Im worried for Casters evolved mode

[Leika]

Dear CU3 Team,

I’m not sure if feedback from the forum ever reaches you, but I wanted to share my two cents on what you presented in Anaheim anyway.

First of all: I think it’s really great that you’re focusing on fundamental system systems, like customization, gearing, and so on. Thank you so much for that.

Later on in the dev panel, you introduced Evolved Mode. I think it’s great that you want to specifically improve the jobs instead of just blindly streamlining everything. It seems like you, or rather, Mr. Prime, are really thinking about what makes each job unique. I also like things like consolidating the 1-2-3 combos into a single button, because it reduces unnecessary button bloat.

Using the White Mage as an example, you’ve shown that he barely has any cast time left and can practically cast spells on the fly. To be honest, that’s exactly what worries me about magical ranged jobs the most rn.

Since Endwalker, the Black Mage has had some features removed. I was never really a fan of that, but since more players are playing BLM now, it seems you were right. I’ve come to terms with it, and I still enjoy playing BLM. However, I remain very critical of one change: the shorter casting times.

To me, the Black Mage is the classic glass cannon. High damage output but low durability, and the powerful skills come with the clear drawback that you have to stand still to cast them. Without this drawback, the Black Mage would ultimately be nothing more than a Summoner or Dancer with a different skin. And that’s exactly what contradicts the job identity you’re trying to strengthen.

I think it’s perfectly fine that there are different difficulty levels within the caster role. They don’t have to be huge. But if you want to play a caster who just runs around dealing damage like a Machinist or Dancer, there’s already the Summoner for that. If you like switching between melee and ranged combat, there’s the Red Mage. And the Pictomancer also has his own limitations when he has to redraw his images....(post too long see next post below)

[Leika]

I’d like the Black Mage to just stay this static glass cannon where you have to plan when to set Ley Lines, when to pull off long casts, and when you have to keep moving with instant spells or Triple Cast because the mechanics demand it.

In short: Please don’t take that away from the Black Mage, too. The cast times are already pretty short. Please don’t turn him into this rather dull PvP version.

I also think the basic mechanics, where ice regenerates mana and fire consumes it, are a bit at risk. In PvP, it makes sense to tweak that so ice spells have different effects. But when I see that the DRG gets its PvP LB as a regular skill, it does worry me. Even though it looked pretty damn cool. ������

The fact that there are apparently hardly any damage-over-time skills left makes me think you could change that for the Black Mage as well. Right now, boss fights often boil down to just spamming Fire IV, then finishing with Flare Star and Despair, briefly regenerating mana with Ice, and starting over. If the DoT is removed as well, there’s really hardly anything left to pay attention to or optimize.

[Leika]

At the end of the day, at level 100 you’d basically only have four fire skills to spend mana, two ice skills to regenerate it, and occasionally Xenoglossy. If there’s neither a real downside nor additional things like a DoT to manage, a big part of the fun of the job is lost for me.

I know a lot of this hasn’t been fully shown yet. But based on what we’ve seen so far, it honestly makes me a bit worried. I really love the rest of the EverCold announcements and I’m more excited for the story again than I have been since Endwalker. But if you take away the Black Mage’s skill expression and its small “barriers,” there won’t be much left of it.

Especially since even melees are now getting more or at least different positionals than before, not just rear and flank anymore. Feels a bit weird, but okay.

And while giving players more choice sounds nice in theory, you know as well as I do that there’s no real freedom there. The moment there’s even a slight damage difference between the modes, Party Finder in Savage will end up with “Evolved Mode only.”

Players will always gravitate toward whatever does more damage. That’s how it’s always been, and that won’t change. So in the end, you’re basically forced to play Evolved whether you like the changes or not. And that means this “choice” isn’t really a choice after all.

It probably won’t change anything and we’ll have to wait for the Media Tour details, but I still hope at least some of this feedback is heard. Maybe I’m alone with these concerns, but thanks for reading ������ (This text is self-written, I just used an LLM to clean up the wording a bit)

[Voidmage]

I completely agree in that I am also extremely worried for casters.
Really hope that WHM is not an example of what will happen to them.

I want to keep my casttimes. BLM and SMN have already been so extremely simplified without a skill ceiling anymore that I really don't need more simplification and I truly hope that the evolved mode gives at least some semblance of job mastery back instead of taking away the last bit of it. I have already completely given up on the Enochian timer so at least don't take away the cast times.
If they get rid of the casttimes, I don't know what those jobs will have anymore actually because then you can completely delete the entire magic dps category and just mix them together with phys ranged...

That said, I am open to new things to those jobs in the vein of DRG or BRD because I think BLM and SMN are really at the end of what they have.

To put it blunt, I am not scared of the job identity in evolved mode (that will be there, I am sure) nor am I missing much from what we have now (it's a mess anyway) but I am concerned that Casters will get the WHM treatment of basically loosing what a caster should be about, namely casting spells instead of jumping and zooming around.

[Carighan]

Eh, they pretty explicitly said that they had all nukes become instant to put the focus on the heals from what they were talking while sorting WHM.

[Mecia]

But if you want to play a caster who just runs around dealing damage like a Machinist or Dancer, there’s already the Summoner for that.

It shouldnt be like this. It should instead be, if you want to run around dealing damage you go phys ranged or melee. Its like their only understanding of 'individuality' and job identity is purely visual.

Meleewalking these Meleetrails to Evermelee

[Catastrophe573]

WHM's damage skills (all 2 of them now) are instant because WHM's focus is healing. And WHM has no other spells to use for mobility anymore.

Instead, almost everything else defensive in the WHM kit now has a cast bar if it did not before. Aquaveil, Tetra, and Benediction are the only surviving weaves. At least one of the two surviving Lily spells is an instant spell. But Temperance combo (Divine Grace) consumed Swiftcast. So WHM is basically phys ranged while dealing damage, but it plants for support. Unfortunately, WHM actually providing support wasn't shown in the panel.

Since WHM still values cast bars I think BLM is safe. The equivalent would be something like:

• Scathe: 200 potency, instant cast, filler spam for movement
• Fire 1: 320 potency, 2.5s cast, optimal filler when you're planted (probably combos into Fire 2 etc)

And then whatever else the rest of the kit becomes in evolved mode.

[Azurarok]

WHM's damage skills (all 2 of them now) are instant because WHM's focus is healing. And WHM has no other spells to use for mobility anymore.

Instead, almost everything else defensive in the WHM kit now has a cast bar if it did not before. Aquaveil, Tetra, and Benediction are the only surviving weaves. At least one of the two surviving Lily spells is an instant spell. But Temperance combo (Divine Grace) consumed Swiftcast. So WHM is basically phys ranged while dealing damage, but it plants for support. Unfortunately, WHM actually providing support wasn't shown in the panel.

You really need to rewatch the footage again and not be spreading misinformation. Holy Sanctuary consumed the swiftcast, not Temperance. Temperance is still an oGCD and doesn't kick off the GCD either.

[Leonus]

Already doom and gloom. I love it, lol.

[Karuya]

It just looks weird to me that white mage's basic gcd dps is instant, but holy sanctuary(the new damage spell that gets stronger when you heal someone) isn't instant. I feel like it should be the opposite, having your base gcd with a cast would mean you still have to manage your cast time like we currently do, but having holy sanctuary instant would transform it into a "movement tool" to reward you for healing your team just like the toxikon is currently for the sage. But toxikon and holy sanctuary are not the same : toxikon can only be used after using and breaking a shield, while holy sanctuary has a 30 sec cd. 30 sec looks like a long time to me for such an important tool, so that explains why it's not instant i guess, they don't want you to use it like a movement tool, more like "ok, i've healed my team 3 times, now i can nuke to get my dps back" and that's it.

I think i get it, even though it's bizarre to have your base gcd instant. I feel it's weird that holy sanctuary has a 30 sec CD actually, maybe it would be better if this skill is at first not usable, and can only be used after healing someone, and doesn't have a CD but is only usable when you have a sanctity stack. In that case, then this skill should be instant and could be used as a movement tool to reward heals even more ? Just throwing ideas right now.