How to Fix Black Mage for Good

[Seraphor]

That's why I said "is ever useful" instead of "was ever useful". It used to be passable, but now more or less worthless. As for Sleep, I'm not a big fan of moves that are semi useful in a single place and virtually nowhere else. Sleep needs a rework or the boot.

New players join every day...

[GunksFoy]

New players join every day...

And as I said, even at low levels Scathe is useless. Or at the very least nigh useless. There are so few AoEs at that level that you will rarely ever use it. And you should have SC always since it's a cross role, and the odds you need major movement more than once in 60s at level 30 and below are low. Scathe is so bad that if it didn't proc it would probably be better just to not use it because the movement will take less time than the GCD and you can start casting a real spell sooner. If it procs it would be fine, but that's a big if given the low chance.

EDIT: I'm not saying FOR SURE it would, but the dps change would be absolutely negligible at that level anyways, and I would prefer new BLMs learn to better utilize their abilitiies (SC) and learn to slidecast than get in the habit of using Scathe.

[zuzu-bq]

A good way of fixing it is playing it well.

Now to fix the view that people has on the job being bad post 4.2, that's truly really hard to fix.

[Kabooa]

A good way of fixing it is playing it well.

Now to fix the view that people has on the job being bad post 4.2, that's truly really hard to fix.

Bad's subjective.

Technically none of the jobs are bad. They're just inferior to other choices.

[zuzu-bq]

Bad's subjective.

Technically none of the jobs are bad. They're just inferior to other choices.

When something is inferior in most if not all possible cases and combinations, it's just objectively bad. And that's what people think of BLM. I do agree with your statement though.

On the B4 subject: It's a badly designed spell, yes. But it doesn't generate big issues unless you're pre 70. So It doesn't really need to be changed, even though it would be cool if it was.

[Kabooa]

When something is inferior in most if not all possible cases and combinations, it's just objectively bad. And that's what people think of BLM. I do agree with your statement though.

On the B4 subject: It's a badly designed spell, yes. But it doesn't generate big issues unless you're pre 70. So It doesn't really need to be changed, even though it would be cool if it was.

Personally I do kind of like it the way it is. If you're looking for MAXIMUM GAINS, it forces a level of engagement as it is now, as there are some cases where you -want to skip it-. Making it always good just means there's no thought in it.

I'd focus on making Blizzard 2 and Freeze useful. Something like:

Blizzard 2: Each enemy hit by Blizzard 2 increases Spellspeed by 5% for 6 seconds.

Freeze: Inflicts Shatter on target enemies, causing the next spell against them to critically strike.

[Shurrikhan]

Personally I do kind of like it the way it is. If you're looking for MAXIMUM GAINS, it forces a level of engagement as it is now, as there are some cases where you -want to skip it-. Making it always good just means there's no thought in it.

I'd focus on making Blizzard 2 and Freeze useful. Something like:

Blizzard 2: Each enemy hit by Blizzard 2 increases Spellspeed by 5% for 6 seconds.

Freeze: Inflicts Shatter on target enemies, causing the next spell against them to critically strike.

Seems a good starting point to me.

Heck, you could go a bit further an just make both mechanics universal bonuses to Ice spells, but with those two in particular, B2 and Freeze, capitalizing upon them.

Cause each Ice cast to generate Icy Veins* (name TBR) -- reducing spell recast times by 10% for the same number of casts, to a maximum of 4 stacks (40/30/20/10) or so, but not the cast time itself -- while reducing Blizzard to a 2-second cast and Blizzard 2 to a 1.5 second cast. That way you can spam cast it in order to rock up to a a 40% Attack Speed increase on Triple Cast when you swap back to Fire, reduce the uptime lost to Fire II's over-GCD cast times after 2 stacks, or have just fun chaincasting the hell out of Blizzard II itself, especially at lower levels.

Cause any Ice critical strike to cause Sublimation, causing the next Fire spell against them to critically strike. Make Freeze auto-crit.

[Zerathor]

"those skills"
Sleep is still a highly useful niche spell for PoTD and Eureka, and general messing around in the open world. I'm fine with jobs having some abilities that are quality of life spells that don't have use in end tier raiding

Scathe has its place. Scathe is your smack the 1% you failed to finish on an add spell/smack boss before he becomes untargetable/you somehow really messed up and have to run a very long distance without swift/triple cast.

Blizzard II is pretty much worthless other than its bind for solo content, and it will remain as such because if you really wanted to AOE in UI, freeze is better.

cont.

[Zerathor]

Freeze. I'm going to help you half of the way here. make a macro (/ac "Freeze" <t>) and it will now cast freeze directly on your target, tada. the fact that it can be ground placed actually allows you to potentially min max on add spawn locations/ boss respawn locations after becoming untargetable by getting some precasted damage in the moment it spawns if you have it finish directly as they spawn (this is only extreme min maxing, but it is a gain if you're in UI because free gcd) Freeze could use a potency increase, but i doubt it could compete with b3 b4 f3 flare flare ever for the gcd slot.

"umbral hearts"
the one extra f4 you're downplaying so much is 400-800 dps contribution over the fight. that's a lot, and whoever is telling you to not use b4 should be slapped. also b4 helps with by padding your rotation time for lining up foul, as well as help your UI cycle go smoother without downtime

cont

[Zerathor]

"damage over contribution"
the issue with high % blm vs low % blm is there is a huge gap compared to other jobs in skill. like 50th % smn likely knows what they're doing, but 50th % blm isn't using b4 for some reason and ogcd clipping every chance they can get. Use ogcd's after f3 or b3 when transitioning from AF or UI, use them after instant casts (along with potions) and ALWAYS.... use b4, (and of course never drop eno and use all your fouls) and you'll find your blm damage is greatly higher. blm damage is in a pretty good spot atm, especially depending on your party comp. when you play it properly, you'll be the best candidate for multiplier buffs to further increase the party's damage. Your role is to be the top damage and thus the best candidate to make utility jobs even more useful with their buffs, and they're filling that role pretty well.

job's potentials are balanced by what they're capable of, not what the average player is capable of.