Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

Astral Fire will reset as the spell is finished casting, not hitting in 3.2 and it's 12 seconds.

http://imgur.com/JNemAV4

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Originally Posted by Undeadfire

Astral Fire will reset as the spell is finished casting, not hitting in 3.2 and it's 12 seconds.

http://imgur.com/JNemAV4

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So the thing I posted last page was a new thing. Cool. At least I know to cap spell speed whenever I feel like there is meaningful content to do in this game.

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Originally Posted by Undeadfire

Astral Fire will reset as the spell is finished casting, not hitting in 3.2 and it's 12 seconds.

http://imgur.com/JNemAV4

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Seems to be the magic 0.5 mark when it decides if the spell completes or not.

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

Looks like AF/UI never "drop," so no more ghetto MP ticks. UI should simultaneously be smoother at times but harder overall, it looks like T1 > B4 might fail possibly for two guaranteed ticks. What this means is we have to be super adaptive, holding our press of F3 at times, or switching to the more expensive T2 which we may not always have MP for anyway. Just speculation, no clue if it will really work out like this.

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A habit which I picked up very early in my BLM career before I even read anything about the job and still do it to this day. I'm not even sure if it's worth to wait that half a second to cast F3 instead of doing B1 or T1, but I do it without thinking. It's not very often the mana ticks align like that anyway, so I doubt it matters much right now in the grand scheme of things.

I almost feel like we're going to get a potency nerf to compensate for this change. BLM as is, is already insane, this makes me worry lol. However we are relatively mediocre if we're in a mch pt, meaning one of our major weaknesses is bard dependence.

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Originally Posted by Xisin

I almost feel like we're going to get a potency nerf to compensate for this change. BLM as is, is already insane, this makes me worry lol. However we are relatively mediocre if we're in a mch pt, meaning one of our major weaknesses is bard dependence.

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Yes we go from generally pointless in a MCH party, to pointman in a BRD party. Kind of an issue IMO, I've received my fair share of flak for existing in A3 and A4 without a BRD instead of gearing a MCH/melee properly. I hope part of the 3.2 MCH changes involve a more universal Hypercharge, to help keep things fair.

I do not think any form of buff automatically entitles us to a nerf otherwise though. We are definitely the most comp dependent, strat dependent, RNG dependent DPS in the entire game, with as high a ceiling of potential DPS when the team and strat are right as our DPS floor is low when we merely lose the BRD or mess up once or fail to get some crits in our opener. I think if anything, a small buff to our DPS would balance us out for the bad situations while still of course discouraging BLM stacking because we're right now a long way from out-contributing NIN/DRG, and you need a BRD for BLM stacking to make sense. The ramifications of a BLM buff would mostly be SMN is even more questionable a role, but SMN needs a buff IMO regardless. I'm pretty confident in saying a BRD/MCH with DRG will out-DPS a SMN on a single target, and the difference isn't too high with a BRD either.

What SE really has to do is make sure caster is basically vital in future turns, regardless of comp, like they made solo healing/tanking redundant/impractical since T6-9. I want things that only casters can reasonably do, like a small but constant source of physical resistant enemies, or some real caster LB3 opportunities. Our niche used to be AoE gods (by raid design, somewhat) and caster LB3; our LB3 has been compromised, and the AoE identity has always been a dubious one and now we're not really "great" at it like before. "Ranged melee with Eye for an Eye" is our role now, while SMN's got an even more polarized position of "AoE machine or worst party member," depending on the fight.

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

I do not think any form of buff automatically entitles us to a nerf otherwise though. We are definitely the most comp dependent, strat dependent, RNG dependent DPS in the entire game, with as high a ceiling of potential DPS when the team and strat are right as our DPS floor is low when we merely lose the BRD or mess up once or fail to get some crits in our opener. I think if anything, a small buff to our DPS would balance us out for the bad situations while still of course discouraging BLM stacking because we're right now a long way from out-contributing NIN/DRG, and you need a BRD for BLM stacking to make sense. The ramifications of a BLM buff would mostly be SMN is even more questionable a role, but SMN needs a buff IMO regardless, I'm pretty confident in saying a BRD/MCH with DRG will out-DPS a SMN on a single target, and the difference isn't too high with a BRD either.

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I can agree with this logic. It is a bit of a pain in the ass I suppose.

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Originally Posted by Xisin

I almost feel like we're going to get a potency nerf to compensate for this change. BLM as is, is already insane, this makes me worry lol. However we are relatively mediocre if we're in a mch pt, meaning one of our major weaknesses is bard dependence.

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Dunno why BLM's would get a nerf. Once we move our DPS just flatlines. And I don't feel like I do much damage anyway. Only time I feel like I get put to work is only when Trick Attack and Raging Strikes is up with Enoch plus a lame ass 15 second potion buff.

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

Yes we go from generally pointless in a MCH party, to pointman in a BRD party. Kind of an issue IMO, I've received my fair share of flak for existing in A3 and A4 without a BRD instead of gearing a MCH/melee properly. I hope part of the 3.2 MCH changes involve a more universal Hypercharge, to help keep things fair.

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I don't know about pointless. Should still be getting first place unless there is a Monk in the party to be honest. I too am a victim of no Bard but I am still almost always first place unless its A4. DRG/NIN's ST are still less when compared to a BLM w/o Foes.

Caster-only mechanics will (unfortunately?) never happen as there will be an issue with DF groups, meaning if they got no Caster = instant disband (after 15min of pointless struggle).

As for the B4/T1 > F3 mana tick issue, it might be worth checking how much Piety you need to still cast continously even without the tick.

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Originally Posted by Hontaro

Caster-only mechanics will (unfortunately?) never happen as there will be an issue with DF groups, meaning if they got no Caster = instant disband (after 15min of pointless struggle).

As for the B4/T1 > F3 mana tick issue, it might be worth checking how much Piety you need to still cast continously even without the tick.

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Caster only mechanics already happened ala T11.