Ideas to Improve The Black Mage (for 4.2 and beyond!)

[Llugen]

Check out the Sub-Zero thread for Freeze and like it and share it with your friends for them to like it!

Reliable procs would be great, I suggest a free Thundercloud proc upon fitting in a certain number of GCDs on a target with Thunder applied (like Thunder Ready from PVP), and granting a free Firestarter when all three Umbral Hearts are consumed (Firestorm, affectionately named).

This menas not only more damage (7x Fire IV and Firestarter per Astral Fire, and more Thunder uptime) but also more opportunity for snap movement of ~2s during proc usage. With this in mind I'd also suggest Fire/Blizzard I become instant cast under Enhanced Enochian, so moving only costs you the difference in potency from Fire IV but not the Astral timer or quite as much difference as with Scathe (and there is a chance for Firestarter).



Outside of this, Fire IV should be 280 again (300 is really high, remember to multiply by 1.8 for Astral Fire III), double Foul potency when hitting single target, reducing Convert and Aetherial Manipulation recasts (or adjusting convert completely to grant full MP, refresh astral, grant 3 Umbral Hearts, a Firestarter, and a Thundercloud), increase proc timers to 30 seconds, increase Thunder III DoT timer to 30 seconds (I'd also like to see the remaining DoT potency of the previous Thunder added to the initial potency of the Thundercloud so no ticks are ever wasted), Each Umbral Heart consumed should result in +5% damage for the consumed spell (so 15% damge increase on a Flare that uses all three), and then we just about have ourselves a real class. A burst damage buff return would also really be great (or magic vuln up on Blizzard IV), and synergy with the Enochian timer and the RNG of procs (each thundercloud obtained grants 5 extra seconds to the Polyglot timer).

Utility-wise, I'd suggest a buff that "consumes" Ley Lines and expands it out to the whole party for its remaining duration. I'd also like to see Enhanced Enochian function like a reverse-BRD song; every party member in range of the BLM under Enochian grants it +2% increased damage, and in turn the party members within range are granted +2% speed (or crit or dh or det, I just think speed makes the most sense). And yes, to balance the role, BLM deserves access to some kind of raise, preferrably not rez dispenser style. Manaward mitigation is pretty strong, but it could be a slightly lower recast, or maybe something reduces the timer, and I might recommend BLM get its own special MP regeneration ability since it's the "recharge" class of this game (tether to one player to restore MP over 5-8 seconds but costs the BLM nothing, on 120s recast).


If they implemented EVERY ONE of these suggestions, the class might be OP, but to be honest, BLM is supposed to be the strongest damage in the game, and after the shunning it's been through, it deserves a patch where it's the strongest (see also: PLD and SMN), so I don't even really care.

[EllieShadeflare]

Check out the Sub-Zero thread for Freeze

I think that's a good idea too, I may as well include a link to that in the first post.

Reliable procs would be great, I suggest Thunder Ready like in PVP and granting a free Firestarter when all three Umbral Hearts are consumed (Firestorm, affectionately named)

This menas not only more damage (7x Fire IV and Firestarter per Astral Fire, and more Thunder uptime) but also more opportunity for snap movement of ~2s during proc usage.

Aether Static is actually based on Thunder III Ready from PvP, but reworked ever so slightly. Instead of just making it "sorta Wildfire", I decided to make it gauge and tic based. It'd still achieve the effect, and Thunder IV's version would heavily reward players for big pulls and beefing up the BLM's AoE game.

As for the Firestarter confirmation, I went with Astral Hearts to incentivise Fire IV for mobility and beef up the opener. In addition, it'd also make BLM's damage more consistent versus its original form.

Outside of this, Fire IV should be 280 again (300 is really high, remember to multiply by 1.8 for Astral Fire III),

Actually, I put into account the whole hog that is the 1.9x, because you forget Enochian. In fact, 300 with 1.9 from Enochian and Astral Fire III is a whole 570 potency, a mere 4 potency less than the 2.05 boost from 3.55 when using Raging Strikes. My main concern when I boosted it that high was that Black Mage was already having trouble keeping up with other classes in Heavensward, and if it's gonna be an easily punished one trick pony that only deals damage, then by gum it's gonna be a powerful, easily punished one trick pony.

double Foul potency when hitting single target,

Please, yes.

reducing Convert and Aetherial Manipulation recasts (or adjusting convert completely),

Well, Convert just needs a reduction in cast... or give more MP for the cooldown. I think Aetherial Manipulation could use both a cooldown decrease and an anchor support skill, since it's a bother to use.

increase proc timers to 30 seconds, increase Thunder III DoT timer to 30 seconds (I'd also like to see the remaining DoT potency of the previous Thunder added to the initial potency of the Thundercloud so no ticks are ever wasted),

Considering every other DPS job that has DoTs has 30s+ DoTs (with AoE dots being an exception) and other procs having a 30s timer, there's no excuse for BLM to not have this. The rolling in of the remaining potency of Thundercloud is a nifty touch and would encourage using it more often!

Each Umbral Heart consumed should result in +5% damage for the consumed spell (so 15% damge increase on a Flare that uses all three), and then we just about have ourselves a real class.

That's also probably not a bad idea as well. Umbral Hearts do feel empty as is.

Utility-wise, I'd suggest a buff that "consumes" Ley Lines and expands it out to the whole party for its remaining duration. I'd also like to see Enhanced Enochian function like a reverse-BRD song; every party member in range of the BLM under Enochian grants it +2% increased damage, and in turn the party members within range are granted +2% speed (or crit or dh or det, I just think speed makes the most sense). And yes, to balance the role, BLM deserves access to some kind of raise, preferrably not rez dispenser style.

As it currently stands, BLM doesn't need a rez because it's not in the lore, nor is it in the class's style. Black Mages haven't had much to do with resurrection or anything beyond 1.0, but that was when Thaumaturgy was being taught by a Void Mage Black Mage. As for utility, simply expanding the size of Leylines and allowing other party members to have a reduced potency Haste buff under it would be fine enough.