Quote Originally Posted by Ferrinus View Post
I don't think this is true. I've said it before: if you're not trying to optimize your instant cast resources so that they shave down the maximum possible number of seconds off your GCDs, I think BLM is actually easier than before. A higher proportion of your spell casts are naturally instantaneous, you get 50% more uses of swiftcast, thunder needs to be hardcast under any circumstances and requires no weaving to make this happen, etc.

On the other hand, it's much harder to maximize the job's damage output. In fact, that's what this thread is about!
I'm not just talking about maximising your instant cast uses, I'm talking about all the other ways in which they've made the job harder:

- High Thunder can't be hardcast, so a long manafont fire phase can cause it to fall off

- High Thunder has such low upfront potency you lose a lot more damage refreshing it early, compared to throwing out an early T3P in Endwalker

- Flare Star makes the consequences for missing an F4 much greater

- Flare Star is an additional 3 second long hardcast

- If you mess up the end of your fire phase e.g. with an interrupted Despair cast, you can't transpose Para B1 B4 and then resume. You have to slowcast a B3 before you can get back to your normal rotation.

The only thing you could argue that makes DT BLM is easier is the free F3p, which I agree is an addition that makes the job easier. However you could get that in EW just by sharping fire every time (fun fact - you lose more damage by doing AF3 F3p instead of transpose AF1 F3p now, just to make it harder to do optimal damage).

All of the above contributes to the execution of the job being much less flexible than in Endwalker. Again, you can see this in the two Extreme trials we have. EX2 is a fight without much movement, it's very easy to budget your instant casts and the high movement mechanics are very spread out. The job functions fine.
However then you get into EX1. You have to fight adds which will force you to re-DOT and change targets. The movement is more continuous. Now you see the issues with DT BLM's kit.

RE: Maximising damage output: Sure, you could argue they've made it harder to do so. But they haven't done it in a very fun way. Here's another fun fact, Manafont is such a huge damage gain now that you absolutely do not want to lose a use due to drifting, but you don't have any short fire lines to adjust its alignment any more.

That's the issue with DT BLM. It's A LOT more clunky, and that makes it harder for newer players and veterans alike.