7.0 BLM Changes will kill the job

[Xisin]

I think killing the job is a bit hyperbole. I'm honestly not surprised? The non standard playstyle - which I use. Just doesn't seem to be the blm I've played for the past 10 years. I kinda welcome the removal of it. I just never enjoyed the playstyle. I'm guessing that the majority of blm players aren't even aware of the playstyle to begin with.

I'd also bet that balancing around non standard is a giant headache.

I'm super looking forward to the blm changes and am interested in playing it's newest iteration. Non standard, while requiring study actually made the job easier to operate in fights, so I don't get the difficulty argument at all. Some of you are even telling on yourself (that non standard makes things easier) with the constant phase 6 top example.

[Galvuu]

Just doesn't seem to be the blm I've played for the past 10 years.

ARR, HW and post SB BLM are completely different. Like, those three are almost incomparable.
(And, honestly, EW is also so vastly different from SB/ShB if you want to optimize it that it's also vastly different- although you did do some short AF phases and B4 skips in ShB for max dps already, just much less fluidly)

[Xisin]

The general theme to raiding on blm through the years, especially in hw is you have limited resource to accomplish x amount of movement. Figuring out pixle dodges etc. The ew iteration is more about figuring out how to skip ice as much as possible. The less blizzard, the better. It's quite literally the only iteration of blm like this.

Hw and storm blood blm are very similar. Sb to shb didn't change that much either so I'm not sure what you mean.

I'll give you the arr to hw jump tho. It was a massive difficulty spike that I found fun, but overall caused many people to quit the game. I was there to witness the ghost towns. (Not just blm specifically, all the jobs got a major difficulty spike).

[Xisin]

I will also add that non standard is what pushed me off from being a blm main. First expansion I didn't main it. And I've been playing almost continuously since 1.0.

I played blm regardless in aspho and anabaseios, and did fine. Just hated it, the non standard way. And my brain just won't let me enjoy not attempting optimal play, which is non standard. Never have I hated a rotation more for blm. It's the least blm feeling of any blm I've played.

So I had a bit of a job identity crisis this expansion. Played tank in abyssos and melee in ultimate. Made me a better play though I guess, so that's cool.

[Galvuu]

The general theme to raiding on blm through the years, especially in hw is you have limited resource to accomplish x amount of movement. Figuring out pixle dodges etc. The ew iteration is more about figuring out how to skip ice as much as possible. The less blizzard, the better. It's quite literally the only iteration of blm like this.

ARR BLM had a decent amount of mobility because you ended up with more procs just in virtue of spamming Fire (and you'd sometimes store some to move around). The cost of needing to run around was also much lower- your basic gcd refreshed the timer, so you were only bleeding uptime (no really concern about the timer in most fights). The playstyle of spamming Fire is both extremely simple and completely different from HW BLM. In fact, when HW BLM released, people were really upset their "simple straightfoward job" was now about juggling two timers. Idk how you think that old HW BLM (where there was a lot of tech, like deliberately letting Enochian fall off because your ogcd refresh that reset the timer was coming up) is anything like ShB BLM either. HW was all about ensuring that Enochian refresh (you could even do an old tech where you cast B3 at the last second, technically dropping AF 3 for a second but since it was within your "slidecasting window" the server would give you UI 3 and let you cast Blizzard IV). The terror wasn't dropping AF/UI, the real mistake was missing that Enochian refresh (you'd even Transpose to ice to get Blizzard IV off if you had to because you messed up, B4 refresh was king in HW). HW BLM is also easily the most "turret" out of them all (and BLM has become increasingly mobile since- EW BLM is actually more mobile than RDM in terms of burst mobility, which is honestly more important for current fight design).

Non-standard lines are, on average, like a 2% damage gain. It's not necessary anywhere. Why did this optional thing "push you" from playing BLM? This is like saying that the best opener in a fight is starting with Blizzard III "pushed you" off that fight. Just do the same opener everywhere if it bothers you, this variation is so small it's less significant that criting your big hitters (Xeno post-buffs, especially) in 2 mins lol
Historically, what you're saying doesn't even make sense- BLM always had weird tech, and it was actually sometimes more impactful than our current "non-standard". ARR "fire weaving" was a 4% dps gain every time you did it, that's more than 99% of "non-standard" lines. ShB had the Blizzard IV skip into 4x Fire IV > Despair, SB had you drop Enochian on purpose in some fights to get an extra Foul (since it overwrote at the time, because you couldn't store it), HW had the piety tech for Thunder (unless you were Dunesfolk). People are mad because the lines are fun/involved. Not because the lines are as strong as you purport them to be.

[Sacae]

You have the standard 200 mp per tick regen that every job has. It was never really relevant for BLM before because you had the Umbral Ice buff and no regen during Astral Fire, but you'll get enough mp during ice phase naturally to still pull off Thunders.

[awhitet]

The new gauge went dark once the blm went to ice phase, suggesting that the fire petals don't carry over and you MUST use the big fire attack before ice phase otherwise you lose an usage, if the potency is high enough, even if they kept non standard as it is and mp regen, it would be dps loss.

I think they just want to get rid of non standard tbh.

[Xisin]

when HW BLM released, people were really upset their "simple straightfoward job" was now about juggling two timers. Idk how you think that old HW BLM (where there was a lot of tech, like deliberately letting Enochian fall off because your ogcd refresh that reset the timer was coming up) is anything like ShB BLM either. HW was all about ensuring that Enochian refresh (you could even do an old tech where you cast B3 at the last second, technically dropping AF 3 for a second but since it was within your "slidecasting window" the server would give you UI 3 and let you cast Blizzard IV).

I'm not sure why you are trying to explain hw blm tech to me, I how it works. You can look it up on that website if you want.

I'm generally allowed to dislike something. But I think transpose lines worst impact is balancing around it. Simply put, the playstyle opens up avenues that makes fights easier through more mobility options while simultaneously allowing a blm the option to dump for more damage than standard. In other words its an unintended playstyle that negates a weakness that blm is balanced around. I guess I can't say its unintended, but I can be fairly sure it is unintended. it's not really an execution thing either, its a knowledge check. You could argue that execution lies in monitoring ticks, but thats not true because optional tools kinda do that for blms using the tactic, or you could roll the dice and hope for tick to not screw you over occasionally, whichever suit you. I'm fairly sure the current fights were designed around standard uptime too though, albeit it may be harder to pull off within standard practices, and there wasn't a ton of thought put into standard execution after non standard became THE standard for high end.

Regardless not here to argue as much as I am to put my own two cents into the pile. I welcome the change, hope its fun and look forward to the ingenuity to solve the new playstyle that the blm community typically brings. I am happy for you that you like non standard. I think it stinks. It's just weird to me that folks were expecting this playstyle to actually not be removed, I just assumed the devs would remove it.

[Mikey_R]

Here's something i haven't seen be talking about and that is Manafont. If we take a look here, just after the new explosion, you can see several things happen. Being Manafont, it obviously is going to restore MP, however, if you also notice, you get 3 Umbral hearts AND you get the Paradox effect as well as resetting your AF timer. Does this imply you can do a full AF rotation again without having to enter UI (with the assumption it now restores all of your MP)?

[Galvuu]

it's not really an execution thing either, its a knowledge check.

All of FFXIV is a memory/knowledge check, beyond the trivial effort of pressing buttons in the right order. This isn't Starcraft or CSGo where aim, reaction time and mechanics matter (even if those games have some knowledge to them also, the percentage is minimal).

non standard became THE standard for high end.

TOP p6 aside (where I argue that non-standard is a big deal), it became popular because it's engaging. This game is *really boring* on most jobs once you've memorized the dance. Although, I'm not sure your argument is sound to begin with- either the non-standard is optional and affects nothing (so there's no reason to remove it) or, as you seem to imply, it's integral to BLM's performance (in which case, you're kneecapping the job) and should remain. It's not really that integral anyway.

And fwiw, there are Famitsu interviews with Yoshida about XIV where not only does he acknowledges that he's aware of non-standard, but he actively makes changes so it's easier to execute. The extended buff timers? One of the reasons was to make alternate rotations work better. So, at least at some point in time, not only were they aware of it, they tried to support it.

(I told you about the tech because you said you were oh-so "put off BLM" because of non-standard after playing it for a long time, which is weird, because non-standard tech has been a thing with BLM since 2.0... but somehow, in the other 8 years, the weird tech didn't bother you?)