Why Black Mage Will Still Involve Planning

Hear me out. I don't like the changes to Black Mage either, and feel bad about its effect on people who main it, however...

I've been playing Pictomancer for a long time and it has a leylines of its own, Starry Muse. I still have to plan where to put it so that I can avoid mechanics efficiently, especially in Tender Valley. And Black Mage is still going to have leylines so will still contend with this in a similar way.

I still have pretty long cast times when using my paint gauge, effectively keeping me still. I just have a lot of movement options I can save (such as the Hammer or Blue/Purple paint).

For emergency movement I have Smudge - which for Black Mage would be Aetherial Manipulation.

So, it has been casualized but it's not completely over for the planning aspect. Just easier that's all.

So why have two different jobs at this point ? If they've become so similar to you, that should say enough about how much individuality was lost here. Of course the class will still have some amount of planning, but what was fun was how much of it we had, and the ability to mess things up was what made that planning fun to execute.

True. That is a problem generally now, where they've sucked away the individuality of jobs in the name of balance.