BLM Suggestion

[Nezia]

I will quote myself here:

I always thought about a lvl 60 perk that makes AF have a really long duration(like 40~50 secs) but fire IV would consume 10 secs or so from that duration, this way we would still have the rotation of 3 fire IV 1 Fire I, but we would have a breathing time of 10 or so seconds in which we would be able to move without butchering the rotation.

I believe that this plus a damage buff would fix BLM for the rest of the expansion.

[Nezia]

-snip-

I really believe RDM is in need of a minor damage nerf, like 2~3% overall damage loss, RDM just brings too much damage for the amount of mobility it has. But I will agree here that the main issue is not RDM being too strong, but BLM being too weak. Summoner could use a minor buff too, but I would argue that the main issue with SUM right now is that it's magic damage debuff is pretty bad because BLM is too weak to be brought into the group and RDM utility making you want to group it with physical damaging classes not magic ones like SUM.

[soslinky]

I will quote myself here:



I believe that this plus a damage buff would fix BLM for the rest of the expansion.

O_O

I would argue that your suggested changes would butcher the soul of BLM instead. 10 seconds of being able to move without penalty completely destroys the turret nature of this class. If the only complaint is BLM's lack of DPS, wouldn't the simplest DPS increase solution be best-- potency buffs?

[Nezia]

O_O

I would argue that your suggested changes would butcher the soul of BLM instead. 10 seconds of being able to move without penalty completely destroys the turret nature of this class. If the only complaint is BLM's lack of DPS, wouldn't the simplest DPS increase solution be best-- potency buffs?

There is a lot of penalty actually, since there are not many instant casts spells like RDM, and thunder does not tick as high as SUM dots plus his pet, so by itself not being able to do damage while moving is a penaulty. With my changes you still would not want to move and moving would still make a number on your overall dps, it just would no longer butcher your rotation.

[Shurrikhan]

Enochian Suggestion:

Enochian is no longer required to cast Fire IV or Blizzard IV.

Enochian has been changed to a trait which has a chance on elemental damage to change Scathe into the more powerful instant spells Conflagrate, Shatter, or Burst.

• Conflagrate - Deals 150 potency of unaspected damage and afflicts the target with Conflagration, causing your Fire spells against the target for the next 12 seconds to increase the damage of the next by 10% of their damage dealt, but increasing their mana cost by 15%.

  For some really, really big final numbers, especially if Fire IV crits chain.

• Glaciate - Deals 150 potency of unaspected damage and enhances Blizzard I and Blizzard II with the Shatter effect, causing your next spell dealt while Heavy or Bind is still active to automatically critically strike.

  Prep CC targets for 1-hit KOs.

• Burst - Requires a target affected by Thunder I, II, III, or IV. Consumes the remaining damage of Thunder on the target and any enemies within 6 yalms to deal their full damage instantly. If available, will consume Thundercloud and add its periodic potency to the damage calculation for the target and additional enemies within 5 yalms.

  As strong as Foul, but used as a finisher, since it won't have DoT damage.

  This provides a fairly powerful mobile tool. It is not, however, a substantial DPS gain in itself except under specific scenarios, allowing it to be held for periods of necessary movement.

Related Changes:

Polyglot now follows its own (new) gauge, allowing Foul upon reaching 100. For every second spent under AF/UI, the Gauge charges by 1 per stack of AF/UI. Each time you swap between Astral Fire or Umbral Ice, you generate 5 Gauge.

Time to charge should be basically unchanged.

Additionally:

- Ley Lines and Between the Lines now share the same hotbar slot.
- Fire IV and Blizzard IV now share the same hotbar slot.

- The Black Mage may now receive mana and mana-cost-reducing effects from other sources during Astral Fire. However, natural mana regeneration is still impossible.
- Umbral Ice and Astral Fire levels I and II now benefit a third and two-thirds, respectively, of level III’s effect on the opposite element’s cast times.
- Mana regeneration during Umbral Ice no longer follows the global tick. It ticks once every second, scaling with the Black Mage’s global cooldown.
- Upon shifting into Umbral Ice, the first tick of mana now occurs instantly.

- The cooldown on Convert has been reduced from 180 seconds to 120.
- The potency of Scathe has been increased to 130.

- The damage bonus of Astral Fire has been reduced to 20/40/60%.
- The potency of Fire I has been increased to 200, up from 180. (Resultant: 320, down from 324. -1.3%.)
- The potency of Fire II has been increased to 100, up from 80. (Resultant: 160, up from 144. +11.1%.)
- The potency of Fire III has been increased to 270, up from 240. (Resultant: 432, unchanged)
- The potency of Fire IV has been increased to 300, up from 260. (Resultant: 480, up from 468. +2.6%.)
- The potency of Flare has been increased to 300, up from 260. (Resultant: 480, up from 468. +2.6%.)

- The potency of Blizzard I has been increased to 200, up from 180.
- The potency of Blizzard II has been increased to 100, up from 50.
- The potency of Blizzard II has been increased to 270, up from 240.
- The potency of Blizzard IV has been increased to 300, up from 260.
- The potency of Freeze has been increased to 200, up from 100.

[soslinky]

Yes it's true that regardless of how tight or loose your AF stacks limits your rotation against movement it will still require you to stay put to dish out DPS. But the problem we're currently experiencing isn't that BLM's are losing too much DPS due to bad positioning and proc management. The problem is that when we pour our heart and soul into a GREAT run: extremely minimal movement, calculated positioning, zero enochian loss, excellent weaving, perfect mana ticks, and more-than-usual thunder procs, the DPS is nowhere near where we expect it to be.

[Makrar]

Im a new BLM but overall i like the rotation. I just think that you are currently not rewarded for minimising movement disruptions and whats not. Seems to me that BLM is roughly 10% behind what it should be.

The only quality of life change i would like to see is Astral Fire/Umbral ice going to 15 seconds and gaining a small amount of maximum mana so im not reliant on mana regen rng. Everything else i think is in a pretty good spot.

[Nezia]

True, and it is also true that devs should not make classes expecting that you would find only ideal situations, in other words, they should not balance BLM imaginning that you would be standing still all the time, so since BLM brings 0 utility to the group just like SAM it would be fair to balance BLM in way that you would be putting close numbers to a SAM even while you are doing mechanics and moving at times, that would be fair, right?

[Nezia]

Now let's say that they do what I just stated above and flat out buff BLM damage so that you would do numbers similar to SAM's even while doing some mechanics. Now imagine if said balance was done, in a fight where very few movement was required, how would BLM damage be then? It would be just off the charts! It would probably be so strong that groups would isolate BLM in a place and tell everyone to not get near him so that very few mechanics can harm him and tell the BLM that in the ocasion of a mechanic happening to come for him just ignore it and keep dpsing.


All that said my point is: it is impossible to balance BLM the way it is now, some QoL changes must happen, otherwise BLM are fated to be too strong or too weak.

[soslinky]

@Nezia

What is your honest opinion of SE giving back the 20 potency they nerfed from Fire4? Would it make BLM too strong or too weak? Use the existing fights available as a factor in making this decision. Also, what do you mean by 'fights where very few movement was required'? Which fights were those? Midan, Creator, HW Trials EX. All of them required BLMs to run or die. If they release a Striking Dummy EX then yes, BLMs might be DPS king next to SAM.