Ideas to Improve The Black Mage (for 4.2 and beyond!)

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Originally Posted by Baka_Neko1

also, didn't read to the end, but triplecast is a movement skill.

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The only fight I use it as (almost) only a movement spell is o4s, since it requires a ridiculous amount of movement. In all other fights Triplecast is part of my rotation and used on cooldown during fire phase.

the ss increase Yoshi showed, might have been (new) gear induced... and not due to a general Blm ss increase...

. eitherway, a general ss increase would be nice (not only more deeps, but also a tick more mobility with shorter casts and in combo with side-stepping, if they kept the side-stepping fluid)

but foul build up and mp would need an overhaul too in that case.. (even if the ss increase is only gear induced)

but for mobility, shorter aether & LL CDs and/or more proc (amounts/lenghts) would really help a lot more for mobility

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Originally Posted by Shiroe

the ss increase Yoshi showed, might have been (new) gear induced... and not due to a general Blm ss increase...

. eitherway, a general ss increase would be nice (not only more deeps, but also a tick more mobility with shorter casts and in combo with side-stepping, if they kept the side-stepping fluid)

but foul build up and mp would need an overhaul too in that case.. (even if the ss increase is only gear induced)

but for mobility, shorter aether & LL CDs and/or more proc (amounts/lenghts) would really help a lot more for mobility

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It was too much for new gear, and it was affecting all classes and spells, so it was likely something with the replay functionality

I think BLM mobility is fine. We have all the tools to manage a similar uptime to other Jobs so I dont feel we need any more additions to further ease our movement burden.

I'd like to see the duration of thunder increased to 30 seconds and the thundercloud proc duration lasting 15 seconds.

I'd like to see Umbral Hearts increasing Fire Damage by 30% and Blizzard IV mana cost reduced to 0.

Merge Fire IV and Blizzard IV into one button. (Same with Laylines and Into

And then adjust the Enhanced Enochian trait until BLM does roughly 10% damage over what it does currently.

These changes wouldnt make BLM meta but it would be put us in the right ball park where we are an interesting choice.

I really dont think more in fight raising in the answer, infact i'd go so far as saying that mass raising in progress fights is degenerative unintended gameplay that needs to be removed from the game so they dont have to design future fights around it.

In the grand scope of things unless they tone down other jobs synergies im not sure BLM can ever be truely meta without mega damage but i imagine such wide changes are outside the scope of a patch and will likely be an expansion only change :/

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Originally Posted by Lelila38

The only fight I use it as (almost) only a movement spell is o4s, since it requires a ridiculous amount of movement. In all other fights Triplecast is part of my rotation and used on cooldown during fire phase.

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you mean you don't use it in o1s to still throw fireballs every GCD? wat

1 during knockback, 1 when you stop, 1 when you get back out and you're set. it also just so happens that you typically get 2 fire4s and a sharpcast fire1 there.

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Originally Posted by Baka_Neko1

1 during knockback, 1 when you stop, 1 when you get back out and you're set. it also just so happens that you typically get 2 fire4s and a sharpcast fire1 there.

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If you're talking about O1S, the actual best way is to eliminate Ice Sliding during The Classical Elements entirely. I'm pretty sure ice sliding screws with your uptime even if you do an instant before sliding, it's best just to avoid doing it. With the use of an instant (be it Triple, Sharp, or Swift) + AM/BtL knockback animation cancelling. Then when you're still in place, you simply slidecast away towards your Levinbolt spot right after the ice fades. 0 uptime loss. You can use Triplecast in O1S off CD including the opener, no reason to save it for knockbacks and ruin your opener by holding it for 40-50 seconds.

Always be open to new ideas.

right, because when you're typically about 800dps above your nin, you're still contributing less than they are? with perfect timing, trick attack is 10% for 10 seconds out of every 60. if you have 2 casters, the rdm pt buff is less effective. sam only has those high numbers on fflogs because drg and astro usually focus them and they don't contribute to anyone else either. smn's overall raid dps is only higher because right now they're broken and can output the same dps with a 0.2% overall pt dmg increase. drg? well that is actually better raid dps. mnk might be as well with brotherhood.

also, saving triplecast is better than saving leylines...

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Originally Posted by Baka_Neko1

right, because when you're typically about 800dps above your nin, you're still contributing less than they are? with perfect timing, trick attack is 10% for 10 seconds out of every 60. if you have 2 casters, the rdm pt buff is less effective. sam only has those high numbers on fflogs because drg and astro usually focus them and they don't contribute to anyone else either. smn's overall raid dps is only higher because right now they're broken and can output the same dps with a 0.2% overall pt dmg increase. drg? well that is actually better raid dps. mnk might be as well with brotherhood.

also, saving triplecast is better than saving leylines...

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If you are outdpsing your NIN by 800 you are much better than him, at the same percentage the damage difference between BLM and NIN is like 200-300, Trick Atack more than makes up for it.

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Originally Posted by Baka_Neko1

right, because when you're typically about 800dps above your nin, you're still contributing less than they are? with perfect timing, trick attack is 10% for 10 seconds out of every 60. if you have 2 casters, the rdm pt buff is less effective. sam only has those high numbers on fflogs because drg and astro usually focus them and they don't contribute to anyone else either. smn's overall raid dps is only higher because right now they're broken and can output the same dps with a 0.2% overall pt dmg increase. drg? well that is actually better raid dps. mnk might be as well with brotherhood.

also, saving triplecast is better than saving leylines...

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You shouldn't save either CD at the start of O1S. There's a reason I said AM as well.

I think it would be nice if Fire didn't consume umbral hearts. I find the most restrictive part of a BLM rotation is the fire phase with umbral hearts. If you are forced to move at any time after entering Astral fire and you don't have instant cast cooldowns available, you do not have enough time to cast all 3 Fire IV's with umbral hearts and are forced to waste one of the hearts on a fire to maintain AF. It would be a nice QoL improvement to be able to cast fire freely without wasting hearts to maintain AF.

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Originally Posted by Rathael

I think it would be nice if Fire didn't consume umbral hearts. I find the most restrictive part of a BLM rotation is the fire phase with umbral hearts. If you are forced to move at any time after entering Astral fire and you don't have instant cast cooldowns available, you do not have enough time to cast all 3 Fire IV's with umbral hearts and are forced to waste one of the hearts on a fire to maintain AF. It would be a nice QoL improvement to be able to cast fire freely without wasting hearts to maintain AF.

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At base Spellspeed you've 10.9 Sceconds to perform the first half of the Fire Phase. Astral Fire is 13s Yes you've time. If you're struggling consider changing what you're doing and how you move. Sharpcast can be used to let you Fire earlier and have a Firestarter, Triple and Swift can be used if you think you've to move too much.

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Originally Posted by zuzu-bq

At base Spellspeed you've 10.9 Sceconds to perform the first half of the Fire Phase. Astral Fire is 13s Yes you've time. If you're struggling consider changing what you're doing and how you move. Sharpcast can be used to let you Fire earlier and have a Firestarter, Triple and Swift can be used if you think you've to move too much.

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I may not be positioning with absolute optimal positioning all the time, but even then 2.4 seconds error margin feels unforgiving. There are many mechanics that demand you move for longer than 2 seconds.

I'd also feel more relaxed if AF maintenance and moving DPS were separate concerns. I would like to be able to choose when I want to DPS on the move, rather than it being dictated to me by AF. This still requires optimal decision making about when to use Swift and Triple cast.

2.4s Error Margin is a whole GCD, specially for BLM that tend to stack SpellSpeed, this starts to be longer than a GCD. While I think its a shame they tightened the error margin from Heavensward to Stormblood, making the rotation actually harder to perform (unless you struggled with old Enochian). I don't think this is by any mean hard to pull off unless you don't want to practice. When the window for mistakes is as big as a GCD, no this by no means require optimal play. Just try a bit harder and you'll pull it off.

The movement is whole point of moving is AF maintenance though. The two things are combined and you've to find solutions for it as a BLM. If you don't enjoy this you should probably rethink if you like the job as a whole. Sometimes people force themselves to play a job they truly don't like just because they think the asthetics are nice. Instead of pleading for the game to adapt itself for you, adpat yourself for the game.

I have a slightly more conservative suggestion, for just a slight adjustment that’s probably a bit more likely to actually happen than most things in this thread.

One glaring issue I can see with BLM (besides turretting not being compatible with a lot of raid mechanics) is that Leylines only increases spell/cooldown speed by 15%.
If we compare this to the Ninja, which gets a similar 15% speed increase that it can get off every 30 seconds or so, but doesn’t have the requirement to stay in one spot to get that bonus, it’s clear BLM has a serious disadvantage.
I think the effect of Leylines should be buffed, perhaps with a 20%-25% speed increase instead. Plus it could perhaps increase the countdown for AF/UI from 13 to say 16 seconds. So as long as you started an elemental phase when you were in your Leylines, you’d have a few extra seconds, making it easier to keep up Enochian when forced to move for mechanics.

cont...

In addition, to provide some party utility, I think Leylines should get an upgrade in the high 60’s where party members also get a 10%-15% spell/cooldown speed increase when in your Leylines. This would encourage BLM’s to stick with the other mages and to better position their Leylines for party support. This would stick BLM in a good supportive mage role without giving it anything lore breaking like a raise.

I don’t know if this would be quite enough to get it in the meta, but at least I wouldn’t feel like I’m putting all this effort into staying in my Leylines and taking hits for practically nothing…

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

I have a slightly more conservative suggestion, for just a slight adjustment that’s probably a bit more likely to actually happen than most things in this thread.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

One glaring issue I can see with BLM (besides turretting not being compatible with a lot of raid mechanics) is that Leylines only increases spell/cooldown speed by 15%.
If we compare this to the Ninja, which gets a similar 15% speed increase that it can get off every 30 seconds or so, but doesn’t have the requirement to stay in one spot to get that bonus, it’s clear BLM has a serious disadvantage.
I think the effect of Leylines should be buffed, perhaps with a 20%-25% speed increase instead. Plus it could perhaps increase the countdown for AF/UI from 13 to say 16 seconds. So as long as you started an elemental phase when you were in your Leylines, you’d have a few extra seconds, making it easier to keep up Enochian when forced to move for mechanics.

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Honestly, while they should modify Leylines to be less stupid, I don't think it needs to be a buff to the actual speed gained nor an increase to the UI/AF timer. To be perfectly honest, the thing that'd solve a good chunk of turreting would be to simply put Fire IV on the GCD, rather than 2.8s base. It's a stupid condition and no longer fits the BLM's "stay within AF/UI" MO.

Still, a 20% speed increase wouldn't be too bad, though I could also see Leylines be a DPS increase too.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

In addition, to provide some party utility, I think Leylines should get an upgrade in the high 60’s where party members also get a 10%-15% spell/cooldown speed increase when in your Leylines. This would encourage BLM’s to stick with the other mages and to better position their Leylines for party support. This would stick BLM in a good supportive mage role without giving it anything lore breaking like a raise.

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If Leylines were to remain stupid, I could see this working... Though, I'd honestly prefer BLM getting Saber or Temper from FFI for a flat DPS increase. But that's just me.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

I don’t know if this would be quite enough to get it in the meta, but at least I wouldn’t feel like I’m putting all this effort into staying in my Leylines and taking hits for practically nothing…

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First mistake is assuming any job will be part of the meta except for the preconceived notions of Dragoon, Bard, Machinist and Ninja. No matter what kinds of buffs happen, people will always stick to this meta because it always gets results.

Even SMN, when it was proven to not only put in the numbers on its own but also the buffs to help others, was quickly disregarded because people refused to believe that something that's NOT a Bard, Dragoon, Machinist or Ninja was meta.

With that said, that's your ONLY mistake in the matter, and your suggestions were some of the better ones that I've seen.

Part of BLM's identity in recent times is that its core spell, Fire 4, is not on the GCD. I enjoy that personally.

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Originally Posted by HaroldSaxon

Part of BLM's identity in recent times is that its core spell, Fire 4, is not on the GCD. I enjoy that personally.

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Personally, I'd disagree, due to the fact that Enochian's new function punishes slow cast times, but... you do you, I suppose. At least this is a more polite post than the post you made in the other topic.

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Originally Posted by EllieShadeflare

Personally, I'd disagree, due to the fact that Enochian's new function punishes slow cast times, but... you do you, I suppose. At least this is a more polite post than the post you made in the other topic.

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You can disagree all you want, its a core part of the classes design and is perfectly functional for competent players.