Dear SE, BLM is great, but please consider the following

[Stormblessed9000]

I REALLY don't like the idea of a BLM rez. I'm all for giving them more consistency but at the same time they are supposed to be stationary casters. Perhaps giving them something that allows them to dodge/block/mitigate some lower damage AoEs? Something like a phase out or a mana shield would fit very well.

[Kabooa]

I REALLY don't like the idea of a BLM rez. I'm all for giving them more consistency but at the same time they are supposed to be stationary casters. Perhaps giving them something that allows them to dodge/block/mitigate some lower damage AoEs? Something like a phase out or a mana shield would fit very well.

Manawall got nerfed way back in 2.X, and folded into Manaward for Stormblood.

You cannot solely adjust a class only on damage. A Red Mage doing 20% less damage instantly loses their slot the moment that the Raise is no longer considered needed, but a Red mage doing 5-10% less than a Black mage gets chosen because why not, it's safer and you aren't really losing anything for it.

That is why suggestions get made to shore up inequities in the Utility department. Because a class must be able to compete numerically, and so long as the differences there are minor enough, then the added Utility is what you decide you want.

"Do I want 5% less damage but greater access to wipe recovery, or do I want as much damage as possible with only limited recovery options?"
"Do we want the burst phase with a machinist, or the steady output of the Bard?"
"Do we want the steady output of the Ninja or the Litany spike with the Dragoon?"

These are essentially the questions you could ask, were they all within the same numerical range.

There's a giant rearranging of who brings what that needs to happen though we'll see if 5.0 addresses that at all.

[MelvinK]

you will not fine enough mana to cast a void raise unfortunately.
and next you will complain about why other class not getting penalty for raising but BLM have big penalty trying to raise someone due to how astral/umbral and mana work in BLM class mechanic.

[Stormblessed9000]

"Do I want 5% less damage but greater access to wipe recovery, or do I want as much damage as possible with only limited recovery options?"

Isn't that exactly the current trade-off between BLM and RMG barring numbers tweaks? One provides more damage but the other provides recovery options?

Overall the idea that classes should have near-equal DPS is a valid approach. However, without considering utility, this leads to homogenization to the point that there's no point in taking a class that even slightly under-performs in raw DPS since that's literally the only thing that they bring. It's very hard to balance classes that closely. You've kind of argued that the time-distribution (burst vs sustain) would distinguish classes but in reality it rarely matters and most classes are designed such that the bursts cannot be saved for mechanics without significantly hurting average DPS.

Throw utility into the mix and then you need to balance that so that every class has distinct utilities that are equally useful. If they aren't distinct (i.e. giving every caster rez), then you face the same homogenization issue with fine-balancing mattering too much. If they are varied, it's very hard to actually make them all useful and you start to get classes being left out since their utility is not as useful as others in the current content. This is kind of already an issue as RDM will become far less useful in speed clears since it's support will become obsolete.

Ultimately SE seems to have gone with giving varied utility and trying to balance DPS around it. This isn't a perfect approach, as none are, but it seems to be working reasonably well outside of a few outliers.

On the topic of the rez. It's against the feel of the class, homogenizes the casters, and is VERY lazy. If BLM need a utility they should be given something else.

[OgruMogru]

Out of all your suggestions, a proposed cooldown reduction to Aetherial Manipulation is the only change that stays true to BLMs turret identity and rewards strategizing with your group. Everything else just sounds like easy mode and begins encroaching on RDM's playstyle [so..yeah easymode ] High mobility lots of insta casts and a Raise does not gel with the already established identity of BLM as a turret class that has to carefully plan out where and when to use their cooldowns in order to minimize unnecessary running around, which your Surecast and "Quickcast" changes would actively encourage. Yoshi P scoffed and rolled his eyes at the prospect of BLM getting a Raise. Because it's an awful idea. Maybe BLMs could donate a bigger portion of their mana with Manashift if they **must** have some utility shoehorned onto them. I would like AM to be on a 15 second cooldown and I would like the cooldown of transpose to be reduced. 1 second is fine in theory but there are a few annoying phase transitions where I'm left waiting for a boss to become targetable with <3 seconds on my AF/UI timer. Not enough time to cast, but still gotta wait for transpose to be up, just end up standing about like a lemon.

[Crewman]

I hope one day people will stop focusing on the optimal. Every job can do the end game content, the only difference between any of it is speed and difficulty. If you know the fight mechanics and have good muscle/timing memory you will be able to keep up to par on DPS. If nobody in the PF wants a BLM for it, then find people who will and do your own static group. People care way to much about meta in this game.. Just play the job you like and enjoy yourselves sheesh.

[Kabooa]

Isn't that exactly the current trade-off between BLM and RMG barring numbers tweaks? One provides more damage but the other provides recovery options?

.

No, the trade off is about 5-10% less damage and no access to raid recovery. The encounters in Omega are thankfully not heavily movement based like, Titan EX, or other contemporary "Black Mage nightmares", but at the same time, the damage disparity is not so large that Red Mage isn't just an overall better choice anyways.

People are not perfect, and people will make mistakes, and the Black mage's only answer is "Hit the thing harder" while the red mage loses one GCD to bring the person back into the fold.

And again, is gaining 5-10% damage worth giving up that safety? I'd argue it's a subjective viewpoint, but I'd imagine most people not on farm status would argue no.

[Finkledoodoo]

Couldn't SE just buff BM by nerfing RM? Just get rid of the Rez like they did to SMN and we are in...

[NoctusT]

At the OP. Only changes I really agree with is the AM hangs and the surecast fix. Triple cast is so good right now. No idea why you want to change that. We have 4 insta casts ATM and BLM feels so much more mobile now than before. I have no idea what you mean by MP issues though since they fixed it with the re SNT changes.

[NoctusT]

At the OP. Only changes I really agree with is the AM hangs and the surecast fix. Triple cast is so good right now. No idea why you want to change that. We have 4 insta casts ATM and BLM feels so much more mobile now than before. I have no idea what you mean by MP issues though since they fixed it with the re SNT changes.

EDIT: **changes, **recent (on mobile no idea how to edit my post)