A BLM proposal - Removing Sharpcast

[Lumadurin]

...and replacing it!
You know how Fire I has a fixed chance to proc Firestarter (free Fire III swiftcast)? And how Thundercloud (free swiftcast of Thunder that is also front-loaded with the total DoT potency) has a fixed chance to proc on each DoT tick?
What if instead, Fire I (and maybe Flare so that the AoE rotation follows the same rules) always generated a resource that could be spent on a guaranteed Thundercloud or Firestarter proc?
And say you could store up to maybe... two or three of these resources?

This would make BLM's movement/damaging capabilities more predictable and feed into the idea that the class becomes exponentially stronger once you learn the fight, while also granting it more flexibility in fights the user is less familiar with. You could either spend the resource on Thunder procs (at the appropriate point in your rotation) to boost your DPS, or you could spend the resource on Fire III casts if you get targeted by a mechanic mid-Astral Fire.
In a sense it'd be like lowering the skill floor but also raising the skill ceiling, since your snap-mobility is less dependent on getting good RNG.

This would also mean you no longer "waste" procs if you're unable to use them (multiple Thundercloud procs in rapid succession) or don't need them (Firestarter procs when you don't need the movement).
Although perhaps Fire III would then need to be unable to consume this resource in Umbral Ice so you can actually stockpile this resource.

[MariAmaranthine]

I don't know if you need to remove sharpcast, but it would be nice if Fire IV could contribute to the proc so fire I could essentially be replaced with fire3.

It does seem a little silly to cast big explosions and then one tiny little fire bolt to keep the explosions going, Would be more fun to cast a Fire III with a high potential of it being instant. You could adjust the mana/potencies to fit and not be OP. For instance maybe Fire III procs from Fire IV still use the same amount of mana so you don't get an extra fire IV out.

Right now Fire III is mostly just to get into the AF rotations and for movement when you get a proc.

I think it's a much better looking and more powerful spell that would be nice to use a lot more.

[Sylvain]

@mari
You find fire3 good looking? It's like a fart of smoke....

[HyperiusUltima]

...and replacing it!
You know how Fire I has a fixed chance to proc Firestarter (free Fire III swiftcast)? And how Thundercloud (free swiftcast of Thunder that is also front-loaded with the total DoT potency) has a fixed chance to proc on each DoT tick?
What if instead, Fire I (and maybe Flare so that the AoE rotation follows the same rules) always generated a resource that could be spent on either a instant cast of (front-loaded)Thunder OR Fire III?
And say you could store up to maybe... two or three of these resources?

This would make BLM's movement/damaging capabilities more predictable and feed into the idea that the class becomes exponentially stronger once you learn the fight, while also granting it more flexibility in fights the user is less familiar with. You could either spend the resource on Thunder procs (at the appropriate point in your rotation) to boost your DPS, or you could spend the resource on Fire III casts if you get targeted by a mechanic mid-Astral Fire.
In a sense it'd be like lowering the skill floor but also raising the skill ceiling, since your snap-mobility is less dependent on getting good RNG.

This would also mean you no longer "waste" procs if you're unable to use them (multiple Thundercloud procs in rapid succession) or don't need them (Firestarter procs when you don't need the movement).
Although perhaps Fire III would then need to be unable to consume this resource in Umbral Ice so you can actually stockpile this resource.

I like this idea. Though...it does need to be hammered out in places. If you remove Sharpcast, you're essentially going to have to reconsider how procs work. We already have a gauge that tells us our Umbral Ice for Fire IVs, so perhaps we could have Astral Fire for free Firestarter Procs? You'd still be using them of course, and I think that this should be a trait for Shadowbringers.

It brings in a type of heavy resource management that BLM already has, but it still maintains simplicity since you could only store three. This way, if you're stuck in a mechanic, you're not having to blow Triple Cast or Swiftcast at the wrong time just because you need to move(or lose DPS). It also doesn't necessarily lower the Skill Floor, it lowers the Skill Ceiling. Being able to stack up three and then use one to reset Astral Fire would mean we'd be replacing Fire I with Fire IIIs more; now, my only issue that comes with this thought is BLM's balance in DPS. With more Fire IIIs, that's typically a big potency boost that would put it at the absolute top, probably even causing aggro issues compared to current rotations. There'd have to be a change somewhere to compensate...

[Kabooa]

Are they still Free MP wise?

[zuzu-bq]

A BLM proposal: No.

The current iteration of BLM was made to function with predictable free movements resources every 60s. Maybe if they change the rotation itself in 5.0.

[Lumadurin]

Being able to stack up three and then use one to reset Astral Fire would mean we'd be replacing Fire I with Fire IIIs more

Stacking them would be ill-advised unless you'd completely mapped out the fight prior though.
Since you'd be making a decision between damage (thunder) or movement (fire III) whenever you spent this resource, and holding onto stacks would often mean lost damage in the long-run.

There'd have to be a change somewhere to compensate...

All you'd really need to do is give Fire III and Thunder III small potency dips to compensate for the increased consistency.
So perhaps Fire III could go down to ~210, and Thunder III could go down to 35 per-tick.
Perhaps Thunder IV could eat a small potency dip too, but that only comes into play during trash mob pulls in dungeons, so it's less important really.

Are they still Free MP wise?

Correct.
The procs still have the same effect as ever, but they'd just dip into a shared pool of resources instead of being independent RNG.

The current iteration of BLM was made to function with predictable free movements resources every 60s. Maybe if they change the rotation itself in 5.0.

Of course not right NOW. Anyone making any kind of suggestion and expecting it to even be considered before like two patches down the line minimum is a fool.
But that said, BLM wouldn't require any adjustments to its rotation with this change. All that's happening is we get a predictable free resource every 30s, instead of a free resource every 60s + a completely random number of additional free movement resources (that are potentially worthless; if you get more than one Thundercloud proc between your Fire I and Blizzard IV, it's a wasted proc, and Firestarter is always a wasted proc when you don't have to move unless Convert is up).

[Orbus]

It does seem kind of funny that fire3 went from the burst damage spell in arr to what is essentially the weakest fire spell since blizz/fire3 are used almost exclusively for ast/umb switching and thanks to having no astral when you use it (you're using it to switch into ast after all) and the damage penalty to fire spells in umbral.
I know they like to try and keep the early game abilities relevant (rip freeze), but it sort of fails thematically when your go to spell to stay in astral after you're finished causing localized collapsed stars is to jump to your pew pew fire1 spell.
Just like the lower grade thunder spells become obsolete in higher level dungeons, fire1 feels like a spell that should have also become obsolete in the wake of fire3 and 4.

[Zerathor]

It does seem kind of funny that fire3 went from the burst damage spell in arr

Wat. It was always just a tool for swapping to AF.

In a sense it'd be like lowering the skill floor but also raising the skill ceiling

No, this would only drop the floor down to a degree they would demolish our potencies to make up for the ease of play, the mobility, and additional damage we would do. People already know how to weave on blm and move with minimal loss. Plus by your system, it wouldnt change anything for mobility. People would just burn their stack on a t3p each UI to only need to hard cast thunder once in a fight, and to use on a f3p every 3 minutes for convert. and you'd suffer a noticeable loss if you didnt spend it that way, which kind of negates the purpose of this change for mobility.

Then there's the issue of how you toggle it. If it's a button that replaces sharp, it still remains a spell you'll have to weave unless you want to clip your gcd. If you leave it open to making 2 additional abilities for thunder (one casted, and one the proc requiring resource, for both t3 and t4) it'll add an additional button, without really changing much. Part of the fun with the current procs is figuring out the best ways to utilize what's thrown at you as well, or else this job begins to feel boring.

Blm feels like it's in the coziest place it's ever been imo. You shouldn't try to fix what isn't broke.

[Orbus]

Wat. It was always just a tool for swapping to AF.

It was used for that in arr too, but before you get fire4, aka the arr rotation, you just spam fire1 until you get a firestarter proc and use your freebie fire3 at every chance cause it's a higher damage spell at no mp or cast time.
It was used for damage as well as swapping.