The (Possible) Shape of Black Mage to Come

[Lemuria]

Coming back to this thread, I realize I made it in a rather reactionary state of mind and emotion, and for that I apologize. But truly, the class doesn't need to change. From all accounts, it's worked perfectly fine in the new savages and extremes, and really most of the complaints are about Flare Star's strictness, and thunderhead just being hot garbage. I doubt the devs would listen to the few fringe fools who want this class to be changed so drastically when it really doesn't need it. At least, I hope they ignore them.

Hard disagree.

If BLM is going to have long cast times, it needs the payout. The problem is that you're constantly gasping for air in between rounds because mana regeneration is now contingent on a handful of spells. At high levels, this means cheesing the system with transpose, at low levels this means getting the royal shaft until you find another enemy and let your MP slowly trickle back in. From Thaumaturge to Shadowbringers it's a genuine slog, and that applies to any lower levelling roulettes you happen to be dumped into.

The thunderhead changes I didn't mind so much, saves me the bother of a cast time, but not being able to free-cast Thunder outside of that buff is ridiculous. It used to be a bonus, now it's mandatory.

The paradox changes are... just why? It was fine as it was, it didn't need adjustments. Now they've removed some of that identity, and utility, with nothing to replace it.

MP has always been more of a mechanical thing for BLM up to now. You spam fire, you switch to ice for MP regen, you rinse and repeat. Now it's basically limited to just a few spells which are forced into your rotation whether you like it or not. If you don't like it, you're on the slow regen. It can lead to some awkward moments and a complete readjustment of your rotations. Where previously you might have gotten away with a quick transpose between battles, you no longer have that luxury - with the MP regen from ice no longer as powerful you're forced to rely on the spells which just dump 10k mana into your pool. If you mis-time because you had to dodge a mechanic or ran out of trash mobs, you're basically drained for the next round.

So yes, it needs a drastic rework. At the very least to bring it back to Endwalker BLM where it flowed more freely and actually felt fun to play. This feels like I'm fighting my own character as much as the enemy.

[Supersnow845]

Hard disagree.

If BLM is going to have long cast times, it needs the payout. The problem is that you're constantly gasping for air in between rounds because mana regeneration is now contingent on a handful of spells. At high levels, this means cheesing the system with transpose, at low levels this means getting the royal shaft until you find another enemy and let your MP slowly trickle back in. From Thaumaturge to Shadowbringers it's a genuine slog, and that applies to any lower levelling roulettes you happen to be dumped into.

The thunderhead changes I didn't mind so much, saves me the bother of a cast time, but not being able to free-cast Thunder outside of that buff is ridiculous. It used to be a bonus, now it's mandatory.

The paradox changes are... just why? It was fine as it was, it didn't need adjustments. Now they've removed some of that identity, and utility, with nothing to replace it.

MP has always been more of a mechanical thing for BLM up to now. You spam fire, you switch to ice for MP regen, you rinse and repeat. Now it's basically limited to just a few spells which are forced into your rotation whether you like it or not. If you don't like it, you're on the slow regen. It can lead to some awkward moments and a complete readjustment of your rotations. Where previously you might have gotten away with a quick transpose between battles, you no longer have that luxury - with the MP regen from ice no longer as powerful you're forced to rely on the spells which just dump 10k mana into your pool. If you mis-time because you had to dodge a mechanic or ran out of trash mobs, you're basically drained for the next round.

So yes, it needs a drastic rework. At the very least to bring it back to Endwalker BLM where it flowed more freely and actually felt fun to play. This feels like I'm fighting my own character as much as the enemy.

Hasn’t umbral soul been reduced to like level 32 so you just press umbral soul to get mp back out of combat