Please bring back Exploratory Zones in Dawntrail

[kinslayer-]

People who doesn't have a elemental rank of 10 or at least a resistance rank of 10 shouldn't coment on Exploratory zones at all, just saying.

[DixieBellOCE]

People who doesn't have a elemental rank of 10 or at least a resistance rank of 10 shouldn't coment on Exploratory zones at all, just saying.

Its funny when they do.

[DPZ2]

People who doesn't have a elemental rank of 10 or at least a resistance rank of 10 shouldn't coment on Exploratory zones at all, just saying.

I haven't done the Exploratory zones, nor HoH. I consider them a waste of effort on the part of SE. I consider them to be the reason we don't have two dungeons per expansion patch.

Am I qualified to make that particular comment, Oh Great and Mighty Gatekeeper?

[Renathras]

I haven't done the Exploratory zones, nor HoH. I consider them a waste of effort on the part of SE. I consider them to be the reason we don't have two dungeons per expansion patch.

Am I qualified to make that particular comment, Oh Great and Mighty Gatekeeper?

So why do you think Exploration zones cost us 2 dungeons per patch but not Ultimates? Why not ask for Ultimates to be removed instead? Or Deep Dungeons? Or Island Sanctuary? What makes you think Exploration Zones, specifically are responsible for this and that them not being there would give us 2 dungeons per patch? Especially since in EW we haven't had an Exploration Zone but haven't had 2 dungeons per patch.

Haha, it's actually less counterintuitive than it might seem! BLM generally requires fewer actions per minute due to cast times, so it's generally easier on my hands and wrists to play. I've also made myself an amazing set of macros that make it so that the bulk of BLM gameplay only requires around 8 buttons.

You know, I hadn't thought about the lower APM. Fair point, it's one reason I like WHM and WAR (and now PLD). I still think SMN would be lower, but maybe not (Garuda/Titan do have a bit of weaving going on). BLM seems to have a lot of oGCDs, but I suppose if you macro them well, you can get around that. And I guess there are some buttons you can kinda drop from your bars somewhat (Scathe for example, Blizzard 1 if you aren't doing low level content - get into a Leveling Dungeon, though, and...) Maybe I just need some good macros, otherwise I find SMN to be more accessible.

Still, impressive of you, I think. Goes to show "preferring slow pace" and "unable to do complex things" aren't synonymous.

Also, I don't do Extreme or Savage content,

Fair. I'm a decent Healer but hate DPSing (I'm decent at it, on some Jobs anyway, I just don't enjoy/like it much), and more just do it when I need to/Healer spots are all full. I do Extremes, but only rarely Savages. Issue there is the fights are more like ARPGs for god only knows what reason, making static hardcasting Jobs quite a bit harder to execute mechanics with.

And yeah, weaving is crazy to me. It and ABC (Always Be Casting) are two huge things that the game never teaches you but are essential to high end play and will instantly get you above 50%, if not 80%, of the general playerbase (looking at 24 mans, anyway, which are probably the most representative of the playerbase as a whole). The game doesn't even tell you the difference between a Spell/Weaponskill (GCD) and Ability (oGCD), so you either have to figure that out yourself (like I did running PotD and noticing the "Pacification" debuff doesn't affect Abilities but does Spells/Weaponskills, and the floor debuff that doesn't let you use Abilities doesn't affect Spells/WEaponskills) or read/watch guides online that actually explain it. If you've never done so, check out Wesk Alber's guides. They're pretty good to get a solid intro to Jobs, and there's one for each Job, including BLM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEm-...mIovFT&index=5

Thanks for the suggestion, that's what I try to do in general. For whatever reason pressing the thumbstick is extra agitating for my symptoms, so whatever I can do to minimize the amount I need to use it is great for me!

Well, if you play like I do (PC but with a gamepad), you can always click them with your mouse if that helps.

[LilimoLimomo]

Still, impressive of you, I think. Goes to show "preferring slow pace" and "unable to do complex things" aren't synonymous.

Indeed! That's one of the things I like about BLM, is that the difficulty isn't necessarily in the dexterity of your fingers, but rather the dexterity of your mind! I often need to be thinking 3 steps ahead and also formulating back-up plans for certain contingencies, despite the fact that the result of those calculations is generally a single periodic button press!

Maybe I just need some good macros, otherwise I find SMN to be more accessible.

Oh 100% SMN is waaaaay more accessible (generally speaking). It's a beautiful, straightforward class with an amazingly elegant and intuitive design. It makes great use of buttons that contextually change their function to massively reduce button bloat, and the 3 elemental summons provide strategic flexibility that is simple yet satisfying. Honestly one of the best designed classes in my opinion!

Meanwhile, BLM as a class is full of fail states where if you make a mistake you get meaningfully set back and have to build yourself back up. Where SMN is forgiving (your highest damage spells will always become available based on time, not performance), BLM is punishing. It's so easy to do terrible damage as a BLM, and much more difficult to do high-end damage. But I also think that can be a part of what makes it so fun to some people. For me, there's nothing I can do to meaningfully improve my performance as a SMN; but for BLM, it feels like there's always a new height for me to achieve!

Well, if you play like I do (PC but with a gamepad), you can always click them with your mouse if that helps.

I'm on PS5 and using a mouse is actually uncomfortable to me, which is part of why I prefer to game on consoles.

[LilimoLimomo]

You know, I hadn't thought about the lower APM. Fair point, it's one reason I like WHM and WAR (and now PLD). I still think SMN would be lower, but maybe not (Garuda/Titan do have a bit of weaving going on). BLM seems to have a lot of oGCDs, but I suppose if you macro them well, you can get around that. And I guess there are some buttons you can kinda drop from your bars somewhat (Scathe for example, Blizzard 1 if you aren't doing low level content - get into a Leveling Dungeon, though, and...) Maybe I just need some good macros

Thankfully, BLM is generally pretty great to macro for. In my experience, there are two places where macros shine if you're looking to reduce button bloat:

1. Jobs that have different "modes"
2. Jobs with buttons that are impossible to activate unless certain requirements are met.

For BLM, there are 2 obvious modes: Fire mode and Ice mode. But I actually double those modes by making AoE and Single-target their own distinct modes for each element. So, for example, I can make a macro so that when I press my Fire 3 button, it changes my crosshotbars to give me my single-target Fire spells, since I'm not going to need any of my Ice spells in Fire mode — except for Blizzard 3, which will switch me into Ice mode and give me my Ice spells!

As for activation, BLM has several spells that can only activate in certain modes; Despair and Fire IV require Fire mode, while Blizzard IV requires Ice mode. Spells also can't be cast without mana, making this a kind of mode that we can exploit. In addition, GCD's require GCD to not be on cooldown to cast them; this means that macroing a GCD and oGCD onto a single button will cast the oGCD if the button is pressed while GCD isn't ready!

So just to show an example, with all of that, we can do a very basic version of BLM's basic rotation with just 4 Playstation buttons:

Circle (Fire 3) -> X (Fire IV) -> Triangle (Fire/Paradox) -> X (Fire IV) -> Square (Despair) -> X (Manafont) -> X (Fire IV) -> Square (Despair) -> Square (Blizzard 3) -> Triangle (Blizzard/Paradox) -> X (Blizzard IV) -> Circle (Fire 3) -> Repeat

We use those same 4 buttons to do the AoE version of all that as well...we just press a macro that switches us to our AoE hotbars first. As you can see, each single button has a lot of functionality; mostly it's just about stacking moves on the buttons where they feel right to press. This works for me because I think of Ice being on the left, and Fire being on the right, and I'm ping-ponging back and forth between them. So I mapped my buttons to sort of follow that vibe.

Hopefully that provides a taste of how powerful macros can be for reducing button bloat on BLM! If that sounds like something you'd like to investigate, let me know and sometime I'll see if I can do a more thorough write-up on my setup!