I'm having a hard time understanding how people enjoy the BLM...

[Kenji1134]

As another poster mentioned, one of the other "issues" with BLM is our love for High-HP targets.
We are punished rather harshly for not finishing a cast, be it due to movement, buffs expiring, or the target dying or being immune. Of course you can say this for all casters, but show me a caster, or any class, that can lose a primary buff 2.5s AFTER they make the decision to use it? It is one thing to not be positioned correctly for a potency bonus (like DRG), it is another to not reapply your rotation buffs due to an event that occurs well after you pres the button.

One often proposed solution, which to be fair was partly implemented, is to frontload the effects of all our spells. (The partial implementation was that they are applied ~90% of the way through the cast)
This means that like DRG (for example), a BLM can begin casting Fire, instantly get the AF refresh along with the GCD starting, and not lose their place in the rotation regardless of whether the cast finishes or not. (You still eat the GCD loss so breaking a cast is still punishing)

This would have some repercussions for the standard AoE rotation, as you will not be able to squeeze out an extra tick of UI while slow casting F3, but we'll deal with that... Not like BLM is AoE king anymore anyway.

[Bebekurenai]

We are punished rather harshly for not finishing a cast, be it due to movement, buffs expiring, or the target dying or being immune. Of course you can say this for all casters, but show me a caster, or any class, that can lose a primary buff 2.5s AFTER they make the decision to use it?

Yep, the other caster, smn, I lose stacks and deathflare chance on Echidna every bloody time. Or Cuchulain when he summons his puddings, Tree/Dog when they do their LoS thingy, Ravana when he jumps or untargets (wtf SE?), the bloody spider in Weeping City, last boss in said City... pretty much a lot hehe. The general party/alliance dps is greater every time which pushes the moment bosses turn invulnerable or detarget or dissappear even more.

[Gallus]

Yep, the other caster, smn, I lose stacks and deathflare chance on Echidna every bloody time. Or Cuchulain when he summons his puddings, Tree/Dog when they do their LoS thingy, Ravana when he jumps or untargets (wtf SE?), the bloody spider in Weeping City, last boss in said City... pretty much a lot hehe. The general party/alliance dps is greater every time which pushes the moment bosses turn invulnerable or detarget or dissappear even more.

No no I completely disagree with this! SMN is nothing like BLM... every time you use an aetherflow stack your aetherdam refreshes to 30 seconds! And you have 30 seconds before you use your third stack of aetherflow until your aetherdam runs out to cast dreadwyrm trance (you can use it immediately after having 3 stacks or wait a bit, up to you). The thing is...if you use your dreadwyrm trance and wanna make sure you won't miss out on that deathflare, you can always cast it instantly, but your rotation doesn't change entirely because boss goes immune or because you do not land a cast XD.

[rblyell]

No no I completely disagree with this! SMN is nothing like BLM... every time you use an aetherflow stack your aetherdam refreshes to 30 seconds! And you have 30 seconds before you use your third stack of aetherflow until your aetherdam runs out to cast dreadwyrm trance (you can use it immediately after having 3 stacks or wait a bit, up to you). The thing is...if you use your dreadwyrm trance and wanna make sure you won't miss out on that deathflare, you can always cast it instantly, but your rotation doesn't change entirely because boss goes immune or because you do not land a cast XD.

That's incorrect. I play both, and as a Summoner, a boss going invulnerable or disappearing can make you waste an aetherflow ability. And then it's not only losing out on Dreadwyrm, it's waiting for Aetherflow again to be able to start over. Both have very similar issues, but SMN has the more mobile leg up for them. But as several others have said in here, the way to do it effectively is to know your rotation and have awareness of the fights so you know the right times to pop those cooldowns and get the most out of them. No one walks into a new fight with no problems, the folks that make it look easy spent hours learning the fights to be able to do good dps with them.

To answer your original question though, I love the 3.0 playstyle of BLM versus the 2.0 one. You have to actively participate and pay attention in every fight. In 2.0 you could just go on automatic and never have to think about anything other than procs. I've loved the new version since the first time we got to see exactly how it all worked together.

[Gallus]

That's incorrect. I play both, and as a Summoner, a boss going invulnerable or disappearing can make you waste an aetherflow ability. And then it's not only losing out on Dreadwyrm, it's waiting for Aetherflow again to be able to start over. Both have very similar issues, .

No way... you can't put them on the same level, not even close. A boss going immune or disappearing right in the same second you spend one stack of aetherflow is rather coincidence and bad luck, not saying it cannot happen, it happens, but it's very easy to avoid. Meanwhile, a BLM is screwed over a million of mechanics that turn simple boss fights into a chess game. A boss disappearing or going immune, a not landed cast because an add dies too soon, an add interrupting a cast (either autoattacking you cause tank lost aggro or moving out of sight), a boss disabling you, a lethal aoe forcing you to move, phase transitions...I could go on...

[IllyriaKnotfred]

Snip

A boss disappearing or going immune, a not landed cast because an add dies too soon - As you learn a boss fight you learn to use abilities to accommodate the mechanics, same goes for monks (Greased lightning) and Machinists (Wildfire).

an add interrupting a cast (either autoattacking you cause tank lost aggro or moving out of sight) - I don't even understand how that's a valid point, the same goes for any caster class, dps or healer. There are next to no mechanics (that cant be avoided) that will interrupt your rotation. Master use of Aetherial Manipulation and learn how easily mechanics can be avoided and/or cheesed.

a boss disabling you Wat. Name one mechanic in this current raid tier that does this that wouldn't effect any other class just as drastically as a BLM.

a lethal aoe forcing you to move Two words- Aetherial Manipulation. Orrr slide casting with proper spell speed.

phase transitions Back to my first point, monks, machinists and black mages all suffer from the same types of losses. You just learn to lessen the impact as you learn the fight. All have the burden of needing to learn the ins and outs of a fight to master it.