7.0 BLM Changes that wouldn't kill the job

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Originally Posted by Hana_Monogatari

True, but if Flare Star is intended to do things like refresh the AF timer, then you would be chewing through several Fire IV casts before this became useful. For example, P11S kills see BLMs casting upwards of 90 Fire IVs, making overcapping Astral Soul stacks, even only once per AF cycle, fairly punishing.

I agree that Flare Star, as is, is limiting and is basically just a very weird forced follow-up to Despair, and so any flexibility would be an improvement. I am just not sure if carrying over Astral Souls would make that large of a difference (compared to the suggestion to make Astral Soul buff x6 Fire IVs total, or having Flare Star gain potency for each Astral Soul stack consumed upon cast).

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It wouldn't be "Intended" to refresh it. It would be an additional property that you can take into consideration for using it, much like allowing carryover doesn't mean you're intended to do it, it's an additional consideration for when you cut your lines short.

It is not a problem to have some restrictions on actions, because it is through restrictions that we can find ways to make creative use of an ability. The opposite is that we eventually boil down an ability so much that it can be used regardless and thus no longer has weight or consequence, and therefore it can be removed or ignored due to automated use.

While perhaps not developer intended, the appeal of Black Mage has always been about opportunity cost in a system where timers conflict with each other and change the relative value of one to the other.

I believe Astral Soul having carryover continues this spirit while addressing the major problem in that you are punished if you have to cut a line short. You can play standard and never worry about it, but in the inevitable event that the boss forces inopportune interruptions, you gain an additional element to play around, or ignore at your choice for a minor loss to reset back to standard.

That said, I am just one person, and acknowledge that both current and adjusted Astral Soul simply won't appeal to some. I just personally would rather not see it go the way of just a visual upgrade during the "2 minute" window.

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

It wouldn't be "Intended" to refresh it. It would be an additional property that you can take into consideration for using it, much like allowing carryover doesn't mean you're intended to do it, it's an additional consideration for when you cut your lines short.

It is not a problem to have some restrictions on actions, because it is through restrictions that we can find ways to make creative use of an ability. The opposite is that we eventually boil down an ability so much that it can be used regardless and thus no longer has weight or consequence, and therefore it can be removed or ignored due to automated use.

While perhaps not developer intended, the appeal of Black Mage has always been about opportunity cost in a system where timers conflict with each other and change the relative value of one to the other.

I believe Astral Soul having carryover continues this spirit while addressing the major problem in that you are punished if you have to cut a line short. You can play standard and never worry about it, but in the inevitable event that the boss forces inopportune interruptions, you gain an additional element to play around, or ignore at your choice for a minor loss to reset back to standard.

That said, I am just one person, and acknowledge that both current and adjusted Astral Soul simply won't appeal to some. I just personally would rather not see it go the way of just a visual upgrade during the "2 minute" window.

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This is true, and would definitely be better than nothing (i.e., the current Flare Star system). It seems as if the devs are so intent on killing non-standard that they went out of their way to design all of BLM's new systems to be as non-standard-unfriendly as possible—chiefly, Astral Soul stacks not carrying over into ice phases.

I personally see 3 issues.

1- Thundercloud being given on each stance shift.
With the DoT portion being much more important but BLM rotation requiring flexibility, refreshing the DoT exactly at the end will be much more important than it currently is as the initial impact damage will become negligible.
This will make BLM rotation feel awkard as you might end up having to refresh the thunder dot at a bad time.
With a 30s DoT, there'll be a frustrating feel that you simply "waste" one every 2 proc.

Some solutions would be
- Bring back the initial impact damage to bring it back to its current state
- Reduce the DoT duration so that it simply cannot be kept indefinitely (not enough stance shift). 12s would suffice
- Make the DoT duration stack (max 60s). Let say there are 12s left and you recast thunder, the DoT goes to 42s.

All of these could work together.

2- Flare Star
Flare Star requiring 6 F4 is a bit annoying as you might not always be able to finish your fire phase, but I suppose that's everyone.
The biggest issue is its nature of being a finisher. We already have Despair which, imo, felt just right. Flare Star just feels like "yet another" finisher ala RDM.
Flare Star damage being barely above Despair also makes it quite underwhelming.
It might be an oversight, but its cast time being above recast makes it a go to candidate to swift cast which just feels boring. (I like that it has a longer cast)

To me the biggest issue with Flare Star and the fact that it is too spammable. It feels like a despair 2.0 when it shouldn't. It should be a bigger hit. (Perfect for AoE tho)

A solution would be to make Paradox and Despair grant a stack instead of FireIV. (With possibly Amplifier granting 6 to give it some womph)
This would result in us making 1 Flare Star at the opener and one every 3 cycles.
With a rarer occurence, the damage could be raised and the spell would feel more special.

However, this would bring the issue of miss alignement of Amplifier, what if when you're at 2min you have 4 stacks? or 5? that'd be a bummer.
A simple fix would be to allow the gauge to actually reach 12 stack. (like a more red-ish arrow for 2 stack). Allowing up to 12 stacks, so 2 FlareStar, would eleviate the issue.
In order to avoid "keeping everything for 2mins to cast maybe 3 Flare Star", because that's something I suppose they wouldn't want, a very easy fix would be to simply add 15s CD to Flare Star.
Obviously, this would require us to not loose the stack upon entering umbral phase.

This way
Flare Star becomes part of the 2 min cycle as big button.
It does not compete with Despair in term of design as a finisher, it instead becomes a 1min-ish button.
It can be cast more freely which is important considering its cast time.
More can be done in further expansion to expand on its design such as making Xenoglossy add a stack.

3- Transpose FireIII :
So, in itself I like the idea of transpose fireIII, but I definitely see it as the last remaimnent of "non regular blm rotation".
While not for DT, the easiest fix would be to to make the proc become FireV while in Astral Phase. Done, simple, best DPS is to cast it during the firephase.

And I agree with what Kabooa said overall.

People really don't like that they're going to miss flare star during astral fire huh? Non-standard got a bit too comfy once you memorize all the lines huh?