Ty SE for BLM changes!

[DekaiTsuna88]

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.

Completely butchering a job is never a right call.

At the time, the reason why PCT was almost always picked over BLM was because PCT was objectively better in every aspects compared to BLM. It plays better too; it has the flexibility that pre-DT BLM has.
If they wanted to help current BLM players, what they could do is simply nerf PCT appropriately. Makes it so that BLM still have reasons to be played in high end contents. But they refused to do that, probably because they didn't have enough data to justify pissing the PCT player base.

So what happened in 7.2? They finally admits that PCT was simply too overpowered and they nerfed it a lot. But in the process, they also changed BLM significantly that it's essentially a different job altogether. It's marginally buffed at best, and there's nothing in the new BLM that resembles the old BLM aside from visuals. The challenge of the job is now gone. I don't think any of the old BLM players will enjoy this. Not sure who they're 'helping' with this changes to be honest.