Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn – Thaumaturge Tips Guide

If you’re looking to become a master of black magic, there’s only one class in Final Fantasy XIV that will fulfill your desires, Thaumaturge. If you opt to start as a Thaumaturge, your starting city will be Ul’Dah. The initial storyline quests will direct you to the Thaumaturge guild where you can start the class quest line. Make sure you have the level 10 class quest complete before you take the skies with the airship pass you’ll receive around level 15 through the storyline quests.

When you reach Gridania via the storyline quests, if you’ve completed the level 10 class quest, speak with the receptionist at the Archer’s guild. While it may seem odd, you’ll need an Archer at level 15 if you want to gain access to the Black Mage job when your Thaumaturge hits level 30. The best way to level Thaumaturge and Archer is to do battleleves and class quests for the first 15 levels, until you gain access to the various dungeons between levels 15 and 20. You won’t need to do very many dungeon runs with Archer, but the experience in the dungeons is very good, which allows for faster leveling.

As you level up your Thaumaturge, you’ll gradually be able to add abilities from other classes. Thaumaturge is a magic DD class, which means you’re in a party to inflict as much damage as possible. You’ll want to start most battles with Thunder. This is a damage over time (DoT) spell, which remains active for approximately 18 seconds. This is especially useful in dungeon runs because you’re generally fighting multiple enemies (mobs) at once.

As a Thaumaturge, it will be your duty to sleep the mobs during dungeon runs. However, just sleeping them is the bare minimum requirement. A normal attack will wake up a sleeping mob, but the damage inflicted from DoT spells will not interrupt their sleep. A good tank will make the order in which you should engage the mobs. Ignore the first target (marked with a 1), and open up with Thunder on the second target (marked with a 2). If you’ve leveled up a few other magic classes, you may have access to other DoT spells such as Aero (Conjurer) or Bio (Arcanist).

Use any DoT spells before you cast sleep. Not only will this give the tank more time to acquire enmity (hate) before the mob is slept, but it will also inflict a good amount of damage before the party even engages the enemy. If you’ve got three DoT spells, it’s not uncommon for a mob to lose 20-30 percent of its health before you properly engage it. If there are multiple Thaumaturges in the dungeon run, talk to other mage and determine the order in which you plan to DoT and sleep the mobs. One of you should take the number 2 mob, while the other takes number 3. If you’re the only Thaumaturge, start with number 2, then move to any remaining mobs before going back to the primary mob.

You’ll receive quite a bit of gear through the storyline and class quests, as well as through dungeon runs. As a Thaumaturge, you should focus on intelligence (INT), which increases the damage of your spells, and spell cast speed so you can cast faster. Defense and magic defense are important when you’re soloing, but in dungeon runs where most of your leveling will occur, if you have a decent tank you shouldn’t be taking much damage.

You don’t have to worry too much about MP. Anytime you attack with Blizzard, you’ll gain the effect of Umbral Ice. This increases your MP regeneration while it’s active. Your basic attack pattern should be to open with DoT spells, then use Fire for maximum damage until your MP starts to run low. At this point, use the Transpose ability to switch to Umbral Ice, then attack with Blizzard until your MP is full again. Use Transpose once more, then repeat the process, starting with Fire spells. If you run into a large group of enemies that have relatively low HP (so you don’t need to sleep them), feel free to use Blizzard II and Fire II in place of the tier one spells. These are area based spells that hit any mobs around your character.

These basic tips should help you level up your Thaumaturge quickly and easily. We’ll have more Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn starter guides coming your way all week. Stay tuned to Prima Games for all your Final Fantasy XIV needs!