Role Call, Volume 2 | Special Edition: Black Mage!

This here, if you’re new or otherwise so bored you actually decided to give this a click, is role call, where we go over the 5-stars Base you wanted, but instead got a 3-stars or 4-stars that fulfills a similar role instead. My previous two forays were on Provoke tanks, and although I’m likely doing Cover tanks next, this here edition is special because my second favorite Black Mage nudist in the game got her enhancements today, shortly after her 7-stars awakening! And all the units that fill her niche: wind chains and capping via Tornado and/or Aeroja, are all female! Hence the “hoes”.

Fun fact: playing the game since 2016 as F2P trash has been progressively better as time went on and as it got somewhat easier to acquire 5-stars units. My first ever 5-stars was a WoL I pulled in 2016… and then my first REAL 5-stars was a Gilgamesh I pulled in his first event. It wasn’t until I got Aileen and Trance Terra – both from dailies, how about that for luck – that I could start to effectively steam roll content, but I digress. Our current two best magical damage dealers are both supernatural women wearing no clothes and a bikini, and whereas eTrance Terra become death, destroyer of derrieres (minus that bullshit enhancement to Ultima), Barb…

Barbariccia

In FF IV Lore, Barbie was one of Golbez’s four Fiends, each with a respective element, a common motif in RPG (Air, Water, Fire, Earth), with Barb’s being wind (side note: why is wind’s color Green in Japanese media?). She was capable, confident and the brainwashed Kain’s friendly rival, until he turned on Golbez and she immediately tried to kill him. DRAMA!

As you level her, Barb is immune to Silence, Paralyze, and Petrify, and has 100% Wind Resistance and 50% Earth… resistance? Wait, that’s… huh. Well, she’s better than Tetra in that regard.

She can use Rods (good for her innate Rod Mastery), Staves, Whips, and Maces. If you have Marlboro’s Tentacle or the Mace of Zeus, run them through IW and toss them on her.

Her armor set is the usual: Light Shields, Hats, Clothes, Robes, Accessories.

In FFBE, Barb is one of the top magical damage dealers, with her kit being focused on the wind element. As usual with most 6-stars units, she can kinda Support as well:

*Enhancement eligible

Barbie can do some neat stuff during set up turns. If using Cyclone Shield, Barbie can prepare for physical thresholds. After using Cyclone Shield, Refreshing Winds becomes a respectable AoE mana fountain, with a “meh” heal. However, after enhancements, Cyclone Shield – which now has a not-THAT-great-but-not-terrible 25% mitigation – boosts a turn it’s in effect and additionally, is still useful for setting up Refreshing Winds, in case your team’s mana and health took a hit and your Healer/Buffer needs to fill a different role.

If you have someone like MS Nichol, the upcoming Yuraisha, eRoy, eSoleil, etc., you probably won’t be using these much, but there IS a use for slot efficiency here. And if you don’t have eMinfilia or eMarie, the Wind/Lightning resistance has niche use. Although, with the exception of… Idk, Sheratan and Echnidna, usually if you need to guard against Wind/Lightning, then the boss itself is likely a Wind-based user themselves, and I don’t need to tell you how stupid an idea it is to bring Barbie to a fight like Tetra Sylphid 3-stars. Moving on to her 7-stars stat passives:

*requires TMR equipped

Gale Mistress doubles Barbariccia’s Avian, Beast, Human, and Stone Killer (as her TMR already has those at 50%), giving her 100% Killers against those types. The additional MP is nice, and the increase to her stats with Archfiend of Wind, as well as the Doublehand boost is welcome, considering the lack of stat passives for her enhancements. Charge, she actually gained at 6-stars, and your Barbie shouldn’t be taking physical hits, but more often than not she should be able to survive – she’s uncharacteristically tanky for a Mage – and with better MAG, Zap will shred Story mobs and do a little chipping at boss health bars.

*six turn cooldown, available turn one**six turn cooldown, available turn six

Tempest Eye Wall is what you’ll chain with, skipping out on the Aeroja Cap but the boosted damage is key. Looming Tempest, like regular Cyclone Shield, is Barb’s self-sustain that allows for Triple and Auto-Refresh. Ominous Forecast is a neat AoE reflect if you lack a unit with that. Also, it comes with a massive boost in MAG for one turn, and a very respectable boost for three turns. Cyclone Shield’s self 120% boost will be up more often, but Ominous Forecast is what you want when it’s available, provided you need more DPS.

Raging Wind is an improved AeroRa, (has the “-ra” frames, not the “-ga” or “-ja” frames), and you can self cap with it, provided you’re Spark chaining, and there’s been reported issues if you’re capping a Triple Black magic chain. If you have two other DPS using Tornado chains, then Raging Wind fits fine, but otherwise with the standard two DPS, you’ll likely be using Aeroja.

Missed the enhancement batch analysis? Barbie’s other two enhancements are a modifier boost to Sunder – an ST Wind/Lightning damage finisher – and to Empress of the Winds, which added more SPR (helps her Cyclone Shield and Looming Tempest refresh abilities), confusion res, LB/Tornado modifiers. Speaking of LB, hers is an AoE Lightning and Wind Mag attack with 50% – 74% Imperil same elements, 3x – 4.2x modifier with ignore 50% of SPR base to max at 6-stars, and 75% – 104% Imperil same elements, 4x – 5.45x modifier with ignore 50% of SPR base to max at 7-stars. It chains with a dupe, but Tempest Eye wall has both a better Imperil, and it chains with Tornado, so you may prefer it to the LB. Her rewards other than fan-service and very NSFW fan art are:

Barb’s Spirit, once put on Barbie, doubles her innate killers and if you’re using Ramuh with her, her Stone Killer hits 150%. Barb’s Bangles give her an overkill of Wind Resistance, as well as increasing the damage to her Wind spells. the HP/MP help her tankiness and the flat MAG boost is always great.

Now if you have 7-stars Barbie and a “I’m sorry I brought you no clothes” gear set:

L Arm: Omnirod

R Arm: –

Head: Cat Ear Hood

Body: Cupid’s Robe

Acc 1: TITAN

Acc 2: Earrings

Materia: Adventurer III

Materia: Lunarian’s Hate (this was from the Fiends event BTW)

Materia: Sage’s Prajna

Materia: Barbariccia’s Spirit

Esper: Ramuh

HP: 9,951 | MP: 636 | ATK: 285 | DEF: 291 | MAG: 1,113 | SPR: 511

Barb’s TMR gives her 30% extra health, making her pretty beefy for a mage in ways that Shantotto envies for. Single wielding an Omnirod – yes, that old thing – gives her a MAG stat that’d be great for a 6-stars Mage, somewhat lacking for a 7-stars. With this exact same build, if you give her a light shield, she’ll gain about 40 – 70 SPR (based on the shield), and lose about 60 MAG, (again, in this build). So single wielding is viable for her, if you wanna slap a shield on her to increase her buffness, but keep in mind Barb already isn’t a glass cannon to begin with, she can take a hit or two (please note I’m referring to her HP pool, her DEF is pathetic and her SPR is… okay, actually).

Now lets take the “I brought you these and you won’t wear them anyway!” build:

L Arm: Glory of Evil

R Arm: Malboro’s Tentacle

Head: Trick Hat

Body: Great Mage’s Robe

Acc 1: Barbariccia’s Bangles

Acc 2: Genji Glove

Materia: Rod Mastery

Materia: Malboro’s Whisper

Materia: Mage’s Resolution

Materia: Barbariccia’s Spirit

Esper: Ramuh

HP: 10,596 | MP: 703 | ATK: 349 | DEF: 306 | MAG: 1,515 | SPR: 495

Now we’re talkin’! MAG DPS doesn’t quite hit the nutty 2K stats that physical DPS units do yet (I think?), but hovering around 1,500 MAG is just fine. Of note here is that Ramuh is the esper because his Killers compliment these builds. In both Builds, barbie has 150% M Stone Killer, 100% M Avian/Beast/Human Killer, 50% M Demon Killer. With the addition of Marlboro’s Tentacle combined with Ramuh’s killers in the latter build, she gains 100% M Demon Killer and 50% M Plant Killer. Neat! If you don’t have her STMR, the TITAN accessory from the Deus Ex Raid will have her with 400 less HP and 21 less MAG, so it isn’t a huge loss. Keep in mind IW takes these values higher.

Now, on to the Tornado users that aren’t a Wind Fiend from the heavens! So you pulled…

↑ Back to top ↑

Lexa? Lexia?

Despite my confusion with her name, I heart Lexa. She’s like Shylt to me: I was pulling for Sephiroth (in Lexa’s case, MS Nichol), and got so many of Lexa/Shylt that they made their way into my rotations (Shylt was my first magic tank as I never had a Mystea, so yeah… finally having a MAG tank meant I could do things like Glacial and Wicked Moon finally).

Our perpetually annoyed Modish Witch can equip Daggers, Staves, Robes, and Maces. If you have Mace of Zeus lying around with a Dual Wield gathering dust, go ahead and throw it on her.

She can wear hats, clothes, and robes. Nothing unusual here.

At 5-stars/Lv 80, she gains Confuse Immunity and a 30% Wind Resistance. Paired with Tetra, this’ll hit 80%. Neat!

As a 4-stars, she has a handful of non-DPS abilities that aren’t anything mind blowing:

Wind Sway is basically Mirage Sr., a neat emergency for thresholds. Leadership is outdated and useless, and Zephyr Mount has situational usefulness if your dedicated buffer – MS Nichol, eSoleil, etc. – doesn’t have a BarEarthga. It’s an ability, not a spell though, so no dual cast to do something else.

Fairly decent. Straightforward passives that help her offensive abilities… of which Tornado and Aeroja are the only ones you’ll be using. She has Thundaga, Blizzaga, and Darkga for clearing mobs and elemental damage missions, and Liber Magika is an elementless AoE attack which you won’t be using. Lexa’s TMR is Modish Witch, which is a 40% MAG and 20% SPR boost when wielding Rods, that synergizes well with Barbariccia, but you might have better materia for Barbie.

Lexa’s TMR is, at 6-stars, base to max, is a Wind AoE 5x – 7.4x MAG attack, that buffs wind resistance by 75% at base for three turns and 100% at max for three turns. 100% Wind Resistance is rare, and can be useful for fights like, say, Vindemiatrix (VERY FREAKIN’ USEFUL, AS A MATTER OF FACT A LIFESAVER), and Echidna (now that we have Wind Imperils that are over 50%, Tornado+Aeroja chains are a valid strategy here), where you take wind damage but the enemy isn’t necessarily going to resist it. However, as with Barbie’s Wind res buff, usually enemies that dish wind damage absorb, or resist it. It has niche uses though.

Now let’s give Lexy the clearance rack build:

L Arm: Gale Rod (canonically, this actually belongs to her)

R Arm: –

Head: Black Mask

Body: Cupid’s Robe

Acc 1: TITAN

Acc 2: Earrings

Materia: MAG +30%

Materia: HP +20%

Materia: Sage’s Prajna

Materia: Adventurer III

Esper: Tetra Sylphid

HP: 4,848 | MP: 377 | ATK: 217 | DEF: 242 | MAG: 743 | SPR: 327

These are decent, certainly eligible to do decent damage when Tornado+Aeroja chaining with a Barb or a blinged out Dupe. We’ve had free Dual Wields handed out over the last few months, so if you give her a spare, then toss another rod or Mace of Zeus on for about 90 – 100 more MAG, not pending IW boosts. Now let’s give Lexa the bad and bougie rack:

L Arm: Mace of Zeus

R Arm: Wizard Rod+

Head: Chic Summer Hat

Body: Siren’s Robe

Acc 1: Magic Amplifier

Acc 2: Ashe’s Ring

Materia: Malboro’s Whisper

Materia: True Sage’s Prajna

Materia: Dual Wield

Materia: Modish Witch

Esper: Tetra Sylphid

HP: 4,677 | MP: 558 | ATK: 291 | DEF: 246 | MAG: 1,001 | SPR: 408

We’re using Siren’s Robe for innate Silence Res, because unlike 5-stars base Mages, Lexa does not have innate nullification and if she’s Silenced, she becomes useless. As a 4-stars Mage, Lexa doesn’t have great HP, so we’re sacrificing some MAG (if you have a 5-stars Tornado user, they’re doing the brunt of the MAG work anyway) to give her endurance, as her DEF is fairly low. 1K in the MAG stat is perfectly fine for her, 558 MP is a generous amount for the MP gluttony of Tornado+Aeroja turns.

If you want additional synergy with Barbie, consider putting Barbariccia’s Bangles on her, because they’ll increase the modifier to her Tornado and Aeroja, as well as buff her HP and MP by 20%.

So Lexa’s very capable. She obviously doesn’t have the absurd damage output and top-tier imperils that Barbie does, but her niche is wind chain self capping and she does it very well. IMHO, Lexa is the best partner for Barbie simply based on she is the only other 6-stars unit in the game that knows both Tornado and Aeroja, but this is more of a subjective view on my part – I’ll elaborate later.

As for future usage, Lexy gets three cool enhancements, the first being – and I guess it made to much sense to give this to Barbariccia as well, damn it Gumi – is increasing Tornado to a 3.5 modifier at +2. At 2M Gil it’s expensive, but if you’re using Lexa, get it. The second is increasing Rod Decoration – a stat passive which WOULD’VE ALSO MADE TOO MUCH DAMN SENSE TO GIVE BARBARICCIA – increasing to +70% MAG and +40% MP when equipped with a Rod. This is pretty damn good. Her third enhancement is for Wind Sway, which at +2, increases the evade to three attacks, and two turns additional 150% damage boost to Aero, Aeroga, Aeroja, and Tornado. This stacks with her first enhancement so you’ll get this as well… JP Lexa got hooked the fuck up.

That being said, Lexy isn’t the only unit in the game that knows both Tornado and Aeroja, and that leads us to:

↑ Back to top ↑

Shantotto

I’m going to go ahead and get this out of the way: outside of Tim, the genderbent Mim, Liquid Metal “I’ll eat your attacks for breakfast and smile” Slime, and Thancred for Evasion shenanigans… you should try to avoid using 5-stars Max units. In the case of Shantotto, here’s a start:

Her weapon selection is fine. Rods, Staves, Maces.

Her armor selection is okay as well. Hats, Clothes, Robes.

In addition to the above, she has the following exclusive equipment, available during the most recent FF11 event earlier this Spring:

The Rod is forgettable by now, TMRs, STMRs, Raid events that have come since then, and Story Mode rewards (for example, the Gale Rod has 2 more MAG and didn’t require crafting or Raid farming) have exceeded it. The Omnirod Gumi is constantly shoving up our back door has 10 more MAG, so… yeah. The Robe has very serviceable stats comparable to Alma’s TMR, Lordly Robe, and Siren’s Robe from the Dark Beasts trial, with additional HP/MP for bulk and mana. The Golden Hairpin is pretty solid, an immediate upgrade over the Chocobo shop Earrings or Deus Ex’s TITAN accessory.

No innate resistances or weaknesses, no resistances to ailments.

And… no stat passives. Just innate Dual Cast. And as a 5-stars Max, she has no enhancements… odd, considering how long she’s been out, and that “Boss attacks can Lick My Sack” LMS does, as does Thancred, as does… well, you get it.

No MAG boost, MP boost, HP boost. Nothing. Her base stats, potted, are what you see and what you get, minus the gear you give her. This is a problem because true to FF XI Lore, her species – the Tarutaru – are gifted magicians but very frail. This is especially true of Shantotto, who at Lv 80, her max as a 5-stars, she barely exceeds 3,000 HP. Now, if you have True Sage’s Prajna and Malboro’s Whisper, this can be somewhat boosted with materia, and there’s a handful of accessories that boost HP and MAG as well. That being said, your Tank better be reliable because whereas Terra, Kefka, and Exdeath could survive stray blows in the good ol’ days, Shantotto was rarely capable of that, and it’s at least two years past her prime as a unit.

Shantotto learns all of the stages of the following elemental spells: Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Stone, Aero, and Water, all the way up through the “-ra”, “-ga”, and “-ja” spells, with Tornado being the odd spell out. You’ll only be using the other spells for “Deal elemental damage” missions if you’re using her for story content. Tornado+Aeroja is necessary to chain with Lexa (budget clears!) or Barb (if you have the backwards luck of a Barb, but no Lexa).

Shantotto’s TMR is MAG +30%, which we’ve received a couple of over the last few months, and is a tad bit powercrept, but not useless. Her LB is a fire/ice/thunder AoE attack and there’s no reason to use it over your wind chains.

So our arrogant mage with a hand-me-down build looks like the following:

L Arm: Iridal Staff

R Arm: –

Head: Cat-Ear Hood

Body: Tactician Magician Coat

Acc 1: Golden Hairpin

Acc 2: Earrings

Materia: HP +20%

Materia: MAG +20%

Materia: Adventurer III

Materia: Sage’s Prajna

Esper: Shiva

HP: 3,969 | MP: 400 | ATK: 205| DEF: 221 | MAG: 537 | SPR: 331

This is… not great. Shiva offers more bulk than the more frail Ramuh, but… 4,000 is usually near the minimum you want for a black mage at 6-stars. And remember, this is with an additional HP/MP +20% from her exclusive gear. The MAG stat leaves a lot to be desired and remember, this doesn’t take into account that if the boss Silences her, you’ve got a wasted turn.

Okay, let’s give our arrogant mage the baller treatment:

L Arm: Glory of Evil

R Arm: Draco Staff

Head: Trick Hat

Body: Tactician Magician’s Coat

Acc 1: Golden Hairpin

Acc 2: Genji Glove

Materia: Malboro’s Whisper

Materia: True Sage’s Prajna

Materia: Rod Mastery

Materia: Mage’s Resolution

Esper: Shiva

HP: 4,099 | MP: 437 | ATK: 297 | DEF: 218 | MAG: 799 | SPR: 313

Lexa exceeds these stats with her budget build. It is what it is. 4,000 HP is like you sprinting from a syphilitic rapist in a dark alley and you narrowly made it out into the well lit street with witnesses around with his hands one millimeter from your neck; it isn’t ideal, but it’ll do, being on the lower end of 6-stars Mage HP stats. The MAG stat ain’t great but Shantotto’s strictly being used as a sidekick here, not the main DPS. IW will likely kick up her HP (oh GOD if you’re going to use her regularly, roll HP on your rods), MP, and MAG. her SPR isn’t terrible but she isn’t in the position to be taking physical hits.

So did you get shafted?

If you can reasonably gear her: Well, Shantotto is no Barbariccia. Not even Lexa. Do you have a reliable tank that can cover? Do you have a good buffer/source of damage mitigation? Do you have a Healer with re-raise as insurance? Then no, Shantotto will take a lickin’ and need some babysittin’ but she’ll effectively do her job as the sidekick Tornado+Aeroja chainer.

If you lack Mage equipment or are a player who missed her event gear, or don’t have enough gear for multiple mages: Is your best tank like Snow or Shatal or some shit? Is your best buffer someone that’s not a 5-stars and not eMinfilia? Is your best source of damage mitigation 20% or below? Do you not have a healer with re-Raise? Then… well, you best tell lil’ ‘Totto to prepare her anus, because boss-fight-sized claws, fists, tentacles and weapons are going to unceremoniously shove their way in her already-small guts and you’re welcome for that mental image. This isn’t to say that Shantotto won’t do a good job at the Wind chains, just that she requires a bit more TLC than a 6-stars. And with low-level gear, she’s made of paper, not glass.

If you have her Livid Shantotto variation: here’s an abbreviated review: she’s noticeably less fragile than her normal counterpart, and at 7-stars is finally made of glass and not paper. She can cap Tornado chains with Aeroga V rather than Aeroja, but the moves perform similarly as far as consecutive damage boosts go. Furthermore, Livid Shantotto has 40% in MP passives, 30% in HP passives, 20% DEF passives, and a total of 120% in MAG passives if you equip her with her TMR, 80% in MAG passives without. She also has MAG doublehand, a 60% Wind/Light Imperil, some self healing and Silence/Petrify/Paralyze nullification for sustain, and… yeah. Livid ‘Totto is a damn nice upgrade, even without Aeroja.

Now for a couple of fun facts:

One, Barbie, Lexy, and ‘Totto are only units in the game that know both Tornado and Aeroja.

There’s multiple units in the game that know one or the other, but not both. And all these windy women are:

*can self cap with Aeroga, but not Aeroja

**Aeroga V, a spell that has the same consecutive-use bonuses as “-ja” spells

***Malphasie can use Thousand Wings to chain with Tornado and cap with Aeroja. I can’t think today, damn it.

Now, if you saw the formatting mess that was my first post, I obviously don’t wanna sit here comparing these guys all day because that’d be a flat out novel, and I’m not here to bore you all to death. A few of these lovely ladies can assist with tornado chains but not Aeroja, or no Tornado and just a wind magic spell to cap. Of note is that all of these units minus ‘Totto and Lexy are 5-stars, meaning that it’s more likely you’ll have Lexa or ‘Totto anyway. That being said, you can cap with Aeroga, it’s just not as high a modifier.

↑ Back to top ↑

<~>

Thus concludes my third foray into these walls of text. Any suggestions, constructive comments, or letting me have it about how I disrespected your beloved units are always welcome.

Index of Role Call! a.k.a. “Did Gumi Grind a Gungir up your Gooch?”

More for this series

• Volume 1, Chapter 1: Provoke Tanks
• Volume 1, Chapter 2: Limited Provoke Tanks

Special credit: NOSjoker21