Ty SE for BLM changes!

[Nadda]

I want to empathize with the Black Mage playing community but I just feel like the Devs made the right call.

When people were complaining about Pictomancer. I still remember the discussions because my reaction at the time was.

Just Buff all the other Jobs, or Reduce Pictomancers potency and increase everyone elses

I was told at the time. It wasn't just about the potency but the fact Pictomancer could do so much more damage while on the move and the buff.

Player participation in Ultimates the 'ultimate' form of skill expression had the lowest participation of Black Mage ever.

I saw threads where people were saying they were not being invited to groups as a caster if they were NOT picto - A First of its kind

Up till now the consensus for the game was it's so balanced you could bring whatever you wanted. But Picto was so objectively better, not just because of damage but because of it's free movement... Why would you bring anything else and the numbers reflected that.
People TALKED about that.
People were upset they weren't invited.
People talked about more than a potency change was necessary.

So isn't this the proper change? Isn't this a huge buff for Black Mages so they can play the game?

I know nothing about Black Mages and I admit it. BUT the past threads about pictomancer don't lie. The past threads about Black Mage participation being low doesn't lie.
So they nerfed Pictomancer a bit and greatly buffed Black Mage.

Like I even empathize with 'job fantasy' but your job fantasy was ostracizing you from playing your favorite job in the highest end content. If the design for fights gets even harder as they no doubt will...
Iunno I feel like the Devs did the right thing. I was trying to relate to Black Mages honestly but it feels like this was the correct decision.

[OliverQ]

I want to empathize with the Black Mage playing community but I just feel like the Devs made the right call.

When people were complaining about Pictomancer. I still remember the discussions because my reaction at the time was.

Just Buff all the other Jobs, or Reduce Pictomancers potency and increase everyone elses

I was told at the time. It wasn't just about the potency but the fact Pictomancer could do so much more damage while on the move and the buff.

Player participation in Ultimates the 'ultimate' form of skill expression had the lowest participation of Black Mage ever.

I saw threads where people were saying they were not being invited to groups as a caster if they were NOT picto - A First of its kind

Up till now the consensus for the game was it's so balanced you could bring whatever you wanted. But Picto was so objectively better, not just because of damage but because of it's free movement... Why would bring anything else and the numbers reflected that.
People TALKED about that.
People were upset they weren't invited.
People talked about more than a potency change was necessary.

So isn't this the proper change? Isn't this a huge buff for Black Mages so they can play the game?

I know nothing about Black Mages and I admit it. BUT the past threads about pictomancer don't lie. The past threads about Black Mage participation being low doesn't lie.
So they nerfed Pictomancer a bit and greatly buffed Black Mage.

Like I even empathize with 'job fantasy' but your job fantasy was ostracizing you from playing your favorite job in the highest end content. If the design for fights gets even harder as they no doubt will...
Iunno I feel like the Devs did the right thing. I was trying to relate to Black Mages honestly but it feels like this was the correct decision.

Picto was brought on raids because of their damage. That's it. Not their movement.

BLM was not greatly buffed. It's roughly a 1% buff, but -100% fun for most BLM players. The job has no identity now. If people wanted to play a caster with nearly no cast times, they'd play Summoner.

[Misutoraru]

I play BLM since SB and I love the job. But being chased by the timer became more and more exhausting. I know it's mostly psychological, but now playing BLM will be much more relaxed without the timer.
Also doing Deep Dungeons, grinding crafting mats in the overworld, running content unsynched, doing Fates... everything other than an instanced boss fight feels like a chore on BLM.

BLM was my “to go” cast since ARR until RDM came out (purely because I love rapier)

Always have a mix feeling about Enochian. I like it when I know about the fight and push to the last second, and I dislike it sudden lag spike or just other players less then ideal positioning end up punishing myself. Since the release of Picto I will never going to main BLM for my “choice of Caster” anyway. However, with the change I am likely to try it on different content more.

some veteran blm main will be unhappy and move onto different job or quit, and some players will try playing blm as of the change. Either way it is what it is now.

[Jeeqbit]

Nah, most people will stick with it, it's just the squeaky wheels here that might quit playing it.

It's not the squeaky wheels here. Literally I met lots of people in the game itself the last week that are sad at the changes. I met them in dungeons, PUGs I was in, chat spaces in the game, and any Black Mage mains I've known in the past valued the way it was because planning their movement was the whole point for them.

I don't think any of these changes will draw people in

The reason I believe it will draw people in, is because of what I see in ARR. I see lots of new players pick up Thaumaturge and become a Black Mage. But I do not continue to see them using Black Mage when they reach level 60, and the reason is obvious.

Now that it's changed, those new players will likely continue using it, and that's why I think we will see more of them now.

[Asari5]

so... there are three relatively easy casters. one very easy, one one the support side and one heavily on the dmg side.... but there cant be that one difficult caster?

i dont get it xD

[Nadda]

Picto was brought on raids because of their damage. That's it. Not their movement.

BLM was not greatly buffed. It's roughly a 1% buff, but -100% fun for most BLM players. The job has no identity now. If people wanted to play a caster with nearly no cast times, they'd play Summoner.

Well no they played Pictomancer.

You still need to stay put but a lot of the cast times were reduced by 1 second... they're just making it less punishing because when it came to high-skill expression... people were rather to exclude a black mage than invite them.

That's not fair to the black mage players. You say if people wanted to play a caster... but people weren't playing Black Mage. There was a whole huge thread about it.

This is the part I don't understand. Like... is it reeeeaaally a big deal to make it a bit easier? I mean - it's not like what they did to Summoner now that you bring up Summoner.

Summoner had the most complex rotation in the game with three dots to keep up. Now it's a fischer price toy... it's like that scene from Hannibal where Lector made the FBI agent eat his own brain.
In comparison... this feels more like they were helping black mage players out. (A bit - just a bit)

Like the meme was always Black Mages don't move... I guess I never realized Black Mages REALLY don't want to move. It's like trying to get a cat to move off a thing you're working on and they start doing aggressive meows and hissing. D:

[Xapapetsu]

Hello fellow wizards! I just wanted to chime in as a new Black Mage player (as of 7.2), I am very happy with the changes. I tried black mage a few times this expansion and I just COULD NOT keep up my enochian timer or manage these procs. I'm so glad that SE has finally listened to the players and made the job more accessible and EVEN MAKING IT STRONGER (Take that artist mains). I know they nerfed leylines to 20s, but honestly it doesn't seem too bad because you never really got the full duration of it anyway (damn aoe mechanics)

I always used to default to spamming the Ice combos because I kept running out of mana using the fire combos for some reason, so I still have a ways to go before I master all the elements, but I'm super excited to see one of my favorite jobs getting the love it deserves. How do you all feel about these changes?

I won't hate your opinions on this, but I do feel they took feedback from the people who play blm on occasion not actual blm players. The core audience of blm is not happy with these changes. I personally won't be playing it until 8.0 to see how they address the major changes, but maybe a new audience will come in and main blm to keep it alive.

[Xapapetsu]

It's possible BLM being immobile was no longer possible to really design every encounter around, I am guessing. But we will see.

I personally found it to be too much effort compared to other jobs doing similar numbers, but sorry for those who really enjoyed the challenge. I'm not really sure what is supposed to keep the job unique at this point.

Fights don't need to be designed around blm, they already have 12 instant casts, 13 if you count scathe. You just need more planning and fight understanding to play blm efficiently.

[MitsukiKimura]

I want to empathize with the Black Mage playing community but I just feel like the Devs made the right call.

When people were complaining about Pictomancer. I still remember the discussions because my reaction at the time was.

Just Buff all the other Jobs, or Reduce Pictomancers potency and increase everyone elses

I was told at the time. It wasn't just about the potency but the fact Pictomancer could do so much more damage while on the move and the buff.

Player participation in Ultimates the 'ultimate' form of skill expression had the lowest participation of Black Mage ever.

I saw threads where people were saying they were not being invited to groups as a caster if they were NOT picto - A First of its kind

Up till now the consensus for the game was it's so balanced you could bring whatever you wanted. But Picto was so objectively better, not just because of damage but because of it's free movement... Why would you bring anything else and the numbers reflected that.
People TALKED about that.
People were upset they weren't invited.
People talked about more than a potency change was necessary.

So isn't this the proper change? Isn't this a huge buff for Black Mages so they can play the game?

I know nothing about Black Mages and I admit it. BUT the past threads about pictomancer don't lie. The past threads about Black Mage participation being low doesn't lie.
So they nerfed Pictomancer a bit and greatly buffed Black Mage.

Like I even empathize with 'job fantasy' but your job fantasy was ostracizing you from playing your favorite job in the highest end content. If the design for fights gets even harder as they no doubt will...
Iunno I feel like the Devs did the right thing. I was trying to relate to Black Mages honestly but it feels like this was the correct decision.

Picto was brought because it offers raid wide buff and has way more damage than black mage. There was just no justification for having a black mage when Pictomancer did everything just better. Every FRU party locked the caster slot to picto. It was just how it is.

[Altera]

Player participation in Ultimates the 'ultimate' form of skill expression had the lowest participation of Black Mage ever.

I saw threads where people were saying they were not being invited to groups as a caster if they were NOT picto - A First of its kind
.

I remember in Stormblood BLM and SAM was not welcomed in PFs or groups as the META of buff jobs was just too good to outweigh BLM/SAMs raw damage. It actually almost made me quit the game as BLM was so unwelcomed until they changed their damage. But this is something they cannot fix. They could make BLM several times more OP in damage to PCT but when a Job is hollow and unrewarding to play, then theres no point in playing it at all