BLM Changes Are Fantastic. The timers were so annoying. Thanks FFXIV team ! :)

[Aysin]

The jobs damage is balanced around that in general, even if savage didn't exist. They value RDM's core utility in content extending pass savage. We've also seem them balance around this as well in the past. Content like the baldesion arsenal prevents you from raising from normal means which lets you know they looked at the idea of raising in general for that content and nerfed it to preserve it's difficulty. We also see this in criterion where certain classes have more passive stats to make up for the weird compositions that come from only having a light party since the game prior to that content didn't tune the classes for it.

They have never, not once balanced things like potencies, or made changes class design based around content you referenced such as dungeons, criterion, 24man etc. That is the topic being discussed here. Since they changed the design and strength of multiple classes (but in this case we're looking at BLM) based on what effect savage and ultimate will have on gameplay, it falls to us to resort to resource and discuss around savage and ultimate. Otherwise, we are applying too many different standards, and the discussion will not go anywhere.

You can argue the limitations on raise and strength of party buffs in content, but they never designed the class design around this content and so we treat those as a one-off exception. Otherwise after the latest chaotic raid we would see nerf to NIN and SCH, and a buff to everything else. These are not the standard in balance and should be ignored.

[ElysiumDragon]

In which case, what would be your explanation? It's the job Yoshi P plays himself, is he getting old and struggled personally with the outdated design?

Like, of course it might be a different reason, but just "so noobs can play it" isn't actually something that motives a dev (other stuff to do, no time anyways, more pressing issues). In this case it'd have to be a manager who has a personal pet peeve and hence clears the backlog and prioritizes "Make Black Mage easier to play!". Otherwise it would not happen.

It could be a host of other reasons, but none of those would be something not communicatable by marketing:

* Fight design will no longer fit <-- we are here
* Future engine changes don't work with the internal mechanics on a code level.
* Something inherently broken about the implementation.
* Upcoming full scrapping and re-impelementation of the job requires some pre-work. <-- this is just about the only reason where I can see why you'd want to not talk about it yet
* Lots of player feedback how the job is annoying to play. <-- we know they say this independent of whether it's the actual reason or not, and they did not, so that's food for thought
* A Black Mage died, once, and Yoshi P took personal offense.
* Needed to rework a job, ran out of ideas, and nobody knows where the code for Scholar is kept so they couldn't do that one no matter how much the job could use it.

There's just no reason they would not just name, tbh. Except that one. I suspect that as always the encounter designers got the first dibs on every design decision, and they said "Screw Black Mage holding us back since Shadowbringers, take cast time off or be laid off" or something to that end.

Old Summoner is absolutely a case of the second, as much as people want to deny it or argue otherwise. Having a job literally brick itself because of engine limitations is the exact sort of scenario that would necessitate a rework.

There was never a reality or timeline where Summoner made it out of Shadowbringers without a major rework, AND where encounter design would've improved as much as it has since then.

[DeathNoodles]

I'm also happy about the timer removal. BLM main for a long time. Frankly would've been happy with just adding a sound effect to it as an accessibility option but I'm not totally put off yet, I'm willing to see what 8.0 changes are like before I completely give up.

[fumofu]

I never liked BLM, as it always felt incredibly cluncky and punishing. But DT version of this job is surprisingly smooth and pleasant to play with. I totally agree with opinion of OP of this topic. These ice/fire timers were atrocious.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

Blm is feeling fun and smooth to play. With all the movement in these fights I think the changes were needed. The jobs playrate has boomed and it's fun seeing other peeps enjoying black mage.

[Carighan]

Blm is feeling fun and smooth to play. With all the movement in these fights I think the changes were needed. The jobs playrate has boomed and it's fun seeing other peeps enjoying black mage.

Yeah that's true. Unless what people were saying, BLM increase wasn't just a temporary blip. Unlike Shadowbringers and Endwalker, you actually see BLMs again every so often now. The population of those playing them in raids has increased, and seems to stay that way.

[Supersnow845]

Why would you have any reason to believe it would have changed in the short term when none of the casters have changed. Like easy overpowered job in 7.2 is still easy overpowered job in 7.3 and as a result is still generally popular. That tells us absolutely nothing

How many people will stick with the new rework when suddenly the class isn’t overpowered or something else does more damage for less work

[Mecia]

Im still depressed over BLM

[Taranok]

Yeah that's true. Unless what people were saying, BLM increase wasn't just a temporary blip. Unlike Shadowbringers and Endwalker, you actually see BLMs again every so often now. The population of those playing them in raids has increased, and seems to stay that way.

Right now, BLM is the most popular caster outright. It's actually dominating in EX5, which is weird. But considering it can delay cooldowns safely and even save ley lines, it does track. With SMN followed by RDM in a distant second and third. All 3 of those dwarfing PCT. The fact Pictomancer isn't used in EX5 is actually extremely scary to see, because the number one reason not to pull it is that it can't sit still for its 2m burst and drops its extremely short ley line window. The number 2 being that it feels atrocious. And from my own opinions and the opinions of friends, it somehow might be both of these. The class doesn't have enough movement for how the fight is designed and how players are expected to solve it.

It does harken to 2 points I've made. 1, the timers are actively holding the class back. We can see by its popularity bump that this is likely completely true. 2, the game is rapidly removing caster gameplay from the game.

While point 1 is a good point to have vindication on -- the class actually feels a lot better without timers (but could use more class to it, because the class was barely a class even with them before) the second point, that the devs hate cast bars, is extremely distressing. They need to bring back caster gameplay. Either that or just remove all cast bars, they obviously don't like them at this point. And also BLM will ultimately need something added. The class feels aggressively bad below level 90, kind of like how SMN feels bad below 86. And if this is all that BLM is to be going forwards, it truly is a hollow shell of the HW and SB iterations I fell in love with. I still hate the timers, but I love the casting.

[ViinaS]

Snip - All 3 of those dwarfing PCT. The fact Pictomancer isn't used in EX5 is actually extremely scary to see, because the number one reason not to pull it is that it can't sit still for its 2m burst and drops its extremely short ley line window. The number 2 being that it feels atrocious. And from my own opinions and the opinions of friends, it somehow might be both of these. The class doesn't have enough movement for how the fight is designed and how players are expected to solve it.

- snip

Not to mention PCT feels so shit cause using your hammer at all is a dps loss after that "amazing update". When I was told that I basically dropped PCT asap.
I liked the hammer...