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

[Tzain]

I see the major points as these.
Astral/Umbral timers double penalizing a moving mage (casters already cant do damage while moving, which means the penalty is already there):
Solution - remove the Timer entirely.
Procs cannot stack and cannot be used tactically.
Solution: Procs now stack so that they can be stored up, duration is removed or set to a very high value.
Umbral Ice spells and phase are not helpful. There's no reason to WANT to cast a Ice spell, it's a universal damage loss.
Solution - Remove all Blizz spells, rename the Thunder DoTs to Blizzard and change their damage type to Ice. Change Thunderstorm to Coldsnap (same effect, new name).
Blizzard DoT ticks proc Firestarter to extend Astral Fire phases, Fire spells proc Coldsnap(formerly thunderstorm) to make Umbral into a sort of Burst Damage phase depending on the number of stacks in play. Coldsnap and Firestarter only affect Ice I,II,III or Fire I,II,III spells that are cast while under the effect of Umbral Ice or Astral Fire respectively. Remove all damage penalties from Umbral Ice, have it increase the ice damage same as Astral does for Fire.

What about Thunder?
Thunder spells are now instant Direct Damage spells for use in high mobility situations. They have no effect on, nor effected by, umbral or Astral phases. Thunder II is a copy of Blizzard II changed to Lightening damage and without cast time.


Ok...what about Enochian?
Enochian is now a trait.
Blizz IV works the same as it did before: It's a Direct Damage spell that creates Umbral hearts.
Fire IV works a little different. It now adds 3 Astral Minds, which increase the potency of the next 3 Ice Spells cast.
Each time a heart or mind is consumed, it adds to the Enochian gauge. Which when full allows the casting of Foul.

And lastly.
Sleep: No change to sleep itself, but when the spell is resisted or breaks it causes the effect 'groggy' which decreases the enemies offensive capabilities for a time. This gives it usefulness when CC is not useful. Also, remove the HW and SB obsession with Adds or Trash being Sleep immune.

Edit: I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the gordian knot that the Fire spells have become. Something about Fire I, III, and IV seems 'off' to me but I haven't been able to put my finger on it. I think they are just too similar.