Black Mage Job Changes Wishlist for 4.25 or 4.3

[Acidblood]

Firstly, thank <insert deity here> for 8 second Transpose. Also, and maybe it's just me, but BLM actually feels playable now (as opposed to in 4.0), so, yay!

As for future changes:
- Sleep, delete or move to cross role. Replace with Focus: +30% direct hit chance, and +10% direct hit damage bonus for 20s, 90s cooldown.
Reason: Since losing Raging Strikes BLM has been seriously lacking a 'burst' buff; being direct hit makes it a bit more interesting than just straight damage.

- Freeze, add additional effect: Grants Umbral Ice III and removes Astral Fire
Reason: Freeze is next to useless, this would allow it to be used instead of Blizzard III for the AoE rotation.

- Scathe, replace with Double Cast: The next two spells will require no cast time. Becomes Triple Cast at Lv66.
Reason: Scathe is mostly useless anyway and Swiftcast was moved to cross-role; introducing a low level instant cast ability would make BLM flow better in pre lv66 content.

- Aetherial Manipulation, change so that if the BLM doesn't have a friendly target it moves the BLM forward 15y. Increase cooldown to 20s.
Reason: Any ability that requires you to switch targets in FFXIV is clunky to use... Removing the target requirement keeps the existing functionality while allowing AM to be used far more easily and in more situations.

- Enochian, lower cooldown to 15s.
Reason: Enochian is little more than an annoying formality at this point, and a 30s cooldown is little more than a punishment for players still learning the job.

- Blizzard IV, increase potency to 280.
Reasons.

- Lay Lines, lower cooldown to 60s. Lower duration to 24s. Now becomes Between the Lines when cast, reverts to Lay Lines when the Lay Lines effect expires.
Reason: QoL, slighty better mobility and overall damage.

- Thundercloud, changed to a stacking proc, max 3 stacks. Next Thunder spell will add 1/3 of it's full damage over time amount per stack to its initial damage, have no cast time, and cost no MP. Chance to proc increased to 25% for Thunder I / III and 8% for Thunder II / IV.
Reason: While the proc duration increase is nice in limited situations, Thundercloud procs are still very hit and miss, this is an attempt to smooth things out a bit by making procs more likely (for the instant cast, no MP) without increasing overall damage output.

- Sharpcast, when used with a Thunder spell it gives a full 3 stacks of Thundercloud.
Reason: Changes to Thundercloud.

- Empower Lay Lines (new ability); triples the radius of the next Lay Lines cast and allows it to affect any party member standing with-in the circle. 180s cooldown.
Reason: Caster meta?

NB. I know a number of these changes would increase BLM overall damage output, but they are 'pure' DPS after all, and potencies are easily adjusted if needed.

[HaroldSaxon]

Changelist

Sleep Changes - Why Direct Hit? Why give a sustained damage class burst damage? Just seems to be making it a clone of the other casters

Freeze Changes - I'd rather it give one umbral heart, or some AOE spell that does that.

Scathe - No thanks. All scathe needs is to be 0 mana cost so people use it as an on demand movement spell, and for a foul replacement pre-70.

Aetherial Manipulation - I don't have the same issues you have.

Enochian - No. The entire skill needs a rework. Right now you should only be using it once per encounter.

Blizzard IV - Needs a lot more than that to prevent it being skipped

Ley Lines - I can agree with that, although the duration should go down to 20 seconds so it wouldn't be an outright buff.

Thundercloud - I don't disagree with the stacking proc, but it would be a big nerf to make it 1/3 of its full damage over time per stack.

Sharpcast - No

Empower Ley Lines - No. Haste is not a good thing for other casters. BLM is not about buffing is party members offensively. BLM needs to keep its identity

[Acidblood]

...

Sleep Changes - A well timed burst window just feels good (and is something I miss from 3.X BLM)... Direct Hit is more interesting than straight +damage.

Freeze Changes - Good idea, but only one Umbra Heart? Why not three?

Scathe - Could go with that... would still be only marginally useful though.

Aetherial Manipulation - Good for you... I'm just not a fan of having to macro things to make them useable (re-targeting on a controller can be very slow, which is very bad for an 'escape' ability), or of abilities that a useless while solo.

Enochian - Agreed that it needs a re-work; but a lower cooldown is a simple change that doesn't hurt anyone and will help those still learning (or having a bad day).

Empower Ley Lines - Fair enough, and I'm all for identity, but SE has proven time and again that they simply can't stomach having a 'pure' DPS do enough damage to keep them desirable... so I'd rather see every class get at least something unique (and useful) that they can contribute to a group... altering Lay Lines was just a thought as it's one of BLMs more unique spells.

[HaroldSaxon]

...

The problem with the Sleep changes is that we aren't a burst class and I don't think its the right direction to make us into a burst class given how every other caster is a burst class. Let us be a sustained DPS class that is all about pumping out spells. The Direct Hit scaling - it scales the third worst on us out of all secondary stats and isn't a stat that really fits with BLM's gameplay.

Freeze changes - you only need one Umbral Heart for AOE rotations.

AM - I can totally get that retargetting on the controller can be slow, but unfortunately that's an issue with the interface you are using, not with the skill itself.

Regarding Empower Ley Lines - Again, even if its a direction that SE decide to go down, haste buffs are not preferred for raid wide buffs.

[Acidblood]

AM - I can totally get that retargetting on the controller can be slow, but unfortunately that's an issue with the interface you are using, not with the skill itself.

This is a PS4 game as well; not a lot of choice in interface there... also, and I know some people simply live in savage raids, but FFXIV has a LOT of other content as well, some of which you are forced to do solo; would just be nice if AM was a bit more of a core skill that could be used in any situation.

[HaroldSaxon]

This is a PS4 game as well; not a lot of choice in interface there... also, and I know some people simply live in savage raids, but FFXIV has a LOT of other content as well, some of which you are forced to do solo; would just be nice if AM was a bit more of a core skill that could be used in any situation.

PS4 can use a Keyboard and Mouse to my knowledge.

[Acidblood]

PS4 can use a Keyboard and Mouse to my knowledge.

'Can' and being practical are not the same thing...

[thebaaj666]

I agree with this sentiment. It's odd that AM is completely useless solo. We cannot use it all without a party member. It would be nice if it was a teleport like shikuchi.

[Altanas]

- Scathe, replace with Double Cast: The next two spells will require no cast time. Becomes Triple Cast at Lv66.
Reason: Scathe is mostly useless anyway and Swiftcast was moved to cross-role; introducing a low level instant cast ability would make BLM flow better in pre lv66 content.

This is a really good suggestion. It would massively help new, casual and lesser skilled BLMs keep up their rotations.

[inhaledcorn]

To piggy back off an idea I posted earlier, some possible next expansion spells:

Firestorm: (Trait) Fire IV can now proc Firestarter

Fire V: (High potency Fire spell) can only be used under the effect of Firestarter

Blizzard V: (oGCD) Can be used under the effect of Astral Fire without dispelling Astral Fire. Grants 3 new stacks of Umbral Hearts.

Thunderstorm: (Trait) Allows for the stacking of Thundercloud procs

Burst: High damage Thunder spell. Consumes all stacks of Thundercloud procs, increasing in damage for each one.