Black Mage

[Kaebora]

An anecdote, for what it’s worth: I’ve mained and raided almost exclusively with BLM since 2nd coil. I consider myself a good black mage - not great enough to warp a party, but generally an asset.

SMN and BLM are broken. I shouldn’t be able to practice a SMN opener 20-30 times on a dummy on Thursday and Friday and then equal or beat my top BLM parses on Sunday.

How do you fix it? Potency buffs are a given, but there needs to be more.

I like the idea of having a BLM-only utility ability, like Apoc used to be.

I want to be able to provide something unique to the party that noone else can: RDM offers unmatched chain raises which is amazing in progression. SMN offers damage debuffs for physical and magical sources. NIN offers Trick Attack and threat management. DRG offers piercing buffs and Battle Litany. MNK offers Mantra, MCH brings hypercharge, BRD brings Troubador. SAM brings a longer-lasting slashing debuff, which may not be unique but it's something. BLM brings... what?

Why not let a blizzard spell add magic vulnerability for 30 seconds or so, like the melee classes add for their respective damage types? Or, if you don’t want it to be pure damage, why not give a party-wide Mana Shift with half the Refresh cooldown? Why not give BLM a party-wide Apoc? Or a targetable Manaward? There needs to be something that only BLM can offer, and right now, that “something” doesn’t exist.

[Remedi]

I'd say that SMN is broken compared to all the casters tbh, RDM doesn't fare that better as their utility in chain raises is niche at best and their dmg+rdmg is inferior to BLM tbh

A magical ward to everyone could work too however I'm inclined to say that B4 offering a magical weakness should be a priority on things as it would idd fix several issues imho

[Kaebora]

By broken, I meant "not working as intended." I think it's obvious that BLM is intended to do more damage than SMN, but it's obviously not working if I can play the class for under a week and beat my numbers on a job I've played for years.

Additionally, I wasn't trying to say 'hey, RDM's ability to chain-raise justifies a slot,' but rather "this is something that ONLY this class can do." Some have a wealth of these (NIN), others don't (MNK, SAM). I think BLM needs some kind of ability, whether it's magic vuln with a blizzard spell or defensive shields, that only they can do.

[Remedi]

Wouldn't really say that SAM brings a real utility, slashing debuff is nice for them and all slashing dmg dealers but NIN and WAR already do this and you are most likely to have one of them in the group and honestly WAR has to play really bad to let it drop off.

[Lelila38]

Wouldn't really say that SAM brings a real utility, slashing debuff is nice for them and all slashing dmg dealers but NIN and WAR already do this and you are most likely to have one of them in the group and honestly WAR has to play really bad to let it drop off.

The thing is, if there's no War, Sam still has a way to increase their own dps by means of the slashing debuff. In fact all dps have a way to increase their own damage.
The only class that can't increase their own dps, not even by putting a debuff on the boss, is Blm.

[IllyriaKnotfred]

Would like to point out this from the LL

As for Eureka (name pending), balancing is taking quite some time, so we are aiming for release during or after Patch 4.2. Instead of focusing on upgrading weapons, we are planning for a fun new activity of strengthening the player character themselves. Please stay tuned for more details


Some ppl in reddit think it might involve merit point to spend on skills and traits, but let's not speculate much further or be hysterical about this

While sounding fun in concept, I cant see how they would manage to balance that for raiding. It may be a separate fun progression system that only takes effect in Eureka itself, though.

[Remedi]

The thing is, if there's no War, Sam still has a way to increase their own dps by means of the slashing debuff. In fact all dps have a way to increase their own damage.
The only class that can't increase their own dps, not even by putting a debuff on the boss, is Blm.

During high end play atm having no WAR is very unlikely it's even less unlikely the absence of a NIN, the only slashing that cannot apply the weakness are DRK and PLD

@Illyria
Till we know more it's very hard to make guess, realistically speaking the balance of the game is not as wonky as ppl makes it to be, aside the obvious SMN ofc, that said it's better if we keep our eyes open for this thing just to at least know what it is

[Snowelfie]

The thing is, if there's no War, Sam still has a way to increase their own dps by means of the slashing debuff. In fact all dps have a way to increase their own damage.
The only class that can't increase their own dps, not even by putting a debuff on the boss, is Blm.

If by "increase their own dps" via a debuff = constantly doing more damage on your skills/spells than their shown potency, BLM does have it in the form of Eno and AF, it's just not a debuff on the target and doesn't affect anyone else. BRD/MCH had it worse in this regard as their legit "constant dps increase debuff" is gated by the present of DRG.

Just like the others' comment on WAR/SAM, a BLM has to play really bad for this "dps increasing buff" to fall off, so the point is moot.

However the idea of B4 doing a magic damage debuff on target is superb imo, that and the idea of allow casts while moving (with a penalty), would make BLM alot more friendly.

[OgruMogru]

I feel like Eno and Af aren't the same as the kind of damage modifier that we lost from raging strikes, though. Losing RS is what feels wrong with BLM right now, nothing to bridge the gap that left behind. It means we don't even have a bursty window to line up with everyone else. We're totally isolated from the workings of the rest of the group. That and a number of small nitpicky things. It's impossible to use half of BLMs kit without first using Eno and being in Af so it doesn't feel quite as "additive" as say SMN or RDM popping Embolden and Devotion, if that makes sense?

[Kabooa]

I feel like Eno and Af aren't the same as the kind of damage modifier that we lost from raging strikes, though. Losing RS is what feels wrong with BLM right now, nothing to bridge the gap that left behind. It means we don't even have a bursty window to line up with everyone else. We're totally isolated from the workings of the rest of the group. That and a number of small nitpicky things. It's impossible to use half of BLMs kit without first using Eno and being in Af so it doesn't feel quite as "additive" as say SMN or RDM popping Embolden and Devotion, if that makes sense?

Heh, wouldn't that be something, if F4 could push you into AF4 with the benefit of another 20% damage, but only for like 3 seconds.

A huge boost in damage if we can turret, but effectively non-existent if we're caught with our casts down.