It’s your job gauge.
I hate to say “Google this” but one of the THM/BLM video guides should go into what the gauge does. You can also change it to a smaller gauge.
Note that the gauge will only show whether you’re in fire mode or ice mode at the moment. Later it’ll show more and more stuff related to the rest of your abilities that you unlock through level 80.
You definitely can’t get rid of it, as it’s key to playing the class.
/hudlayout will pull up the… well, HUD Layout menu. You can move, add, hide, and resize UI elements to your heart’s content (with some limits on what you can remove, as mentioned) and even have 4 different HUDs for various jobs or activities.
Welcome to the game dude. As others have said that’s your cold/heat gauge and you’ll kiiiiinda need that. ;)
Thanks all. I just need to move it then. It’s kind of in a weird spot currently. Off to play with the HUD config.
I thought I had made at least one of every class over the years. But when I was messing around last week and created a Thaumaturge and logged in with it I saw that giant thing and thought I had some weird glitch for about 15 minutes before I realized it was supposed to be there. Lol
HAhahaha nice
BLM/THM is a class I have just struggled with.
I am up to level 55 or so with my Bard, but love Machinist so I am leveling that job to continue on with.
I’ve been leveling BLM recently and, up through 42, I haven’t been very impressed. My DPS is surprisingly low for a class that’s supposed to be focused on blowing things up. I assume things get better later, but low level BLM seems really underpowered.
It’s always possible that I am just really bad at magery, but I think the issue is a combination of low potency and high cast times. Against trash mobs, it’s pretty common for them to die before a spell goes off, a straight DPS loss.
On the other hand, BLMs have been at the top of the DPS list in pretty much all the alliance raids I’ve done recently, so the class must get better as it gets more of its kit.
Edit: MCH gets quite fun at higher levels. Getting Auto-Crossbow and Bioblaster makes your AOE rotation MUCH more engaging. I really enjoyed leveling it.
FFXIV by most accounts doesn’t really pay attention to the low level experience when they’re streamlining classes to keep them manageable at level cap.
That’s definitely true and one of my complaints about the game. As the level cap expands, the "low level” portion gets bigger and bigger as they trim the number of skills available there.
They have started to do more auto-upgrading of skills, which sort of helps keep low level play interesting. For example, SCH gets Ruin, which upgrades to Ruin 3, then upgrades to Broil. Potency goes up with each upgrade so there’s a feeling of growth, but the number of skills to worry about stays constant.
I read a guide about how to play THM and here’s what it said about switching to BLM at 30:
Historically Black Mage DPS has been VERY good. There is a catch though. It’s easy to be a terrible Black Mage (their rotation actually punishes you HEAVILY for the myriad mistakes you can make at every step). Oh, and it’s difficult to be a GOOD one. Optimizing your BLM rotation requires serious study of the encounter, your job, execution… This high mastery aspect of Black Mage can be a draw or turn-off depending on the person.
Sounds like it’s tricky.
Seems to me that most classes are that way though. Looking at endgame for my Summoner main, There is something like a zillion button 2 minute rotation in order to be DPS efficient which sounds crazy to me but I’m still moving forward. That being said, I also picked up redmage along the way so if Summoner gets to be too much to casually mess around with, I can switch to something a bit less complicated.
Summoner is my main and yeah, it’s a bit complicated. They made improvements in Shadowbringers that made it more forgiving in terms of the rotation, at least.
Red Mage is more straight forward. I also found Dancer to be on the more simple/basic end which was great when I was in the mood for that.
This is all based on Shadowbringers at release, I can’t speak for any changes that may have happened during the course of the expansion.
Dancer is known to be the “push the skill that lights up” job. It won’t be optimal, but it will usually be good enough for people to not notice/complain. Great for anyone that doesn’t want to play piano. And you won’t be judged for being the bunny race.
I was admittedly drawn to the class because you level up two jobs at once, and I was interested in trying Healing. I still am, but I’m going to wait until I get to fresh content before I actively start pursuing that. Also my healing must be rusty anyway, because I failed the level 60 Duty mission twice before I realized I needed to cleanse something =)
Yeah, leveling up the two classes at once was what drew me to it too. :) Ended up really working out as I love Summoner and Scholar both.
I have had some problems with RDM. If I get flustered, I get off my dual cast and end up casting the long cast time thinking I had just cast the short one.
Yeah, when I was looking for a starting class, Summoner was not recommended because it involves a lot to keep track of. My plan is go from THM to BLM and then Redmage at 50, which is supposed to be great from what I can tell. I also want to pick up Samurai at 50 in case I get sick of playing a caster.
I’ve been surprised to find the general lack of detailed information out there regarding the game and jobs. Nothing like Wowhead or Icy Veins for sure. There are a few guides but many of them are out of date and plain wrong. And the official forum is just weird in how it’s designed.
That my Red Mage has one AoE ability at 51 is my only issue so far. I am sure like other classes it gets more complicated as you get higher. My Summoner Job is supposedly all about OGCD’s but I only have 2-4 OGCD’s on cooldowns I can use at the moment.
This may sound like complaining, and I am really not doing that. Having a lot of fun with the game still coming to the end of Heavansward. I am looking forward to the next two chapters!