Q: I feel that black mage is a bit overpowered.

[Lunavi]

My two cents on this subject:

Neighter BLM or MNK deserves from a balance perspective to be on top of the DPS chain, DRGs do. They have the worst utility to date in instances. Yes sure, most of BLM utility is "bad" because of how the end game encouters are designed now. But we have alot of utility tricks and alot of very broken ways to prevent damage like Manawall. And if a hard battle will ever leave sleeps as a possibility o.o ey dude, THAT will be BLM's turn to shine for real. I do not have a hard time seeing there being atleast 1 end game instance anytime in the future where sleep might make it alot easier. I remember leveling up and how ridiculously easy our multitarget sleep made all trash encounters and some bosses with sleepable adds (the first boss in cutters cry comes to mind). Also, our AoE man, our AoE.. And infinite mana. Currently, I can never see an instance being designed in such a way that DRG would be a first choice for DPS. This is why they deserve boost.

But ofc I am mad that MNKs might take our DPS king crowns ;( I like that crown

EDIT: Because of this I will not rageswitch to MNK as main :P I do honestly not care that I am not top DPS anymore more than it was nice being that. I love being BLM I play the class because I like how they play, not because of their power.

[OldGeezer]

I'm pretty sure I know what I am talking about, but thanks for the nod of arrogance. Yes, most of your skills are DPS but your primary role in a party has little to do with your damage output and everything to do with your songs. You're like the RDM of XI but with physical attacks instead of enfeebling magic. Face it, you're a buffbot. Yes, a bard's DPS contributes and can be decent, but it should never be as high as a melee DPS or Caster. It is a support job. Know your role.

And yet when I'm in a light party I'm the primary DPS. Go figure. A 25-second ability used during a 4-minute boss fight doesn't assign your role. If bards did nothing but songs for a 4-min fight you could label us support, but the truth of the matter is that we don't. We're DPS with support abilities.

[Kyri]

Curious why monks are getting a buff when usually -they- are top dps in the pts ive been in.I smell a OP <4 months down the road> Nerfing again

Brd doesn't need to be nerfed now that people are realizing how to EG the demand is dropping. The true buffs need to go to DRG then WAR, imo

[Dorin]

BLM: STR/DEX reduction (Virus), Slow (Lethargy), Bind (Freeze, Blizzard2), Heavy (Lethargy, Blizzard), Elemental damage resistance (Apocatastasis), Heal (Physick), Damage reduction on hit (Eye for an Eye)
DRG: Slow (Feint, Haymaker), Stun (Leg Sweep, Spineshatter), Piercing damage increase (Disembowel, additional damage limited to BRD and other DRG), 5% healing increase (Mantra)

//EDIT: Forgot one.

BLM:

Virus isn't as good as arcanist's, nobody uses slow for anything, bind is worthless, heavy is worthless, apocatastasis has a very long cd and is very situational, heal... really? ...

Stop trying. No matter how you look at it, the answer in the OP is right, BLM is specialized as DPS, they don't offer the same utility other classes do.

[xwxmeowxvvx]

I'm pretty sure I know what I am talking about, but thanks for the nod of arrogance. Yes, most of your skills are DPS but your primary role in a party has little to do with your damage output and everything to do with your songs. You're like the RDM of XI but with physical attacks instead of enfeebling magic. Face it, you're a buffbot. Yes, a bard's DPS contributes and can be decent, but it should never be as high as a melee DPS or Caster. It is a support job. Know your role.

I cant believe your level 50 and have not seen how the game is set up. There are no support classes. Tank/DPS/Heals. The "bard" class in this game is a DPS class with a few songs. Bards already do lower damage than other DPS, but they should since they have no cast times and are ranged, best of both worlds. Truthfully, they should have implemented the dps buffs to the other classes first, seen how that worked and then decided if Bard needed any tweeking.

[Gamemako]

Now to address your comment .. frankly it makes you sound very ignorant because the reason that coil groups take a bard IS NOT because of its dps , Im going to leave it at that and see if you can figure out why coil groups take bards with them

Simmer down, now.

BRD contends with the ongoing problem with support classes in MMORPGs. Once that buff is in the wild, it becomes your design standard. In order for BRD to be truly balanced, it must have sufficient drawbacks that replacing the job entirely does not unduly gimp the party. The utility it provides must be fully replaceable. If you build a party with no BRD at present, content is nearly impossible to complete. This is partially an encounter design failure (encounters too long, results in TP starvation and ultimately triggering enrage timer) and partially a class balance failure.

Quite frankly, BRD need a much larger nerf than they will get, but there's a lot that goes into it. Encounters right now are built in such a way that BRD are a tailor-made counterpick for everything. Silence for ADS? Blunt Arrow. TP starvation? Army's Paeon. Pushy mechanics like Landslide and bombs? All range and no cast time. That said, it seems that the dev team's approach is simply going to be to buff everyone else. MNK was not bad before, but is getting buffed further. BLM is still absurdly powerful, but has avoided the nerfbat.

BLM:

Please read the thread before responding. Your response to that post is nearly identical to Voire's, to which I responded:

One way or the other, that misses the point -- BLM does not comparatively lack utility. If you discount Lethargy, then you must also discount Feint. Physick is (sadly) not worse than cross-class Mantra. If Leg Sweep is not being used as a primary interrupt, then Virus and Eye for an Eye are also superior long-term damage reduction. Virus can be used to reduce Death Sentence damage, but Leg Sweep cannot. I do not find the utility argument compelling when it it is not generally applicable.

[Lunavi]

BLM is still absurdly powerful, but has avoided the nerfbat.

BLM's are getting nerfed in 2.1. No more double flare bug... I think that counts as a nerf.

[whoopeeragon]

BLM's are getting nerfed in 2.1. No more double flare bug... I think that counts as a nerf.

So a bug fix = nerf. I may have gotten brain cancer from trying to equate the two.

[Gamemako]

BLM's are getting nerfed in 2.1. No more double flare bug... I think that counts as a nerf.

I don't believe it would be fair to characterize the fix to what is clearly a bug as a nerf. You could equally say that Twintania was buffed when they removed access to fix the disconnection AI bug. The fight got harder, but it did not get harder than it was designed within the game. It was just fixed. When the Twister attack was later nerfed, that was a change to the way the fight was intended to be played so that the encounter would be easier. Similarly, BRD is getting an actual nerf -- there are no bugs associated with the (modest) DPS reduction on that job.

[Lunavi]

I don't believe it would be fair to characterize the fix to what is clearly a bug as a nerf. You could equally say that Twintania was buffed when they removed access to fix the disconnection AI bug. The fight got harder, but it did not get harder than it was designed within the game. It was just fixed. When the Twister attack was later nerfed, that was a change to the way the fight was intended to be played so that the encounter would be easier. Similarly, BRD is getting an actual nerf -- there are no bugs associated with the (modest) DPS reduction on that job.

Still nerfes us. I do know where you come from though and get your point, but this is about class balance and taking away a tool (intentional tool or not) nerfs us. But I would lie if I said this is the only thing (or even a major thing) that makes BLM very good.