Latest and Greatest Information on Black Mage

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Originally Posted by Xenitan

I don't possibly see how you're confused. They changed Manawall from blocking 2 physical attacks to absorbing a certain amount of physical damage because there's going to be a lot more magic-based attacks in the game. Duh. Gosh, how could you not understand?

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Manawall was only 2 hits. Everyone makes it sound like its 50 hits or something. TWO freaking hits. The reason he gave isn't a good one.

Let me make this bigger for you: TWO HITS.

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Originally Posted by Twilite

Manawall was only 2 hits. Everyone makes it sound like its 50 hits or something. TWO freaking hits. The reason he gave isn't a good one.

Let me make this bigger for you: TWO HITS.

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Your sarcasm detector is failing you.

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

Your sarcasm detector is failing you.

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Phew, I was worried my sarcasm generator was on the fritz.

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Originally Posted by Twilite

Manawall was only 2 hits. Everyone makes it sound like its 50 hits or something. TWO freaking hits. The reason he gave isn't a good one.

Let me make this bigger for you: TWO HITS.

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Now I can't teleport to people who get double meteor streams and see how much I can make them panic :(

It's a huge deal!

If they had to nerf it, why 20% lol, even manaward is 30%.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

If they had to nerf it, why 20% lol, even manaward is 30%.

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As I said earlier, they stated that they changed Manawall from blocking 2 attacks to absorbing 20% of your hp's worth of physical damage because bosses will have more magical attacks and therefore this change will make the game more fun for you.

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Originally Posted by Xenitan

As I said earlier, they stated that they changed Manawall from blocking 2 attacks to absorbing 20% of your hp's worth of physical damage because bosses will have more magical attacks and therefore this change will make the game more fun for you.

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What does that have to do with Manawall though?

"Ah the boss will do more magic damage, so lets nerf BLM's physical shield."

It may not be totally useless now, but's it's pretty close to being.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

What does that have to do with Manawall though?

"Ah the boss will do more magic damage, so lets nerf BLM's physical shield."

It may not be totally useless now, but's it's pretty close to being.

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I have no idea. I'm just repeating what we were told. Manawall was changed from blocking 2 attacks to absorbing 20% of your HP's worth of physical damage because magic attacks are more common now.

I think its more to do with manaward having a trait that boost it to 30 from 20% and the general weakness of the job being physical damage. manawall being 20% follows our armor (high magic res low armor). That's my best guess anyway

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Originally Posted by Xenitan

I have no idea. I'm just repeating what we were told. Manawall was changed from blocking 2 attacks to absorbing 20% of your HP's worth of physical damage because magic attacks are more common now.

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Less binary.

It now blocks the same amount of damage regardless. Before it could block 20 damage, or 2 billion.

Yaaaaay

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

Less binary.

It now blocks the same amount of damage regardless. Before it could block 20 damage, or 2 billion.

Yaaaaay

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The damage mitigation itself wasn't really the excitement of the skill to me, it was the ability to change how you handled mechanics. Sometimes that was, yes, because you mitigated a lot of damage (T13 Earthshakers the biggest one), but often it was because you weren't "hit" in the first place (Titan Landslides, T5 dive bombs, T9 Iron Chariot, T12 plume charges, etc). It was a tool to help you stay immobile, which was fun and a way to play better.

Now it's just physical Manaward but it might as well not exist outside of helping your healers out for the heck of it, like in A1 and A3. Better than nothing I suppose, but gone are the days you could have the MT die, you pull aggro, you activate Manawall, the boss does AA > Death Sentence, OT provokes it ;_;

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Originally Posted by StouterTaru

The change was a small potency buff, and double the proc rate for thundercloud, which was pretty big.

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But yet no one seem to use the TC PROC because everyone trying to keep up AF an enochain i find my self just straight up ignoring TC proc at time just to cast in a blizz4 or f1 a buff to get more fire started should be added not TC imo

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Originally Posted by Joenalor

But yet no one seem to use the TC PROC because everyone trying to keep up AF an enochain i find my self just straight up ignoring TC proc at time just to cast in a blizz4 or f1 a buff to get more fire started should be added not TC imo

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That thundercloud proc is almost always a dps boost when used properly.

1. It has a shorter cast time than Fire 4.
2. It does more damage than Fire 4 if there is less than 15 seconds left on your thunder debuff and the mob survives for 24 seconds after you cast it.
3. It's instant cast, so you can move around, and use transpose in the oGCD to follow up with B4, and use a swiftcast in the oGCD for a quick B4 if you use it after B3.
4. It's up for 12 seconds.

Just because people don't use an OP skill doesn't mean it's not OP.

It's a shame they are going to increase the duration of greased lightning yet astral fire is left untouched

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Originally Posted by hallena

It's a shame they are going to increase the duration of greased lightning yet astral fire is left untouched

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Astral fire takes 3.5 unmodified seconds to fully stack.

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Originally Posted by Joenalor

But yet no one seem to use the TC PROC because everyone trying to keep up AF an enochain i find my self just straight up ignoring TC proc at time just to cast in a blizz4 or f1 a buff to get more fire started should be added not TC imo

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I find plenty of time to use tc without my rotation falling apart

What I'd like is fire IV making next fire 1 instant cast. No dps boost on this as it cost the same mana as usual, but it'd open a LOT of mobility option when you're in burst phase and get aimed at. I seriously hate to have to move when i got to refresh AF, only to see "2s" left on it after I'm done moving and 20s left on eniochan, so waaaaaayyy too early to refresh it and restart a cycle.

In fact, the interupt delay very often last longer than the moving around thanks to aetherial manipulation. >.>;

Appart from that, I rarely got troubles refreshing Eniochan, it's just the damn astral fire.

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Originally Posted by Horobi

What I'd like is fire IV making next fire 1 instant cast. No dps boost on this as it cost the same mana as usual, but it'd open a LOT of mobility option when you're in burst phase and get aimed at. I seriously hate to have to move when i got to refresh AF, only to see "2s" left on it after I'm done moving and 20s left on eniochan, so waaaaaayyy too early to refresh it and restart a cycle.

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That would be way too OP and it would be a small DPS gain as we would have more room to weave OGC skills in.

Movement wise I think BLM is fine personally. It costs us some DPS sure, but when we do get to turret, DPS can be pretty decent.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

That would be way too OP and it would be a small DPS gain as we would have more room to weave OGC skills in.

Movement wise I think BLM is fine personally. It costs us some DPS sure, but when we do get to turret, DPS can be pretty decent.

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what off GCD skills lol. Lethargy?

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Astral fire takes 3.5 unmodified seconds to fully stack.

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your point?

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

Astral fire takes 3.5 unmodified seconds to fully stack.

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It could make the rest of fire very awkward mana wise, if you have the time, or straight up forces you go into ice right away. Getting back into AF3 isn't really a problem.

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Originally Posted by hallena

what off GCD skills lol. Lethargy?

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RS and pot in the opener. Could also squeeze in one extra spell before downtime. Can't really think of anything else.

I'm so mad they changed manawall. So mad!

You guys see the awesome love letter changes they said were coming to BLM?





jk

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Originally Posted by hallena

what off GCD skills lol. Lethargy?

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Tbh, if you have to ask that, I doubt you care much about maximising your DPS. :P

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

Tbh, if you have to ask that, I doubt you care much about maximising your DPS. :P

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Well, Considering all major cooldowns are used in the opener before you even cast your first fire IV and cooldowns later on as they go off cooldown (sharp, lines, etc) are used after firestarter or at the end of umbral ice. I fail to see what off GCD skills blm would be able to weave it that would increase their dps by anything more than 2. Unless there is some secret offgcd damage skill i have never heard about before.
If anything the dps gain would come from never having to worry about interupting fire I + losing astral fire.

Of all things that should be instan cast. I would prefer if it was blizzard IV

Yes, I'm actually bummed Yoshi P didn't address anything with Black Mage in the latest Live Letter. :(

With all the complaining / feedback on Black Mage and Bard, I'm shocked he decided to address... Monk (WTH?!) and how they were thinking of ways to improve Monk (as if it wasn't already pretty well off).

This seems wrong.

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Originally Posted by Kiara

Yes, I'm actually bummed Yoshi P didn't address anything with Black Mage in the latest Live Letter. :(

With all the complaining / feedback on Black Mage and Bard, I'm shocked he decided to address... Monk (WTH?!) and how they were thinking of ways to improve Monk (as if it wasn't already pretty well off).

This seems wrong.

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Mnk isn't really well off. Most of the blm complaints are QoL stuff, or awkwardness, and same with brd. As far as their balance compared to other classes brd and blm are both fine. Blm is competitive with smn, brd is competitive with mch, and after the GB/WM buff the latter 2 can justify a raid spot. Mnk really isn't fine. It's the least useful of the melee at the moment. It's no longer dps king, which was kind of it's shtick, it didn't get new utility, and it's only serious utility (dk) can be replaced by drk now. They're not in a terrible place, but if you haven't heard people complaining about mnk balance then you haven't been listening.

Which isn't to say mnk's unusable or anything, there's one in my static and he does fine, but they really aren't balanced atm.

In what way are monks not balanced?

On the DPS results for a1s and a2s Monk is the highest Melee DPS for both.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

In what way are monks not balanced?

On the DPS results for a1s and a2s Monk is the highest Melee DPS for both.

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No utility left in a party with a DRK. They do more damage on a dummy but the party does more damage with DRG crit buff and piercing debuff or NIN damage up debuff.

Of course they still have their utility in a PLD/WAR party.

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Originally Posted by Kiara

Yes, I'm actually bummed Yoshi P didn't address anything with Black Mage in the latest Live Letter. :(

With all the complaining / feedback on Black Mage and Bard, I'm shocked he decided to address... Monk (WTH?!) and how they were thinking of ways to improve Monk (as if it wasn't already pretty well off).

This seems wrong.

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Because SE does the only right thing to do, they don't look at forums with ppl crying, they're looking at world progression, yeah, that stuff where balance actually matters. What do they see? They see both blm and brd in almost all progression groups clearing the hardest of the hard content. What do they also see? Almost no monks... tons of drg+nin compositions. No astro's at all whatsoever. So what are they prioritizing on? Right, buffing these jobs.

I'm not saying blm and brd don't need QoL improvements, it's just that it's not really a priority right now and that's justified by high end groups opting to use them. Mnk and ast on the other hand really needed something quickly in order to not fall under the table.

lol mnk is so OP its crazy i tried one to see what all the go was with them and was amazed how powerful they were but found the queue times considerably longer for melee then ranged so kinda gave up on it

Thing is, BLMs are not crying as hard as BRD, AST and to an extent MCH were.

I pull 1k+ dps just fine

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Originally Posted by LathusWHM

I pull 1k+ dps just fine

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...and what does that have to do with QoL fixes? My PLD mitigates damage just fine, but that's not the part people take issue with.

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Originally Posted by LathusWHM

I pull 1k+ dps just fine

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Wow, got any tips?

Maybe they can make it like what they did with MNK recently: rather than have the animation finish in order to refresh GL stack they can make it so that Enochian is refreshed so long as the spell is finished casting; rather than wait until the ice drops?

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Originally Posted by myahele

Maybe they can make it like what they did with MNK recently: rather than have the animation finish in order to refresh GL stack they can make it so that Enochian is refreshed so long as the spell is finished casting; rather than wait until the ice drops?

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Or they could make blizzard IV instan cast. That would fix a retarded amount of issues with blm.
Pvp related, its funny how grease lightning last longer in pvp because its hard to keep up while enochian is impossible to use in pvp yet its pvp duration/Fire IV requirement remain unchanged