Black Mage Job Changes Wishlist for 4.25 or 4.3

[Super_Smiley]

I also feel maybe Scathe should be buff or somewhat changed for Black Mage. For example, it could be buffed to potency of 150 and double to 300 potency if it procs. But the MP cost of using it will be very high. This will make sure players know this isn't something that should be spammed in a practical rotation. This could help with Black Mage movement. Just an idea.

[HaroldSaxon]

I also feel maybe Scathe should be buff or somewhat changed for Black Mage. For example, it could be buffed to potency of 150 and double to 300 potency if it procs. But the MP cost of using it will be very high. This will make sure players know this isn't something that should be spammed in a practical rotation. This could help with Black Mage movement. Just an idea.

If anything, it should be made to cost 0 mana with no changes to its potency. Its an emergency spell meant to maintain uptime, not to be used often. Its low potency would ensure it - allowing good players to ignore it.

[zuzu-bq]

The problem with Blizzard IV is that if manaticks weren't a thing you could just never cast it and the spell would be close to completly useless. The problem of manaticks is that your UI rotation is really restrict to it because of the 3s wait and smaller than 3s Spell casts. You can't simply cast what you want on the order you want on UI and that makes some some really diminishing returns on many cases of party buffs or out of ordinary boss patterns.

[thebaaj666]

I would like to see the following changes to help Black Mage.

UI/AF timer: increased to 15 seconds

Transpose: reduced to 5 second recast

Enochian: Becomes a trait. 5% damage+ 10% SpS. Active as long as UI/AF are up

Ley Lines: CD 60 secs

Between the Lines: replaces ley lines while ley lines is active. QoL

Triple Cast: integrated into AF/UI orbs or job gauge. Give visual indication of how many stacks are left

Scathe: mp cost to 0. Proc chance to 40% same as firestarter

Fire 4 + Blizzard 4: Potency to 300

Focus (trait): each Umbral Heart used increases the potency of the next cast by 5% (doesn't stack)

Manaward: becomes raid wide buff. Nullify knockback and reduce damage by 5% of health for all party members in range. 120s cooldown.

Upgrade blizz 2 to Freeze at Level 35. 50 potency per target, AOE damage like fire 2. Grants 1 umbral heart per cast.

F1 + B1 bigger animations! Feels wack to cast them after flashy explosions

[HaroldSaxon]

I would like to see the following changes to help Black Mage...

The danger of increasing the UI/AF timer is the possibility of skipping F1 in your rotation under Attack Speed buffs (Ley Lines/Arrow).

Transpose? Why? Its already more than enough

Triple Cast - Honestly I hate the job gauge. Its awful. I much prefer them on the buff bar.

Umbral Heart - The issue with this is that it WILL buff one non F4 cast, and would mean your UI phase is completely rigid and you must finish your phase with B4. I think it should be kept to F4/F1 casts.

Manaward - I feel that would be way too strong with the nullification of knockbacks

[thebaaj666]

Thanks for your reply!

AF/UI- I dont see skipping F1 in the rotation as a problem since we have been asking for F4 AF refresh for awhile!

Umbral hearts: we mostly go into fire phase with a firestarter proc anyway which would allow the F4s to get the buff. Regardless, 5% buff to F3 under 3 stacks of astral and enochian is still strong. Dont forget that umbral hearts are spent on flare as well! I think it would be a good way to entice players to use the mechanic as the devs intended instead of skipping B4 under certain circumstances.

The suggested 300 potency on F4 and B4 would go a long way to alleviate this issue too!

Manaward: I dont see the nullification of knockback and 5% shield in a radius from the BLM as overpowered when you have raidwide defensive and offensive buffs on nearly every other class, and the ability has a 2 minute cooldown. It would add some sorely needed utility and synergy to allow BLM to compete for a spot.

[EllieShadeflare]

AF/UI- I dont see skipping F1 in the rotation as a problem since we have been asking for F4 AF refresh for awhile!

Some players have, but doing this would cause the job to become braindead, like the ARR version. Both Heavensward and Stormblood have been adamant about removing some degree of braindeadedness from most classes, while also removing a lot of the issues with the others.

They may as well make Enochian a static timer, and make Blizzard IV refresh said timer under your suggestion.

Umbral hearts: we mostly go into fire phase with a firestarter proc anyway which would allow the F4s to get the buff. Regardless, 5% buff to F3 under 3 stacks of astral and enochian is still strong. Dont forget that umbral hearts are spent on flare as well! I think it would be a good way to entice players to use the mechanic as the devs intended instead of skipping B4 under certain circumstances.

Honestly, I haven't really seen anyone really skip Blizzard IV and its Umbral Hearts ever since the cast time buff. It's usually a bit of a DPS loss, since you'd be losing out on at least two Fire IV casts if you try that. That said, Umbral Hearts should have some level of "helping" to the spells. So long as they only affect spells during Astral Fire, and maintain the ability to reduce the costs by half, it'll be fine.

The suggested 300 potency on F4 and B4 would go a long way to alleviate this issue too!

Please dear Hydaelyn no. There's a lot of people who are trying to advocate for this, and it's honestly the scariest suggestion I've seen because it shows an utter lack of regard for balance (which is funny, because everyone complaining about Warrior's new version of Inner Release + Fell Cleave are essentially stating we should have THAT as a rotation).

Essentially? the practical potency of Fire IV (594) would be a mere 64 less than a fully buffed Fell Cleave (660), minus the confirmed Direct Crits. Combine this with the previous ideas to give Umbral Hearts the ability to buff Fire spells by 5%, then you get a whopping 623. As it already stands, Black Mage is already dealing 555 potency per Fire IV, which is 5 more potency than Verflare... and only about 100 potency less than the base potency of Foul (but just 160 less than a similarly buffed Foul). Honestly, a much more valuable buff would probably making Fire IV GCD, and not require 2.8~ seconds.

Manaward: I dont see the nullification of knockback and 5% shield in a radius from the BLM as overpowered when you have raidwide defensive and offensive buffs on nearly every other class, and the ability has a 2 minute cooldown. It would add some sorely needed utility and synergy to allow BLM to compete for a spot.

BLM already can get a nullification to knockback, though. It's called Surecast, and it's a really useful ability.

[HaroldSaxon]

More standard Ellie drivel...

Honestly, I haven't really seen anyone really skip Blizzard IV and its Umbral Hearts ever since the cast time buff. It's usually a bit of a DPS loss, since you'd be losing out on at least two Fire IV casts if you try that. That said, Umbral Hearts should have some level of "helping" to the spells. So long as they only affect spells during Astral Fire, and maintain the ability to reduce the costs by half, it'll be fine.

That is incorrect. In certain situations its optimal to skip because you only lose one Fire IV cast. You should read up on it.

Please dear Hydaelyn no. There's a lot of people who are trying to advocate for this, and it's honestly the scariest suggestion I've seen because it shows an utter lack of regard for balance (which is funny, because everyone complaining about Warrior's new version of Inner Release + Fell Cleave are essentially stating we should have THAT as a rotation).

Essentially? the practical potency of Fire IV (594) would be a mere 64 less than a fully buffed Fell Cleave (660), minus the confirmed Direct Crits. Combine this with the previous ideas to give Umbral Hearts the ability to buff Fire spells by 5%, then you get a whopping 623. As it already stands, Black Mage is already dealing 555 potency per Fire IV, which is 5 more potency than Verflare... and only about 100 potency less than the base potency of Foul (but just 160 less than a similarly buffed Foul). Honestly, a much more valuable buff would probably making Fire IV GCD, and not require 2.8~ seconds.

While you are correct that the combination of this + the Umbral hearts idea is probably too much, you really are not objective when looking at the classes design and evaluating what it needs and what it doesn't. Please stop peddling your awful idea of reducing the cast time of F4 further? Its completely against the classes identity. If you want GCD length cast times, play RDM or SMN. A potency increase is far more consistent with BLM than a cast time decrease.

Furthermore, comparing spell potency between RDM and BLM is an awful idea because RDM has a lot more OGCD damage.

BLM already can get a nullification to knockback, though. It's called Surecast, and it's a really useful ability.

I don't think you read the guys idea.

[HaroldSaxon]

Thanks for your reply!

AF/UI- I dont see skipping F1 in the rotation as a problem since we have been asking for F4 AF refresh for awhile!

Umbral hearts: we mostly go into fire phase with a firestarter proc anyway which would allow the F4s to get the buff. Regardless, 5% buff to F3 under 3 stacks of astral and enochian is still strong. Dont forget that umbral hearts are spent on flare as well! I think it would be a good way to entice players to use the mechanic as the devs intended instead of skipping B4 under certain circumstances.

The suggested 300 potency on F4 and B4 would go a long way to alleviate this issue too!

Manaward: I dont see the nullification of knockback and 5% shield in a radius from the BLM as overpowered when you have raidwide defensive and offensive buffs on nearly every other class, and the ability has a 2 minute cooldown. It would add some sorely needed utility and synergy to allow BLM to compete for a spot.

F4 AF refresh would be a terrible idea. I personally enjoyed doing F1 skipping at the end of Heavansward, but its something that should be taken into account.

We don't mostly go into fire phase with a firestarter proc at all, and it would still take up a "buff" in your proposed change.

I do like the idea of Manaward and I think the potency changes to F4 and B4 would be about right, but they should strongly test it first.

[Kabooa]

I do like the idea of Manaward and I think the potency changes to F4 and B4 would be about right, but they should strongly test it first.

Further potency changes shouldn't be folded into the baseline spells. Additional damage honestly should come from a situational decision. I'm fine with Black mages having mo' damage, but it really should come as the result of a choice we have to make in the chaos of an encounter, not slapped onto F4 again.