Black Mage

[Connor]

As someone who almost exclusive uses Black Mage in previous FF games (at least, where bards aren't available) I always figured Black Mage would be a great place to start. It was the first job I ever levelled to 50 way back in 1.X, but since then my enjoyment of the job has went down as the game progressed. However, in its current state, I find it difficult to play Black Mage at all. The spells animations aren't very exciting for an occult mage supposedly capable of pure devastation. The casting animations make it seem like even my character himself is bored of it, half-heartedly pointing a staff at the enemy every few seconds to create a slightly bigger ball of fire than the one you've had for the past two years.
In terms of actual gameplay it feels cumbersome compared to most other dps jobs. For the effort it takes to perform adequately as a Black Mage, I could be running around like a headless chicken on Bard and still perform similarly whilst bringing much sought after utility.

Personally I feel that Black Mage suffers from the same identity problem many other jobs face. The job is initially designed with the traditional Black Mage in mind; utilizing the elements to devastate foes. In practice, 1.X Black Mage is just a human taser that shoots lightning at everything. Obviously this doesn't match Black Mage's identity (only one element?!), so we get 2.0 Black Mage. Now you can use two whole elements! Wow! The job now tries to build upon the 'glass cannon' archetype, yet 'class archetypes' can't exist because of balance (Summoner and Black Mage must always have the same HP and Defense values at identical ilvls), so the 'glass cannon' aspect of Black Mage's identity is lost. Instead, it's replaced by the 'stationary turret' identity, like XIV's answer to the glass cannon.
This exacerbates the problem as Black Mages are thus unable to deal their full damage without having to wrestle with mobility, casting times, Astral Fire/Umbral Ice, Enochian, Polyglot, standing in Ley Lines, etc. So the job that's now intended to be high damage but vulnerable can't utilize its superior damage due to this vulnerability, and so the traditional 'Black Mage' identity goes down the drain as you spend more time trying to minimize the impact of having to move than considering which spells to use or why.

Come 4.0, and while many quality of life issues have been addressed (Astral/Umbral timer increase, Between the Lines, Umbral Hearts) the key identity issue is still not addressed. Black Mage remains as a 'glass cannon' with no ammunition. It's affected by certain mechanics more than any other job, especially compared to it's ranged dps competitors Bard and Machinist, who are notorious for being completely unaffected by mobility in battle. Additionally, the player community has developed a 'meta' based around job synergy and utility, the two things that the 'glass cannon' must sacrifice for their identity. In a game where increasing the dps of your party members is just as important as increasing your own, there's going to be very little space in parties to accomodate what Black Mage has become.

[zuzu-bq]

BLM has a good and solid identity. SE just refuses to make it work on some of the game's system like mana ticks among other things. On top of that their identity is straight not likeed by the players when they have the option to play as a BLM or with one in their team. But that's a whole other topic.

[EllieShadeflare]

Obviously this doesn't match Black Mage's identity (only one element?!), so we get 2.0 Black Mage. Now you can use two whole elements! Wow!

Uhhhh... you probably were playing Black Mage wrong back in 2.0, because you needed Thunder spells as well as your Blizzard and Fire spells to do anything near competent damage. I mean, a dot that could trigger "free" 300-ish potency GCDs on a 5% chance per tick? Granted, this was before the days of Heavensward where you could force procs, but... wow. You had to be doing something wrong to even ignore a DoT.

BLM has a good and solid identity. SE just refuses to make it work on some of the game's system like mana ticks among other things. On top of that their identity is straight not likeed by the players when they have the option to play as a BLM or with one in their team. But that's a whole other topic.

Yeah, basically that's the problem with BLM. There's also some issue with the actual skills themselves (I personally think that Fire IV shouldn't have kept its above GCD cast time, but I'm weird, I think) and the playerbase has an issue regarding utility vs. pure damage. I think part of the problem is that the utility classes may hit a bit too hard, but again, I'm weird.