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

[Carighan]

I don’t know why you find it so surprising that the increased popularity “seemed to stick around”. I mean the only change they did in 7.3 is nerf PCT again.

Because like others said, usually blips in popularity from simplifications tend to only last for a short time. See Summoner, who is nowadays only popular on new encounters in numbers, since it's so mobile and hence you can pay more attention the new mechs while you're learning. Just surprised it worked out that way. Mind you like I said before I feel the changes are a good thing, if for quite different reasons than other players commending them feel that way (I feel both pre- and post-changes BLM is badly designed, so the new one is better entirely by virtue of being less quantity of the bad design). I just expected it'd flare up big time, then drop down again as players go back to Picto, especially now that Hammer is fixed, since while the output of Picto is lower, it's a supremely easier and more consistent job to play. No rezz like Summoner and not remotely as mobile, but also higher output and more involved gameplay. Just surprised me. /shrug

[Supersnow845]

“See SMN”

Yeah a class who’s “blip” was an expansion long

BLM was simplified a patch ago

[RenkoBernkastel]

"See SMN"

SMN was by far the most played caster through all of Endwalker and only got shafted because PCT did more damage on release than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, and PCT only got replaced because Hammer was broken and BLM got simplified while still pulling bigger numbers.
We have very different definitions of "a short time."

[Aelin_Ashryver]

While easier jobs have higher playrate I don't think as many people as some are thinking would stick to smth like smn just cause it was easy. If a job bores you to tears you're not gonna play it. I think the more average player is less interested in the fflogs ranking on dps than others. In average gameplay, like normal raids and trials blm is seeing far more playrate and it has stayed that way for a while now. The ones who hopped on to try and found it not for them would have dipped already. If you are the kinda player who rerolls to whatever is meta then yea, but honestly who cares about those people. They would play a turd if it got them more dps.

[Supersnow845]

That still leaves the question of why SMN’s playerbase crashed and burned and why we shouldn’t believe that BLM will do the same for no long term benefit

SMN’s 6.0 popularity was more stable than BLM’s current popularity (it lasted all the way to 7.0), so why would we believe BLM is going to stay consistently popular when SMN didn’t

[CidHeiral]

In average gameplay, like normal raids and trials blm is seeing far more playrate and it has stayed that way for a while now.

Every job does not need to be equally popular. It is good for the game to have jobs that are niche. As explained earlier in the thread, you are losing more than you gain by turning every job into a bland soup.

[Metricasc]

That still leaves the question of why SMN’s playerbase crashed and burned and why we shouldn’t believe that BLM will do the same for no long term benefit

SMN’s 6.0 popularity was more stable than BLM’s current popularity (it lasted all the way to 7.0), so why would we believe BLM is going to stay consistently popular when SMN didn’t

Put it simply, new class in the same role happened. and this is generally consistent among each expansion. PCT also released in a state where it isn't much harder to play than SMN and also very strong overall (to the point that they had to add more aggro gen to tanks for AoE and also had to make a rare nerf). the effects for picto also appealed to a lot of the same people that flocked to summoner post 6.0, paired with the rather disappointing nature of SMN's 7.0 changes. So naturally, people moved to the new class.

BLM by comparison outside of 7.0 -7.1 had often been fairly consistently played as a caster simply also because it was strong in many cases and had easy to follow fundamentals that made the class. while the current changes made the skill floor of BLM much lower, it also came at the cost of reducing the skill ceiling of the class simply from removing the timers and making the cast times for fire much shorter than before.

overall, when there are changes made to classes that are more than changing the numbers, a lot of the time it is because the play rates for the class is overall very low (see: pre 5.0 MCH, pre 6.0 SMN, 6.0-6.3 PLD, MNK, AST)

[Supersnow845]

Yeah so that just circles back to my point

If all it took for SMN’s “we are fixing its popularity” rework to come crashing down is another caster or even a change in the caster meta why does anyone believe that BLM’s popularity change will stick

[Mesarthim]

I only moved to BLM because PCT didn't really feel that great to me (and being yet another cookie cutter 2 minute job). I formerly played RDM but got tired of simply doing less damage by virtue of being a RDM. BLM does substantially more damage for less effort so I hung up the rapier for the time being (from 4.0 all the way to 7.2 launch). PCT kit also felt very backloaded to me since both rainbow drip and star prism are over 90, making the lower levels feel kinda dull.

Me playing BLM was not on my bingo card when this expansion launched. Got tired of my only perk being able to scoop people off the floor. They can take care of themselves now.

[Shiroe]

why simplify?.. same reason they made DT "woke" & androgynous.., loud activist tourists, who complain about difficult jobs?
....
that said, fights were getting borderline too difficult / annoying for BLM... Do believe future fight designs have less restrains with the new BLM
....