Chad Mages What else would you want right now for our class

[Shurrikhan]

I think BLM is in a really good spot right now, not just because they rank so high but because their whole toolkit feels well-rounded and the challenges it comes with don't feel clunky.

Sure, as soon as you get up to level 72... Until then? There's been absolutely no effort to fix old idiosyncrasies that take performance out of the hand of the player and solely into the mercy of, say, the server tick. Those issues may be minor, but it's still annoying to see the entire mechanic of MP margins removed just to avoid actually fixing the issue (which has been there, unmitigateably since they removed mana-shadowing, and remains up until ShB levels).

Meanwhile, Fire II? Useless. Blizzard I and II? Useless. Blizzard IV in AoE? Useless. I'd be okay with situational usefulness, but outright traps?

[Rilifane]

Sure, as soon as you get up to level 72... Until then? There's been absolutely no effort to fix old idiosyncrasies that take performance out of the hand of the player and solely into the mercy of, say, the server tick. Those issues may be minor, but it's still annoying to see the entire mechanic of MP margins removed just to avoid actually fixing the issue (which has been there, unmitigateably since they removed mana-shadowing, and remains up until ShB levels).

Meanwhile, Fire II? Useless. Blizzard I and II? Useless. Blizzard IV in AoE? Useless. I'd be okay with situational usefulness, but outright traps?

I'm mainly talking about max level here as all classes have skills that become less useful if not downright obsolete. Escpecially classes that has been around since ARR and underwent frequent changes. Personally I don't think it's that big of an issue. The roation evolves and changes and some skills fall behind and only remain useful when hitting low level content in roulettes. Skills gradually expand and the gameplay changes with it.
Cure I and Medica I are basically useless once you get past a certain level and Cure III is only very rarely used during stack up mechanics in ex/ savage and even then it's preferred to exhaust other options first. Skills lose their value over time and are mainly kept for low level content. And below a certain level, Blizzard I has it's use, same with Fire II.
Blizzard II needs to be targeted just like Fire II so you can properly use it. But why would Blizzard IV need to be useful in AoE rotation? It's a ST filler, period.

Server ticks cause problems for a number of classes and that so much is tied to them while at the same time being unpredictable is a nuisance, that much is true.
I much prefer systems like in WoW where hots/ dots always tick in set intervalls, depending on haste, after you applied them.
The tiny second you sometimes have to wait after getting back into UI to continue happily flaring away is awkward and disruptive and at max level, escpecially at higher spell speed tiers, server ticks can cause problems like not getting the 2nd tick within 2 GCDs and having to resort to a 3rd cast in UI to get back to 10k.
Nonetheless BLM is in a really good spot, escpecially at max level.