Black mages. . . .

[Reika]

Not sure if any testing was done, but in XI Gravity/Heavy reduced the targets evasion.
I don't know if this is an effect in XIV but it's worth a mention I figured.

I dont want ice magic to be weak damaging debuffs tho.... nor any elemental attack magic. thats what the current magic system is, especially for conj actually. All their magic attacks are debuffs in some way, because they decided to strip out a lot of good spells like paralyze, blind, bind, etc and attach them onto elemental spells which was a very stupid idea. All so they can globally reduce every classes skill count to 15. but it wasn't good for thm, because there are too many magic spells they had to kill or combine which created the broken magic system in the first place.

I really wish they would release some kind of info on the new combat system (they only said it is changing again) to quell some unrest.

[Kiote]

I don't know about you guys, but I use almost all of my spells regularly throughout AV/CC speed-runs. No they're not all OMFGWTFHAXORBBQ powerful, but they all have their uses.

Thunder combo: Most damaging, and quickest to fire off. Makes sense considering that's kind of how lightning works in RL.
Blizzard/Blizzara: Blizzara sees the most use to finish off groups of near dead mobs without having to cast the slower fire spells. Entire line is for slowing down/immobilizing targets. Once again kind of ice's thing.
Fire Combo: Great AOE damage for trash mobs. Most utilized in CC for trash mobs/Princess. Set something on fire, it spreads, hence AOE.
Burst: Solid damage for a fast spell that has a relatively low MP cost. Not as strong as thundaga crits yes, but can be used to help quickly finish off bosses. So far any boss that you can use BLM on, burst comes in handy. Not the most powerful 15min, but still probably gets more use than say Dragonfire Dive or Hundred Fists.
Freeze: Amazing ability to lower enmity while still dealing fair damage.
Flare: Probably the most reliably controlled AOE in the game, adds DoT. Only downside is proximity to mobs. Not everything can be OP.

I'm sorry man, but all of those skills when used by a BLM are the exact same thing. They deal damage. That is all BLMs do. They add nothing else to the fight. Adding Enfeebles to Direct Damage Spells was the worst Design decision to date, and that includes Fatigue.

Black Mages are supposed to have powerful Nukes. Doing massive Damage in spikes is supposed to be their job. But it should not be their only viable use. Strategic enfeebles should be a part of their gameplay. Not enfeeble as a chance happening. Dark Magic should exist in this game. Yoshida said he wanted to base our Mages off the Older Final Fantasy games but he removed all of the diversity. All of the flavor spells are gone.

When it comes to fighting a Boss in this game, BLMs use 1 Combo set and, sometimes, one Ancient Magic. It is truely a sad sad Day when Straight Melees like MNK and DRG are more complex than any Mage. Especially the Mage who is supposed to have "Dark Magic".

They don't even have Drain and Aspir/Osmose...

[Leoheart]

I dont want ice magic to be weak damaging debuffs tho.... nor any elemental attack magic. thats what the current magic system is, especially for conj actually. All their magic attacks are debuffs in some way, because they decided to strip out a lot of good spells like paralyze, blind, bind, etc and attach them onto elemental spells which was a very stupid idea. All so they can globally reduce every classes skill count to 15. but it wasn't good for thm, because there are too many magic spells they had to kill or combine which created the broken magic system in the first place.

I really wish they would release some kind of info on the new combat system (they only said it is changing again) to quell some unrest.

Agreed, Ice is my favourite element too :/

[Kiote]

Agreed, Ice is my favourite element too :/

Mine too. /10char

[MoarLegion]

All I have to say about this thread is can we get some content in this game that isn't solved by just throwing more black mages at it? Its feeling the same as 11, where most content just required you to throw more BLM at it.

[KoujiGeki]

All I have to say about this thread is can we get some content in this game that isn't solved by just throwing more black mages at it? Its feeling the same as 11, where most content just required you to throw more BLM at it.

what like toau that blm completely useless?

[Reika]

All I have to say about this thread is can we get some content in this game that isn't solved by just throwing more black mages at it? Its feeling the same as 11, where most content just required you to throw more BLM at it.

that might change in AAR when everyone starts with full TP. Blm are good because they can start off bursting. no need to build up TP to cast spells. BLM is also just rediculosly easy to use. boss - thunder. trash mobs - fire. Z z z z z.


I think it was said that they are trying to get away from the whole class/job stacking thing, and I really hope they do.

[Jinrya-Geki]

that might change in AAR when everyone starts with full TP. Blm are good because they can start off bursting. no need to build up TP to cast spells. BLM is also just rediculosly easy to use. boss - thunder. trash mobs - fire. Z z z z z.


I think it was said that they are trying to get away from the whole class/job stacking thing, and I really hope they do.

That might bring up another problem. If other DDs can do the damage that black can do at the start, then why does Black Mage get penalized with lowest HP and Armor of the classes?

[Hiruke]

That might bring up another problem. If other DDs can do the damage that black can do at the start, then why does Black Mage get penalized with lowest HP and Armor of the classes?

I don't know that it's worthwhile to speculate on game balance in 2.0 since we really don't know anything about anything regarding it.

That said, I also hope they diversify BLM greatly. It's kind of sad that FF11 BLM is more interesting to play (by far) than FF14 BLM. I always assumed the current setup for mages was temporary and experimental, and probably due to the fact that you can only have X number of abilities in the current version.

It's probably not even worth it to respond to folks who think BLM is great as is, or that you're an idiot/don't know how to play BLM if you don't like it. Likely these are the same people who love playing Final Fantasy Lottery instead of a real game, where nearly all content is super easy and all the "challenge" is not quitting the game before you get the 1-2 dozen things you want that all have a 1% or less drop rate.

I don't mind elemental spells having a situational effect (I think it's kind of cool that MNK's fists all do different stuff, for example - though I hope they also expand out to all 6 elements), just not to the point it is now, where you will literally always use X spell in X situation, regardless of elemental resistance of the mob (lol... this is probably the real reason a lot of folks don't want it changed - because you have to put pretty much zero thought into this... if ur chargin ur Thun-der beamz, ur doin it rite!).

[Reika]

Yoshida said it himself in that last interview that TP will start out full in AAR. That gameplay footage showed that as well.