Please add some difficulty back to BLM in 8.0

Just what the title says.

It could be longer cast times, the timer, sharpcast, mana-management, anything to make it more interesting that it currently is.

I think they could indirectly do this by just removing all the movement tools. BLM is just way too mobile for supposedly being the "turret caster". Between swiftcast, triplecast, AM and back-to-circle, it's just... eh.

I feel the class could be quite difficult to play if they just removed all those tools, without any replacement. Also would go with being, well, the turret caster.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Carighan

I think they could indirectly do this by just removing all the movement tools. BLM is just way too mobile for supposedly being the "turret caster". Between swiftcast, triplecast, AM and back-to-circle, it's just... eh.

I feel the class could be quite difficult to play if they just removed all those tools, without any replacement. Also would go with being, well, the turret caster.

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While I and a few others would like that, the modern encounter design wouldn't really allow it with its heavy movement.
You would simply punish that job and raise the skill floor instead of the skill sceiling.

I don't think it needs that much. The casttimes being longer again would already give a bit of difficulty back without taking accessibility but honestly, I think that job is due for something entirely new at this point, even as a longtime main of it.
It feels completely half finished nowadays.

I think older iterations of BLM was less about diffculty and more that the multiple avenues of gameplay from non-standard lines allowed people to kind of go "further beyond" and take min-maxing encounters to the extreme (even if the damage increase was oftentimes negligible at like a 2-4% margin that could just be crit diff). When BLM had less movement in the past, bosses made you move less for the most part.

If they could do something like that for not just BLM, but for several jobs, I would be really happy.

i guess what is consider *difficult* for you?
some may think it could be the rotation, the long casting/turret gameplay during x encounter, or just boss encounter design and/or mix of rotation/casting/boas encounter.
its hard to say, just make the job harder, without seeing what they are planning for the boss encounter. the dev choice in 7.0 was to make blm more mobile, since boss encounter require more movement now.
in the past, the job rotatiom was hard, thus boss encounter was kinda less movement to balance. thats why i felt when doing unreal fights, the older trial boss encounter was so easy resolve or even rember. since there is less overall variety of mechanics. all they did was loop them more. arr/hw trial boss.

i cooked up some suggestion in another thread https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6811140
tldr, (go to orig post for reasoning)
-remove mp needed for spells.
-add a debuff on ice spells so next 3 hit from blm will be buffed
-remove the astral gauge reseting when casting ice spell.
-thunder is either condition proc or cd based. hit hard but dont have to full upkeep the whole fight. let player choose where in the fight to cast to take full advantage of dot duration. ie, dont need to cast so often.
-remove triple cast, make that ice debuff spell instant instead.
-reduce as much ogcd, so it does not require blm to have alot of instant spell to weave.

honestly, i would wanna try something new, rather than sticking with the boring f4 spam and thunder dot upkeep we have for many expansion already. (guess why nonstd was kinda fun to do?) so whether my suggestion or dev's idea, i just wanna break the current rotation cycle and also give some flexibility to it.

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**edit** random ideas for evolve mode to reduce button bloat or make use of old unuse one

-scathe > becames the pre60 foul/xeno button to be used in lv50 cap contents. upgrades to foul/xeno as you level up from 50 to 100
-add a ogcd that switch your abilities to aoe or single target. this way all your single target button can be use on multitarget with a switch/press of a button . no more extra buttons just for aoe rotation.

>plays a caster
>mp doesn't matter

sums up about right lol.
even as healer, all caster and healer in 14 need to do is press that ogcd lucid dreaming every once a while and youre fine with mp management.
its like when they removed tp for melee atks. mp should probably need to go, so that theres more flexibility on how your spell rotation should go. no more x amount of fire spell within cycle etc etc.

What count for you "more difficulte"?

Only movement? Slow casting time? Both are more punishing the player and the group, without any reward. Why would a group take a blm with them, when they can not attack half the time (extremly sayed)?
A buddy of mine had big trouble with the blm, because his casting time was so long, he wasnt able to attack often in some raids, because of movement.

I myself had esspecialy in shb time trouble with the blm.
Whe had to keep tracks of Dot. Whe had to keep track of fire timer. Very often was only one second missing. Whe needed a extra skill to be even able to fire off Fire4.
The leylines had its own timer.
The result of all that was, that i was completly unable to play him around lvl 75.
Most story fights did i used a other class, because i had no healing ability, (is it new, that whe are healed automaicly in story fights now?), taked to much damage from the enemie and was to slow for attacks (i think i needed the lvl 60 Story quest of the blm on easy, because dmg and speed was to low).

By the 75er dungeon had i to keep track of so many timers, that i wasnt able to keep track of my surrounding anymore. What maked it impossible to play BLM for a while (i managed it after a break and re adjusting the skill position).
All the timers whe had until now had created Difficulty. But, it doesnt gave us anything. It only punished us.
Removing it created a much better feeling.

The Black mage is even the original wizard and one of the core classes. He should have a easy Access and not a hard one.
The current blm is the one who plays the most smoothly. The only things to change for it that i would had in mind is a 1,2,3 combo (dont want to only press 1 button), and give Thunderspells more love.
Maybe remove sp completly (unlikely, whe still saw it), what gives more combi Option of all 3 elements.
Maybe give us a thunder Phase, where Thunderspells become much stronger (away of DoT). Or, they are Keys to unlock other skills (the void spells, go away from the timer and whe get them, when whe use thunder spells).

Maybe, the casting time could be a bit longer again. But the way he is now dont need unnecressary difficulty. A class should be smooth. Not hard.

I also had trouble with the black mage, at first. It took me a few months to be somewhat comfortable with it.

Overcoming these challenges is the reward, in my opinion.

It felt rewarding to learn a fight and to be able to see the progress I made since I started.

one of the most iconic classes in jrpgs being one of the hardest jobs felt like a really good way to appreciate it imo.