BLM Utility ideas!

[Seraphor]

BLM and SAM shouldn't get utility, as it would be balanced with a potency nerf.

What they could get however is some kind of selfish symbiosis, ideally one that's not directly potency related.

For example:
Tributary Lines (level 60-70 blm trait)
Each party member who stands within your Ley Lines grants themselves and you a 2% spell speed increase.

This would also indirectly encourage caster/ranged parties as they could stack in the BLM Ley Lines and increase the BLM damage, sort of like increasing their own rDPS.

[Kabooa]

BLM and SAM shouldn't get utility, as it would be balanced with a potency nerf.

What they could get however is some kind of selfish symbiosis, ideally one that's not directly potency related.

For example:
Tributary Lines (level 60-70 blm trait)
Each party member who stands within your Ley Lines grants themselves and you a 2% spell speed increase.

This would also indirectly encourage caster/ranged parties as they could stack in the BLM Ley Lines and increase the BLM damage, sort of like increasing their own rDPS.

It would directly encourage 4x Black Mage parties.

[Sylvain]

@kabooa pretty much my first thought xD

No really I want only 3 things for BLM
- much shorter server tick for mp regen.
- freeze being an aoe blizz3+4
- foul being 100% crit on main target (I just love to see it crit x_x)
And more dmg but I don't think we'll get that.

Perhaps a rework of umbral heart. It's a bit bleh as a mechanic. I think I'd rather have more damage rather than reduced mp cost. Also, if I could burn through my mana before having to do fire1 that'd be sweet.

[Remedi]

Getting perhaps a selfbuff that synchs with party buffs wouldn't hurt eh!

besides I get the feelings we might be getting an enhanced firestarter proc so tht firestarter can proc for F4 perhaps

[Maero]

Why would i want to share leylines, hmm? lol

[Shurrikhan]

Doing 7k doesn't mean a thing when the other guy does 6.8k and the dps check is 5.5k

Okay, but how much damage is dealt over that "dps check" to make it a dps check? If it's not a single one-shot-at-end-of-cast kind of ordeal, then that added damage can be, in a sense, utility. That's not to say it will be superior to rDPS bonuses in that sense, but for a job like BLM, it cannot significantly fall out of sync and is not beholden to any other job's throughput, granting it greater flexibility to deal with those situations.

Moreover, at some point, say, 400 DPS really does make a difference: once the 2nd place is only contributing the same rDPS atop its personal throughput. It can only ever add up to the rDPS of a perfectly played job among dependent perfectly played jobs without being OP, but at or even just very near to that level, it is still without loss. The only way to lose out on a independent job is to be less skilled than your party mates, just as it is to be more skilled than your party mates on a dependent/rDPS job.

[YukiKoneko]

In 1.0 THM had an ability that would buff the party's magic defense (the whole party, not single target). Things like that would be neat, but as others have said, BLM is meant as a glass cannon. Either the fights have to be turret friendly (never will happen), or BLMs need more love to be worth it.

[gumas]

i just want that single target instant cast skill back!!!

i forgot the name but it does low amount of damage (100 potency i think), not affected with your umbral status, its instant so you can cast while moving, and it has no elemental attribute whatsoever.

having an enemy with slither life left is a real pain now because i need to cast a full 3 seconds skill just to kill it where back in HW i can just use that instant single target skill

[Jonnycbad]

Scathe?

That's not utility. This thread isn't a how BLM can be made stronger thread. It's a how can BLM bring utility to the raid by enhancing other player's damage or reducing incoming damage thread.

[Shurrikhan]

Scathe?

That's not utility. This thread isn't a how BLM can be made stronger thread. It's a how can BLM bring utility to the raid by enhancing other player's damage or reducing incoming damage thread.

Those two things are one and the same in effect. Your version just happens to reduce job identity in the process, while making BLM itself stronger does not. That's why you're seeing resistance to the very premise.

It doesn't matter whatsoever whether BLM comes to read rDPS parity in a greater number of compositions as a result of pDPS or rDPS. It only matter that it ends up balanced for its overall contribution.

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The only things I want:

• Umbral Ice mana ticks now run off a client-side server tick, which ticks every half-GCD for 40% of its current (per 3 seconds) value each tick, allowing for more breakpoints at which to leave UI phases. You can still be forced to delay slightly if you swap to UI with too little mana to cast B4 or T3 and don't have Thundercloud or Foul readied, but rather than that duration lasting anywhere from .01 to 2.99 seconds, it's not consistently a half-GCD.
• Surecast and Swiftcast animation lock durations reduced slightly. This applies to all users, not just BLM.
• Enochian as a trait. Blizzard IV and Fire IV require only UI or AF, respectively. This requirement is also checked only at the start of cast. Once begun, Fire IV and Blizzard IV cannot be forced to cancel by the loss of AF or UI; the former will simply hit for less while the latter will only generate a single Umbral Heart.
• Fire IV and Blizzard IV slot-combined.
• Between the Lines and Ley Lines slot-combined. Cannot queue BtL before LL animation has started forming.
• AF %damage multiplier reduced from 40/60/80 to 30/50/60. Fire spell potencies increased to compensate. DPS unchanged.
• For symmetry and as a slight buff, Ice spell potencies increased in turn, often to the same potencies as their analogs. Most notably, Blizzard III and IV themselves now hit a little harder, which is the only really buff to maximal BLM dps included here. Greater damage on B1, B2, and Freeze as well, ofc. Freeze now situationally viable in AoE.
• AF and UI now decrease the cast times and mana costs of the opposite spell type by 20% and 25%, respectively, per stack, rather than solely by 50% and 75% at third stack. The 10% Fire damage penalty on UI also removed.
• Overall effect: Being forced to swap between UI and AF in less than ideal timings now diminishes DPS by a lesser amount, and cast times in swapping between the two are even shorter, allowing for more mobility. Slightly less dps loss from getting screwed over in terms of mobility or by interruption.