Black magic...kinda sucks

[Malkria]

How can you tell who's proficient at Black Mage? You take the aggregate data available and look at who does the best of them. Most actions taken, most damage dealt, most uptime, least damage taken, amount of single buffs received, etc.

So what you are trying to say is that unless I am topping the charts with whatever parser then apparently I am not 'proficient' and thus can't judge the job or any of it's issues? Despite the fact that A) pasrsers are against the game's ToS, and B) that isn't true. You can understand a job, examine a job, and find fault with a job all without needing to top any sort of parser. That literally has NOTHING to do with juding if someone has an understanding a job...well unless you are one of those people who judge others based on parsers but, again, that would be breaching the ToS and basically making you a jerk.

YoshiP has said in interviews that BLM is meant to be a complex job. It's the one he plays and he said specifically he doesn't want it overly simplified. And that's fine. We have lots of jobs specifically so we can have different play styles and different levels of complexity. BLM is on the higher end.

Which is fine...where did I say I want the job made simpler? My having an issue with aspects of the job has never led to me asking for the job to be made simpler, and in fact the ideas I presented to "fix" the issues I have were specifically in mind to preserver the turret mentality of the job. I have no issues with the fire and ice mechanic or the cast times in and of themselves, it's mainly around the timer and how that directly relates to mobility, which both in my eyes could be done in a much more natural feeling way WITHOUT sacrificing the BLM's identity or the major turret play style people like about it.

Also...is this a complex or simple job? Because the reigning mentality is that this is supposed to be a very straightforwards and "simple" turret style DPS job.

So who do you trust for understanding the game design? Because you do not seem to agree with anyone here.

Well off the bat, the people who don't lead off with "you just don't understand the nuances of the job"...because yes I get that it's a turret job. That was NEVER in question. The issue I take with the job is in the execution of said game-play style and how it well it meshes, or doesn't, with the overall game. Thing is, yes the job is 100% playable and I have never argued that. But what I have stated is that the job could be done in a way that keeps the turret gameplay while still keeping the job as mobile as the game demands most of the time.

My biggest issue is that again the job relies on momentum so much, which is fine, but then uses a timer that just stops the DPS when it runs out...and to me that isn't fine. As supposedly Yoshi wants, this job could stand to have a little more ACTUAL nuance with how it built up power. Such as getting faster at casting and/or more power the longer you stay in a spot. But by making it all about a timer, and moving between GCD ticks, not only does it make the job feel janky to play but it is in contrast to how every other job simply moves when needed to avoid mechanics. Which again while it does make the BLM "unique" it also puts it in start contrast unnecessarily when better mechanic options exist and have been done.