Please reconsider 7.0 BLM changes

Only lvl 91 so fsr, have been BLM main since 2.0 and it was always challenging class to play. All i REALLY want is an optional timer that ticks at last 5 seconds of your astral/umbral stacks because the DPS tunnel vision is a greater struggle for me w BLM even knowing what I'm doing.

I didn't think much of changes to black mage thinking maybe it's still ok until I did a few ew ex's and went non verbal after seeing no umbral paradox, not being able to do infinite paradox. Also umbral regen is non existent. I enjoyed Black mage alot in 6.55, it felt very versatile and comfortablly flexible as a job even in the ew savages. I'm just really missing the things they took out, a lot. Just my opinion and I'm not here to argue with anyone, it just feels so janky to me at the moment.

I didn't find BLM Difficult to play at all. I started originally back when HW was announced. Completed base game and then stopped. I came back around midway through ShB and The learning curve was smooth as butter for me. After Having played through an entire cycle of an expac with some savage under my belt I have a lot more experience than the first time around I played. The entire progression for BLM was a nice gradual increase in complexity. I do agree with the point that these changes are going to make the progression a lot more jarring with all these back changes. It was also my first MMO experience too. Im pretty hot at FPS games, but I had no experience with MMO's and I really couldn't praise the level up experience enough as a new-to-mmo player.

Just showing my support. I'm super disappointed in the changes, tried it and hated how the main mechanics have changed. I decided to change to pictomancer. I can see that pictomancer has the same creativity and inspiration that previously used to go into black mage, with a focus on fun mechanics and class fantasy.
As for black mage, the things that I think are essential for the job:

- MP should be passively restored. This is good for the sake of low level gameplay, class fantasy and for accessibility - you're already punished with lower DPS for not keeping your GCD rolling, surely it's ok to at least have your MP filled.

- Paradox is one of (if not THE) most creative spell they have ever added. It should be casted in Astral Fire, and usable as a strong instant in Umbral Ice.

- Thunder should be reverted to the way it was. The way it was, even if not used optimally, rewarded you for being aware of it. It was an excellent.

- cutting off Astral Fire early is a punishment in itself. It didn't need further punishing.

Everything else (Sharpcast, Polyglot, Leylines, etc) is negotiable. If the core if kept intact, the job will still be very fun for me. I hope they go back to the way black mage was, I like pictomancer but nothing it does gives me that dopamine hit of clicking Fire IV.

I would understand that if picto didn't come out with 5 instant cast 1k+ potencies, a flexible rotation, subtractive pallete combo hitting for nearly 4 xenoglossy. A heal, a mit, AND a damage buff. Motifs can be instant casted with the 40 second swift cast reduction for insane damage + utility outpacing the "selfish dps" job. It's painful. Flarestar is not enjoyable to me personally, and their starry skies is way bigger if an area the leylines.

All with no timers to juggle or anything else.
It has all the power and fluidity I loved about blm, without anypunishment. If all of picto was reflavored to blm, with color and subtractive being astral and umbral clones I would be the happiest blm in the server. But that isn't the case. We got gutted and Now I feel dirty abandoning my favorite job I've played for a decade on. I suffered through the down points with the job Because there was nothing like it even at its worst. Playing as a picto has me feeling the way so many people do about their changed models with this update. I'm playing a stranger. My wol was a blm all the way and now i just retired during dawntrail to be bob ross. It's a shame and still bothers me that this was so prudent for them to nerf us into the ground. While warrior solos the entire game save for raids

Mao really upset. BLMs AoE rotation gots messy. BLMs mana regen ats lower levels gots bad. BLMs ats higher levels gettings more rigid. Is feel like Mao paid 70 bucks to go backwards. For first time since Mao started playings, Mao beginnings feel like Mao wants walk away from game. Is nots helping that is so many borings fetch quests. Mao constantly goings "Is Mao there yets? Is Mao there yets?"

Long time player, first time forum poster. I've been maining BLM for an age. I'm not going to go on a diatribe about why the changes are bad; plenty of other posts in thread about that. Just wanted to make my voice heard. I also dislike the changes, non-standard was the most fun I've had as BLM in years. If the class stays like it is in 7.0, guess I'll swap to PCT or something.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by koko-on-da-forumz

Don't attribute to malice what can easily be explained by incompetence.

There are a lot of things in Dawntrail that feel like they were built in an environment without enough time or resources or both. Flare Star was an intentional choice to restrict BLM and make it seem more accessible, but numbers are almost certainly an oversight that will be fixed with the new balance patch.

SE gains nothing from having people who already bought the expansion switching from BLM to PCT.

---

Is possible that maybe is more due to incompetence than greed. Note: Mao nots saying SE full of malice. Mao saying SE mights be greedy. SE maybe nots trying get BLMs to switch to Picto. SE mights be trying attract NEW customers with OP job. Mao once saw something like this in CCG that Mao used to play called "L5R". Each new expansion the company whats made game would make one faction deliberatesly overpowered because thems knew that peoples would buy more cards and play that faction. Mao hateds that.

Bumping this specifically because of the strong reaction to VPR. BLM already has a niche audience..please stop ruining it when there's a passionate base behind the job. Y9u aren't going to see pages and pages of BLM spam because the gameplay inherently isn't for everyone. If these changes were aimed at making it so, then the dev team failed.

Happy to see the umbral soul change and potency adjustments for savage. Keen to see how we do in savage, wonder how much movement we are gonna be doing.