BLM in 4.0

i do like the pendulum system, ui/af. i also like procs for fire/lightning, all that was already fine.

what they could do is something akin to the mudras, where you see enochian coming up and have a certain time window to activate it via spell combo. or they could just have enochian procing randomly as a buff for x seconds. or enochian could just be a passive ability.

thing is, with complex encounters and 3 bars full of spells (of which a certain number is the same spell, but different ranks), the class feels a bit cumbersome.

there is no depth to the blm and enochian didn\\'t make it more of a skill floor thing, but only more of a pita in an uncalled for way. having your mana management to care for is fine.

how about more movement spells, or additional crowd control? or synergies between spells? for example, cast lightning after blizzard and each tick has a chance to stun the mob for a second. cast it under astral fire and the dot has a certain percentage to "explode" and spread.

not new spells, but new secondary effects are what fits the "strategist" feel of the class. cast fire repeatedly and its damage goes up via af - that one was fine. alternate schools for different effects.

let me give you an example:

fire + lightning = knockback with a root effect. fire + ice = snare and blind effect. ice after a lightning = dot damage ticks higher and longer.

you could expand on that, fire + lightning + fire= mob disoriented for x seconds, randomly hits other mobs around it. or whatever a creative mind can come up with.

imagine the possible strategies, the rotations for special purposes. the tactical potential.

all this without a lame timer and new spells. seriously, imho this is what a mage is supposed to be.

Any expansion called Stormblood that doesn't give me a proper god damned lightning bolt is just false advertisement.

I find the current BLM great and better than the ARR one. However it is in fact a bit too annoying to play sometime and there are a few QoL change that could be made to make make it a bit more like the old ARR BLM, without loosing the flavor and mighty spells Enochian brought us.


I believe enochian is a great concept, it fits well with the whole fire/ice thing, not only do we switch to ice to regain mana, but we do it to refresh a buff that allows us to cast mighty spells.

what annoys me is that FireIV doesn't refresh astral fire. Shooting a small Fire1 every 12sec is not only annoying but breaks the flow. We are more than enough limited in our movement, having a not-to-be-spammed slow cast to refresh a 12sec duration buff is annoying.

Regarding the Skill bar bloat issue. Perhaps a good way to fix this would be to make somethig like in GW2, spells can change depending on the situation. Basically, Fire/Ice 1 would become Fire/Ice IV under Enochian.
Also, as some people said, we press enough skills so I rather improve the current gameplay instead of making it more complex and cluncky

What I would like to see,

Fire/Ice 1 change to Fire/Ice IV under enochian, they both refresh astral/umbral

New trait
Cataclysm (Improved Fire IV): FireIV has 20% chance to change your Next FireIII into FireV. Instant.
The idea is just to bring back the "old way" of dpsing with occasionnal instant burst

Thunder1-3 are only one spell now, Thunder1 turns into thunder3 when Thundercloud procs

Thunder2 reworked: 3.5sec cast, unleash a thunderstorm at the targeted area (same radius than freeze). Basically zap every target with thunder. A maximum or 3 targets can proc thundercloud at anygiven time.

Ice2 and Freeze visual swapped and updated
Ice2 is now a range spell
Freeze is melee, instant, out of global cooldown and freeze the target in place for 5sec (doesn't break under damage, 3sec root for pvp)

Surecast reworked: Castable while casting, allow the next spell to be casted while moving. CD reduced to 20sec.

Scath reworked: Deal no damage, Increase the damage of your next fire or ice spell on your main target only by 25%. Stack up to 3 times last 5sec
Before screaming OP, casting it still trigger the 2.5sec global cooldown. Which means this spell only does the damage of a quarter of a spell. So casting Scath FireIV is a dps loss vs FireIVx2. The goal is to allow you to still dish out dmg, indirectly though, while moving. However stacking only 3 times. It forces you to actually recast a spell quickly. This kind of spell is, I believe, more in line with the whole "Big Burster" phylosophie of the BLM.

Enhance Scath: removed, replaced with "Enhanced Ice": Your Ice spell have 50% chance to freeze the target for 3sec

Flare doesn't consume all mana anymore and instead has a 30sec cooldown.

Lethargy is now learned MUCH earlier to help BLM level and stop facetanking everything. Slow potency increased to 60% (30% pvp)
Convert CD reduced to 60sec
Manawall and Manawall merged into one spell, CD reduced to 60sec.

However, we need a new mechanic as this would just be the ARR easy gameplay but enhanced with HW new spells. (and less skill to spam as many have been merged). Since we've explored the whole fire/ice power thoroughly in HW, I believe it is time to expand the Lightning gameplay. Here is a new mechanic, for fun (cuz obviously the odd of me guessing what they'll add are rather low)

The TP bar is replaced by a "void bar" which fills up gradually as we dps.
Every rank of spell grant one "void point", Fire/Ice/Lightning1 grant 1pts, Fire/Ice/Lightning 3 grant 3 points. Flare under cast under 20% mana grants 5. Scath grants 0. Upon reaching 100 points. ThunderIV becomes available, visual looks like Ramuh huge lightning. Not dealing damage for more than 10sec depletes the Void bar by 5 pts per sec. Damage is off the shart... crazy huge number because that's why we rolled BLM

Sounds definitely better than the current system, even tho I personally prefer a construct of synergies. Diablo 2 did that very well and i don't know why Blizzard ditched the model in favor of their comparatively plain playstyle :)
FFXIV could really breathe life into the class (and into others, such as SMN, while they're at it - melee has combos, too)

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Originally Posted by kazeandi

Sounds definitely better than the current system, even tho I personally prefer a construct of synergies. Diablo 2 did that very well and i don't know why Blizzard ditched the model in favor of their comparatively plain playstyle :)
FFXIV could really breathe life into the class (and into others, such as SMN, while they're at it - melee has combos, too)

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Yoshida said he doesn't want to add any talent tree because he hates cookie cutter build. (and I agree with him on this point)
I believe that if he were to add a talent tree system, it would probably be much closer to the current system in WoW, where you select select 1 skill/trait among 3 every X level than a system like DII or old WoW. He's been very clear on that.

He wants to avoid everyone having the same thing. This is why he didn't add these in ARR. Since it is not a solo game where you can be "less optimale, but who cares, it's your game", balance between everyskill matters.
The problem with talent tree is that you'll most likely always end up with something being better than others.
WoW attempted to fix this by making talent much more situationnal. But even then, you'll always have some skill better than others in most situation. (this is also why they limited talents to 3 per row, to simplify balancing)
I do not say it will never happen. But... i wouldn't have too much hope.

For the class thing, wiith the reveal of the RedMage not requiring any class and starting as a job, like the 3 jobs from HW. If you also add the removal and the share-skill system, yoshida clearly showed he wants to get away from the class system. I believe it is just a matter of time before they simply remove it and makes us pass from "thaumaturge" to "black mage" through the main story line. There won't be any class, there will just be jobs.
Perhaps in a far future they will start adding "spec" (basically 2 job for 1 class) like the arcanist. But honestely, I wouldn't give too much hope on that as there are still more than enough job they can tap in for 3-4 more expansions.

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Originally Posted by kazeandi

With the announced pruning of the bloated skill bar, remove the current iteration of Enochian, too. Make it a proc or something, a simple buff that sometimes occurs and can be used to use your big CDs.

BLM in ARR wasn't broken, there was no need to "fix" it and the added timer was uncalled for.

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I quit the forums for almost a year to see this. >_>;;

ARR BLM was boring and almost a 1 button smash. Enochian actually gave life to that job. BLM remains the simpliest job in FFXIV at the moment. It is really easy to keep your stacks and keep up with Enochian. That's my opinion at least. They did announce you'd see your important CDs a lot easier like BodT for Dragoons. Enochian will be the same. There is no reaosn to change that mechanic.

I didn't mean a talent tree system, what I was talking about was spells having interaction with others. ;)

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Originally Posted by kazeandi

I didn't mean a talent tree system, what I was talking about was spells having interaction with others. ;)

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My bad then.
Yes it would be nice to have more interactions.

Enochian was needed to give more depth in a sense to blm. No changes at all will come 4.0 other then perhaps removing certain abilities, perhaps surecast or manaward? Who knows what goes on in SE mind, lol
I still find it absolutely silly casting fire on fire enemies, ice on icycles, etc...

Alot of the people who say "BLM" is simple are those who have invested many many hours in this class. You can say things like "It's simple for me" but not things like "It's the simplest class in the entire game' lmao!! It's NOT simple, objectively when classes like Paladin exist.