They’re masters of dealing significant magical damage and crippling enemies through status effects. Black Mages are the kings of their own domain. Other jobs may dabble in the dark arts, but none can match that of the Black Mage. In FFXII: The Zodiac Age, your Black Mage can join hands with another job to further boost their power. But which license boards feel like a perfect fit for a Black Mage? Let’s swipe left and find out.
3. Black Mage + Red Battlemage
Oddly enough, it’s not generally optimal to mix mage colors in Final Fantasy XII. The exception to this is red. Adding this primary color to your Black Mage is like adding a chili pepper into the mix, which makes an already-spicy soup even spicier. All alone, the Black Mage has a fairly low amount of hit points. And the Red Battlemage doesn’t have a ton more. But when you combine these together, you get a respectable (and much safer) amount of total HP. The Red Battlemage also provides a few more pieces of heavy armor, as well as the choice to use greatswords, should you want a Black Mage that can swing big steel. Note that a lot of the Red Battlemage’s attack spells are already ones that your Black Mage has access to. But it’s the Time, White, Green, and Arcane magics that are really valuable. I mean, it’s always super handy to have another character that can heal, even if just a little bit. And the VIP of the additional spells you get from this job combo is the arcane spell Ardor. The strangle-named lovechild of Firaga and Flare, Ardor is an area-of-effect firestorm that’s one of the most potent magical attacks in the game. When you combine this with Oil (another spell the Red Battlemage has) you can really just incinerate any poor fool who dares stand against you. More importantly though, isn’t the combination of red and black just a great look?
2. Black Mage + Archer
A Black Mage in FFXII is already very well-equipped to handle flying foes. So the ability to use bows isn’t a huge deal for this job combo. But the rest of the stuff that Archer adds as a secondary job? Yeah, it’s worth checking out. Archer grants access to a lot of swiftness panels from their license board, without having to obtain (and learn) Espers. That’s an additional 20% speed right away. Archer can also use both Cura and Raise, making the Black Mage a good emergency healer – which seems kind of antithetical to the job, but when it saves your hind in battle, I don’t think you’ll mind. You can further increase your Black Mage’s destruction by using the Archer’s Addle technic, which forces an additional elemental weakness onto an enemy. Plus, the Archer-only Burning Bow makes your Firaga even better, and it’s the perfect tool against groups of undead.
1. Black Mage + Monk
It’s not unfair to say that Black Mage isn’t perfect. It’s super cool, and loves blasting things into magical oblivion. But it doesn’t have a lot of hit points. And in FFXII, its defenses are pretty lacking. Like all pure mages, it’s basically a glass canon. Fortunately for us, we can add a whole license board worth of fortification. Monk as a secondary job provides a whole heck of a lot of extra hit points to your Black Mage (at least 2000 more). And to supplement all this HP, the Monk also permits light armor, which further increases your defenses. There’s also the use of staves and poles, and when you put all that together you get a really great setup for melee – which can be useful in the early game, before you get your bigger spells. Or if you just want to lay off MP usage for a while… or if you kinda run out of MP. Great for that too. And let’s not forget that Monks can use some white magic, most notably Holy. Having Holy really rounds out your damage-dealing arsenal. It’s a perfect addition to your magical spell list. And if you like, you can change into the White Robes to make that spell even better. Or if you really want to go crazy, doing a Black Mage/Monk combo also lets you battle unarmed. And there’s something really appealing about a Black Mage who takes down enemies with their bare fists.
