The destruction of BLM

[Supersnow845]

Amigo you are level 100 now. The idea that it would take you the same time to cast Fire IV at level 60 vs at 100 is laughable.
With that said, the cast time changes should have been a trait that you slowly acquired as you leveled up like Greased Lightning

That’s just stupid. If I didn’t want to cast I’d play a physical ranged. The lack of movement and the channeling conveys power. There is a reason why almost all melee’s more powerful attack are GCD’s. Because something that takes time conveys stronger power. Like with PCT the CYMK spells “feel” more powerful than the FGBH spells and that’s because they have longer cast times

Removing cast times leaves you with the impotent mess that is modern SMN

[BelegErkhten]

That’s just stupid. If I didn’t want to cast I’d play a physical ranged. The lack of movement and the channeling conveys power. There is a reason why almost all melee’s more powerful attack are GCD’s. Because something that takes time conveys stronger power. Like with PCT the CYMK spells “feel” more powerful than the FGBH spells and that’s because they have longer cast times

Removing cast times leaves you with the impotent mess that is modern SMN

You still have cast times on like 80% of your spells, they just aren't longer than your GCD anymore so you no longer clip by 0.1 seconds on every cast.
Are you trying to tell me that Foul doesn't feel like a nuke of void magic because its an instant cast now? Are you playing with your own effects off or something?

[Supersnow845]

You still have cast times on like 80% of your spells, they just aren't longer than your GCD anymore so you no longer clip by 0.1 seconds on every cast.
Are you trying to tell me that Foul doesn't feel like a nuke of void magic because its an instant cast now? Are you playing with your own effects off or something?

I mean yes foul (and by extension xeno) feels less potent than fire 4. Instant ya never feel like they have a huge amount of weight behind them (I’ll extend that to star prism and the hammer combo which while funny is still rather weightless)

Regardless the cast times still being there but being shorter doesn’t really relate to your original point because the cast being longer than the recast is actually better for slidecasting than even cast and recast when it comes to the garbage NetCode (which I agree punishes the casters worse than any other role) (also that longer cast wasn’t clipping and was factored into damage, it didn’t feel messy like clipping)

To me it just feels way less potent as a job but it’s fair if you don’t agree

[PyurBlue]

I REFUSE To believe that people actually like standing still

As a BLM there were often times when I was the least stationary person in the party. BLM hasn't been remotely static since SB.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Plays a spellcaster. Also doesn't like casting spells. Amazingly thought, eh?

Speaking of netcode, maybe that's what they should fix first rather than trying to make "SMN but selfish melee dps-powerful".

Can't wait for them to buff one of the casters through the roof again then suddenly a lot these players jumps ship to that one caster.

[Rithy255]

Plays a spellcaster. Also doesn't like casting spells. Amazingly thought, eh?

Speaking of netcode, maybe that's what they should fix first rather than trying to make "SMN but selfish melee dps-powerful".

Can't wait for them to buff one of the casters through the roof again then suddenly a lot these players jumps ship to that one caster.

I always found it odd people who want to play a caster but don't want to cast... Its like complaining I don't wanna tank so we shouldn't manage aggro... or I don't wanna heal so remove any importance to healing... oh wait that's exactly what happened roles are being made to people who didn't even show interest in them in the first place.

One day we will all be apart of the same grand design, dancing together as everyone is a physical ranged with one damage button.

[GrizzlyTank]

For quite some time BLM had like 4 failure states that broke the flow of their combat.

Now, ironically the only thing that breaks the flow is the gcd being longer than cast times.

[GrizzlyTank]

I always found it odd people who want to play a caster but don't want to cast... Its like complaining I don't wanna tank so we shouldn't manage aggro... or I don't wanna heal so remove any importance to healing... oh wait that's exactly what happened roles are being made to people who didn't even show interest in them in the first place.

One day we will all be apart of the same grand design, dancing together as everyone is a physical ranged with one damage button.

Tanking depends on the game. In old mmos the game was more about spreadsheets and simple classes, simple mechanics. So tanks role were pretty much only about maintaining that aggro. And dps maintain the damage without getting too much aggro.

Now with the more modern games, the gameplay tends to be more fast paced, with both positioning and sustain skills. Combined with DPS being expected to maintain a consistent rotation throughout the entire encounter. This inadvertently makes it so that the old kind of aggro system, is no longer feasible resulting in the more binary one we have now. Since if dps were to have to maintain their aggro as well it would completely break their own rotations and the flow of the combat, while also breaking the enemies positioning that the tank is currently managing.

To say, modern rotations feel horrible whenever aggro "matters" since you as a dps gets straight up punished for playing your class and the game properly because the tank may or may not be undergeared or something. And as all know, it's frustrating when a fight have too many instances where you can't hit the boss because he's playing some animation. Aggro is like that, but much worse.

[PyurBlue]

To say, modern rotations feel horrible whenever aggro "matters" since you as a dps gets straight up punished for playing your class and the game properly because the tank may or may not be undergeared or something. And as all know, it's frustrating when a fight have too many instances where you can't hit the boss because he's playing some animation. Aggro is like that, but much worse.

In a way yes, but at the same time the concept of aggro could be adjusted and made much better. I never thought of pressing diversion every occasionally as interesting, but what if something like NIN's hide was an aggro tool? If you gained enmity you could use hide and reposition to force your aggressor to lose track of you. RDM could get its old bind back and combine it with displacement to create an evasion tool. SMN could get some kind of tank summon back and use it for defensive purposes. I feel like there is some room for interesting gameplay here.

[Quuoooote]

It's actually not as bad as I thought. In retrospect, it makes you realize the timers were just an annoyance.

No offense, but this line of thinking is exactly what's wrong with job design these days. Of course when you remove the timers they'll feel like an annoyance in retrospect; the job has objectively become "less annoying" due to the streamlining and simplification it got. We could theoretically keep trimming down every little annoyance in the entire game until we're left with nothing.

Damage oGCDs? Keeping the cooldowns rolling and avoiding drift is such an unnecessary exercise in tedium. Who really struggles with doing that? Why not remove them entirely and fold the potency per second into the basic 1-2-3 filler?

DoTs? How antiquated. Press once every 30 seconds and forget. Yawn. Such an annoyance. Let's remove them and buff the 1-2-3 filler rotation to compensate.

While we're at it, doing a 1-2-3 rotation is pretty dull too. We should really condense it down to a single button like PvP does!

I realize I'm being hyperbolic, but seriously, where does this line of thought end? Where do we draw the line between clunky/janky/annoying and actual gameplay that stimulates your brain?

I also logged in to try out the new Black Mage changes, and I largely felt the same way that you did. It was the most carefree experience I'd ever had on the job. The timers really did feel like a holdover, because why wouldn't they? It's strictly easier and smoother to play the job right now. You don't even have to think. But that's also exactly the problem; anyone who enjoyed the job because it was stimulating, even in casual content, has nothing. Anyone who enjoyed the job because it demanded on-the-fly decision making to try to greed or mitigate a failstate has nothing—Enochian will never fall off. Anyone who enjoyed the game feel of an actually long cast bar has nothing. There is no job left in the game to cater to these players' needs or desires, but at least they won't be annoyed any more. Thank goodness.

It's a really damning indictment of the state of the game when the prevailing opinion I see nowadays is that Bard is the hardest/most engaging job left, when even that job is a pale shadow of its former self. I'm glad that people can enjoy the Black Mage rework. I also hope these same people can understand what is wrong with it on a fundamental game design level, and why people are justifiably upset about it.