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

[Llugen]

I feel like most of the responders didn't even read the OP since my last response, so let me clear some things up.

My raise suggestion would cost zero MP and would be off-GCD, like using any buff, but have 180 second recast. BLM cannot have a GCD based raise with its MP table, so this solution puts it on the map without making it overpowered. Hell, make it 300 second recast if you want, it just needs the ability to save the healers (in particular) like the other two have. The lore is great, but in the end the mechanics/execution/toolkit are all that matters, which is why I mentioned that it could be made to fit with the lore with some imagination, hence black magic.

To everyone asking for potency increases, that would absolutely break the class as it is already very strong. The only potency adjustments that would be warranted would be +5% damage to the umbral hearts, since Galvuu outlined in their post that using Blizzard IV is in fact a PPS loss, which needs to be fixed.


At risk of sounding like a broken record, in a tier that favors mobility, mobility will be king. I'm no stranger to plan-ahead movement and "turreting" (as mentioned), but more, please, in the shape of surecast while moving and reduced aetherial manipulation recast. Why try to take a "raw DPS" class and do less than 10% more than a class that has excellent mobility/utility?

Also whoever said my thunder change would be broken, yes, it would definitely be strong, but I'd personally rather them nerf the potency of the dot and the hit and make it more consistent than pray to RNGsus for procs, so it's just an idea to roll around in the noggin.

[OmegaStrongtan]

Quick stupid ideas:
> Have b4 take 10 seconds off the AM recast timer
> Umbral heart will allow you to run while casting but it will increase the cast time by 25% butIF you chose run.
> Let Leylines stay active for 20 seconds even after the effect ended so you can between the lines more often.
> Foul grants you a 'you can run around while casting' stack which is consumed after the next spell. So probably F3, B4 or hardcast thunder.

More QoL than anything.
> Casting Fire 1 when in umbral 3 should not eat my stacks but give 1 fire stack instead

[Galvuu]

No, making an immobile class mobile is what would break the class.
Giving a job designed around being stationary a bunch of abilities that do not match that design by allowing it to run is what would make it a balancing nightmare (something something identity).

I don't want to sound harsh, but if you're playing this job correctly, you do not need more mobility tools.
If you check the Savage logs, not only are Black Mages really high in dps, but we have really high uptime.
We match melee uptime in O3S. The fight where we have to run around in many panels.
In the "tier where mobility is king" we are amongst the highest in dps uptime.
This job absolutely does not need more mobility tools if very skilled Black Mages match melee in dps uptime in movement heavy fights.
What it needs is perfect planning, as it always did.
(Why would anyone Blizzard in AF or Fire in UI anyway...? If you make such a crucial mistake in your rotation, then you absolutely should be punished for it, like any melee is punished for breaking a combo)

EDIT: We had something like this before, just the other way around. WM for Bard in HW. Which made them stationary (and they hated it). What many people are suggesting here is grab the immobile Black Mage and give it "mobility" for the sake of ease- because then you don't need to be proactive (plan ahead) and can be reactive (just "wing it"). What's puzzling is that you can, well, play Bard or Red Mage for this sorta gameplay. It's not like you need to play the turret if you don't like turret-ing.

[Mapleine]

I've been in guilds in World of Warcraft where you were benched if you weren't ideal for fights or didn't switch your class/spec up. I left those raiding guilds. I could complain and pray to the forums that the devs would make Frost Mage the greatest dps of all time that was perfect for every fight in the game, or I could just search for a guild that wasn't bench/kick happy. Turns out there were quite a ton of them and I still had successful and fun raiding times with my preferred class.

Lets be real, the meta in this game is usually completely silly. People didn't get benched in WoW until truly pressing Mythic content which is dramatically more difficult than anything in FFXIV, also even the most balanced specs in WoW tend to swing wider than the highs and lows of FFXIV.

(To be fair to WoW, it has three specs per class, set bonuses, trinkets, enchants, artifacts, etc, just alot more moving parts to make balance harder)

[Shiroe]

blm does not need rais or cure.., if any thing extra, than a slight magical buff, so there can be a real merite in having 3 caster comps..

sam should be = blm on the dps scale (both no utility).., and not just on some blm frindly fights, .. if not even leaning towards blm>sam due to the majority of physical buffs

and comps/metas do ffing matter, just the other day i was kicked out if a party just when it filled, to be replaced by a rdm "we can get a rdm, bye"

and some parts if blm are still broken.

[Ferrinus]

The main thing BLM needs is an incentive to produce spend umbral hearts. Right now, B4 is only sometimes useful on single targets, and when you use B4 on multiple targets you just immediately cast Flare to burn all your hearts at once. Instead, you should benefit each time you spend 1 or more hearts, such that F2 F2 Flare is a sensible AoE sequence and B4 is always attractive on single targets.

My idea: Foul takes 60s to charge rather than 30, but each time you spend any number of umbral hearts you get +10s of charge time.

Also it'd be nice if umbral hearts made more of a mathematical difference themselves, like if they halved cast time or reduced a fire spell's cost down to UI3 level rather than just to its neutral value.

[Shiroe]

"B4/umbra ice on single target" and "losing astral ice when casting fire 2" are 2 broken parts of blm..

unless we are forced to do B4 now, due to too much spellspeed and not getting the mana ticks -.-'

[Shiroe]

"B4/umbra ice on single target" and "losing astral ice when casting fire 2" are 2 broken parts of blm..

unless we are forced to do B4 now, due to too much spellspeed and not getting the mana ticks -.-'

when casting fire 1'

(why the f..k is there no edit possibility on my mobile?)

[Finkledoodoo]

Thoughts

I think B4 should just go up in potency since B4 is the problem. I posted this in the other thread...

If continued use of B4 is the problem because it is a dps loss, all SE needs to do is make it so that every use of UH increases the potency of the next B4 in relation to the level of Fire used. The numbers should make the next B4 equal to the average of what was used. So F4x3 makes the next B4 hit like a F4. If F4x2 + F1 equals the average. This would make skipping UH and dropping Enochian punishing and working the rotation as intended quite rewarding.

Next, just a thought...
If you want to make it OP, B4 could take on the properties if the fire used as well, that way, F2 and Flare could turn B4 into an AOE... 1 -2 AOE UH can give B4 the depreciating next target mechanic and 3 AOE UH can give flat damage to every target...

[BlastHardcheese]

How about we don't completely tilt a job into ridiculous territory in order for it to be "viable" for, at the moment, three bosses (V1 savage is a joke.)

BLM is wonderful in 99% of the current content, if top end progression is bothering you that much, use your RDM for that 1% of content.