Thread: Dispensers of fiery explosions, light me up... with your ideas for BLM in 5.0

Originally Posted by Grimoire-M

Out of curiosity, what if you reworked UI spells to refund MP instead of costing MP while in UI, and always kept BLM's mana regeneration frozen when in either stance during combat? Then you could fix all of the problems with the UI rotation however you wanted.

nothing feels better than -not being able to regenerate MP- because the boss told you to move.

Real Magic. It feels too cookie cutter!

On the whole UI thing I think making it a bit closer to its PVP version would be fine if you had some quick regen options like those mentioned. Retaining a passive element to it would be ideal for those scenarios where the boss vanishes. I’m not really opposed to B1 becoming instant for some quick mana boosts - it’s not like the spell has a great many uses right now.

Originally Posted by Archwizard

The easiest, but not the only way. You're still working within the reasoning that Astral Fire should be reserved purely for spells of its element, despite Umbral Ice already being the best/only time for three elements.

Umbral Ice is indirectly the "Best" time for two "Elements" (Foul is unaspected so not really an element)

Before Fire IV existed and made Astral Fire function on a timer, Thunder was used in BOTH phases. That was the unique thing about a Lightning aspected spell, it was independent of phase because it didn't suffer any penalty associated with either phase.

The only limitation it faced was hard casting it during AF was a no-no because of MP usage.

Ironically, if Fire IV actually refreshed the AF timer, both Foul and TCloud would both be perfectly fine to use within AF as there would no longer be a strict number of GCD's to fit in during the phase.

Originally Posted by Archwizard

We could assume that the unprecedented "Penumbral Hearts" would be generated by Lightning spells, but when, how, and for what purpose?

If merely the question of "How are these generated?" and "What is the purpose of these?" is all that is necessary to be considered convoluted... Then Astral Hearts are currently equally "Convoluted" as no-one has yet pinned down exactly how to generate them and what to use them for.

So far there have been suggestions about having Fire IV generate them, with some suggestions being that they're only generated when you don't have Umbral Hearts (So the latter 3 Fire IV's in a rotation)

With their use ranging from suggestions such as being used for a new indeterminate spell for use specifically within Astral Fire that is or isn't a Fire spell. Or buffing Ice spells during UI (To mirror how Umbral Hearts work to buff Fire spells during AF)

Just because an exact suggestion hasn't been made about the usage of "Penumbral Hearts" doesn't make them a convoluted idea.

By the way, there also has actually been an actual straight forward suggestion about using them, unlike with "Astral Hearts" - Thunder casts generate them. New Burst spell consumes them. Potency of Burst is at least 540 (Could be more) and thus spending an extra GCD in UI to cast it is a DPS gain since it wouldn't impact your overall number of "Fire IV" spells.

Though this is merely a single suggestion. There are many more possibilities, just like there are for the nebulous "Astral Hearts" idea.

Originally Posted by Archwizard

But you cannot then turn around and complain that a stronger spell makes only a 1-2 GCD difference from the old rotation, unless you repurpose the filler spells or rework the job completely. Moving from one expansion to the next should be a series of iterative evolutions, not jarring reworks every 10 levels unless something is fundamentally broken, and we have very little room for new tools to be added in an expansion (with each one taking away space for another).

I can and will complain about such a thing though.

Given that there are possibilities to add in small numbers of skills that have more impact. I.e. If Fire IV was given a Firestarter proc for a theoretical "Fire V" that was more damaging.

That's only a single skill addition, that can affect several GCD's during AF phase...

Same could be said about just letting Fire IV refresh the timer of AF (Maybe a caveat where it doesn't generate any AF stacks, but merely adds to the timer). Which would then allow Foul and TCloud to be used within AF phase.

Heck, you could do both. Make Fire IV refresh the AF timer (Allowing use of Foul and TCloud) alongside a Firestarter trait to proc from Fire IV and make Fire I turn into Fire V.

Which would add more than just 1-2 GCD/oGCD's to the rotation, while being very minimal additions/changes to skills.

Also, I laugh when you talk about expansions not being "Jarring reworks every 10 levels" in reference to BLACK MAGE which is the job that undergoes several pretty significant gameplay shifts throughout its leveling process. Initially at level 40 when you gain access to F3 + B3, then at level 60 when you get F4 + B4 and then at 70 when you get Foul.

Originally Posted by Kalise

Heck, you could do both. Make Fire IV refresh the AF timer (Allowing use of Foul and TCloud) alongside a Firestarter trait to proc from Fire IV and make Fire I turn into Fire V.

Take off everything you get post 50, go into dungeons, and try it out.

Let me know how that works for you, because I hated Casino Mage then, and I'm not going to like it now.

Originally Posted by Kabooa

Take off everything you get post 50, go into dungeons, and try it out.

What purpose would that serve?

Given that the job is balanced around spamming Fire IV.

If you mean simply go and try out the pre-Fire IV rotation... I have. Especially recently, I was farming level 40-50 FATEs as BLM.

I personally think that level 42-59 BLM is the most fun BLM. With 1-39 BLM being utter trash and 60-70 BLM being kind of dull (Thriving purely off of being in encounters that force movement frequently to actually be interesting)

Really, my only qualm with the old combo, was the awkwardness that was reacting to the Firestarter procs, where you had to wait like a millisecond after each Fire I cast to check if a Fire III proc happened and so you couldn't queue up the cast...

Though, that could easily be solved via making the new "Firestarter" proc generate Astral Hearts instead of being a singular cast based on a temporary buff. Meaning that you can delay your reaction to the proc as you can store up to 3 charges of it. In addition, if Astral Hearts were independent of Umbral Hearts, you could even guarantee to save them throughout UI phase transition too (While old Firestarter would be consumed by the Fire III you used to get back into AF if you missed the proc and already cast B3)