Black Mage

[Solyra]

I have not much time to reply but I will say this. I've been playing as BLM since the game started.
It's an amazing class and I love it.
Having said that I am totally in favor of emergency buffs compared to the other casters.
I agree completely with OP and just as them, I think that our "caster tower" role should mean noticeable more DPS power than the other casters at least.

Exactly. Especially with SMN offering more mobility as well as now offering higher personal dps not even taking into account Devotion, a party wide buff. As much as I love BLM, it's suffering from the same issue as it was in 4.0 release. It is not worth it to learn for the amount of damage that it brings the group or any of the utility. I'm OK with RDM being one of the bottom DPS's because I have cleared runs I have 0 business clearing just because of dualcast verraise, swiftcast verraise, but SMN out dpsing a "selfish" dps while also bringing devotion and radiant shield? As well as being able to shift better and apoc better? As well as being able to raise? It's honestly absurd.

[Shiroe]

+1 weapon damage, 340 weapon wins.

thats imo in case of this 335 weapon not so clear.., that SS boost is really nice

[zuzu-bq]

thats imo in case of this 335 weapon not so clear.., that SS boost is really nice

The weapon damage wins any secondary amounts.

[Oshirigami]

Wow, the post limit here is really short. 1000 characters is like 7 tweets.

I do not have experience playing BLM because well, as mentioned, it doesn't have enough damage to make up for its drawbacks.
I want to play it one day, but it's currently unappealing.

But I think there's an extremely simple buff that'd bring BLM up to par: increase damage dealt while in the center square of Ley Lines by another 15%, to 30% total.
This is a 5% total average DPS increase if it's always used off CD and if BLM can stay in that square. Bit higher average DPS increase when timed with other cooldowns.
Ley Lines doesn't seem rewarding enough to me against bosses that really move you around a lot. Granted, it's very easy to stay in it against some bosses, I think that change would reward timing ley lines correctly during a phase where you can stay in it best.

[Oshirigami]

Though ultimately, I don't know. Same design changes would be nice. As much as SMN DPS is higher now on top of offering utility, it's also harder and more annoying to play. The burst windows are really more ~2 minutes, not 1, as well.
Another idea would be if BLM had an ability to do a counter-spell attack to negate something hitting BLM for high damage and returning very high damage in return, that'd be a higher skill and cool ability. You'd both need to know what hits are going to do a high amount of damage (lets say more than half your health), and to stand in it only when that counter-spell is up. Potentially this could be cast on an ally, like a super-Apocatastasis.
The BLM kit seems kind of.. too straight forward to me. Many different buttons pretty much do the same thing. Though, somehow, I see some BLMs seeming to do very poor damage, less than I know BLM is capable of.

But yeah... BLM is the big one I'm looking at playing next, but it currently looks very unappealing to me.

[Llugen]

the 1000 character limit can be circumvented by editing after posting.

Also yes, the class is very strong in dungeons, in the new 24 man, etc, but this raid tier favors in many ways SMN, particularly as it relates to movement. This is why most of my proposed suggestions for the class would help it with movement rather than damage, its damage is definitely high it just can't optimize said damage effectively, like, say, SAM can.

[BlackcatChen]

the 1000 character limit can be circumvented by editing after posting.

Also yes, the class is very strong in dungeons, in the new 24 man, etc, but this raid tier favors in many ways SMN, particularly as it relates to movement. This is why most of my proposed suggestions for the class would help it with movement rather than damage, its damage is definitely high it just can't optimize said damage effectively, like, say, SAM can.

Nah, its damage with full uptime (100% turret) is still way too low for what the job is.

[zuzu-bq]

Even full damage uptime getting catered by your team and never having to move you're still doing less than other jobs.

BLM is kind of unapealing for new players because even with the Enochian change new people will still drop Astral Fire then drop the job right after. On top of that the job popularity goes on a downhill since 3.2. The job itself is fun but it rewards you poorly for doing the right decision making towards boosting your own damage and punishes you for playing safe, so I can see why people doesn't want to pick it up.

[Kohdo]

I mained BLM from when I started the game in February all the way through ARR and HW content until SB, and have since switched to RDM. OP hit the nail on the head - the unique aspects of BLM have been homogenized across other caster roles, and all BLM now brings to the table is higher damage AOE casts at the cost of longer cast times, and lags painfully behind the incredible utility of a class like RDM.

[Lelila38]

Even full damage uptime getting catered by your team and never having to move you're still doing less than other jobs.

BLM is kind of unapealing for new players because even with the Enochian change new people will still drop Astral Fire then drop the job right after. On top of that the job popularity goes on a downhill since 3.2. The job itself is fun but it rewards you poorly for doing the right decision making towards boosting your own damage and punishes you for playing safe, so I can see why people doesn't want to pick it up.

I actually wish they had left the HW Enochian mechanic untouched. It was far more fun to me than it is now. Basically press the button once per fight then forget about it, kinda lame. But I really liked HW feel of Blm, so that might be the reason. Also losing half our skills with the class redesign kinda killed it for me.