Black Mage Job Changes Wishlist for 4.25 or 4.3

[HaroldSaxon]

My mistake on the number of Fire IVs then. I was going to argue against the number of Fire IVs before testing it myself. However, between the PPC of using Blizzard IV and also having the sixth Fire IV, I'd argue it's much more valuable to have it than not having it, unless you REALLY can't fit in the casts.

Actually, it depends. If skipping the Blizzard IV allows you to have more Fire IV's over the course of the phase/fight, its a gain.

That said, if we really wanted to incentivise Blizzard IV, make each Umbral Heart make a Fire spell in Astral Fire free, rather than just negate the cost difference. Not sure why the devs didn't do that in the first place.

The issue with that would be our rotation would change as we would be able to fit more F4's in. You would need to adjust the mana costs and/or mana pool again

Looking at the design of the job and how its abilities function is somehow not objective but only looking at the design of one of the abilities is? Huh, I suppose class/character balance has really degenerated in quality if all we do is look at an ability in a partial vacuum rather than how it the class's gameplay as a whole.

I'm sorry, but I can prove you objectively wrong here, beyond what the team already did, and mostly by going over the design of Black Mage as it currently stands.

In Heavensward, the 3s cast time for Fire IV was fine and even justified because Enochian was a set timer that degenerated its max duration each time you casted Blizzard IV. At the time, Fire IV was a powerful ability with its main downside being the fact that you could lose Astral Fire and with it, losing Fire IV and no other downside.

In Stormblood, however, with Enochian's timer now being the same as AF/UI's timer, the longer cast times is now too harsh a punishment, which is why BLM's damage objectively dropped between HW and SB (because we couldn't actually make use of Umbral Hearts in any shape or form) unless you used the ARR rotation. It doesn't make much sense to have a spell that simultaneously doesn't refresh Astral Fire/Umbral Ice but also takes much longer to cast than other spells.

Besides, even if Fire IV is at GCD, we'd still be far less mobile than Summoner and Red Mage, between Summoner's higher reliance on DoTs, Dreadwyrm Trance's removal of cast time, and oGCDs and Dual Cast for Red Mage. Our only forms of mobility BLM has are Aetherial Manipulation (which is definitely useful but not truly mobile) and Triplecast and or Swiftcast... which is definitely not nearly as much as SMN or RDM. At best? We'd only match or be slightly slower than the other casters.

My problem isn't simply that BLM isn't mobile, though. I'm fine with BLM being static and turrety. My problem is that the cast time is too hefty a punishment when you consider that you can lose a significant amount of damage by being forced to Transpose, or lose Enochian. More so than what you'd lose compared to Heavensward, especially when the change was supposedly made to make Black Mage flow better. Fire IV's cast time would still require some skill to keep AF/UI, without forcing the whole rotation to be Fire IV.

You are completely wrong here. Each class has a specific uniqueness to it. Black Mages is longer cast times, minimal movement, selfish DPS and no OGCD's with damage. Reducing Fire IV's cast time to the GCD would flat out remove one of the things that make it unique compared to other classes.

Enochian's seperate timer in HW makes absolutely no difference and is completely irrelevent. The longer cast times are not too harsh a punishment, if you aren't able to handle them I suggest you practice and get better. The main reason Black Mage's damage dropped between HW and SB was the reduction in potency of Fire 4 and the removal of Raging Strikes. Furthermore, we lost a fair bit of Critical Hit Rate and Cast time due to the scaling of stats at level 70 - as we do at the start of the expansion.

Mobility is not Black Mages issue. It is not too hefty a punishment. In video games, you are meant to practice to get better. There isn't any significant skill needed to keep up AF/UI currently.

Honestly? I find it kinda funny how you considered the comparison to Fell Cleave much more valid than the comparison to Verflare/Verholy, nor did you cry foul on Foul.


So, nice job throwing your credibility out the window. I compared Fire IV to Verflare/Verholy because of their raw potencies, and pointing out that Fire IV's potency is comparable to a burst phase finisher. Thanks for missing the point!

I ignored the comparison to Fell Cleave because it really wasn't relevant to the discussion. The Foul one while being more relevant completely ignores what its use is - its AOE and it is a 0 mana cost spell. If you had played BLM to any decent level you would have realized that.

Again, you don't know what you are talking about. Comparing potencies between classes is not accurate at all because different classes scale differently off scaling. Different classes fill different roles, and different classes have different kits.

I did. I just disagreed with the knockback nullification part. That's all.

You said Black Mage already has a way of nullifying knockbacks. You missed the part where he suggested it be raid wide. So again, a swing and a miss.