mages tap the soulstream to cast their spells, but some people tell me this can be done with ease while others state that its terribly exhausting. Both feel wrong to me; too easy and everyone would do it. Too hard and no one would do it. I'm sure there's a healthy medium but the question is where does that middle ground lie? Even the class quests suggest that Black mages wield their magic with relative ease and it seems to be driven by the idea they are constantly striving for more and more destructive power. I want my mage to eventually become powerful, but not at the risk of lore-breaking or godmodding so any information that brings some clarity to this would be greatly helpful! Thanks!