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  1. #1
    Player Kerith's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    3
    Character
    Kerith
    World
    Fenrir
    Main Class
    BLM Lv 99

    Are you satisfied with Black Mage as it is currently?

    I've been a BLM since I started in FFXI, but I find myself playing the job less and less. It seems rare to see BLM being used outside of Abyseea and some older content. To be fair though I have done Incursion as a BLM and my delve group has utilized a BLM on some occasions. BLM can be good for soloing reives and is pretty decent in WKRs.

    I think the main issue that I'm concerned with is the lack of attention that BLM has gotten in the past updates. Our biggest problem seems to be Magic Accuracy against high-tier mobs. Stacking MACC instead of Magic Damage/Magic Attack seems to be a self-defeating cycle. The only way that BLM is viable in Incursion is to have a GEO alongside simultaneously boosting the BLM MACC/MAB and weakening the mob's Magic Defense.

    Some thoughts I had:
    Boost BLM elemental magic accuracy (or add Elemental Magic skill to some weapons)
    Increase the effectiveness of higher-tier spells (maybe add MACC vs high-MDEF mobs)
    Make non-elemental magic damage more effective (comet/meteor make them less of a novelty)
    Allow BLM some method of reducing the enemy's magic defense (similar to frazzle)
    Boost the potency of elemental enfeebles (burn, shock, etc)
    Reduce the recast of Enmity Douse (5 minutes would be nice, or have a way to significantly decrease the recast via merit/job points)

    BLM has some decent gear, but there hasn't been many stand-out pieces recently.
    It would be nice to see equipment that features Elemental Magic Skill, MD, MAB, INT or a combination of all.

    I do hope this doesn't come across as whining about the "good ol' days" I'd just like to see BLM as the glass cannon it was meant to be.

    Anyone else have thoughts?
    (4)

  2. #2
    Player Draylo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    778
    No, BLM needs some help. I think its on bottom of the list of jobs people say need help only because its decent in skirmish. Nobody uses BLM for practically anything anymore. It would be cool if they had certain BCNMs require magic dmg but SCH competes heavily against BLM for that anyway and they can heal/support ontop of strong nukes. AM2 is really nice for hate management but theres nothing that really requires magical dmg that can't be done in other forms like skillchains.
    (6)

  3. #3
    Player Tinytimtaru's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    13
    Character
    Timbit
    World
    Bahamut
    Main Class
    COR Lv 99
    Yeah BLM was the original job I joined this game to play.

    It's sad that its become so useless and underpowered compared to what SAMs or any other heavy DD can pump out in dmg. I'd love to see BLM burn pts come back in let's say things like Incursion, -ga nuking Liij-Vok for 80k Blizzaja would make me fall in love with this game all over again!
    (1)

  4. #4
    Player Jerbob's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    314
    Character
    Jeral
    World
    Phoenix
    Main Class
    WHM Lv 99
    I think SE have been trying a little more than usual to make magic damage viable, with mobs that take increased magic damage or require magic damage in certain phases, but players seem to just use formless strikes or /RUN. I think there needs to be an effort made to make magic damage viable across the board, instead of forcing its use to exploit weird mob gimmicks - people will always find ways to avoid taking a BLM, and that's sad.
    (0)

  5. #5
    Player Malithar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    447
    Character
    Malothar
    World
    Bahamut
    Main Class
    GEO Lv 99
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerbob View Post
    I think there needs to be an effort made to make magic damage viable across the board, instead of forcing its use to exploit weird mob gimmicks - people will always find ways to avoid taking a BLM, and that's sad.
    The problem with this approach is other jobs can provide nearly as good magic damage while bringing along much more utility, specifically Geo, Sch, and Rdm. Blm has a niche (which is stepped on by Sch) for mass mob control through Sleepga, Sleepga II, and Breakga. They can fill a DD position in a Sam solo/party by focusing on SCs and MBs as well, though so can any other caster really. Enmity Douse and Subtle Casting allows them to nuke for more than other casters before taking hate, though Sch can do something similar with it's SP2 as well. The only other unique and useful spells they bring to the table are Comet, one of 2 Dark based nukes, the other being Noctohelix, and Meteor, the only source of spell based non-elemental magic damage. They still bring other useful aspects, Stun, being fairly MP efficient with use of Aspir and Aspir II, and possibly becoming the strongest tank in existence (for 5 minutes) when JPs hit the 30 cap with Mana Wall capped.

    Blm has a lot going for it overall, its just a lot of things that other jobs do better, or do well enough while offering more. If enmity was to ever be truly fixed, perhaps they could just shape them up well enough through buffs to -jas, their own MAB/MAcc, and more unique high damage spells to make them able to compete for a DD position with melees, something that other casters can't easily do due to casting mechanics.
    (3)
    7/10/14

  6. #6
    Player Jerbob's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    314
    Character
    Jeral
    World
    Phoenix
    Main Class
    WHM Lv 99
    Hmm. I do see what you mean there. It is difficult to carve a niche without any effective specialist tools. Sadly, as you say, SE has allowed SCH to trample all over the place since its introduction so I can't see an easy way to help BLM without them all crying foul.

    I do think that approaching the problem by focusing on magic damage in general first is the right way to go. Once magic damage isn't at so much of a disadvantage in general, then BLM will probably be in a better position for us (and SE) to see what it needs to differentiate it from the other elemental magic jobs.

    If magic is more practical to use then having multiple nukers at once might be on the table again. With -ja cumulative effect bonus, Meteor and the like available, plus other suitable additions, BLMs could find their niche in groups where more than one of them is participating. In that scenario, BLM would be good as a one-in-a-group nuker but unparalleled in a team with other BLMs. That would be fun! Just an idea.
    (1)

  7. #7
    the problem is they need to get our magic damage to scale to 119 they way they have melee or even higher. throughout most of FFXI's history blm was outdoing even most SC for damage. But melees wanted to zerg and thought they should be the damage kings, so SE has been beefing melee damage over and over and over again, but largely doing nothing for nukes. Now, until Aby Blm could keep pace by stacking elemental gear that mirrored the spell and after aby you could use TOTM elemental staves to mostly make up the difference. But now with iLevel swapping 7 different gearsets really isn't viable as there is more benefit from the iLevel than there is the elemental affinity. Now, I don't want them to get us back to needing 7 different gear sets, that was asinine to begin with and with most of us playing more than 1 job frankly there isn't the swap space for all that trash. So we NEED nukes to scale up. with straight iLevel 119 gear (decently augmented if needed) we should likely be doing over 6k on a tier 5 nuke to keep pace with Sams-and historically we should be doing MORE than the Sam, the guys stuck with Tier 4 nukes should be about even with a comparably quality geared Sam. And Frankly, the difference between us and Sch tossing a tier 5 nuke should be large enough that we have our own niche to put us back in parties.

    Unfortunately I doubt it can happen, SE has a marked bias over the last four years of only listening to non-pet non-tank melees when setting priorities. and it's strange because the gist I'm getting from comments is they want to encourage more balanced parties instead of zerg only but it just keeps not happening.
    (1)

  8. #8
    Player
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    645
    I agree Blm could use some buffing, but Blm is actually kinda nice in incursion, ability to use Sleepga2+Breakga keeps things like gram droogs adds locked away quite well and help with stuns, though to be fair Sch can do this trick as well, though they usually save strategems for stun timer rather than control, and are better stunners.
    (0)

  9. #9
    Player Rubicant82's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Windhurst
    Posts
    291
    Character
    Rubican
    World
    Carbuncle
    Main Class
    BLM Lv 99
    I look at it like this;
    I can rapidly cast stone for 1100+ dmg
    in the same time that I can cast 4-5 stones a SAM can let loose at least 1 if not 2 Tachi: Fudos for about 9k ea.
    BLM and other magic damage dealers need to be able to compete with melee fighters
    (1)

  10. #10
    Player Rubicant82's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Windhurst
    Posts
    291
    Character
    Rubican
    World
    Carbuncle
    Main Class
    BLM Lv 99
    I use Stone as an example, as the t5 spells are not worth the MP for the dmg they do.
    (1)

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