BLM feedback.

[Pyitoechito]

If it hasn't been suggested yet, they could have Flare Star tied directly to spending Umbral Hearts.

Instead of having a separate gauge for tracking Flare Souls for Flare Star, have Umbral Hearts convert into Flare Souls when spending them (make them orange and... fiery), and reduce the Flare Soul cost of Flare Star to three (because the gauge only holds three Umbral Hearts). This means any fire spells will generate Flare Souls as long as they spend Umbral Hearts, and the requirement to reach Flare Star is less stringent. Flare Star is still locked to one per fire phase, but it's much more open on where the spell can be used during the phase. It's far more elegant than having a new toss-in gauge just for tracking when Flare Star can be cast.

[Ferrinus]

If it hasn't been suggested yet, they could have Flare Star tied directly to spending Umbral Hearts.

Instead of having a separate gauge for tracking Flare Souls for Flare Star, have Umbral Hearts convert into Flare Souls when spending them (make them orange and... fiery), and reduce the Flare Soul cost of Flare Star to three (because the gauge only holds three Umbral Hearts). This means any fire spells will generate Flare Souls as long as they spend Umbral Hearts, and the requirement to reach Flare Star is less stringent. Flare Star is still locked to one per fire phase, but it's much more open on where the spell can be used during the phase. It's far more elegant than having a new toss-in gauge just for tracking when Flare Star can be cast.

This is exactly what I want, too; I like casting Flare Star but it feels dumb to have a second, separate gauge. If they're really particular about sequencing they could make Flare Star only activate once you A) have three astral hearts and B) drop to 0 MP, but I don't think that'd be necessary. So long as the numbers are massaged such that more F4s will increase rather than decrease your dps on average (which is already the premise behind umbral paradox, really), it'll still be optimal in a white room to cast all six F4s in an astral cycle and there'll still be no incentive to skip B4.

[Pyitoechito]

This is exactly what I want, too; I like casting Flare Star but it feels dumb to have a second, separate gauge. If they're really particular about sequencing they could make Flare Star only activate once you A) have three astral hearts and B) drop to 0 MP, but I don't think that'd be necessary. So long as the numbers are massaged such that more F4s will increase rather than decrease your dps on average (which is already the premise behind umbral paradox, really), it'll still be optimal in a white room to cast all six F4s in an astral cycle and there'll still be no incentive to skip B4.

Of course. It would be a DPS loss to not cast all six Fire IV's every fire phase. Flare Star isn't such a DPS gain that anyone would want to cut the rotation down to three F4s or cast F1 over F4. The only time this would be optimal is if the boss is about to become untargetable, then it would actually be a boon to be able to cast Flare Star earlier in fire phase to get it out before the boss becomes untargetable and you lose the cast (we like mechanics-based optimization, right?).

I am an unparalleled artist.

[Ferrinus]

Of course. It would be a DPS loss to not cast all six Fire IV's every fire phase. Flare Star isn't such a DPS gain that anyone would want to cut the rotation down to three F4s or cast F1 over F4. The only time this would be optimal is if the boss is about to become untargetable, then it would actually be a boon to be able to cast Flare Star earlier in fire phase to get it out before the boss becomes untargetable and you lose the cast (we like mechanics-based optimization, right?).

I am an unparalleled artist.

And if they're absolutely dead set on Flare Star requiring six stacks and cannot be budged, they can STILL have each umbral heart turn orange, and then have those orange umbral hearts start crackling and flaming one by one.

[Turtledeluxe]

I still think irrespective of gauge adjustments, flare star needs to be insta cast or something. It's not some kind of massive DPS gain. Alternatively, leave it as a long cast and make it worth using

Flare Star feels unnatural in a single target rotation. It's a Flare upgrade stuffed into redundant Despair status. That just doesn't make sense to me.

[Eraden]

Mao now has new crafted gears whats been pentameldeds. Before, with old gears, Mao was barely ables to cast Flare Star and Mao unables keep Enochian goings. Now with 2460 Spell Speeds Mao can keeps Enochian goings AND cast Flare Star, with or without foods and Leylines. (Mao gives big sigh of reliefs)

[Ramiee]

Ice Paradox return is great, flare star and lightning are still ass.
Thanks for listening to my ted talk.

[awhitet]

Ngl I completely forgot about my own thread lmaoo:

So they've brought ice paradox back and buffed potencies, that's a good start. The umbral soul QoL is welcomed too (losing the stacks while watching a cutsecene or using a zip lane was awful)

However the issue with thunderhead buff running out during long fire phases is still present, they should just increase it to 45s, or honestly? Just make it a normal dot like a healer, like what's even the point of the buff?

With ice paradox back, you'll be using it almost every single time for transpose and insta fire 3 proc for dps gain, I've been in a lot of situations where the F3 proc literally runs out, or even worse, you cast the animation but you don't get astral fire 3, instead you only get AF 1 ruining everything lol(is this a bug btw?). (This scenario happens if you run low sps and you use 3-4 xenos during burst window making the proc run out, not biggie for casual player as they don't use transpose but hey, had to mention it)

I know both issues are easily solved with sps set but every single caster in this game runs low sps, so melding sps just for blm is just awful.

I still don't know how to feel about flare star, it just feels really underwhelming for a lv 100 finisher spell, you don't really use it super often, the animation is weak, and dmg is not even that high.

Aoe rotation pretty much is the same, now flare just does more damage, and you still don't use high fire 2 at all because it's only 100 potency, big copium but I'm sure they'll touch aoe at some point in next patches.

I'm going to be completely honest: while I do miss non standard play, I still have a blast doing content with BLM, because it's the most unique job in the game and you're doing fights in hard mode and I love that shit, being able to have 100% uptime in some chaotic mechs and encounters gives you ton of dopamine, using despair+flare star+4-5 xenos back to back during burst feels really amazing as well.

If they want to keep AF paradox instant, make the timer 17s, yes, you can just use Fire III proc to extend it, but it's just extremely bad, not only it does less dmg than a potential F4 but you also lose the transpose tech losing a ton of DPS for literally no reason.

[Eraden]

I know both issues are easily solved with sps set but every single caster in this game runs low sps, so melding sps just for blm is just awful.

With foods, Mao ables get well into 2500s for Spell Speeds. At that point Mao gets confusled because Mao startings to see Mao leaving buildings before Mao enters thems (Mao kids). With same foods Mao still gettings almost 2K Crit as well. Main thing for Mao is that Spell Speeds help bring backs some of the freedom that BLMs enjoyed back in EW. Is no longer constrained as much by timers. Mao figurings is not such bad thing for BLMs to be so differents than other casters and has differents needs.

[Realfoxy]

I wont pretend to know a lot about BLM, but the changes to Thunder baffle me a bit. The change to make it proc while adjusting stances I didn't mind, it was interesting/nice to have an instant cast GCD at the ready. But the way the DoT functions now ot feels off. You swap stances every 30 seconds or so, usually less for Ice phase, but the DoT is longer, and its always refreshed. Wouldn't it make more sense to frontload the damage and shorten the DoT? Or, make the buff for the DoT stack like old-school Ruin IV. Or just make it similar to the old Thunder, that as long as a Thunder DoT is on the target the damage is frontloaded and refreshed.

Can someone who really understands BLM help elaborate on what Thunder is supposed to be now? It feels odd getting a proc and not using it since you are waiting for the previous DoT to expire.

Congratulations! You've spent more time thinking about this than the person who designed these Thunder changes.

You are exactly correct, you just get random procs all the time when you don't need them. The reason they can't increase the upfront potency is because you'll get free procs all the time and they don't want to encourage any meme rotations, so they've backloaded all the damage into the DOT portion, while also making it really annoying to refresh if you're in a long fire phase (e.g. you spent F3p + other fillers to extend.