"Oh look, they're just buffing Fire 4 again. Like that'll help." - Black mages

[Shiroe]

No it's not. That will be Summoner until they stop having an MP Surplus rotation.

there is no situation, where a blm runs out mp..., while smn can (after rezing, after death..)

[Kabooa]

there is no situation, where a blm runs out mp..., while smn can (after rezing, after death..)

It's not about MP, it's about opportunity. MP shift on demand is costing Black Mage either a Fire 4 in AF or delaying entry into AF during UI.

You need a TCloud proc to manashift without impacting yourself in a major way, where as Summoner can do it at any point during Dreadwyrm, Bahamut, or Ruin 4 procs, or lose 30 potency to do it during a random Ruin 2.

[Shiroe]

manashitf becomes an issue, mostly during prog (not speedkills), a blm will never have any mp problems, aside of waiting for UI to be back up with Mana ticks..

smn can run into mana issues in prog.., but true, if the fight goes perfect, the smn can usally just instant manashift

still, blm is the safer manashifter imo

[Zerathor]

manashitf becomes an issue, mostly during prog (not speedkills), a blm will never have any mp problems, aside of waiting for UI to be back up with Mana ticks..

smn can run into mana issues in prog.., but true, if the fight goes perfect, the smn can usally just instant manashift

still, blm is the safer manashifter imo

Smn doesn't have any mana issues unless they just raised 4 people.

At the end of the day, blm can only comfortably shift with MINIMAL loss 1, sometimes 2 gcds every 30 seconds. This will cost about 55 potency if you didn't get a magical t3p during that 1 to 2 gcd window.

Smn can shift for free about 40% of their rotation. If they're inside part of the other 60%, they can just lose 20 potency. Meaning smn can do it at ANY time, it's a coin flip if it lost them anything, if it did it was only 20 potency, and they don't have mana problems unless they're dying or raising nonstop.

The only world where blm would be the best mana shifter, is one where mana shift has zero cd and you could full restore an mp bar if you really needed to.

[Jonnycbad]

No sharing Leylines. I don't want other casters or healers chilling in it and getting AoE's baited inside of it. How about an AoE buff called Aetherfont that reduces the party's next 3 weaponskill/spell TP/MP cost by 50%. Instead of their own combat rez, they can at least discount the cost of rez for those that can. DPS can minorly benefit too during heavy AoE situations (which bleed TP dry).

[Makrar]

I think BLM is fine. It finally has enough DPS to offset up the little utility, it just hasnt caught on in mass yet.

[Sylvain]

Well, there's plenty of group who've cleared os12 with a BLM on their first kill so while it might not be the next, it's clearly not a problem anymore unless you really seek the world first clears.

[Zyneste]

Also, using the core job mechanic, to facilitate a minor party utility, doesn't seem right at all. Especially when you consider that an umbral heart equates to a Fire IV cast in its main respect, and whether or not you lose the full 300 potency or not, it still doesn't seem like a fair trade off, or one that suits the BLM identity.

You're basically sacrificing a Fire IV cast to give a party member ASTs Lightspeed. That's a big dps trade off for an amazing utility, it's too much in both regards.

No, for utility I think opening up Leylines as a party buff is the best route. It promotes strategic timing and placement of the Leylines, doesn't break it's spellcaster identity, doesn't impact too much on dps cost for beneficial effect, and doesn't add yet more buttons!

You can't say its minor then say itll have too big of a utility impact, while also having too big of a cost. All of those things cant possibly be true.

I think leylines as a party buff is an awful idea in respect to "fixing" BLM utility. People complain that BLM isnt being taken for Prog because they have no recovery potential for the party, unlike SMN/RDM. Leylines would just cause more headache for the BLM, having to dodge additional AoEs and having awkward conversations to ask people to stay out of their leylines during points of the fight. Their Pdps makes up for the Rdps. The only thing BLM is missing is the safety net the other casters have.

Also, in my eyes, Button Bloat is not an issue on BLM. BLM has less active spells than even RDM, even while having Sleep and Freeze on your bar.

In terms of the different casters:

Whenever a RDM casts Verraise he loses a GCD of 240-270 potency, plus a small amount of Black or White mana. He also loses 1/4 of his max MP and does not have an easy way of regaining that mp. He can comfortably do 2 raises without having to ration his MP.

Whenever a SMN casts Ressurection he loses a GCD of 100 potency whenever the spell is cast with swiftcast.He also loses a little over 1/4 of his max MP. He has plenty of tools to regain MP, but whenever he hard casts the full Ressurection spell, he loses 320 potency, on top of being unable to use the cast to pop OGCDs. Truely 8 seconds of no DPS aside from your pets.

Whenever a BLM would cast Confluence he would have to try and weave it to minimize loss from GCD clipping. Probably Swift/Triple casting after the umbral phase. I just tested this and was pretty surprised, but losing 1 Umbral Heart does nothing to your normal rotation. Youll be able to get off 7 Fire Spells either way (8 if you include the Fire III transition.) No more or no less, unless you align it with convert. So the largest tradeoffs would be: Your healers/fellow casters have to be aware of the ability being cast on them. Your ability is worthless if there are no healers alive. DPS loss if the GCD is clipped to use. GCD loss if you use it in combination of convert for the astral phase. Limited to once every 60 seconds. Typically the healer then has to carry the GCD burden/DPS loss (180-250 potency DPS loss per GCD spent.)


I think this does fit into BLM identity. Manipulation of Aether to aid those around you to achieve something WHM is able to do, but in BLMs own way. They are a melting pot of aether and theyd love to just lord it over your head. "Oh healer are you suffering? Try what it feels like to be a Black Mage. Taste the power of the void." Boom. lol

Confluence:

Target party member's next 3 casts will cost 50% less and have 50% less cast time. Can only be used while under the effect of Umbral Hearts. Removes one Umbral Heart. Duration 10 seconds. Cool down of 60 Seconds.


RDM keeps its raising/healing identity.
SMN keeps its 60 second, least impact on DPS raise.
BLM gets to contribute to recovery of the party.

[Sunspawn]

Next people will start to demand melees bring a rez into the party too... I mean, following the logic that blm is bad for prog because it lacks a rez, why not force people to run a permutation of 4 dps containing only RDM and SMN?

Also, call me bad and whatnot, but throwing a manashift after B3 once every two minutes never caused me any problems. Just look at healers' MP during TC phase if in a group with randoms and Shift the healer that needs the mp more.