casters: what am I missing

[NovaLevossida]

To be honest, while SMN has more buttons to hit than BLM, I find all those abilities, pet management, aethertrail management, and the like to be a lot less annoying than juggling an Enochian timer just to cast your highest tier fire / ice spells which didn't require such ridiculous upkeep pre-Heavensward. To sum up the two jobs, I think Summoner got a lot better while Black Mage just got annoying.

[Aikaal]

BLM skill level increased by over 9000. But seriously, it<s harder to maximize DPS on BLM. I'm having a blast pulling 1.1k+ in A3S right now :3 I can probably reach 1150+ with a DRG and Draconian Potions. Guaranteed if I get Selene also xD

[Iagainsti]

@Happosai Scathe, Surecast and Freeze are all clinch PvP abilities as is. Probably won't see any changes.

[Happosai]

@Happosai Scathe, Surecast and Freeze are all clinch PvP abilities as is. Probably won't see any changes.

I dont even pvp bruh lol xD

[Garotte14]

Rule of thumb should be, if you have to move longer than 2.5 seconds, you should be using scathe.

A good example of this is Ravana orbs, or having to drag your add in A1.

Obviously use your procs if you have any, and then swiftcast if it's available. But if you have neither and you have to move for a mechanic that will take longer than a single GCD, you should be using scathe. I get frustrated when I hear ppl say it's not even on their hotbar

[Lavieh]

Well, it's highly subjective on what's easier/harder.

I definitely agree that difficulty is subjective but we can measure a classes easy by their skill floors and skill ceiling.

Right now SMN has a pretty low skill floor as a well as a low Skill ceiling.

While BLM has a really high Skill ceiling.

Yea if Dot and Pet management aren't your thing then SMN will be a pest but given all things equal SMN is far easier to deal good numbers on than a BLM. Furthermore, it is a lot harder to distinguish a great SMN while a great BLM shines really bright.

[Happosai]

I get frustrated when I hear ppl say it's not even on their hotbar

I pretty much use scathe for the same reasons as you. I was talking about freeze and surecast not being on my bars as I dont pvp. Im aware surecast has a handful of uses for a handful of fights. Perhaps ill consider putting it on my bar

[Sleigh]

Right now SMN has a pretty low skill floor as a well as a low Skill ceiling.

While BLM has a really high Skill ceiling.

Yea if Dot and Pet management aren't your thing then SMN will be a pest but given all things equal SMN is far easier to deal good numbers on than a BLM. Furthermore, it is a lot harder to distinguish a great SMN while a great BLM shines really bright.

Gotta respectfully disagree about a low skill ceiling on SMN, or that BLM's skill ceiling is much higher. SMN is more formulaic, but there's plenty to min/max on it, whether that's deciding on the optimal way to spend your Aetherflow stacks per the DPS check, to keeping your pet in line, to adjusting your rotation if you have to spend your DWT sooner than the minute marks that are so easy on a dummy.

Honestly BLM isn't that hard. Extremely easy on a dummy IMO (even if most people can't seem to pull it off right). The skill floor is absolutely devastating on BLM, this is true, but once you have the basics of it down, you kind of just do that dummy rotation (keeping an eye on proc and timer allowances) and when crap happens to you, you have to adjust once or twice then go on your way until the next variance comes at you. Honestly not a large skill barrier even in savage on that, it's just damage control.

Basically, SMN is about what you can do to the enemies, BLM is about what the enemies do to you. I would be very hesitant to say SMN is as easy mode as you suggest, even though I admit in some fights SMN has a much less confusing and adaptive time than BLM will, which is about the extent of the difficulty gap on them. To this day I see streams of A3S where players have BRDs and they'll do less than me up until add phase, which is extremely strange to me but I can't believe the skill ceiling is so low if I'm outperforming players in vastly better circumstances. People for some reason said the same thing about BRD in ARR, low skill ceiling, but then you'd see some BRDs top the charts in fights they had no business doing melee level DPS.

[Happosai]

Yea if Dot and Pet management aren't your thing then SMN will be a pest but given all things equal SMN is far easier to deal good numbers on than a BLM. Furthermore, it is a lot harder to distinguish a great SMN while a great BLM shines really bright.

That pretty much sums up my conclusion. Not a fan of dot management and prefer to only worry about myself rather than have a pet to micromanage. Im fine with the blm skill requirement. Any content ive struggled with has been cleared through learning the fight. Of course I cant speak of alex savage yet as ive only tried once with a pf group and we couldnt make it to first jump but atleast my add died under my lazer everytime will continue to struggle and love blm. After all im a filthy casual xD

[Hattorii]

Don’t listen to ANY of these comments. The only true way to find out is level and play them both. Based off of that then make a decision. I am a caster… Not a blm not a smn but a caster. Do both.