Is BLM truly simple?

[Aikaal]

Haha. BLM rotation is easy but the real question is : Why so many players failed to play BLM? This is the same reason why some players fail as PLD. It's easy to spam 1-2-3 right?

You'll notice the good BLMs versus the terrible ones in Titan EX and T9. If they cancel a spell each 10 second, they are not good.

[LionKing]

I laugh when I see BLMs complain about downtime from moving, melee have it far far worse.

I laugh when they think Melee can not Attack whilst on the move or 1 sec dodging AoE will massively affect their DpS overall

[DxWings]

Folks, folks. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.

I'm not asking if I can top DPS charts in endgame fights without work. I'm just asking if BLM is the right DPS class for someone who gets easily overwhelmed by too many skills/too much micromanagement. I don't really want to be top DPS. I just want to not be useless.

(So far, the most helpful answer has been that BRD would be better for my needs, though I heard they have a lot of DOTs to manage at 50?)

I know nothing of BLM so I won't speak of that class, as everyone else seems to have already beaten it to death.
Now let's answer this question of whether BRD would be better for you or not. Seeing as you already played DRG, if you can manage DRG's DoTs and Buffs/Debuffs fairly well, then BRD won't be any harder.
Compared to DRG, BRD has no positionals, the DoTs has a moderately long timer (16-18 secs I believe). BRD only has two DoTs and one buff you need to manage, thats a fairly small number.
Windbite and Venomous Bite are the two DoTs, and you have Straight Shot as your buff.
You have a load of oGCD skills in your arsenal so you will weave those in to your rotation as you see fit. BRD has a ton of offensive cooldowns from cross classes, You have Internal Release(MNK), Blood for Blood (DRG), Raging Strikes (BRD), Hawk's Eye (BRD), Barrage (BRD).
Your DoTs are affected by your buffs so you'd probably want to pop all of these at the beginning of any fight, and DoT immediately after. After that, pop them as necessary.
BRD is priority-based class, so here's the run down.
Straight Shot Active? Yes, then DoT, if not refresh Straight Shot.
Windbite still active? Yes, then move on to Venomous Bite, if not renew it.
Venomous Bite Still active? Yes, then move on to Heavy Shot, if not renew it.
All of the above conditions met? Spam Heavy Shot.
Straighter Shot proc?
Do DoTs need renewing? If not, use the Straighter Shot Proc.
and repeat as necessary.
Last, but not least, you have BRD's song. These are situational and you have to kind of learn when to use them. Foe's Requiem when you have casters in the team. Mage's Ballad when your healer need MP. Army's Paeon when your Melees need TP.
If there's a burn phase in the fight, save your MP til that phase and pop Foe's Requiem for your caster. If no burn phase, then pop whatever is necessary for the situation.
And that's your BRD in a nutshell.

[OneWingedSora]

My main is SMN. Did Turn 8 for the first time as a BLM, did more DPS (431) than my SMN (usually 400-420). Granted SMN is pretty bad on T8 its just depressing putting WAY more work into it conserving mp etc and i can faceroll on BLM and do more damage

lol @ Summoner being bad on T8. Summoner can easily dish out 440-450 DPS if you have a decent enough bard. Granted, BLM is still better on T8 since a good BLM can do 460-500 DPS there but Summoner is by no means "bad" on T8.

[SeraviEdalborez]

lol @ Summoner being bad on T8. Summoner can easily dish out 440-450 DPS if you have a decent enough bard. Granted, BLM is still better on T8 since a good BLM can do 460-500 DPS there but Summoner is by no means "bad" on T8.

Still, a career caster will have both leveled and thus there is no huge benefit to bringing SMN over BLM if you have the option of being both (except maybe having another Raise as SMN which is a more subjective benefit).

[StouterTaru]

Haha. BLM rotation is easy but the real question is : Why so many players failed to play BLM? This is the same reason why some players fail as PLD. It's easy to spam 1-2-3 right?

You'll notice the good BLMs versus the terrible ones in Titan EX and T9. If they cancel a spell each 10 second, they are not good.

Dodging static mechanics is 90% knowing the fight, and 10% reacting to it.

[Synestr]

OP. Play BLM to see for sure but if your looking to just play something without to much other things going on to get flustered with or micromanagement, go for it.

ThunderII > Highest fire spell, Firespam till it won't cast anymore, transpose or highest ice spell to get mana back. Repeat. You won't be topping the charts but you will do DMG and might be more comfortable. Use any procs of thundercloud or firestarter you get. Who know's once you get comfortable with that you might start to make adjustments, and use things differently. You might be able to do things more often and learn them and when things are going to happen so you can be proactive about them.


(this is just written as a suggestion, taking out any and all factors we BLM's face during the course of a fight that encourage us to calculate whether we move or not, cast TII instead of scathe, blizzII, penta flare...etc.)

Enjoy your game!

[Mister-Wonderful]

Still, a career caster will have both leveled and thus there is no huge benefit to bringing SMN over BLM if you have the option of being both (except maybe having another Raise as SMN which is a more subjective benefit).

Not to mention SMN can do a lot of this damage while moving, BLM has to manage when they move a lot more to maintain that dps.

[SeraviEdalborez]

Not to mention SMN can do a lot of this damage while moving, BLM has to manage when they move a lot more to maintain that dps.

Good BLMs don't have problems with movement. It's not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

SMN has to work a lot harder to get the same or slightly less DPS than BLM on most turns, and on T8 SMN has to deal with a limited resource (MP) where BLM does not.

[OneWingedSora]

Yeah, no. my SMN does 430 on T6 and 400 on T9 including downtime. I have yet to see a BLM pull those numbers. And T7 is pretty obvious since a good SMN will always outdps a BLM on the same level. There are too many adds that can be multi-dotted there. Not to mention your DoTs will be doing damage everytime you get a shriek or voice.