It's depressing isn't it? I know Hanlon's razor states we shouldn't attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity, but it certainly feels like nerfing a class to get them to all play the new shiny one.
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Agree with all of what you said, but this is really the crux of the issue for me, I could live with maybe most of these changes bar the ones to Paradox even though I don't like them, but flare star takes these new issues and exacerbates them I feel.
A major concern I have is that they'll only see the potency issues with Flare Star and just buff it, but I think that'll just make the core issues of how rigid the rotation is + Astral soul mechanics not being great even worse. The way you lose all astral soul stacks when switching phases makes having to end a phase early feel even worse than before, prior you knew you were already losing dps but at least that was better than losing enochain altogether, losing your big finishing spell because you're trying to adjust for the fast pace of fights does not feel great at all.
You also just lose flare star during any downtime whatsover, I just got to level 100 a few days ago but I already can't count how many times I've lost the spell because a boss leaves/becomes untargetable/goes into a cutscene, the fact that you can't store astral soul stacks at all feels like a huge oversight imo. I also keep accidentally overcapping it because of the manafont buff and I forget to cast it in the midst of a fight while I'm trying to keep AF up, but that may be just a skill issue on my part as I learn to use it.
I only recently got to 100 so I'm still getting used to the new Flare Star paradigm. The class feels like it's easier to play safe but harder to play optimally and I'm actually enjoying it but I'll have more to say once I've done more EXDRs and beaten the Extremes.
One thing, though, is that complaints about instant paradox making the astral timer tighter don't really make sense to me. They just mean that clearance that used to exist in the second half of your astral phase is now available, instead, in your first. So instead of having 15 seconds less a GCD and then another 15 seconds, you have 15 seconds followed by 15 seconds less a GCD. In fact, you have another 15 seconds minus a GCD if you're willing to just throw your F3P then and there rather than save it for a transpose swap out of your ice phase.
i've done a few dungeons on BLM for leveling and i'm not level 100 yet, but i haven't had problems with the AF timers being too tight as people keep saying
i can easily do 3 GCDs > paradox > 3gcds > F3 > 2gcds >despair as a "comfort" rotation, but i've also fit 4gcds between refreshes when i had to (especially with triple cast or leylines)
...they have been using third-person self-referencing for as long as I remember them. If anything, I respect them for not breaking character once on that matter. Their feedback is no less valuable as anyone else actively playing the job, so who are you to judge them for RP talk? Kindly leave Mao alone, not cool.
Yeah, this is what I was getting at before. If you use F3P in the same fire phase that you get it, and save your two triplecasts and 40s cd swiftcast for emergencies, it's very easy to maintain AF and never miss a Flare Star.
...buuut it's higher DPS to use your triple/swift/f3p proc at very specific times in order to shave as many seconds off your casting, and dodge as many wrong-element damage penalties, as you can. Unfortunately, if you do this it's much easier to get caught with your pants down and lose uptime, Flare Star, or even Enochian all together. So BLM is a lot more about risk management and corner-cutting; it feels a little like playing the job in Heavensward where you were constantly gambling on how long you could go before refreshing AF.
It definitely feels harder to play than it used to be, but I don't mind yet. Maybe it'll bother me as I go but so far it's a new and interesting challenge.
I agree 100% with this comment and pretty much everything the original post said, I would take 6.X BLM over 7.0 in a heartbeat and would be happy with literally no adjustments. Retrace and the extra polyglot are actually kind of nice though, so I wouldn't mind those staying.
Thanks for the valuable and polite feedback OP. I hope that devs listen to our concerns.