Can we just take a moment to talk about Black Mage?

[Colt47]

Actually now that I'm looking at it the cast time is 2.66 seconds on fire IV. Unfortunately they have a timer that doesn't last long enough if you so much as have to move to pull off using despair or flare without an instant cast. The reason this job feels like it has cast times that are way too long is due to the astral fire / astral ice timers.

Ah yes, the argument about risk reward. You should totally get screwed out of actually doing damage completely because that is reasonable risk and reward when other jobs basically can flub but still manage to keep damage up without losing everything.

Have you people who are arguing about BLM being fine realized that it is the most underplayed caster in the game? They barely appear in any content at all for a reason because why would someone play a job that has clunky spell cast timers and mistakes that heavily punish them when they can literally step into summoner or red mage and be able to function better plus even get the ability to raise people?

[Soge01]

No offense, but get gud. BLM isn't a hard job. Practice and you'll get it down. And if you still don't like it, play another job. There are 18 others you can touch.

[Colt47]

No offense, but get gud. BLM isn't a hard job. Practice and you'll get it down. And if you still don't like it, play another job. There are 18 others you can touch.

Well, yeah that's why I main other jobs. Like I don't necessarily like ninja, but I don't complain about ninja even when I was leveling it because it didn't really have problems with it: it was just a different way of doing something. I complain about BLM because I've complained about it since probably 3.1 and even if someone "gits gud" on blm they are basically fighting the world when doing any kind of serious content. I genuinely feel the pain of any BLM that has to learn a savage fight and constantly lose spell casts because they have to dodge an attack without having the timings perfectly memorized yet.

And honestly if someone mained BLM and made it work all the power to them. If it was completely unplayable they'd have changed it a long time ago and yeah the job probably isn't for me. Just this is not a job that works well with the content they got and have seen enough of the gameplay with blms in a group to know it doesn't work well.

[ThorneDynasty]

"Underplayed" is stupid ass concept that the dev team only applies to jobs they don't themselves play and it has been always been a mistake when they do go with watering down everything for the sake of chasing the arbitrary 1:1 player split. Surprise, surprise that mentality invariably leads to every job playing the same. BLM has it's sizeable "niche" and as long as BLM players don't feel there's an issue there is not one.

[Payotz]

Actually now that I'm looking at it the cast time is 2.66 seconds on fire IV. Unfortunately they have a timer that doesn't last long enough if you so much as have to move to pull off using despair or flare without an instant cast. The reason this job feels like it has cast times that are way too long is due to the astral fire / astral ice timers.

Enochian is literally 15 seconds. You can literally fit one extra spell in it. You can even do 4 f4s, paradox to refresh, and 2 f4, wiggle around for 2 seconds, and then cast despair. You don't even drop enochian if you squeeze out despair. It's literally a non issue.

Ah yes, the argument about risk reward. You should totally get screwed out of actually doing damage completely because that is reasonable risk and reward when other jobs basically can flub but still manage to keep damage up without losing everything.

That's... the point of the job? Hello?
That's why we play it? High risk, high reward?

It's satisfying to master because of how "hard" it is?
You're literally complaining about the fact that it's hard. It's about nonsensical as me complaining about having to keep uptime as melee.

Have you people who are arguing about BLM being fine realized that it is the most underplayed caster in the game? They barely appear in any content at all for a reason because why would someone play a job that has clunky spell cast timers and mistakes that heavily punish them when they can literally step into summoner or red mage and be able to function better plus even get the ability to raise people?

So? We love it. Why would it need to be changed into a boring ass copy paste of literally any other job?
It's not unviable. The people who played it and mastered it and loved the playstyle doesn't have problems with it.

I wouldn't want this job to change just to please you. I don't want another MCH and SMN rework.
Yoshi-P has already taken my Stormblood MCH (and my role) away from me and given you a dumbed down, shallow job with the same ping problems as ever for the sake of pleasing you people.
Literally deadass, play another job.

Not all jobs need to be accessible, especially if it's going to eliminate the fun value in it.
In fact, the jobs shouldn't even strive to appeal to everyone. This whole thing about homogenizing jobs because of accessibility is dumb and stupid, and alienates the core players in expense of "ooh look new players uwu!"
In fact, the jobs should focus on what the players that like the job, love about it .
If you like the playstyle of BLM, play BLM. If you like the playstyle of old SMN, then play old SMN. If you like pick up and go job, then play DNC.

This is literally a non-issue.

Just this is not a job that works well with the content they got

And it's funny because I've literally explained to you that the class does work in the game, and you conveniently gloss over it.
I've even laid out exact scenarios. Pointed out specific, granular details like triplecast having 2 stacks and is on a 60 seconds cooldown, and that mechanics actually happen every minute or two minutes.

You can hurr durr that you want BLM to be easier all you want, but if you don't say anything else other than "waaaah, i dont like casting as a caster" then honestly, I don't know how to convince you.
You seem to be dead set into wanting to play BLM, without actually playing BLM, and I honestly have no idea how you can keep posting in here when multiple people that loved the job is telling you that you shouldn't change BLM

You don't see me here complaining about how RPR's Lemure Shroud should be changed into something more than "hypercharge melee edition".

Oh and respectfully:

and have seen enough of the gameplay with blms in a group to know it doesn't work well.

I suggest just searching for another job or even forcing yourself to learning BLM and actually understanding what the job is rather than taking a look at the random Duty Roulette BLM you get lumped with.

[Soge01]

Well, yeah that's why I main other jobs. Like I don't necessarily like ninja, but I don't complain about ninja even when I was leveling it because it didn't really have problems with it: it was just a different way of doing something. I complain about BLM because I've complained about it since probably 3.1 and even if someone "gits gud" on blm they are basically fighting the world when doing any kind of serious content. I genuinely feel the pain of any BLM that has to learn a savage fight and constantly lose spell casts because they have to dodge an attack without having the timings perfectly memorized yet.

And honestly if someone mained BLM and made it work all the power to them. If it was completely unplayable they'd have changed it a long time ago and yeah the job probably isn't for me. Just this is not a job that works well with the content they got and have seen enough of the gameplay with blms in a group to know it doesn't work well.

Actually, BLM does work with FFXIV's content. That's why it has two Triple Cast charges. For those moments in a fight when you need to move, just pop one of those and your good to go. Pretty much all content in this game is about learning the rhythm of the gameplay. Once you get it, even on BLM, its not as hard as you initially thought it was anymore.

The only thing that makes BLM "hard" is having to actually think and adjust more than the other jobs. Something alot of other jobs lack and need again so they aren't as spam-go-happy anymore. One of the things I like about BLM is that I have to think things through in a fight and adjust my gameplay so I still stay efficient without holding my party members back. Plus big damage. I like ma big boom boom spells. :3

[Amenara]

BLM is the one job that I want to love but know that I will never be good at it because I don't have enough wrinkles in my brain. I am 100% ok with that, RDM exists exactly for that purpose and is why I play it instead. The mentality that everyone needs to like every job is what has led us down this treacherous path of making jobs easier and more accessible to everyone. In a game with so many jobs available to you, you are bound to find something you like. If you insist on continuing to play BLM then I agree with pretty much everyone else in the thread. Practice, learn fights, get better and you will get so much more satisfaction from playing the job than you would if SE made it easier so you don't have to learn the intricacies of BLM.

[Marxel]

Actually now that I'm looking at it the cast time is 2.66 seconds on fire…

You don’t seem to understand BLM at ALL. Different jobs thrive in different environments. BLM is in my top three fav jobs (along with RPR and RDM). It’s best when you know the fight beforehand and can plan around minimal movement and doing an insane amount of damage (this is fine!).
Also, where are you getting it’s the most underplayed in the game? And what does that have to do with its design? You’re complaining about the job yet you don’t grasp that not every job is for everyone. Who cares how many people play it for you to deem it “okay”?
The spell timers aren’t clunky at all, if you bother to do your rotation right (which you probably aren’t) than you cast spells pretty fast! Flare is the only spell with a relatively long cast time. Even then I like to use Triplecast with Flare in dungeons to tear mobs apart. Properly going through Astral and Umbral phases awards you with faster cast times and even bigger damage.
As for your suggestions: Why step into SMN? I don’t like how SMN plays - I don’t get the dopamine from big hits like I do BLM. It feels super static and slow and I hate how rigid it feels. As for RDM? I love RDM but for different reasons. I like the melee combo and in group content I like being the DPS to give healers a break and rez at every possibility. Not EVERY job needs a raise ability though. For you to say you’ve “seen enough BLM players to know there’s a problem” but then admit you don’t like it, you’re showing your own bias against a job you don’t even grasp.

[Picker]

Blm main here, and I fricken love it to bits. I never have a problem finding prog groups, that’s such a silly made-up talking point. Unlocking the blm puzzle for fights (where to drop LL, when to use triple, when to truncate/extend AF) is the most rewarding and exciting part of this game for me.

Also no one’s F4 is actually 2.66, mine is 2.21 this tier and was 2.14 last tier. What you call “long cast times” is actually one of the faster gcd jobs out there, and the fastest when in LL.

I am 110% happy with the job and my only minor gripe is that the second triplecast can feel cheesy and make mechanics redundant, I’m thinking like p4 act 4, you gotta run all the way around the hitbox but you can keep perfect uptime with all the options we have now.

[WhimsicalPacifist]

Reddit had a rather interesting poll pop up. Granted the sample pool is of 3k players from China, but Black Mage isn't unpopular. It's actually middle-tier popularity while still being considered the highest skill-intensive job and ranks pretty high for DPS job enjoyability by mains. Conversely Summoner is very popular, is considered to be a 0 in difficulty (by half the respondents) and has low job enjoyability by its own mains.

The three jobs that are liked the most by their mains are Samurai (9.71), Black Mage (9.66), and Machinist (9.56).
The three jobs that are liked the least by their mains are Summoner (8.62), Bard (9.05), and Reaper (9.05).

Don't fix what's not broken. Black Mage is fine.