If you didn't expect the BLM changes, you've not been paying attention

[Auro_Seldaris]

I was expecting them, but I expected them by 7.0. When I saw that they kept the timer despite all the other changes, and still kept it in 7.1, it gave me hope that they valued this part of it.

But I could also see how Pictomancer had basically destroyed its competition and that Black Mage was in a position of being like a handicapped Pictomancer.

I think you can still be sad about something despite expecting it, and I think that's how most people are who played the job properly at any point.

Pictomancer should have never existed. That's the bottom line. This is the end result of the studio feeling like they HAVE to make a new job for every expansion.

[Mercury_Grey]

Pictomancer should have never existed. That's the bottom line. This is the end result of the studio feeling like they HAVE to make a new job for every expansion.

They should of made the dot mage instead. Or a range dps and called it corsair

[Volgia]

Pictomancer should have never existed. That's the bottom line. This is the end result of the studio feeling like they HAVE to make a new job for every expansion.

It should have been Blitzballer...

[LinaAkayomi]

I don't see how these changes are bad
2s cast times means you can slidecast more efficiently
Triplecast now becomes a mobility tool
Not worrying about a clock ticking down means you don't get bricked out of your cast if you miss it by <1s (And also helps if your ping is high, or if you lagspike)
You could argue that you lose "class fantasy" but IMO, this is closer to what Black Mage was in other single player FF games: A turret that casts F4 every turn until it runs out of mana

[Auro_Seldaris]

I don't see how these changes are bad
2s cast times means you can slidecast more efficiently
Triplecast now becomes a mobility tool
Not worrying about a clock ticking down means you don't get bricked out of your cast if you miss it by <1s (And also helps if your ping is high, or if you lagspike)
You could argue that you lose "class fantasy" but IMO, this is closer to what Black Mage was in other single player FF games: A turret that casts F4 every turn until it runs out of mana

The whole point of the job's design was... I trade movement for big d**k damage. All they've done is add movement tools becuase the only way they know to make fights harder is to make them increasingly-elaborate DDR mechanics.

Also, if I may bring up something here.... does anyone remember exactly why SE didn't like the nonstandard Paradox rotation in the first place?

Because it traded minor DPS optimization losses for heavily increased mobility. It was developed as a counter to increased demand for BLM to move during fights, and guess what? SE hated it becuase it "went against the class fantasy" of being a turret caster, and made that known.

Ironically, they're essentially going back on their "Decision" about BLM mobility with this job rework. The blatant hypocrisy of it is hilarious, actually.
"We didn't like that thing you were doing, until we realized we're too bad at game design to make the fights more intense without making you move more, so now we have to add all these movement tools and turn it right back into the thing we said we didn't like."

[Hallarem]

It should have been Blitzballer...

Seeing what a janky badly coded mess Fallguys was, I can only imagine how anything even resembling to Blitzball would work in this game lol

[Hallarem]

Also if simplifying the heck out of jobs is their whole mentality, can we get 1-2-3 combos slotted into one button already to lessen bloat? Instead of bricking complexity down from jobs.

[Sunhwapark]

Triplecast now becomes a mobility tool

You already could use it for that, or instead you can use the many instant spells BLM can use that can cover movement/using aetherial manipulation/between the lines. Have you not looked at the job for the past 2 expansions or something ?

[Basteala]

I am sure that now that Yoshi is a PCT, BLM will get the healer treatment

Honestly without the timers it kinda already feels a bit like that.

Having played some of the content in 7.2 so far, I will say the casttime change isn't as bad as I thought it'd be...in current content. The boss casts seem faster now that the maximum average cast time has been reduced.

But without the timer you're basically just Glarespamming Fire IV, interspersed with your Paradox, Despair, Flare Star finisher. That's an issue.

[Auro_Seldaris]

Honestly without the timers it kinda already feels a bit like that.

Having played some of the content in 7.2 so far, I will say the casttime change isn't as bad as I thought it'd be...in current content. The boss casts seem faster now that the maximum average cast time has been reduced.

But without the timer you're basically just Glarespamming Fire IV, interspersed with your Paradox, Despair, Flare Star finisher. That's an issue.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fanta...ck-mage-rework
This article confirms what I've been suspecting for a while now. That their much-vaunted "improved encounter design" is literally nothing more than "make the fight faster".

The result is a twofold rework: various actions have lower cooldowns, and the Astral Fire and Umbral Ice statuses “will no longer expire.” This is a result of the fact that “future battle design may cause difficulty with casting spells,” implying that upcoming instances may focus more on fast-paced fights that don’t give you a lot of downtime to channel long cooldown spells

So there... as I have long suspected, they have neither the competence or the talent to actually innovate the battle design, they just fell back on "make it go faster". Which means "go fuck yourself casters, it is what it is now."