Why does Enochian have to be a pain in the neck?

[raisetheglass1]

Honestly at this point it's pretty clear that a large majority of the community doesn't like the way BLM has been set up. To my mind, the easiest change to the BLM is to make Fire 4 and Blizzard 4 refresh their respective stacks.

This would be a huge QoL change with minimal DPS increase (one Fire 1 would be replaced by one Fire 4). Dodging would no longer be significantly more punishing than it was in 2.x, because you can dodge most mechanics without risking your Astral Fire. Enochian would be the only stack that required our careful attention--but it would still be a serious limiting factor, and too much movement would still force us to sacrifice Fire 4s to keep Enochian up. Furthermore, Thundercloud procs would be useable once again, because we would be in fear for Astral Fire at all times.

There would be downsides to this change (fire 1 would be less useful as a skill, and Firestarter procs would be essentially outdated), but there would be a lot of benefits:

[Ayden]

I personally feel Enochian is fine as it is. The only issue we have is having to move a lot in most/some fights.

What SE can do is to give us AST's Lightspeed equivalent ability

Reduce cast times

[Thorsparkle]

Personnally, I don't think Enochian is the problem, or the whole 3.0 BLM rotation. The main problem for us has always been mobility. Moving during a fight is at best a small dps loss, at worst a huge dps loss (loose Enochian and/or AF/HI). Having to move when casting I3 or I4 is a massive pain in the ass.

I would be really fine if we had a way to counter this drawback on our class, not all the time, but on most situations.

And this could be resolved by changing the CD of SwiftCast from 60 to 20 or 30 sec.

Still a CD long enough to not use it in a Rotation, but you become able, when needed, to move for 2 sec while not sacrificing dps (start moving > swiftcast > spell > land in your new spot and keep casting).

[Duelle]

Personally, I don't think Enochian is the problem, or the whole 3.0 BLM rotation. The main problem for us has always been mobility. Moving during a fight is at best a small dps loss, at worst a huge dps loss (loose Enochian and/or AF/HI). Having to move when casting I3 or I4 is a massive pain in the ass.

I would be really fine if we had a way to counter this drawback on our class, not all the time, but on most situations.

And this could be resolved by changing the CD of SwiftCast from 60 to 20 or 30 sec.

I'll mention something I suggested earlier in the thread: how about changing Scathe so that it extends Enochian/Astral Fire/Umbral Ice by some amount? The ability was designed to be used with movement in mind, so I still think it'd be a good fit.

[Gaj85]

I agree that Fire IV/ Blizzard IV need to refresh their stacks. But in doing that people may think that BLM may become too over powered.

[raisetheglass1]

Letting Fire 4 refresh Astral Fire is most straightforward way to lower the extent to which we are punished for mobility. It might be a little too far in the wrong direction, moving us back to the difficulty of the 2.x rotation (but hey, people still failed epically at 2.x BLM).

Other options include letting Fire 4 add 2 seconds to Astral Fire (taking 3 seconds, giving 2 meaning that eventually Astral Fire with drop off) or increasing Astral Fire two a twelve second stack.

Of these options, I think my favorite is letting Fire 4 add 2 seconds. If the rotation could be tuned that with absolutely no movement (Faust, Ravana opener) we could spam Fire 4s, but then any real movement required us to use Fire 1 to keep our stacks, that would be a nice mix between difficulty and less punishment.

[Happosai]

I feel like any skill rework we come up with will be considered op. Like how about in astral 3, fire 3 is now instant cast and has the same mana cost as fire 1. Always being able to insta refresh astral would be a nice qol and in the event enochian falls off we can be mage bard and a3 fire 3 spam while running circles around bard in wanders minuet (toss him a /comfort in between gcd since we have nothing else to do) with less of a dps drop but still a drop compared to enochian rotation.

Jokes aside adding 2 seconds to astral phase would be a nice qol that wouldn't also be op. But imo a lot of the people will come back asking for 15 seconds long astral. Once we get what we want we want something more. Its human nature.

[raisetheglass1]

I disagree that human nature is opposed to compromise Yes, a lot of people will want more but a lot of other players will realize 2 seconds is the extra forgiveness the class needs to be less punishing.

There will, of course, be BLMs who make sure to let us know that they did not need the extra 2 seconds because they could manage their stacks just fine, and SE should stop catering to filthy casuals.

[Happosai]

There will, of course, be BLMs who make sure to let us know that they did not need the extra 2 seconds because they could manage their stacks just fine, and SE should stop catering to filthy casuals.

Omg yes! Love it!! I smiled out loud

The more I consider my joke suggestion the more I like it. A change that improves qol in refreshing astral in enochian, movement issues and helps our gimped out of enochian dps. But it might be too confusing so let me make it more confusing: scathe removed. New skill: firaga. Can only be used in astral 3, instant cast, 220 potency (less than 3 more than 1), around same mana cost as fire 1, refreshes astral by 10 sec, has no mana cost during enochian. We still have to baby sit timers but its less of a chore. We can move and refresh our a3 always. Out of enochian its the same 2.0 rotation replacing fire 1 with firaga but dealing better damage.

I personally dont like the fire/blizzard 4 adding to astral/umbral timer. If its a full refresh then were just blm 2.99. Same basic rotation but more damage. If it added like 2 sec per cast I think I would get MORE confused and stressed than currently. with ping and lag a barely making it fire/blizzard 4 would give me just enough more time to screw up royally imo. Maybe I haven't thought it through thoroughly but I'd rather have a straight forward timer that is counting down

[Kenji1134]

Yeah, can we just get rid of Scathe... and Freeze...

Almost nobody uses Scathe anymore, it is a waste of a skill AND a trait.
And Freeze... yeah... what is it good for outside of say pvp? For that amazing 4s bind with a 3s cast... Its about as worthy of being a job skill as One Ilm Punch.

Make Scathe another Fire series spell. Instant, OGCD, 10s CD, 150 base potency. Have the trait increases the duration of all personal effects on you by 5s. At a bare minimum it should increase AF, UI, Firestarter, and Thundercloud. It would be awesome if it also extended Enochian, but that would likely be OP... But hey, Scathe would be useful!