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

[DrEubanks]

To make casting off-global cooldown abilities easier to avoid wasting dps, I group helpful non-global cooldown abilities under ordered macros following instant abilities. For example, my sprint macro starts with Scathe, then goes to Sprint, and then last would be Aetherial Manipulation (panic!). My Fire III macro starts with Fire III, then goes to Ley Lines, and ends on Raging Strikes. I can use two non global cooldown abilities during my insta-cast global cooldown. My Lightning III macro is similar to my Fire III macro. I made a self-preservation macro that casts Manawall, Manaward, and Physick, followed by Apocatastasis and Lethargy last. If I'm on global cooldown, I can protect myself with Manawall and Manaward. If I used those already, I can protect the tank with Apocatastasis. I put lethargy last because it's rarely useful. If I'm off global cooldown, the self-preservation macro will cast my two protection abilities and then start healing me while I spam the same button.

[RainDurell]

BLM main from 2.5, I love the new BLM. All the complaints is what makes BLM so challenging and fun for me. Playing BLM is very possible and not as bad as you think

[Il_Gatto_Nero]

There is very little room for error. Keeping Enochian up during moderate movements isn't so bad, but keeping it up during something like 2nd phase of Seph EX can be extremely difficult.
You have to flawlessly avoid certain wipe mechanics on the field one after another and position your char at just the right angle relative to this blob while keeping eye on your own timers on top of that.
And THEN on top of that, you have to worry about whether the boss is gonna disappear soon or not, and make the correct decision on burning Enochian as it comes off CD... while still running around and firing anything you can.

[Atoli]

I love BLM the way it is right now. Granted, I also mained it in 2.x so I would probably stick with it even if they simplified it again, but I never enjoyed it as much as right now.

Yes, there is little room for error, but there is no other class where it is that rewarding to pull it all off
Also, it is not like the basic gameplay of BLM changed in any way: BLM was ALWAYS a class that needed extremely in-depth knowledge of each fight to deal great dmg, because only that way we knew how to avoid moving as much as possible.
With the current rotation, that part just got more emphasized

I won't lie, going blind into a fight is not something BLM is good at, and if I do it, I tend to start off as bottom DPS.
But the optimization margin is so much greater than for other classes, and after learning the fight in detail, my DPS ends up triple of what it was upon entry once I learned where to stand, how many seconds it takes til the next boss jump/vanish/invincibility, when to move by foot and when with AM, and especially how many spells I can cast before AoE X drops (so I will have enough instant casts ready to keep attacking while moving out).

So, to answer in one sentence:
Always living in this panicky world of half-seconds and high risk of losing it all is exiting, rewarding and fun

[FunkyBunch]

Always living in this panicky world of half-seconds and high risk of losing it all is exiting, rewarding and fun

I feel like there might be something wrong with you :P
I like BLM, but I don't like having to memorize when I can cast which spell on which fight so all my buffs don't just die. I also hate having to adjust my OPENER depending on the fight. No other class has to put up with those shenanigans.
While other classes need to know roughly what to do when and casting Trick Attack at the wrong time isn't ideal, no other class gets completely screwed because they forgot on this phase they needed to take out an F4 to refresh Enochian and on this phase they can't use Ley Lines when it comes off cool down etc.
BLM is a hot mess right now that is TOO punishing if you make a 0.5 second mistake.

The reward isn't great enough to deal with the risk as other classes have less risk and more reward and aren't hampered by buff juggling and having to know 12 different rotations on top of mechanics.
Seph EX ruined BLM for me.

[Fyce]

I won't lie, going blind into a fight is not something BLM is good at, and if I do it, I tend to start off as bottom DPS.
But the optimization margin is so much greater than for other classes, and after learning the fight in detail, my DPS ends up triple of what it was upon entry once I learned where to stand, how many seconds it takes til the next boss jump/vanish/invincibility, when to move by foot and when with AM, and especially how many spells I can cast before AoE X drops (so I will have enough instant casts ready to keep attacking while moving out).

So, in short terms, while you are busy trying to learn a fight and are probably underperforming like no one else in your group early on, other players have to "deal with it" and carry you through the fight so you might, someday, be good?

I'm not arguing about what you feel regarding BLM's approach to punish/reward the player (even if I think that completly changing the job to make it the opposite of what it was before was a bad idea, I respect your taste to like that change), but I want to show you the other side of the coin in order to keep in mind that this means it doesn't only affects you. And with some BLM who are slow to learn, this can be really frustrating for the whole group. Speaking out of a bit of experience in the matter...

[Maero]

At the end of the day if you contribute more to the group and have to deal with more stuff it should make you feel good.
I know when learning new fights and i mess up i get really frustrated with myself, not the class. Though sometimes i do swear about leylines, haha
Blm is at where is should be i think, 2.X was too simplistic, though i do hope by next expansion there is some changes, maybe different spells or something.

[RajaVamberaux]

There is very little room for error. Keeping Enochian up during moderate movements isn't so bad, but keeping it up during something like 2nd phase of Seph EX can be extremely difficult.
You have to flawlessly avoid certain wipe mechanics on the field one after another and position your char at just the right angle relative to this blob while keeping eye on your own timers on top of that.
And THEN on top of that, you have to worry about whether the boss is gonna disappear soon or not, and make the correct decision on burning Enochian as it comes off CD... while still running around and firing anything you can.

I've done Seph on BLM a bunch of times and unless you meant to say '3rd phase' I have no idea what you're talking about...

[FoxyAreku]

Making stuff explode is fun.

Playing a skill-based rotation that can be optimized in many ways depending on the fight in question is also fun.

There's lots of reasons people can enjoy it.

[Atoli]

So, in short terms, while you are busy trying to learn a fight and are probably underperforming like no one else in your group early on, other players have to "deal with it" and carry you through the fight so you might, someday, be good?

First of all: I wouldn't go as far as to throw the word "underperforming" around. If I start a fight with 100 or 200 dps less than my teammates, that's not underperforming (unless they absolutely suck as well and everyone's DMG is just horrible, but then I'm not bottom dps anyway ). Second, if I out-DPS everyone else in 2 runs and carry them by being hundreds of dps ahead, is it really too much for them to deal with me learning in the first runs? Because even if optimally played, very few other classes can keep up with the DMG output of a BLM that knows what it is doing.

And with some BLM who are slow to learn, this can be really frustrating for the whole group.

Then blame the player and not the class. If the player is slow to learn, that's a problem on ANY class, not exclusively on BLM.
And not every class is for everyone anyways. I'd kind of expect people to just accept that fact.
For example, I suck at playing SMN. Of course I could get better with practice, but DoT upkeep is just not something I do well with (even after playing BRD and NIN for years, even with their new HW skills that made it easier, I still struggle to keep them up).
The pet messes with my head even more. So even though I like the visuals and concept of the class, I don't play it because I know that I just can't get good at it.
I do not go on the forums and demand that SMN gets changed and gets rid of the buffs or the pet just because I can't deal with it, but people seem awfully keen on doing that for BLM :/