Don't change Black Mage too much

I'd just like to see F4 and B4, Ley Lines and Between the Lines, etc., share a button by default. I also wouldn't mind Polyglot progress freezing or reverting upon losing AF/UI, instead of cancelling all progress.
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...That being said... I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they just entirely did away with the F4 and B4 requiring AF/UI, made Ice spells free outright, and made the effect of AF/UI stacks a bit more intuitive.

At present, Astral Fire stacks increase Fire damage dealt by 40|60|80%, increase Fire MP costs by 100|100|100%, decrease Ice damage dealt by 10|20|30%, decrease Ice spell cast times by 0|0|50% and decrease Ice spell MP costs by 100|100|100%.

Umbral Ice stacks decrease Ice MP costs by 25|50|100%, decrease Fire spell MP costs by 100|100|100%, decrease Fire spell cast times by 0|0|50%, and decrease Fire damage by 10|20|30%, while providing 3200|4700|6200 MP per tick.

As such, I wouldn't be shocked if they removed the Ice MP costs entirely, removed the 10|20|30% penalties incurred from using the opposite element, and had Astral Fire increase Fire damage dealt by 20|40|60% and reduce Ice cast times by 20|40|60%, while having Umbral Ice generate 20|40|60% of max MP per tick and reduce Fire cast times and MP costs by 20|40|60%. Possibly also have AF increase Fire MP costs by 20|40|60%, instead of 100|100|100%, while increasing base costs by 25% to create the same resultant values, and have UI decrease Fire MP costs by 20|40|60%. With that, everything would use 20% per stack -- nice and simple.

(Yes, that'd still keep the MP values fairly pretty. You'd spend still have the same visible values and number of casts as before; you'd just have AF and UI work quite a bit more intuitively. You'd just have to slightly decrease the MP cost of Fire III or Fire I / Paradox to compensate for the 40% remaining MP on the first Fire cast, is all.)

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Certainly, it's one of the jobs that has the least chance of changing,

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Dont say that so loud. They could make his spells to combo based (would probally like a 1-2-3 fire combo, instant of allways spaming fire4/1). Or, remove the timer and souls and make it, that he has to shot fire, than ice, than fire and so on.^^

Except of changing the whole concept of the class (similary to summoner) can i not see much, how to change him (aside of the joke idea i mentioned or changing to a combo system).
What i can see coming is the removing of leylines. That make 2 Buttons free. And the stand stil princip is, what make the class harder and at the same time, not much compatible with a lot of Boss mechanics.
So, removing the lines is one option i would probally to at some point (even, when i would miss the line animation^^). The question would than only be, what to give him to the hw part.

What i want for him is the evolving of flare to a stronger form (Zeta flare from Donald, the strongest flare in the verse^^). And the obtaining of the ultima spell (probally as evolving of despair, the ST version of flare). And for the visual satification, some changes of the animations and attack area. Instant of having allways bombes, would i like a fire wall spell (linear aoe attack, maybe in front of you, like drg thrust aoe or reapers cristal aoe). Or a wave of fire. Like whe see it in this on ruin dungeon from Boznia. Or a fire beam. Like some enemy's are using.
The only downside of this variation would be, that it could maybe attack to many enemy, when placed in the right way. Or its in contrast to the distance, that the blm has usually to the enemy (reason, why ice to as close up aoe attack didnt worked).

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Originally Posted by Reinhardt_Azureheim

Bruh just make Paradox AOE, no need to just make "Paradox, but different" with normal Paradox. Xenoglossy vs Foul is about as original...

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If you don't want black mage to change, then that's what you should be expecting.

Make AoE's still cast even if the main target dies. That's all I want for BLM.

BLM works really well (even though I think the Thundercloud proc got to a pointless stage), but let's face it... at some point the job will have to change due to the nature of the game. Unless players don't mind getting just upgraded spells (Fire1, 2, 3, etc) or traits.

BLM has a very strong chance of only improving if it does undergo any changes since it is the director's main when he plays.

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Originally Posted by SieyaM

BLM has a very strong chance of only improving if it does undergo any changes since it is the director's main when he plays.

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you can't improve perfection!

I mean quite honestly I don't see how current BLM could be improved (maybe 90s leylines again? but that would have to come with bursts changing)

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

I wouldn't worry about big changes to BLM considering it's Yoshi-P's main job.

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Its one of the more difficult jobs, so if anything would change, it would be making things a bit easier. But as its difficulty is mostly cast time related, that is highly unlikely to truly happen. Except maybe having spell speed give a better effect here (potentialy also promoting the materia here again).

And that would also only be the case if bossfight design would demand that. To which i suspect they would just provide more mobility tools instead of reducing cast duration, and then have those unlocked in DT (which is fine to me as it can cause a decent enough shift in playstyles, without instantly changing the job entirely). As long as that new ability doesnt allow spamming and requires careful usage, it can do fine enough.

Or instead of a mobility tool, a statis ability, allowing them to dodge an aoe without having to move away (raid wides not being dodgable).

There are quite a lot of ways they can go without changing too much, yet still have a significant enough change as result. Most important though is that the base playstyle remains.

We just need consolidated f4/b4 and LL and BtL

As a special treat maybe insta AF paradox for a reliable weaving opportunity in AF [whilst also providing an easier to maintain timer for those less confident]
Something needs to be done about how inconsistent our mana ticks can be in UI but I don't want those changes to be disruptive to non-standard play. So no mana regen tied to how many spells you cast in UI or anything like that.

my unreasonable wants are stronger autoattacks and for a return of the HW Enochian timer but maybe not tied to accessing your F4 and B4 skills and instead just a dmg buff you have to juggle by keeping your rotation going. I also want all my utility back; manashift and apocatastasis back and even aggro management.

Not a BLM player, but I think it would be neat if BLM got like an Astral Lightning phase added to the Elemental Gauge. Like Lightning spells could be like the go-to for mobility, and do more damage than ice spells, but they consume MP at the same rate as fire spells. It would probably simplify the job a little, but it could provide a new foundation to build off of.