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

[Payotz]

1) BLM joins group and decides they want to do a parse run. Ends up dying so much to mechanics during phase 2 of P4S we had to exit and get another player.
2) Watched BLM basically either do a lot of damage or barely any damage in more tiers than I care to count (Either moving around so much they barely get casts off except by the cooldowns they have, or get timings perfect and do it all right)
3) The meme of the blm that is willing to stay in a somewhat life threatening position to make sure they get a cast off is funny because it happens a lot, usually with leylines, for a lot of reasons.

I've seen DNCs try to greed melee uptime during spots. I've seen RPRs try to greed their Communio casts and get shit on.
I've seen DRGs get hit by AoEs by their jumps, and I've seen warriors do the same with their Primal Rend.

And you know what, that's fine. In fact, there should be more pitfalls and punishing mechanics to the job that demand thoughtful play.
A job shouldn't be able to autopilot through their rotations in every single fight. That's not good job design, that's a striking dummy with extra steps.

The fact that the skill gap between good BLMs and bad BLMs exists is a good thing. It increases the replayability of the class and gives you more incentive to master the job.
A job without depth is the most boring job to play. Take a look at SMN and how many people have been complaining about the rework.

Meanwhile, the majority of people who complain about BLM are the people who don't even play BLM .
And that is actually pretty hilarious.

[Picker]

Op doesn’t know what they’re talking about and it’s frustrating me

[Stachiko]

I didn't dig too deep into the OP's posts but I see a lot of people negatively strongly disagreeing with them. I understand your frustration. You love your class and they want it changed to suite a more mobile style. I get it.

But I also agree with the OP. I believe the whole 3 second cast time is overall bad game design. I wouldn't have any issues with it if either A. ice/fire phases had no timers, or B. fire phase had a refreshing instant GCD ability that didn't require a sharp cast or random proc (Like Ice).

Weaving in your oGCD's at such tight positions really limits what the class can do. It requires not only knowing boss mechanics but forethought on how many spells will lead to you dropping your phase timer. All too often you're staring down a 3 second window with Thunder about to drop, a boss mechanic coming up, 2 stacks of Polygot about to become a third (Using that Polygot oGCD), and plenty more. It's all very disorienting. It is truly a difficult class to play despite having 3 second windows of eye exploration.

I don't want to ruin BLM's fantasy of long cast times, but I believe limiting a class' oGCD's to such tight windows negatively impacts the class/player. That's just my personal thought. I also believe back-to-back 3 second long casts have no place in MMO's. Again, personal opinion.

I'd love to see the class changed but I won't harp on it enough to ruin it for other players.

[Kulve]

I didn't dig too deep into the OP's posts but I see a lot of people negatively strongly disagreeing with them. I understand your frustration. You love your class and they want it changed to suite a more mobile style. I get it.

But I also agree with the OP. I believe the whole 3 second cast time is overall bad game design. I wouldn't have any issues with it if either A. ice/fire phases had no timers, or B. fire phase had a refreshing instant GCD ability that didn't require a sharp cast or random proc (Like Ice).

Weaving in your oGCD's at such tight positions really limits what the class can do. It requires not only knowing boss mechanics but forethought on how many spells will lead to you dropping your phase timer. All too often you're staring down a 3 second window with Thunder about to drop, a boss mechanic coming up, 2 stacks of Polygot about to become a third (Using that Polygot oGCD), and plenty more. It's all very disorienting. It is truly a difficult class to play despite having 3 second windows of eye exploration.

I don't want to ruin BLM's fantasy of long cast times, but I believe limiting a class' oGCD's to such tight windows negatively impacts the class/player. That's just my personal thought. I also believe back-to-back 3 second long casts have no place in MMO's. Again, personal opinion.

I'd love to see the class changed but I won't harp on it enough to ruin it for other players.

You say the jobs needs to be changed to accommodate your need to not have to cast anymore, but you also say the fantasy of its long casts should stay. You only get to choose one.

If you don't like playing a job that has to cast, just like if people who want to play melee have to stay in range, then find another job that accommodates you. I heard SMN is a magical phys range with little to no casting to fit your prefered play style. Or maybe just play a phys range since there is no casting involved? Either learn to play the job, or find something else. No one else is stopping you, but you.

[Stachiko]

You say the jobs needs to be changed to accommodate your need to not have to cast anymore, but you also say the fantasy of its long casts should stay. You only get to choose one.

No, that's you putting words into my mouth. And don't call it specifically my need. I'm thinking of all the players who ignore the class because it's too difficult. The bottom line is, the skill floor for BLM is too high. It doesn't need to be.

As for long casts, it doesn't have to be back-to-back casts. It could be one massive mega spell similar to the Warlock's Soul Fire cast in WoW. The back-to-back nature is what forces tiny oGCD windows.

Again, I'm only voicing my opinion. I'm not here to to neuter your class. I'm only stating a viewpoint. Something that's bothered me for a while and I just wanted to get it off my chest.

[LeonKeyh]

No, that's you putting words into my mouth. And don't call it specifically my need. I'm thinking of all the players who ignore the class because it's too difficult. The bottom line is, the skill floor for BLM is too high. It doesn't need to be.

As for long casts, it doesn't have to be back-to-back casts. It could be one massive mega spell similar to the Warlock's Soul Fire cast in WoW. The back-to-back nature is what forces tiny oGCD windows.

Again, I'm only voicing my opinion. I'm not here to to neuter your class. I'm only stating a viewpoint. Something that's bothered me for a while and I just wanted to get it off my chest.

Not every job has to be for every person. That's kind of the mindset that we're "strongly disagreeing with", you're trying to change it so that people who don't like it will like it. The thing is, the same reason why you DON'T like it is the reason why the people who play it DO like it. Also, what you're asking for kind of already exists, there is SMN and RDM if you want to play a caster that doesn't have long cast times.

That's the point that we're making; Homogenization is bad. Changing the core mechanics of a job whose fans enjoy it because of its core mechanics is bad.

[Payotz]

No, that's you putting words into my mouth. And don't call it specifically my need. I'm thinking of all the players who ignore the class because it's too difficult. The bottom line is, the skill floor for BLM is too high. It doesn't need to be.

As for long casts, it doesn't have to be back-to-back casts. It could be one massive mega spell similar to the Warlock's Soul Fire cast in WoW. The back-to-back nature is what forces tiny oGCD windows.

Again, I'm only voicing my opinion. I'm not here to to neuter your class. I'm only stating a viewpoint. Something that's bothered me for a while and I just wanted to get it off my chest.

And we're free to disagree with that opinion. Your ideas essentially goes against BLM. You're asking for a new caster. You're asking for a mix of SMN with BLM aesthetics.
If you haven't read the mountains of valid arguments in this thread, I suggest you do. Everything you've described is essentially why we play BLM, from the meaningful rotation choices to the high risk and reward playstyle.

[VentVanitas]

If anything, the game needs another hard caster like BLM. It would make a perfect ratio of two dedicated casters and two mobile ones.

[Ransu]

I didn't dig too deep into the OP's posts but I see a lot of people negatively strongly disagreeing with them. I understand your frustration. You love your class and they want it changed to suite a more mobile style. I get it.

But I also agree with the OP. I believe the whole 3 second cast time is overall bad game design. I wouldn't have any issues with it if either A. ice/fire phases had no timers, or B. fire phase had a refreshing instant GCD ability that didn't require a sharp cast or random proc (Like Ice).

Weaving in your oGCD's at such tight positions really limits what the class can do. It requires not only knowing boss mechanics but forethought on how many spells will lead to you dropping your phase timer. All too often you're staring down a 3 second window with Thunder about to drop, a boss mechanic coming up, 2 stacks of Polygot about to become a third (Using that Polygot oGCD), and plenty more. It's all very disorienting. It is truly a difficult class to play despite having 3 second windows of eye exploration.

I don't want to ruin BLM's fantasy of long cast times, but I believe limiting a class' oGCD's to such tight windows negatively impacts the class/player. That's just my personal thought. I also believe back-to-back 3 second long casts have no place in MMO's. Again, personal opinion.

I'd love to see the class changed but I won't harp on it enough to ruin it for other players.

This is a solid case of "git gud"

BLM is one of the few jobs in the game that is extremely well designed and doesn't need to change. Catering to people who refuse to learn mechanics and and time their positionings to those mechanics simply should just play something else.

[butchersblock]

It's very disappointing to see people brigading to remove the one final job in the game with any semblance of complexity left. Every other job has already been made simple and shallow enough for anyone to pick up within 10 minutes, why try to take away even BLM from dedicated players?