7.0 BLM Changes will kill the job

[Envinyon]

I haven't posted here before, but I play black mage quite a bit. I wanted to explain the issues the job MIGHT have, just based on the information we have now. I understand we might be lacking information that will make these concerns unwarranted, but I'd rather get the feedback out now, and if I'm wrong in these concerns, then I'm wrong and I'll have fun with the job.

-Making it so MP regenerates when using ice spells potentially kills using transpose to go into Umbral Ice and go back to Astral Fire without ever using ice spells. This is both a stronger rotation and is fantastic for movement, as you don't have to hardcast blizzard 3 or 4 and instead are using instant casts like Xenoglossy and Thunder 3 proc to fill time while your MP ticks up

-New gauge might force you to do 6 Fire 4s in each astral fire. This is highly dependent on how much potency the new cast is, and whether or not you lose this gauge when going to umbral ice. If you lose it, it means you can't have shorter astral fire phases in order to align yourself with mechanics better otherwise you lose potentially a lot of damage.

-How does black mage handle in lower level fights? What if you're going into P6 of TOP, you just used Despair and then the cutscene happens? Are you just standing there with your enochian dropped and no MP? What about phase transitions in general? Are we going to have to make sure to end phases with using ice spells? Umbral Soul might give you MP. What about the two level 70 ultimates? Black Mage already has it pretty rough in these, the idea of starting phases with very little or no MP, or not being able to just immediately go into astral fire would feel bad.

Overall, it feels like these two things would make black mage significantly more rigid and restrictive, and making its functionality just a lot worse in any fight that might have downtime or cutscenes. It makes the job potentially less interesting to optimize but also much harder for newer players. While I think wanting the rotation to not be subjected to MP ticks is good, the implementation as described creates other problems. I do have some suggestions for fixing this. Regenerating MP in umbral ice should be done by using ANY cast while in ice. This would make it so standard and non-standard rotations are possible. For the new fire gauge, since we don't know how it fully works right now, I'll suggest that we should keep the charges when we go to umbral ice. That way we could do a short astral fire phase, go into umbral ice, and then pick things back up when we transition back to astral fire. Also, umbral soul should be an ability you get much earlier. It's something I honestly have wanted anyways, and doing this would solve any issues of not having MP in lower level fights in between phases or downtime.

I'm not incredibly worried about things because this does create legitimate functionality issues, its not just "simplification". If it launches like this, it will not take long for complaints to pile up. Hopefully between media tour feedback and feedback now, they can ensure the job is still as fun as it is now.