Please reconsider an upcoming Black Mage change.

[Carighan]

Also similar to BLM as I want all casters to actually be casting seriously and considering how their casts have meaning I suggested that you get 1 (ONE) shot at painting your motifs, if you interrupt them that’s it’s you lose them. You need to be damn sure you can finish this painting if you want to paint it. I’m sick of compensation for casters main intended weakness

Damn, punishing as that sounds it'd be pretty damn neat in fact, even mechanically. And it would also intuitively fit the class fantasy, as if you get interrupted while painting, it's probably ruined when you're in the flow.

[CalvinDescoles]

After playing PCT, i realise that casting is fun whenever the Cast time is faster than the GCD (1.5 Cast 2.5 GCD), like Healer or RDM and of course PCT. It still feels like casting, leave room for mobility but can still remain punishing and it does not feel awfull whenever ou want to weave some OGCD.

For BLM i think it would really help if it was the case for... let's say 75% of their cast spell to be like this and let say that 25% stay the way it is design right now (Cast time = GCD) i.e. :

- Fire/Ice 4 remain 2.5 Cast time
- Fire/Ice 1/2/3 1.5 Cast time
- Despair should have stayed the way it is to keep the feeling of "big finisher".

all of this is why i really think PCT is actually ore enjoyable as a real caster than BLM >.>

[AmiableApkallu]

Also similar to BLM as I want all casters to actually be casting seriously and considering how their casts have meaning I suggested that you get 1 (ONE) shot at painting your motifs, if you interrupt them that’s it’s you lose them. You need to be damn sure you can finish this painting if you want to paint it.

For PCT, I think I'd rather the effect of the muses depend on how "complete" the painting is. Your mostly complete Moogle deals 75% of their max potential. Your mishappen blob has a 80% chance of asploding in your face, silencing you for 5s and blinding everyone within 10y for 15s.

There's a lot of creativity and fun to be had in your actions straight up backfiring.

[Turtledeluxe]

Now anything that refreshes Enochian is now instant only past level 90 (unless you somehow need Paradox, Fire3, and a Fire1 before you run out of MP somehow) The only spells that really have long cast times in single target are FireIV, BlizzardIV, and Flare Star. (taking bets on when Flare Star changes.)

True but I just think all of this has less to do with an agenda to make BLM insta cast and more to do with compensating for problems they created with the new rotation. Long term insta cast additions are trying to "buff" BLM to compete with bursty DPS jobs. It's not so much a war on mobility as it is just keeping BLM even worth using in a world where PCT exists, as the latest example.

Maintaining the conditions for Flare Star is supposed to be the challenge now, which (assuming standard play anyway) does still have periods where you "stand and deliver". I see your point about Enochian being a bit trivialized and Xenoglossy being a big hit that is insta cast, and I guess that's because the idea was having you think more about Flare Star, especially since it does actually have a new punishing element to it.

I just have a different idea of what's wrong with the game. A lot of changes are driven by job balance. BLM is a selfish DPS..it doesn't have much else going on..so it has to be especially designed in this environment where more jobs are doing ever more DPS.

I've been unsubbed for months but I wouldn't exactly be against perhaps adding some casting into BLM conceptually. I do think it's a hybrid job at this point but I like that it oscillates in terms of mobility and I think that will probably (hopefully) remain the goal with BLM.

[Valence]

BLM is a job that has never seen high play rates, and after the fiasco of DT on job changes for BLM, them adding even more instant casts is just the logical continuation of their reasoning. If they make it even more rigid than they made it already with the changes, the job will cater to even less people. Every caster in the history of XIV has slowly and steadily gained mobility over time. I don't see any reason why SE would suddenly backpedal on BLM, especially if instant casts are solving other problems like despair for them.

[GartredZW]

BLM is a job that has never seen high play rates, and after the fiasco of DT on job changes for BLM, them adding even more instant casts is just the logical continuation of their reasoning. If they make it even more rigid than they made it already with the changes, the job will cater to even less people. Every caster in the history of XIV has slowly and steadily gained mobility over time. I don't see any reason why SE would suddenly backpedal on BLM, especially if instant casts are solving other problems like despair for them.

Have you heard of the New Coke disaster? To try and lure over Pepsi customers, they decided to change up the formula for Coca-cola to taste a bit more like Pepsi. What happened instead is that Pepsi customers kept drinking pepsi because when someone who likes pepsi is presented with a choice between a soda that now tastes 20% more like pepsi and just an actual pepsi, the choice is obvious. Meanwhile for coke enjoyers, the soda doesn't taste like coke any more, so they stop buying it. No one wins.
Of course, coke backpedaled on this hard, and earned back most of the patronage they used to have. **hint hint**

Why would someone who enjoys summoner play black mage because it got changed to be a bit more like summoner instead of just staying on summoner? Black Mage provided a gameplay style that is completely unique in this game, and anyone who plays it and knows how it works would tell you just how fun it is for everything to go right. Now it's slowly eroding into something unrecognizable that goes against the core principles of the job. It's not inherently bad that it had low play numbers, and that doesn't always mean there's something broken that needs to be fixed.

[Turtledeluxe]

BLM is a job that has never seen high play rates, and after the fiasco of DT on job changes for BLM, them adding even more instant casts is just the logical continuation of their reasoning. If they make it even more rigid than they made it already with the changes, the job will cater to even less people. Every caster in the history of XIV has slowly and steadily gained mobility over time. I don't see any reason why SE would suddenly backpedal on BLM, especially if instant casts are solving other problems like despair for them.

As a side note, I think it's important to clarify that just because certain jobs or content aren't mainstream, does not mean that job or content should become homogenized or otherwise made more uniform. That's a flawed design philosophy. That's why I say if that is where the game is headed, it's going nowhere interesting.

And this should be obvious. The team hailed the relic as a modern day success because of engagement. What they didn't realize is that the lack of casual grind it created likely played a role in the hundreds of thousands of players who quit post EW and never came back. Engagement isn't everything and focusing so narrowly on that can have long term unintended consequences.

Similarly, steamrolling BLM too much into not really casting is why players like Mao will quit. Maybe more casual players will engage with BLM but at what cost if you alienate the players who like the job as is? An important consideration imo.

[Valmaxian]

I’m a longtime player who has only recently started to *really* get into BLM. For me, I am absolutely LOVING how the job plays now. I even favor it above PCT. I feel like there’s a good balance between slow casts and instant casts and movement enablers. While I wouldn’t *hate* an instant cast Despair, I would prefer a 1.5 sec cast instead - I think that would flow nicely into Despair > weave Manafont > Despair > weave Swiftcast > Flare Star.

I’m probably f€£¥king up the rotation, but yeah. XD

[Valence]

Have you heard of the New Coke disaster? To try and lure over Pepsi customers, they decided to change up the formula for Coca-cola to taste a bit more like Pepsi. What happened instead is that Pepsi customers kept drinking pepsi because when someone who likes pepsi is presented with a choice between a soda that now tastes 20% more like pepsi and just an actual pepsi, the choice is obvious. Meanwhile for coke enjoyers, the soda doesn't taste like coke any more, so they stop buying it. No one wins.
Of course, coke backpedaled on this hard, and earned back most of the patronage they used to have. **hint hint**

Why would someone who enjoys summoner play black mage because it got changed to be a bit more like summoner instead of just staying on summoner? Black Mage provided a gameplay style that is completely unique in this game, and anyone who plays it and knows how it works would tell you just how fun it is for everything to go right. Now it's slowly eroding into something unrecognizable that goes against the core principles of the job. It's not inherently bad that it had low play numbers, and that doesn't always mean there's something broken that needs to be fixed.

As a side note, I think it's important to clarify that just because certain jobs or content aren't mainstream, does not mean that job or content should become homogenized or otherwise made more uniform. That's a flawed design philosophy. That's why I say if that is where the game is headed, it's going nowhere interesting.

And this should be obvious. The team hailed the relic as a modern day success because of engagement. What they didn't realize is that the lack of casual grind it created likely played a role in the hundreds of thousands of players who quit post EW and never came back. Engagement isn't everything and focusing so narrowly on that can have long term unintended consequences.

Similarly, steamrolling BLM too much into not really casting is why players like Mao will quit. Maybe more casual players will engage with BLM but at what cost if you alienate the players who like the job as is? An important consideration imo.

I should have said that I do not agree with SE's perspective on many things and this isn't one either. But I don't see them thinking any other way. You're preaching to the church.

Also Mao is quitting for a way bigger picture than just reduced casting. It's a problem of battle design overall, and I have the exact same problem as Mao without even maining caster. I'm also quitting pve (outside of doing my casual dailies) for the exact same reasons. I don't like playing a frog in a blender.

[Turtledeluxe]

I should have said that I do not agree with SE's perspective on many things and this isn't one either. But I don't see them thinking any other way. You're preaching to the church.

Also Mao is quitting for a way bigger picture than just reduced casting. It's a problem of battle design overall, and I have the exact same problem as Mao without even maining caster. I'm also quitting pve (outside of doing my casual dailies) for the exact same reasons. I don't like playing a frog in a blender.

Yeah, I was just posting that moreso for dev feedback. I think we are all on the same boat because yes, there are other problems with encounters and even jobs/roles. Your post just reminded me that I've been thinking a lot about this problem across the whole game really, not just BLM. And I'm not exactly thrilled at the observation either-- I'm actually rather disappointed that engagement became "the" metric of the game.