A few questions for the BLM mains/enjoyers

[Zatoh]

Please don't take Scathe away. When doing FATEs with other players (especially at low levels), it is really nice having an instant-cast spell that will hit my target before someone else kills it. I also like having a button to click during dungeon pulls while moving. This spell is not obsolete.

I thought the main point of Sharpcast was to give you Firestarter procs when you need to move, especially since you typically use your Firestarter procs as you get them. Am I wrong? I feel like saying "your only real option is using Sharpcast to hold onto a Thundercloud proc" ignores the fact that mechanics exist.

I like the idea of holding up to three charges of Firestarter and Thundercloud, and I would find it helpful to have indicators for them on the job gauge.

[OgruMogru]

Please don't take Scathe away. When doing FATEs with other players (especially at low levels), it is really nice having an instant-cast spell that will hit my target before someone else kills it. I also like having a button to click during dungeon pulls while moving. This spell is not obsolete.

I thought the main point of Sharpcast was to give you Firestarter procs when you need to move, especially since you typically use your Firestarter procs as you get them. Am I wrong? I feel like saying "your only real option is using Sharpcast to hold onto a Thundercloud proc" ignores the fact that mechanics exist.

I like the idea of holding up to three charges of Firestarter and Thundercloud, and I would find it helpful to have indicators for them on the job gauge.

One aspect of higher end optimisation is using sharpcast for a fire 3 proc and then holding that proc throughout your ice phase so you can use paradox ice [instant cast] to weave transpose and then use the f3 proc under af1 for higher potency. There are more nuanced options than just this one but it is a key aspect of optimized blm play.

[Llugen]

Please don't take Scathe away. When doing FATEs with other players (especially at low levels), it is really nice having an instant-cast spell that will hit my target before someone else kills it. I also like having a button to click during dungeon pulls while moving. This spell is not obsolete.

I agree that Scathe being the exact same spell that it was 10 years ago doesn't feel great, but I cannot emphasize how much I agree with THIS kind of sentiment right here.

Scathe HAS its uses, and they may be closer to niche than not-niche but they are still gains. If you're not using scathe in dungeons as an execute (last button before a mob dies when you otherwise couldn't get another full cast off), or just before boss downtime as the same, then you are missing optimization. Hopefully though it goes without saying that fights are situational, and if you have something like a xeno or a firestarter or thundercloud (or even transpose > ice paradox), then those should be prioritized at those levels given the scenario, but I use scathe literally every day like this, and everyone probably should.


I don't think scathe really needs fixed that badly (or more accurately, I don't think it deserves to be high on the priority list of things to be addressed for the class), but if I were to fix it, I would probably make the double potency thing just be passive in astral fire instead of 20% chance thing, and reduce its MP cost to 400 like Thunder, so using a single scathe in a fire phase if you REALLY needed to would not cost you a Fire IV from a standard rotation MP perspective. HOWEVER, I understand them being hesitant to give ANY buff to scathe, because they don't want scathe mages either (otherwise I might suggest the six-sided star treatment).

[Zatoh]

Something I'd like to see added to all damage-over-time spell descriptions is their potency if kept for the full duration. This is extra true for BLM because the single-target and multi-target thunder DoTs have different potencies and do not stack with each other. This is also extra true due to how Thundercloud works. Answering the question of "will using my Thundercloud proc do more damage than casting Fire?" should not require me to do a math problem and somehow glean the tribal knowledge that DoTs hit every three seconds. (I would also need to somehow know the size of my Astral Fire boost.)

Relatedly, it would be nice if the descriptions of fire spells included their potencies with Astral Fire 1, 2, and 3. I think one of the reasons people find Black Mage difficult to learn, and also one of the reasons there are ice mages, is that this information is not easily-accessible. Reading the spell descriptions, it looks like Blizzard and Fire have the same potency.