Suggestion: Upcoming BLM skills

[Marveth]

We all know all classes have their share of likes and dislikes for various reasons, BLM is certainly no different. One thing is for sure though, in the future there will be more levels added and thus more skills, so instead of screaming "Change my class entierly!" I thought maybe the solution to some of the issues raised can be mended through future skills?

For me BLM is not only about big number, but the feel and look of the class is very important. It is the mage job that meddle with dark magic and thus, while potentially dangerous is also very powerful. Now as I said powerful does not just mean big number, it does not mean being OP, it means feeling like you have this innherent magical power flowing within you to be released at your whim.

Here are some suggestions of upcoming BLM skills that would give the job a more satisfying feel at least for my personal taste. Feel free to critique and come with your own ideas.

These spella are more of a visual nature than anything else, they are not your typical DPS skills you need to constantly spam. By the looks of it, SE can cover those types of spells just fine themselves. These are the types of spell I feel lacking or even nonexistant.

• Float Useable by DoM, learned by THM (MartaDemireux just had to point out that BLM can't sub CNJ.).
  10s levitate, CD 3m.
  Allows you to cast spells while moving, also nullifies ground based attacks. (some extra violent earthshattering attacks like earthen fury will still hit you).
  I would see this as a CNJ spell as it's wind based, however it would mean BLM can't use it and that would ruin it's functionality for us, so let's put it on THM at the moment?
  
  Why this spell is needed: While it can be argued that mages must learn their positioning in difficult battles it can also be argued that a floating mage looks awesome and that this would actually be a utility spell we would have use for. Plus it will make BLM more wanted in mobility fights. Yes I know, BLM is good if you know how to play them but we are talking future updates, all jobs should be improved someway so why not make it look epic?
  
  
• Flame Cloak
  Sustainable buff, overwrites any previous cloak spell. CD 2min.
  Fire spells deal 15% more damage. Every Fire spell deals an additional DoT for 3s, unstackable.
  Visuals: Burst into flames when activated. Once sustained it leaves fiery foorprints, eyes and mouth will burn a bright flame.
  
  
• Frost Cloak
  Sustainable buff, overwrites any previous cloak spell. CD 2min.
  20% of damage recieved goes to MP, any mob that hits you in melee will be slowed for 3s and take slight damage.
  Visuals: A creeping mist enters the player when activated. Once sustained a cold mist stays around your feet, your eyes will glow white and release icy smoke.
  
  
• Lightning Cloak
  Sustainable buff, overwrites any previous cloak spell. CD 2min.
  +10% Crit chance, -10% Enmity. Every nearby enemy will be hit by a lightning strike from above roughly every 5s.
  Visuals: Electric sparks jumps between parts of your body such as between your fingers and between you and the ground. Your eyes remain normal Lightning eyes just looks weird imo.
  
  *Clarification if you fight one enemy this enemy will be hit by a lightning strike roughly every 5s, if two enemies then the first one will be hit and roughly 2,5s after that the other will be hit etc. The more enemimes you have, the more damage you do. If you have five enemies then there will be one strike every second.
  
  
• Attune to Darkness
  20s duration, overwrites any previous cloak spell. CD 5min.
  PRO:All spells have 50% chance to crit as well as no MP cost assuming you have the mp required to cast it in the first place (Flare will still set you at 0mp).
  CON:While in effect you recieve double damage and create more enmity than usual.
  Visuals: A rumbling sound as black/purple smoke start to engulf your body and red sparks can be seen coming from your body demonstrating the chaotic nature of dark magic.

I have not written specific numbers on all skills due to it being a balance matter, basically what I want is for Flame Cloak to be suitable for Single Target, Frost Cloak for Solo Play, Lightning Cloak for AOE and Attune to Darkness for risk reward Burst damage, mainly for bosses. This way all will be useable without the need to constantly switch between them like Fire and Ice currently works (Hence the 2m cooldown).

These are examples of what I want to see, while I do not expect SE to take these right off. More spells of this nature would indeed be interesting.

[Raiseplease]

I completely agree with your thought process here. I've been looking for a more "black-mage" feel to the job, which includes greater variety of spells and abilities. I think the cloak self-buff is a great idea, but it would need some balancing for sure. In general, there needs to be more elemental or "dark magic" affinity going on. A channeled spell would be nice.

[MartaDemireux]

Only problem is BLM can't use CNJ spells. They're locked in with ACN and ARC. No floating for them.

[Marveth]

Only problem is BLM can't use CNJ spells. They're locked in with ACN and ARC. No floating for them.

You know what, I did not even think of that.
You are right of course. Which sucks because float is so obviously a wind spell. Hmmm, needs some tweaking to be sure.

I completely agree with your thought process here. I've been looking for a more "black-mage" feel to the job, which includes greater variety of spells and abilities. I think the cloak self-buff is a great idea, but it would need some balancing for sure. In general, there needs to be more elemental or "dark magic" affinity going on. A channeled spell would be nice.

Now that you meantion it, is there any channeling spells at all in this game? The con of channel spells is of course that you can do nothing else while they take place. However I could see maybe a 5s channel spell that increase potency the longer it stays.

[Raiseplease]

I don't believe there are any channeled spells in the game. An idea for one, building on your cloak idea, would be a channeled "lightning storm" that, while channeled, causes thunder to randomly strike enemies every second or so within a set range of your character. These are the kind of unique spells that add flavor to the class.

[NyneAlexander]

[LIST][*]Float Useable by DoM, learned by THM (MartaDemireux just had to point out that BLM can't sub CNJ.).
10s levitate, CD 3m.
Allows you to cast spells while moving, also nullifies ground based attacks. (some extra violent earthshattering attacks like earthen fury will still hit you).
I would see this as a CNJ spell as it's wind based, however it would mean BLM can't use it and that would ruin it's functionality for us, so let's put it on THM at the moment?

This is a fantastic proposal and I support this 100%

[MartaDemireux]

I don't believe there are any channeled spells in the game. An idea for one, building on your cloak idea, would be a channeled "lightning storm" that, while channeled, causes thunder to randomly strike enemies every second or so within a set range of your character. These are the kind of unique spells that add flavor to the class.

I think I'd almost prefer to see this type of ability used with Geomancer. BLM could get some too of course but GEO being all terrainy and whatnot might get some really cool spells out of this channeling concept.

Edit: for clarification:
Earthy zone could channel a sandstorm or levitational rock storm effect.
Watery zone could channel a rainstorm or tidal effect.
Snowy zone could channel a blizzard or hail storm effect.
Hot zone could channel firenado or meteor shower effects.
Breezy zone could channel wind storms or tornado effects.
Stormy zone could do a lightning storm much like you proposed.

That's why I think it would go pretty nicely with GEO. BLM could get a constant firestream hitting conal monsters, ice shards that come up from the ground like stalagmites that grow bigger the longer the channeling and then the bigger they get the more damage they do when they explode, and a thunder effect that works kind of like fire's but with a single target?

[Terk177]

You could always make Float an ACN skill, seeing as we don't really provide any worth while cooldowns for cross class abilities. This way all DoM's would get it.

[Kurauk]

Honestly don't like these ideas at all. In fact I think some are verging on completely over powered. The idea of a shroud or "cloak" has been done before and I am not against that as it was in XI. For example Flames & Lightning, so if you got struck in combat you would deal damage back to them. I think the Lightning based one was called "Shock Spikes". I think these would be a good idea to add.

I would also remove the current AoE and go back to the old school XI style and have 'Ga spells. Maybe they could use some of the similar effects of the spells we currently have. Eg the Astral stances and the Thundercloud abilities. But not allowing procs for more AoE but for single target spells. Because being able to cast Thundaga III instantly would be OP.

I hope that wasn't to negative, I like that you are thinking ahead and trying to improve the class, but I don't feel this is the right step. But naturally I would feel my ideas are more the right step. Ha-ha.

[Marveth]

Honestly don't like these ideas at all.

While you are speaking more of an entire overhaul of the class I am trying to be realistic and see ways to improve the class simply by adding more spells. We already know more skills will be added in the future as level cap rises, we just don't know which ones.
For me at least core of a BLM is that it looks and feels poweful and that is where these spells help out.

And I too was indeed very sad the day I saw they changed Fira -ga etc to I, II, III