The arms race between BLM and SMN

[ErzaScarlet77]

What are your guys thought about these 2 classes? BLM deal was supposed to be damage for tradeoff of utility and mobility, but now smn is the top dog in all of them, assuming maybe next patch blm gets buffed to beat smn, I'm sure it won't be long until smn players ask for the same.

No other jobs in the game seem so tied to each other like this, drg,mnk happy where they are, nin now too.

I play all casters so I have no dog in this fight, I was all smn from 2.0 to 4.0 now I'm all blm but I like them all

[Derio]

SMN is broken. I expect SE to adjust SMN in the next update.

[Cled-cat]

I still believe BLM either needs to be comfortably ahead of SMN on damage (including in movement heavy fights) or give BLM some measure of group utility to match SMN. Summoner is pretty ridiculous, it has insane mobility, decent utility (Rez and Devotion) and now ridiculous damage. BLM has... almost ridiculous damage, and that’s it really? But when compared to the limitations it has compared to what SMN has to offer it’s pretty obviously inferior in most scenarios IMO.

[plamya]

SMN is okay. SE need to buff BLM and RDM instead of nerfing SMN.

[linay]

This feels like a "deja vu" moment going back to Stormblood. Maybe it's just a cycle.

[Alucard135]

Nerf SMN plz
@MPK it's gonna happen sooner or later!

[JunseiKei]

I know my opinion will definitely be at odds with the majority.

I've always seen it that classes with utility tools should pull the same damage as selfish DPS using their tools. IE: A RDM/SMN should pull (pulls number out of thin air) 20k DPS using devotion/embolden while a BLM also pulls 20k DPS with none.

> But utilities stack.
Yeah, they do. Which is why I think there should be more utilities that buff certain classes/roles only, a hard cut off, or simply don't stack. Noct AST shields and SCH shields are a good example of things simply not stacking. Embolden is a good example of buffing certain classes (other than themselves, they buff physical damage types).

I'm not asking for a return for piercing or slashing debuffs, either. What I'm asking for is the ability to bring classes into content without it looking like a meme (RDM in ultimate because of how badly it lags behind it's casting counterparts).

EDIT:
Or simply remove raid utility buffs in general and stick to self buffs only, like it was in ARR. Very few raid buffs existed then - battle voice and trick attack really. As the years tick on, it becomes more and more painfully obvious they are struggling to balance the classes to player satisfaction.

[Enla]

SMN is likely going to get it's damage clipped come the next update. I have several DPS friends who are just gobbsmacked at the sheer amount of damage it's doing /while/ being able to dodge unlike BLM which is generally location locked during a good portion of it's rotation. Utility aside, turret classes that have a risk/reward component to their damage that rewards good knowledge of both the fight and their own rotation should be pulling higher damage. That isn't to say SMN should be grossly lagging behind, but that BLM should be the DPS king of the casters even without utility there to muddle the waters.

[ForteNightshade]

It's getting to the point I almost want them to drop Raise entirely from the Casters, thus allowing Summoner and Red Mage to simply be the Caster equivalent to Monk and Dragoon. They just can't seem to balance around it.

[MrKusakabe]

It's getting to the point I almost want them to drop Raise entirely from the Casters, thus allowing Summoner and Red Mage to simply be the Caster equivalent to Monk and Dragoon. They just can't seem to balance around it.

Why would they balance around Revive? I don't think so. By this logic, we can try to put the wrench on mobility, HP pools, critical hit chance etc. etc.
Also, it's a part of the White Magic branch we Red Mages study, so I hope they leave it where it is. We have a fine balance of offensive and supportive white magic as Red Mage, and this balance within the balance (read as: Black, White and Red magic) is what makes RDM so great design-wise - and I'd like to have this philosophy ingame, too. If at all, it should be removed from summoner as it does not make any sense to me.

I am just in general getting somewhat tired of this focus on damage only and then you wonder why the game loses its soul more and more like if you put too many fruits in the blender until you have a brown, generic smoothie without real accents in taste...

Sincerely,