If anything, Water should be the only element Black Mages should never receive in FFXIV. Water in the lore is synonymous with healing and protection - as devout practitioners of havoc, Black Mages should feel mental pressure for even thinking about using Water to function as an offensive ability.

I really don't see a reason to remove elemental nukes from this iteration of a White Mage, especially given their lore background in conjunction with conjurers. Black Mages focus on the ethereal elements while White Mages focus on the foundation elements - you can't build or provide aid with fire, lightning or ice.

The main problem here isn't the fact that Black Mage has only three elements to control - it's the fact that in those three elements, frequently used spells aren't common. The only real offensively damaging spell from the ice element was Freeze - the rest were cast into being debuff-centric. Yes, it would be an issue about that, seeing as there was no class that functioned as debuffs and dots.

But we're getting arcanist. A class that has been emphasised on debuffing and dots. Who knows, maybe all those debuffs will be removed, and in place, offensive levels of spells will increase. We saw that already with CNJ if you paid attention in the alpha videos - Stone lost the magic evasion down debuff, but it's the hardest hitting spell out of Stone, Aero and Water.

Right now we don't know how having arcanist will change things regarding the magic side of combat. Even without it, I see no plausible reason for the removal of elements from the CNJ/WHM's branch of abilities, considering the lore, as the branch has always been shown as a practitioner of the worship of elementals, which are spiritual manifestations of ELEMENTS. They aren't practitioners of the divine - there is no cause for divine intervention in a forest which is supported by elements.

That's not to say that I don't want to see elements return as they are - energy infused with elements that actually do damage rather than status effects. But that's more a problem with how the abilities themselves were shaped to be after reform, not the class/job itself. Fix the spells first, which they seem to be already doing. If anything, I'm looking forward to seeing the classic approach to a Black Mage (primary fire thunder and ice) and a new twist to a White Mage (becoming one and protecting the forests and life).