Why so few spells

Mages have so few spells. Where is Bio, Poison, Bind, Slow, Blaze Spikes, Stonega, Stun just to name a few ...

We have so few abilities. I noticed, Freeze has bind as an additional affect, and some ice spells have dot affects, but why would i wanna use freeze just to bind a mob, or use blizzard 2 for dot.

It seems all the jobs have been watered down.

This isn't XI.

DoT and Debuffs are an Arcanist's specialist, so it's likely a lot of spells will be given to them (e.g. Bio, Poison, Blind).

Since all classes gain abilities at the same rate it would be a waste for THM/BLM to have such a diverse range and end up having abilities/spells with similar effects.
Fire = Damage
Blizzard = "Refresh" and additional effects
Thunder = DoT

The system, in my eyes, is perfectly good and optimised for damage output; i.e. once you run out of MP you can still switch to the weaker blizzard spells to have semi-decent damage output instead of sitting and waiting for it to recover by itself. As for the AoE spells, Fire II and Blizzard II are both AoE in their respective "damage" and "refresh" categories.

Multi-elemental spells when mobs don't have elemental resistance is pointless.

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Originally Posted by Fantasia

This isn't XI.

DoT and Debuffs are an Arcanist's specialist, so it's likely a lot of spells will be given to them (e.g. Bio, Poison, Blind).

Since all classes gain abilities at the same rate it would be a waste for THM/BLM to have such a diverse range and end up having abilities/spells with similar effects.
Fire = Damage
Blizzard = "Refresh" and additional effects
Thunder = DoT

The system, in my eyes, is perfectly good and optimised for damage output; i.e. once you run out of MP you can still switch to the weaker blizzard spells to have semi-decent damage output instead of sitting and waiting for it to recover by itself. As for the AoE spells, Fire II and Blizzard II are both AoE in their respective "damage" and "refresh" categories.

Multi-elemental spells when mobs don't have elemental resistance is pointless.

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So spam, FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE (oH OUt of mp) spam ice ice ice ice ice ice.

Seems very exciting.

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Originally Posted by Finchley

So spam, FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE (oH OUt of mp) spam ice ice ice ice ice ice.

Seems very exciting.

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If you're lazy, then yes, but you'll be a poor THM if you think this is the extent of it.

The Thunder spells have the most effective damage:MP ratio, so throwing them out when they're required is handy. They also have an addaitional effect at higher levels (Thunderstorm) where each time they tick over they have a chance of proccing the next Thunder spell's DoT to be as strong as its initial damage, making it very strong.

Then there's also knowing which mobs to sleep, and the situational usage of Fire II/Blizzard II, and when to throw out the free Fire III that is occasionally procced.

THM is one of the my favourites to play so far, and if you just say "Fire fire fire blizzard blizzard blizzard" then you are not a good player, since you clearly have no idea on how to optimise your output/damage potential.

It may seem like you don't have many spells to cast, but if you pay close attention to the damage output and the additional effects that come along with it, you'll see that the additional effects will add more variation to your rotation.

I apologize if the next part is a little bit vague, but i don't know the names of each skill by heart yet. (^_^; ) So please bear with me.

For instance, the Pugilist has 3 different forms, the Opo-Opo form, the Raptor Form and the Coeurl Form. By using a skill from 1 form, it will transition into another form, chaining all 3 skills together.

When reaching level 17, you will get a 2nd skill in the Raptor form which will place a debuf on the mob which will increase your damage with 5% for a period of 15 seconds. During these 15 seconds, you can finish the combo with the Coeurl Form, do the original combo (you've been using up until level 17) and repeat. Then, by using the Touch of Death skill, you can place a dot on the mob as well.

Next to these skills, you also have a buff which will increase you critical attack rate for a certain period of time and Feather foot (which will evade the next attack). If you evade an attack, you can counter with a skill which has Slow as additional effect.

If we chain all of those skills together, you will have a rotation which looks as follows:

• Open with Touch of Death (DoT)
• Use Feather foot
• Use the Enhance Critical Hit Chance buff
• Use Bootshine to go to the Raptor form
• Use the "Twin Snakes" skill to place the 5% damage debuf on the mob and go to the Coeurl Form
• Use the Coeurl Skill to go back to the initial Opo-Opo form
• Use the Bootshine Skill to go back to the initial Raptor form
• Use the 1st Raptor Skill you've learned to go the Coeurl Form again.
• If you evade an attack in the meantime, use the counter skill which will light up on your bar in order to put Slow on the mob
• From that point on, keep Touch of Death, Feather Foot and the Critical Hit Chance buff up and repeat the previously mentioned form transitions.

This is a rotation i used at level 17, which is far more then just spamming 2 or 3 skills. And it will only increase when you gain more levels.

The same applies to Mages as well.

/nod OP, even I didn't study that much... about blm magic, but I understand it's beyond fire fire fire ice ice ice
at least it should be fire3 fire3 trans-something thunder something else.
you can read this post:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-and-rotations

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Originally Posted by Finchley

Mages have so few spells. Where is Bio, Poison, Bind, Slow, Blaze Spikes, Stonega, Stun just to name a few ...

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Perhaps some are being saved for other classes/jobs that use magic. Red Mage and Dark Knight, just to name a couple.

At level 30 on pugilist, I felt like I had a lot to keep up with.

I had 2 DoTs to keep up (demolish and touch of death), a debuff (Twin Snakes), the usual rotation of Bootshine, True Strike (from rear), snap punch (side). I also liked to use "Impulse Drive" cross-class from Lancer from behind. One thing I particularly liked: I have an AOE ability called "Arm of the Destoyer" that does a relatively low amount of damage, but when used in opo-opo form, it has an added effect of silence. I found that to be quite helpful in Haukke Manor in particular with mobs and bosses that cast a lot of magic (or try to heh)

Just to reiterate, if you're doing fire fire fire ice ice ice, you're a terrible BLM/THM. You need to sleep mobs, keep up dots, manage MP (at end game), mitigate enmity, etc.

The same applies to all of the Classes/Jobs in XIV. Whilst you can, especially at early levels during non-serious content, get away with spamming the same few (or less) abilities. But it's far from even playing adequately, in my opinion. There is synergy between the abilities that most seem to either not understand, or choose to ignore so they can continue to say "this game is just a spamfest".

As said, you can do this to your hearts content, but you will be the weakest link in the chain. And depending on the difficulty of the real end game content, it may be weak enough to break it.

Also, don't forget that there will most likely be level cap raises, and with that, additional spells. Plus, as already mentioned, certain types of spells which will suit other classes. In order to allow themselves room to expand the Armoury System, it is required that a defined role is created for each one, rather than having a great degree of diversity on a single one (that diversity comes from the Armoury System itself)

I thought there was actually a pretty high learning curve with BLM. Much more so than LNC and PUG. Between stacking the thunder DoT, sleeping adds, balancing umbral Ice with astral fire to maximize your damage output..... I love it; it's no longer just point and nuke.

Now we also have to keep in mind that the highest raid was level 32, and still many of my spells were not useable. Also when I would do Longstop as whm or tank you would notice in a second if it was someone's first time on blm due to the length of time mobs stayed alive.

This is how I was playing THM in the beta at level 35.

Blizzard I to get Umbral Ice active
Thunder II then Thunder I (this way they both wear off at the same time)
Transpose
Fire IIIx3
Transpose

and repeat. Sleep the adds in pulls, Scathe to kill steal finish a target off. As for sub abilities, I used

Cure and Raise
Blood for Blood > Raging Stikes > Quelling Stikes > Internal Release (I activated them in this order since Blood for Blood and Raging Stikes last for 20secs, while the last two last for 15.)

So it's not really just spamming Fire and Blizzard if you are actually trying to play the class.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mizuharu

This is how I was playing THM in the beta at level 35.

Blizzard I to get Umbral Ice active
Thunder II then Thunder I (this way they both wear off at the same time)
Transpose
Fire IIIx3
Transpose

and repeat. Sleep the adds in pulls, Scathe to kill steal finish a target off. As for sub abilities, I used

Cure and Raise
Blood for Blood > Raging Stikes > Quelling Stikes > Internal Release (I activated them in this order since Blood for Blood and Raging Stikes last for 20secs, while the last two last for 15.)

So it's not really just spamming Fire and Blizzard if you are actually trying to play the class.

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I agree with all of what you do, except I'd not use Fire III at all unless it was with Quickcast or procced by a regular Fire spell (which wasn't in the highest dungeon yet). Purely because the casting time and MP cost compared to Fire I wasn't as good =$ But there's another thread going into it more.

While it may seem like mages have a limited amount of spells, good players will always maximize all the abilities available to them such as buffing up before a ws/spell for more damage/accuracy/enmity control. They will be using skills that reduce enmity when they pull too much hate or use skills that boost enmity if other players are stealing enmity . They will be using skills that boost defense when they pull too much hate for more survival. They will be using hp restoration skills/spells when their hp is low. They will not be spamming the same spell/skill over and over and will change their playing style fluidly and adapt to the situation. Good players are water. Bad players are robots

Lets look back in 1.0, While casual thms had stone,thunder,thundara,thundaga,fire,fira,firaga,blizzard,cure, stoneskin, necrogenesis, parsimony protect for spells right?

Manly players often overlooked sentinel, rampart, sanguine rite, camouflage, quelling strike, resonance, excruciate, second wind, feather foot, dark seal.

Question is how many players even play their job to the full extent? I think only a mere 20% or less. So if you are complaining about the lack of spells, you are clearly not seeing the large picture and not utilizing your job to its maximum potential.

Cheers

Thats really interesting guys - I am glad to know there will be some strategy to playing my favourite job of all! Thanks for the explanations its clear that I will need to actually learn how to play BLM to be effective in a good group!

Cheers for the replies ;) /thumbs up

Not going to read all of the posts, so if this has been said ignore me.

There's a new class, and 2 new jobs. Each one of those could do 1 or all of the spells you mentioned. We will know for sure when the game launches.