Quote Originally Posted by Ferrinus View Post
The dynamicism and variability of BLM come from the interaction of its buff timers and long cast times; even if there's one optimal rotation, there's a million optimal-under-bossfight-conditions lines that players need to concoct on the spot in response to the random and evolving conditions of an actual encounter. I expect that element of BLM gameplay is going to remain even if we need to land X number of ice spells before swapping back to fire mode and even if Thundercloud is no longer randomized or whatever they're doing with it. My hope is that the 6-point fireball bar is something that can maintain its charges even if you drop out of astral without spending it, but even if not, I'm glad to both be free of the vagaries of the mana tick and to have a reason to cast ice spells that isn't just having time to kill and nothing better to do.
Honestly, if they let us do silly things with the Fire counter, I can see that being a suitable replacement to non-standard. Like if it carries over / refreshes AF on use, you might be able to short one line to skip a Paradox in the next and instead use another F4 in it.

It really depends on how all the numbers flesh out, so while I'm not hopeful, I am waiting for the media tour vids to come out.