BLM QoL suggestion

This is something that I am kind of surprised hasn't been implemented so far, but would it be possible to have fire IV and blizzard IV be tied into the same action (similar to how Verflare/verholy were tied to verthunder/veraero respectively), depending on which aspect you were currently attuned to?

Eg if I had any astral fire, button would show Fire IV, but if I had umbral ice, then button would show Blizzard IV.

My action bar is already a mess and I'm ending up having to make up new keybinds I generally don't use, and even though this would only free up 1 more button, this would help (and tbh, make sense as well).

Thoughts?

Combining Enochian, F4 and B4 would work. But honestly you shouldn't have an issue with BLMs hotbar setup.

I've got 2x F3s and 2x Enochians on my crossbars and still only use 36 spots.

In case you didn't know, but B2 and Lucid Dreaming are 100% useless and can be deleted to free up two spots.

While you're at it, you can also consider merging F4/B4 with Enochian as well, so Enochian removes itself from the bar when it's up. And I'd consider removing Sharpcast as an oGCD and changing it into a trait that increases the proc rate of fire 1 to 100% once every 30 seconds or just flat out 100%, but require level 60 instead of 52, and then a second trait that increases the proc chance of Thunder to, say, 12-15% per tic and 4-5% per tic for aoe. Sharpcast feels really redundant on a 30s cooldown, existing to insist upon itself, and its nature of working on 3 separate abilities is confusing to less experienced BLMs, muddying the class a tiny amount. Giving the guarantee to Fire 1 frees up mobility during the AF phase, makes it vastly more consistent, and obviously removes needing to press an oGCD every cycle on a class that has relative difficulty pressing oGCDs.

Blizzard 2 can also be upgraded to be, oh, 70-80 potency and instead of a point blank aoe, a targeted aoe like freeze, and then automatically upgrade into freeze as well, and that's a useless ability fixed and another button removed.

I'm not sure what else I'd tweak at this point. Those are the major offenders. I'd consider collapsing the ST-exclusive and AoE-exclusive abilities like flare/despair and foul/xenoglossy back into one, but that may not be necessary with bar space secured again, and the only other QoL improvements I'd consider would involve dropping things like Aspect Mastery, Blizzard 4/Fire 4/Enochian down to level 30 so that players can use the "true" BLM rotation earlier. And, you know, aspect mastery is just really nice and why is it level 72 devs?

To Add:
- Merge Lay Lines and Between the Lines into the same button.
- Do something with Fire II (e.g. halve the MP cost, reduce the cast time to 2s, and add a damage buff around level 50); pre-level 68 (Enhanced Umbral Heart) AoE feels completely awful.
- Allow Thundercloud Procs to accumulate in a stack, or double the duration (to 30s or more)... 30s Sharpcast is nice, but Thundercloud Procs still feel too random; i.e. most go to waste, but you still never seem to have one when you need it.
- Make Aetherial Manipulation a short forward dash when no target is selected / specified (with a target it stays the same as it is now); i.e. make it useful outside of group content and / or without a macro.

I think a thing to keep in mind with button-combining suggestions is that, while they may work right now, future additions/updates may require those things remain separate.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

I think a thing to keep in mind with button-combining suggestions is that, while they may work right now, future additions/updates may require those things remain separate.

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Between the Lines, though...It's 100% non-usable except when Ley Lines is up. Ley Lines is 100% non-usable while Ley-Lines is up. The two should definitely be the same button.

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Originally Posted by Acidblood

To Add:
- Merge Lay Lines and Between the Lines into the same button.
- Do something with Fire II (e.g. halve the MP cost, reduce the cast time to 2s, and add a damage buff around level 50); pre-level 68 (Enhanced Umbral Heart) AoE feels completely awful.
- Allow Thundercloud Procs to accumulate in a stack, or double the duration (to 30s or more)... 30s Sharpcast is nice, but Thundercloud Procs still feel too random; i.e. most go to waste, but you still never seem to have one when you need it.
- Make Aetherial Manipulation a short forward dash when no target is selected / specified (with a target it stays the same as it is now); i.e. make it useful outside of group content and / or without a macro.

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Agreed with AoE, Fire II feels really clunky, just a somewhat pointless filler to use your first two umbral hearts on before you can Flare.

As for Thundercloud procs, it's always a DPS gain to just use it as soon as it pops up, even if you're in AF. Well, presuming using it won't cause you to drop Enochian.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

Between the Lines, though...It's 100% non-usable except when Ley Lines is up. Ley Lines is 100% non-usable while Ley-Lines is up. The two should definitely be the same button.

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I don't disagree, but, all it would take is basically adding any other ability that can only be used during Ley Lines to sorta break that. I agree, combining the two would still probably be the most logical solution regardless of future additions, the utility of placing an anchor point you can move to. And it wouldn't surprise me if devs really haven't thought far enough ahead on skills to plan around adding more things that get used only during Lines.

Like I said, a lot of the ideas sound like they would work great with what we have now. But that doesn't mean it won't change. Idk. Just a consideration.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

I don't disagree, but, all it would take is basically adding any other ability that can only be used during Ley Lines to sorta break that. I agree, combining the two would still probably be the most logical solution regardless of future additions, the utility of placing an anchor point you can move to. And it wouldn't surprise me if devs really haven't thought far enough ahead on skills to plan around adding more things that get used only during Lines.

Like I said, a lot of the ideas sound like they would work great with what we have now. But that doesn't mean it won't change. Idk. Just a consideration.

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Even if they added another skill that, like BtL, could only be used during Ley Lines, then chances are the simple movement utility of BtL would make it the favourable bind to LL over whatever this new skill ends up being.

I'd like to have Blizzard I combined with Blizzard III, myself. Makes getting level synced in old dungeons less of a hassle.