If Black Mage Must Change in 7.2

The developers have cited future encounters for the drastic changes to the BLM job. While I do sympathise with these changes, the design team needs to consider the job identity and core gameplay.

If cast times create an issue with encounter design, BLM should have them shortened, but they should still be longer than the other casters. That way, the added challenge is there and still present in the new faster encounters.

Additionally, the timer should stay - with the shortened cast times, keeping up Enochian shouldn't be an issue anymore, but removing the timer removes any and all sense of challenge and urgency. For the savage patch, even if all the other changes stay the same, I would, at the very least, like to have the timer return.

To be frank, I hate these changes and thought the 7.1 version of black mage was in a fairly decent state, but if the devs are going to do these drastic changes, I feel like this is a decent and temporary compromise.

I lovbe the changes.
I dont understand your points.

BLM is a caster, like every healer, rdm, summoner and picto. Why should he be the only one with a much longer casting time as the rest? It was allways a con point of blm, that he was so slow.
The removal of the timer is questionable. In my view had a increase to 20s worked to. But, it was even a con point, that the timer was a pain for a good potion of people i noticed. And, the timer doesnt added truly something to the playstil of the blm and was practicly a relique of the past (as the only cvlass who still had one). I can understand the removal.
And, after playing the blm in the new content, must i say: It is really nice. YOu dont have to break your rotation anymore, because of the mechanic. You can wait, until you can attack again from the same point. The only critic in that area is, that you could forget Paradox and fire3 very easily. Because, they practicly dont have any purpose anymore.

It is a good way in my few. But the next step would be, to add something new conected to thunder, paradox and fire3, to give it a meaning again (dont forget, they stated, that they wanted to remove stuff in this generation, to have more freedom to add new identity in 8.0... -even when its questiuonable, if they are able to do that in a good way-).

BLM is speed! Save for the gcd which is slower than cast times :<