BLM Job Suggestions

So the main goal of this post is to post my ideas of some changes that would not only decrease the button bloat of the job but also add more sustained DPS while having to move. Overall, the idea is to increase the jobs DPS reliability in move heavy situations. And before it is mentioned, yes I know BLM can move with Aetherial Manipulation and Between the Lines. This is meant to work along side those ideas. Below are the listed changes I would like to see.

https://i.gyazo.com/c17397ae1e7ae2f9...21d9c6a405.png

Again, the goal of this is not to make them OP but to make them more reliable. Please let me know your thoughts.

I don't see the point of these changes besides making transpose op and the level 50 rotation a dull Fire III spam.
Fire I and Blizzard I still have their uses.

Freeze doesn't need to be a DoT, we have thunder for that, just make it an instant cast on a cool down and that would be fine.

though pre-60 a.k.a before enochian thingie, you need fire 1 for your single target. you can't replace fire 1 with 3. well at least not until lv60. i think a trait to fire 4 would be nice like fire 3 rn, which makes it instant, so the job becomes mobile.

The core of BLM is trying to cast as many FireIVs as you can while still casting Fire to maintain AF/Enochian, so I think any BLM overhaul needs to give the relevant skills as early as possible rather than at level 60.

For instance, Convert could be a thaumaturge skill, while BLM learns Enochian at level 30 and FireIV at level 35. (Maybe just call it "Void Fire" or something and give it lower Potency which grows at level 60 thanks to a trait). That way BLM players are learning to balance their high power, high risk spellcasts against low power, low risk spellcasts for most of their careers rather than only at the end of the first expansion.

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Originally Posted by Ferrinus

The core of BLM is trying to cast as many FireIVs as you can while still casting Fire to maintain AF/Enochian, so I think any BLM overhaul needs to give the relevant skills as early as possible rather than at level 60.

For instance, Convert could be a thaumaturge skill, while BLM learns Enochian at level 30 and FireIV at level 35. (Maybe just call it "Void Fire" or something and give it lower Potency which grows at level 60 thanks to a trait). That way BLM players are learning to balance their high power, high risk spellcasts against low power, low risk spellcasts for most of their careers rather than only at the end of the first expansion.

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So they'd learn all their spells and deal with all that skill bloat before level 40, and have nothing else to learn after that?

I don't think there is a skill bloat. Try playing as sch or smn or bard. The core of blm is yes, maintaining fire 4, but new players struggle what fire 1 - ice 1 mechanic is tbh. I have seen it many many times. They think ice 1 is a dps gain too. I think enochian timing is okay, i don't think it needs to be there pre-60. But, when i look at the casters blm has a huge disadvantage. They need to fix that first. They need to make blm more appealing. They will probably buff SAM in 4.3 and it does the same job with more mobility and less required knowledge of the fight thinking how and when it is needed to move etc. The problem right now i think, blm is probably one of the least desirable jobs in end-game because most of the fights in ffxiv doesn't fit the job mechanics. So you need to master the job and master the fight to maximize your dps. Which makes blm very difficult. And it doesn't need to be.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

So they'd learn all their spells and deal with all that skill bloat before level 40, and have nothing else to learn after that?

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Black mage "skill bloat", if it still exists, comes from stuff like Sleep and Blizzard 2, not the beating heart of their standard rotation. Also, off the top of my head, past 30 or 35 you've still got Blizzard 3, upgrades to your Thunder spells, Flare, Aetherial Manipulation, Blizzard 4 and umbral hearts, Sharpcast, Leylines...

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

So they'd learn all their spells and deal with all that skill bloat before level 40, and have nothing else to learn after that?

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Black Mage really don't have skill bloat. Every ability in our roster has a function (save for Freeze, Scathe, Blizzard II and Sleep, but fixing those shouldn't be a problem and they still have niche uses (seriously, Sleep really shines in Eureka, since it's our only interupt ability)) and your basic rotation should still only be about... Four buttons? Seven? (Fire, Fire IV, Thunder III, Fire III, Blizzard III, Blizzard IV (but not actually because Umbral Hearts stink) and Foul for single target, Fire II, Flare, Blizzard IV, Thunder III, Fire III and Foul for AoE.).

Really, they just need to fix Sleep, Freeze, Scathe and Blizzard II.

id love to give black mage some complexity in the..... i was gona call what we do a rotation but its literally 5 button combination of buttons.

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Originally Posted by Ordoric

id love to give black mage some complexity in the..... i was gona call what we do a rotation but its literally 5 button combination of buttons.

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That's more complexity than at least half the job roster, tbh, if considered in terms of # of separable decisions.

I'm hung up on reducing the cast time to 2.3s. Is that intentional or a typo? Correct cast time to match current Fire 1 and Blizzard 1 would be 2.5s. Also, don't really agree with the fire 1 -> 3 change you suggested, as it would actually make us LESS mobile. Reducing a 40% proc chance to 25%. Would increase our dps due to using Fire 3 instead of 1, but less mobility, which is the point you stated. the Transpose change would make it way too OP, however convenient. Why even use Blizzard 3 when you could transpose while moving, etc. and go directly into Blizzard 4 and Thunder 3, meaning you never miss a manatick and don't have to wait on cast times. Could work with a few potency reductions, but overall the change needs to be made to Blizzard 4/Umbral Hearts to make it more useful. Freeze Change I could take it or leave it. It needs changed, although a simple oGCD CD with medium potency would be fine too. Or just remove it.

reducing potencies and making cast times less would solve the problem, we would have like 6-7 fire 4's with less potencies but it would access to more mobility. for example instead of 3 sec cast time with 1500 pot, make it 1.5 sec cast time with 750 pot etc. idk though, it is just an idea.

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Originally Posted by PerrinTaveren

reducing potencies and making cast times less would solve the problem, we would have like 6-7 fire 4's with less potencies but it would access to more mobility. for example instead of 3 sec cast time with 1500 pot, make it 1.5 sec cast time with 750 pot etc. idk though, it is just an idea.

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...That's literally the same thing, but half the potency in half the time... which again, comes out to being the same thing.

Not to mention, people don't want to deal less damage per cast, people play Black Mage to see the big kaboom. People don't see a big kaboom in 7k damage, they see it in 14k+ damage.

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Originally Posted by EllieShadeflare

Not to mention, people don't want to deal less damage per cast, people play Black Mage to see the big kaboom. People don't see a big kaboom in 7k damage, they see it in 14k+ damage.

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If people are into BLM just for the big numbers, a roll-over portion would probably be ideal. (Note, this is not a suggestion, just food for thought.)

For instance, let's say a part of the base potency were siphoned towards a unique DoT. When replaced, the full amount -- or a large portion -- of this DoT's sum of tick potencies are added to the consuming cast's damage, giving a larger damage value on screen which in turn will then, through that mechanic, create a larger DoT, which creates a larger next-hit value, which creates an even larger DoT, and so forth. If that final Fire spell in an extended burn phase Direct Hit-Critical Hits... Unforgettable numbers?

Granted, that would make the value of extended burns quadratic in gain rather than linear, which in turn increases the penalty of quick-swaps or any downtime, such that Ice spells would have to practically be equal in potency to their Fire counterparts just to hold the same value over time, but the net effect is then simply that you get siphon the frequency of max-size numbers for the potency/peak thereof -- even more "explosion...y".

The idea behind my idea for Freeze being more like Shadow Flare would give a steady dps while having to move so not you don't have a 100% dps loss when trying to move. And lets face it, Freeze has always been pretty useless. Also I pulled the Cast times right from the game, when in no stance, the base cast time for Fire 1 and Blizzard 1 are 2.30s. Admittedly I ran the idea of having Fire III and Blizzard III being instant at 60 instead of the transpose idea but I figured that too would be a bit op. Also I saw mentioned that Blizzard 1 still has a purpose? I haven't really found one since it's always better to get back into fire as quick as possible.

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Originally Posted by Debeh

The idea behind my idea for Freeze being more like Shadow Flare would give a steady dps while having to move so not you don't have a 100% dps loss when trying to move. And lets face it, Freeze has always been pretty useless. Also I pulled the Cast times right from the game, when in no stance, the base cast time for Fire 1 and Blizzard 1 are 2.30s. Admittedly I ran the idea of having Fire III and Blizzard III being instant at 60 instead of the transpose idea but I figured that too would be a bit op. Also I saw mentioned that Blizzard 1 still has a purpose? I haven't really found one since it's always better to get back into fire as quick as possible.

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That's because of Spell Speed. The base cast times are 2.5s, just like the GCD.

Job guide if you'd like to check:
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/blackmage/

As for Freeze, that could work, but it could also just be an instant X potency move and that wouldn't be any different really.

Hmm interesting, never realized it did that in all the years i've played the job. *shrugs* regardless, the idea was to make it match fire/bliz 1 aside from mana cost and potency. And yeah I mean that would work too, Freeze is just useless as it stands.

making Freez into a shadowflare worthwile aoe/dot would be nice.

... but would need an extra button on my pad (in that case make "turn flare in freez" when in astral ice stace..., would mean, can only use freez in that atral situation, but wont mind it much.... I suppose)

I'd rather have freeze to be an aoe generator for umbral hearts and implemented as an aoe direct spell rather than a dot, which we already have in the form of T2-T4

dont mind dot, cause it still does damage when moving (blm appreciate dps when moving) ... but if it could generate UHearts too (as soon as casted) would be nice too

as instant spell (shadowflare like), I'm in for that too
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just as an "ice flare" could work too,.. just like the shadowflare style too

Mobility isn't a problem, just a part of the learning curve.

*meme clap emojis around*

I would just like to say that F3 with your proposed numbers would be higher PPS than F4, and depending if the 2400 mp is the base or under AF cost, you'd either be ignoring F4 completely or doing the current rotation, but casting one less F4 because F3 eats so much mana.

@Op what bout my fire starters tho????? :(