BLM Buffs Inc!

please delete

please delete

please delete.

How about a buff on the mob from Fire 3?
Make it so we can stack to 3 Firestarters, but for say 5 seconds after being hit by Fire 3 the mob gets a buff.
This buff will lower the damage from Fire 3 by 5% per stack. So you can still use your procs but if you do it back to back there's the cost of less damage.

Or a debuff on yourself, which ever one would work better.

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Originally Posted by Xisin

Sorry apparently there is a 1k character limit) inc more info

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You can get around it by editing the original post.

Had another idea:

Transpose changes to whatever the stack is. If you had 1, 2, or 3 ice, then you'd have 1, 2 or 3 fire when used.

So Fire III proc up to 2 stacks with 20 seconds total to use both. Slight boost to Scathe so not as strong as Fire 1, but close to it. And transpose transferring stacks with it.

Perhaps boost Scathe to 150 potency, but throw a 5-7s cooldown on it.
This way we have something that we can use for "short" movement phases, but not spam continuously, without crippling our dps.

Also make Apocatastasis into a self buff that increases elemental damage... so it wont buff scathe... by 20% for 20 seconds every 2 minutes, which would be an effective 3.33% dps boost.

Had a rethink how about if when u use firestarter you have a 15/20% chance to proc another?

Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Ddmk

Had a rethink how about if when u use firestarter you have a 15/20% chance to proc another?

Thoughts?

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I can't speak for other BLMs but I want something to consistently help our mobility issue, something we can either save up in prediction or a CD to use on demand to counter movement's effect.

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Originally Posted by Ddmk

Had a rethink how about if when u use firestarter you have a 15/20% chance to proc another?

Thoughts?

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Do you mean that when you cast F3 using FS you have a 20% chance to refresh FS... Or that casting F3 using FS would have a 20% chance to double the potency of F3?

the last tick of thunder alwyas proc thundercloud !

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

Black Mage just needs slight utility tweaks.

A) Give us access to Arcanist Raise. Every mage gets access to swiftcast, so it isn't like we'd be breaking the game by getting the nearly-best use of the cooldown.

B)Apocatastasis is utter garbage. It needs to change to one of the following
-A flat elemental damage reduction player-centered Raid Buff to justify the cooldown.
-Be given a mana cost, cast time, and cooldown removal to be a single target magical damage shield. Black Mages have some issues with heavy mobility fights, and having a way to survive one hit when doing a Raging Strike burn session would be amazing.

C) Conversion really doesn't need to be a three minute cooldown.

D) Let Firestarter and Thundercloud stack up to 2 times. Because waiting to see if it procs between spell casts loses far more DPS time if you hit a dry streak than chain casting and double proccing. Easy solution; Let us stack to two charges.

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From a long time ago.

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Originally Posted by AlrikRouge

Had another idea:

Transpose changes to whatever the stack is. If you had 1, 2, or 3 ice, then you'd have 1, 2 or 3 fire when used.

So Fire III proc up to 2 stacks with 20 seconds total to use both. Slight boost to Scathe so not as strong as Fire 1, but close to it. And transpose transferring stacks with it.

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That would make us overpowered I would think.

Right now you can achieve the same effect by using Fire 3 and Blizzard 3. Both give you 3 stacks of the appropriate element. And if you are at level 3 in the opposite (fire3) then your ice spell is cast more quickly. The only problem you really have to pay attention to is keeping enough MP when in fire mode to case Blizz 3.

My 2cents...they will probably create buffs that is usable by SMN.

To be completely honest, the only buff SMN/BLM has is Raging Strikes.
I can not and will not consider Shadow Flare a buff in any way, form or function.

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Originally Posted by BinaryJack

My 2cents...they will probably create buffs that is usable by SMN.

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Because SMN has movement issues that lower their DPS by a significant margin.

Actually i have a bunch of cross class skills from my Bard i use with my blm, Quelling which is a must and also Hawk Eye and Raging Strikes.
Still anxious to see what buff they have in mind, maybe they will just have it so thundercloud and Firestarter have a higher chance to proc or deals more damage? dunno

how do Hawk eye benefit BLM? I though DEX doesn't give any to BLM

Dex does nothing for BLM. Hawk's Eye only raises dex, and frankly if you are using it for the 100% hit rate, then you have different issues to fix.

issues as in gear? I do not recall missing hits often
I have it as a cross class but rarely ever use it, maybe once in a blue moon. I mainly use Quelling and Raging Strikes along with Virus which also Virus is not used often.
Well for now my gear focus has mainly been my Bard but will soon start coil with my blm
Coil is ok with my Bard but i want more action
Blm is mainly in Ct gear atm with some dl and hat being the lvl 100 piece
Anyhow this thread was about buffs so sorry i even mentioned what i did

Basically Hawk's Eye is useless for BLM because it only buffs dex, which does nothing for our spells, and you should already have a 100% hit rate. If you dont, then you need more accuracy, as hawk's is only up ~22% of the time.

For Cross-Class skills, I stick to Raging, Quelling, Virus, E4E, and Physisk... Least Physick gives me a ~400 hp heal, still better than Hawk's.

sorry what is E4E? from summoner perhaps?
Yeah i also have physick, mainly for oh crap moments, lol

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Originally Posted by Kenji1134

Basically Hawk's Eye is useless for BLM because it only buffs dex, which does nothing for our spells, and you should already have a 100% hit rate. If you dont, then you need more accuracy, as hawk's is only up ~22% of the time.

For Cross-Class skills, I stick to Raging, Quelling, Virus, E4E, and Physisk... Least Physick gives me a ~400 hp heal, still better than Hawk's.

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I think an interesting mechanic could be enemies with 100% dodge rate who have to be burned down by Hawk's Eye users in the future. As it is now it's really quite useless.

Or just have it give the respective class their primary attribute.

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Originally Posted by Maero

sorry what is E4E? from summoner perhaps?
Yeah i also have physick, mainly for oh crap moments, lol

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Eye for an Eye, which is one of the better mitigation abilities in game at the moment.

And the only thing Hawk should be giving you is a laughable amount of parry.

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Originally Posted by BinaryJack

My 2cents...they will probably create buffs that is usable by SMN.

To be completely honest, the only buff SMN/BLM has is Raging Strikes.
I can not and will not consider Shadow Flare a buff in any way, form or function.

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Summoners have Quelling Strikes, Raging Strikes from Archer. They have two Pet CDs and Enkindle. BLM have Quelling Strikes and Raging Strikes and that's about it. Summoners don't need a buff.

I want Drain. I don't care if they make it an ability or a spell, but I would really like it as a way to get back some HP while soloing.

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Originally Posted by Timethiuas

I want Drain. I don't care if they make it an ability or a spell, but I would really like it as a way to get back some HP while soloing.

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/ac "Sleep" <t>
/ac "Physick" <me>

You shouldn't have issues... unless you don't have 4 levels in Arcanist.

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

I think an interesting mechanic could be enemies with 100% dodge rate who have to be burned down by Hawk's Eye users in the future. As it is now it's really quite useless.

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Will never happen unless, Hawk's eye can be use by At least ALL DPS. otherwise it will create situation where people wont take any class that cannot cross skill Hawk's eye

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Originally Posted by Remn

Will never happen unless, Hawk's eye can be use by At least ALL DPS. otherwise it will create situation where people wont take any class that cannot cross skill Hawk's eye

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The closest you'd probably get to that scenario is a portion of the fight where the enemy gets something like 20-30% evasion. Hawk's Eye would provide a distinct advantage but it wouldn't be outright required. It would also give the Rain of Death effect some value as well.

I can't see Surecast being altered to allow us to cast while moving, it completely goes against the identity of Black Mage, as much as I would like it, I would like any of these)

a) Stackable Firestarters (2, or 3) to stop so many of these constantly going to waste.

This solves the issue that's been there since 2.0, I feel up to 3 would be a good amount, you could "store" 1, and then you have the 2 "spare" that stops them going to waste. If it's up to 2, you will still have the issue of losing some, but atleast you can have 1 stored for usage during movement.

My issue with this is the identity of BLM and the potential for burst damage. BLM burst is pretty strong as it currently is, can you imagine if you have a stack of Firestarters, maybe a Thundercloud too? Any burst DPS checks would just be obliterated. Firestarter hits for what, 1,1k? If it stacks to 3, 3.3k damage in 3 GCD from Firestarts, add a Thundercloud and then a swiftcase Flare, if it was for example for a 10s burst... It's obscene and then factor in Foes Req, Potions, Raging Strikes and Crits and it just goes through the moon. I would love that, whether it's balanced or not is another question ^^

b) Add Miasma or Bio to Cross-class abilities, with possibly some changes to WHM offensive attacks to balance this out on that side.

As others have said, BLM have a spare cross-class, sure, Physick is useful now and then, but it's such a rare occasion where Physick would actually save someones life.

This solves the mana tick timing introduced in 2.1, we often have to sit and wait for a slight moment for a manatick, with another Dot, we can reapply this and thunder while waiting for the 2nd tick, and then continue with Fire. This also makes movement slightly less of an issue as we will have both Thunder and Miasma ticking while dealing with whatever makes us move.

c) Buff to Scathe. The nerf in 2.1 was pointless. I'm not even sure why they did it. I would love to see Scathe be buffed a bit and made more reliable, atm you play the lottery of Normal Potency/Normal Crit/Double Potency/Double Crit, I've seen it hit anywhere from 200-1000 damage.

d) Change Aetherial Manipulation. Change this to a teleport, to teleport us anywhere we say, rather than to a party member.

I've been making a lot of us out of this recently but having it limited to party members is very prohibitive. I can see the issues with it though, such as aiming ground targets seems to be pretty horrible on gamepads.

And I guess e) Please for the love of god either just remove, replace or make Apocatastasis useful for something other than applying on random people to see them go "Wow I've never seen this before, what does it do?"

@ song
If blm could teleport anywhere then wouldn't they become a rift walkerrrrr? Lol

So any news on BLM buffs?
Yoshi?
Throw us a bone please? =)

my guess is some form of levitation ability that just stays up(like shield oath or vengence). allowing casting while moving without breaking ff/mmo traditions. this however won't fix the gap between blm and smn. pre 2.2 there was a small gap between blm/smn single target dps. that gap is growing with each upgrade... pre 2.2 elite blm would push 250ish while elite smn would push 270ish. currently blm are pushing low 300's while smn are pushing low to mid 400's keeping pace with melee. bard and blm are both being left in the dust. we need sustained damage not more zerge abilities. stacking procs won't have any effect on your sustained dps. our zerge is fine as it is.

You mean like "Float"?

IDK about SMN doing 400+ on ST fights. Fights where they can multi-dot sure, but not ST fights.

Aside from adding something to address the mobility issue, it seems like BLM needs a slight overall damage boost.
Maybe bring AF3's bonus up from 180% to 200%.
Allow Firestarter AND Thundercloud to stack to 2.
and uh...
UNDO THE UI3 NERF!!!

Put a damn recast on Flare, and UNDO THE TIMING NERF that makes the rotation feel excessively clunky!
Hell, that "fix" alone knocked about 5% off every BLM's dps.

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Originally Posted by Kenji1134

You mean like "Float"?

IDK about SMN doing 400+ on ST fights. Fights where they can multi-dot sure, but not ST fights.

Aside from adding something to address the mobility issue, it seems like BLM needs a slight overall damage boost.
Maybe bring AF3's bonus up from 180% to 200%.
Allow Firestarter AND Thundercloud to stack to 2.
and uh...
UNDO THE UI3 NERF!!!

Put a damn recast on Flare, and UNDO THE TIMING NERF that makes the rotation feel excessively clunky!
Hell, that "fix" alone knocked about 5% off every BLM's dps.

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In a stand-still fight with i110 weapon and i100 average gear it's very possible to go past 400 as SMN. Our i115 weapon SMN can get up to 430~ ST DPS, so there's that. It of course doesn't translate to real fights perfectly but it doesn't lose too much.

Haven't tried BLM in i110. If/when I get i115 weapon the gap will be much clearer at this gear level though I'm 90% sure there is still quite a gap in ST DPS between BLM and SMN.

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Originally Posted by Kenji1134

So any news on BLM buffs?
Yoshi?
Throw us a bone please? =)

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Well when they last buffed classes, they essentially buffed straight numbers and buff durations. Which inadvertently increased Monk dps by more than I believe they were anticipating (the SS requirement for the straight dps rotation was reduced, allowing them to stack det/crit). So likely they'll just give a potency buff to some of our abilities, perhaps revert the mana regen in UI back to its original state. This would essentially be the Black Mage analogue to the Monk/Dragoon changes made back in 2.1

Even though everyone hates on PvP, I still hope some of the "buffs" have BLM PvP in mind.
Because my god are we terrible compared to all classes.

And a lot of reasons BLM PvP is terrible is because of same reason we lacking in PvE. That is the mobility and visual interruption range.
If you think its bad in PvE, imagine PvP because people KNOW your casting so obviously walk behind a wall or behind your character to avoid you ever casting.

Give Scathe a boost...
1. A little more consistent damage - better that it does ~400 all the time than mostly doing ~200 and once in a blue moon crit for ~800
2. Have it refresh the active Astral Fire/Umbral Ice stack by ~3 seconds OR a flat damage increase for a short duration
3. Shorten the cast time slightly on Thunder spells so there is enough time for Thunder II + Scathe during Umbral Ice rotation (or just make us go with Thunder I + Scathe)

Alternatively, add a DoT with Fire III or Blizzard III so there is a consistent DPS boost that doesn't break even while we are moving.

They should also fix a personal pet peeve of mine... if a mob dies or move out of LOS while casting, please just interrupt the cast immediately so I get 1 second of my life back.

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Originally Posted by rex1976

my guess is some form of levitation ability that just stays up(like shield oath or vengence). allowing casting while moving without breaking ff/mmo traditions. this however won't fix the gap between blm and smn. pre 2.2 there was a small gap between blm/smn single target dps. that gap is growing with each upgrade... pre 2.2 elite blm would push 250ish while elite smn would push 270ish. currently blm are pushing low 300's while smn are pushing low to mid 400's keeping pace with melee. bard and blm are both being left in the dust. we need sustained damage not more zerge abilities. stacking procs won't have any effect on your sustained dps. our zerge is fine as it is.

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So I heard y'all wanna float...

So after multiple runs of T6 on BLM... finding a group that runs on EST time can be surprising difficult on some servers, I have come to the simple, undeniable conclusion that SMN is simply FAR superior to BLM for T6... But why?
*And why do I bring this up in the buffs thread?*

SMN is superior in this fight not only due to it's dot nature, 3 dots and Garuda... aka flying glorified dot, but because you CAN actually maintain nearly full dps for any number of short movement phases... How? Ruin 2.

As a SMN, you need to stand for 2 dots, can cast Bio on the move, and when you need to move, you can replace Ruin w/ Ruin 2.
The catch is that Ruin 2 costs nearly twice as much as Ruin, justifying it as a "higher cost mobility damaging spell". Now somebody please come in an say "Well BLM gets that via Scathe, and you can Swiftcast things on the move too!"
This is true... but Swiftcast has a 60s CD, and we need to move every 20-25 seconds. And Scathe does maybe 1/3 of our normal dps... Scathe makes us pay in damage, instead of mana, which could use a change.

Here is my suggestion.
Change Scathe to function in the following manner:
Instant Cast
Regular GCD recast time
Base mana cost of 479 (1.5x the cost of Fire 1)
- 150 Base Potency -
*Now the fun part*
Is affected by Astral Fire in the same way as other Fire spells. (AF3 = 1.8x damage, 2x mana cost)
Is not affected by Umbral Ice (lowest mana cost is 479, lowest potency is 150)
Refreshes currently active Umbral Ice or Astral Fire stack. (Note: It does not add any stacks, it just resets the duration to 10 seconds)

What will this accomplish?
Well in AF3, it'll do the same damage as Fire 1, but its instant, cant proc Firestarter, and you can only do 3 of them before you need to switch back into UI to recharge. Its a higher mana cost, less rewarding, mobile DPS MAINTENANCE tool.
In UI3, it'll do the same net damage as Blizzard 1, instant, 4.5x the mana cost, so you dont want to use it before switching into AF3, meaning you still want to STOP before you switch to the fire cycle. Again, higher cost, limited use in rotation, but mobile!
And lastly, if you are about to have your stack drop, again, due to having to run around, or you have to be devoured to get rid of Honeyglazed, etc, you can quickly throw this new Scathe to refresh your stacks.

"But wont this break pvp???"
I kinda doubt it.
This would allow a BLM to run around and deliver a total of 810 potency before having to stop and start recharging. Versus a total of 1350 potency for a typical 5 fires, plus firstarter procs. Thats a pretty big loss.

"But then they can just run around and spam Scathe under UI3 forever!"
Okay, so 150 potency per gcd, with no added effects. Its like a bard kinda chasing you, but without autoattacks, and extra crits, and dots, and everything else... Not too sure how its threatening... Hell, maybe SE can slap the same code that's on bard abilities onto this new Scathe. The farther you are from your target, the less damage Scathe does. So if you want to "properly" PVP as a BLM... aside from Sleep spam... you must either stand and cast, or you can pretend to be a lousy bard and chase people spamming a weak instant Scathe at them... *menacing pvp black mage*