Somehow, BLM needs to be buffed up

[Hiruke]

I know this sounds crazy, considering BLM has been the go to dps for most of FFXI and FFXIV so far, but nowadays they just aren't as good. My BLM has better gear than my BRD, but I'd still rather go to BRD for pretty much everything even though I traditionally love BLM like no other.

1) BLM dps suffers because you have to interrupt yourself every time you move. In actual hard fights, you have to move. A lot. A lot a lot.
2) BLM takes damage like crazy. I feel like the Manaward and Manawall mitigation tools improve me up to BRD-level. Or I could be a BRD and take less damage like all the time. And have more HP and whatnot.
3) BLM doesn't have much utility. I guess I can do Virus or Eye for an Eye, but healers probably got that covered. BRD on the other hand can Ballad, or Paeon, or even debuff with Requiem to make us poor BLMs do more damage. I don't know why anyone would consciously take BLMs if there was a choice, though. Just take more BRDs and DRGs!

BRDs with worse gear are just straight up better than BLMs with slightly to moderately better gear. They can move and shoot, help the PT recover MP or TP, do incredible damage, and are just plain awesome. BLMs... shoot fireballs. Pew pew. The only advantage is that they can Flare. Which is great for cleaning up Garuda's plumes, I guess. Yay.

Please take a look at making BLMs more viable for endgame movefests. For the constant peril they face in terms of taking damage and dying, they ought to do way more damage and/or be able to cast while moving or you know something. I'm not even convinced a BLM could outdamage a BRD while both were able to stand perfectly still and dps, much less when you are running around like a headless chicken.

Thanks for reading!

Edit: I forgot to mention that in terms of utility, every dps has a stun or a silence, while BLM doesn't. Please ignore the silly people below me, because clearly they haven't done endgame fights in their AF or whatever. Unless you have done Titan hard mode or wasted AK with no wipes (focusing demon wall, ignoring adds, killing last dragon while only having to kill 2 adds) you do NOT have an informed opinion about class balance or anything really. Sorry, bros.

[shinros]

Black mage does not have much utility? I my opinion we learn too MANY utility skills we should have more aoe skills that blow people up. Overall I think black mage dps is fine even if we have to move if they bump our dps any higher we would go into broken category.

Black mages take too much damage? We are a caster class.

[Orophin]

1) BLM dps suffers because you have to interrupt yourself every time you move. In actual hard fights, you have to move. A lot. A lot a lot.
2) BLM takes damage like crazy. I feel like the Manaward and Manawall mitigation tools improve me up to BRD-level. Or I could be a BRD and take less damage like all the time. And have more HP and whatnot.
3) BLM doesn't have much utility. I guess I can do Virus or Eye for an Eye, but healers probably got that covered. BRD on the other hand can Ballad, or Paeon, or even debuff with Requiem to make us poor BLMs do more damage. I don't know why anyone would consciously take BLMs if there was a choice, though. Just take more BRDs and DRGs!

1. This is the only detriment I feel there is about BLM right now. I haven't done anything past Ifrit/Dhorne Chimera in terms of difficulty, but there are several fights that a BLM can just stand still most of the time and nuke away, so I think it's a good balance.

2. It's a light armor class. If you're not dodging red stuff that's bad. There's unavoidable damage that you just have to mitigate to the best of your ability or just prepare to be healed.

3. I don't think this is an issue. BLM is primarily a damage class. The utility skills it obtains are from cross classes so you can tell that's not its focus.

It's frustrating to watch Bard run around and still be able to DPS effectively, but I think the trade-off is when BLMs can actually stand still they can dole out huge amounts of damage. In mobile fights you just have to rely on Swiftcast combos and Scathe. I commonly find myself 2nd and 3rd on the threat meter in most fights where I'm keeping up with my rotation alright, so I don't think damage is an issue. There's just certain fights that aren't going to favor BLM well.

[Kuroyasha]

....It's frustrating to watch Bard run around and still be able to DPS effectively, but I think the trade-off is when BLMs can actually stand still they can dole out huge amounts of damage. In mobile fights you just have to rely on Swiftcast combos and Scathe. I commonly find myself 2nd and 3rd on the threat meter in most fights where I'm keeping up with my rotation alright, so I don't think damage is an issue. There's just certain fights that aren't going to favor BLM well.

Exactly. My damage is fine. Sometimes I actually do too much damage and have to scale off a bit so the Tank can get the hate. But I think the THM/BLM is fine. If we were able to move like the BRD while keeping our damage levels.....well there really wouldnt be a need to run any other DPS xD Let every class have different weaknesses. You can play another class if you want on the same character if you dont like it, so at least you're not locked in/forced to redo the story

[Hiruke]

You guys clearly haven't done any real endgame fights if you think BLM dps is awesome. You can feel it in Amdapor Keep and every place after that. Please go get to endgame and see how awesome BLM is. Thanks.

[shinros]

You guys clearly haven't done any real endgame fights if you think BLM dps is awesome. You can feel it in Amdapor Keep and every place after that. Please go get to endgame and see how awesome BLM is. Thanks.

Well all the black mages I have talked to feel their dps is fine. Actually your the first person who I EVER seen complain about BLM dps. Wait they all must not be at endgame right? They must not be playing their class properly!

Our dps is fine.

[Crescent_Dusk]

BLM dps is fine. Bard DPS is too CONVENIENT. Stop wanting to be like the top DPS classes -- those are usually the classes that need to be toned down.

[Jordie]

Any blm that has done titan will feel we don't belong on high mobility fights. I'm leveling a summoner cause almost all the gear is interchangeable aside from af, and I'll do better dps on mobility fights. Sure I hate the fact that blms are so relient on just not moving, but at the same time I can provide more utility by learning 2 classes.

[MomoOG]

It seems more like they need to make BRD more complex then to buff BLM. BRD just seems brain dead easy to play.

[Inuakurei]

I'm actually usually top dps in my parties as BLM. The only time someone's even come close to me was a relic BRD in one of my AK runs. Also during one or two of my Garuda HM fights when the other dps could keep up with me, we downed Garuda incredibly fast, right after her 2nd spawn of adds.

Currently BRD is the highest DPS so yes your better geared BRD will do more than your BLM, but I think this is more of a problem of BRD being op than anything else being underpowered (except maybe monk, they just need a greased lighting duration increase I think). Currently BRD beats everything. so it's a bit unfair to judge BLM, or anything really, against a BRD.

(PS. Just to add, I have a 50BRD and 50BLM as well, and my BLM dps's circles around my BRD. But my BRD isn't very geared.)