Black Mage What Need to be Changed and Improved [Discussion & Feedback]

[MorteNovella]

-Snip-

BLM will not be able to do much of anything IF CC IS NERFED TO WHERE IT SHOULD BE IN PVP, because the class design made BLM so heavily dependent on being able to hold still for pretty much ever.

Your argument about CC being nerfed "to where it should be" making Blm useless, then CC wouldn't be nerfed to where it should be. That would mean CC is too weak to allow the BLM(or other classes with CC)to provide support not just for its own set of abilities but also in support of the group.

[Pacifyer]

I am leveling BLM now and almost finished it. And guess what - I did not equip BLM crystal at all during that. Why?

Yes, why? There are no actually useful spells until maybe Flare which is at 50. Yes, Manawall is a decent one but really - can do without it. But what gets worse - I lose ability to cross-class Conjurer. WTF? Never thought the job is making you worse than your parent class. So I lose ability to Raise, Protect, Stoneskin... Yes, those are not my primary duties but they are so useful!

Compared to WHM every single skill that WHM gets is "Oh shit how I like that" - BLM skills are like "WTF is that?"

Getting to exact points.
1. Convert. It has a pretty limited use but it is generally fine. Can live with that one but can liv ejust fine without.
2. Freeze. It is so bad! It would have use if it had something from below:
- High damage. It is typical for a vortex-like spells to deal very high damage if the enemy stays within area. It would definitely have it's use in PvE for that purpose.
- Debuff increasing incoming damage. Would also be great. 15% would be fine.
- Much less cast time
- Replacing bind with heavy snare that does not break on damage.
3. Apocatastasis. It has such a limited use! Maybe a raid boss and protecting a tank... But that really is relevant to a small portion of people that actually raid AND it is an off-profile spell making BLM's hard life even harder forcing to monitor boss casts in addition to mana management and positioning. Make it a THM spell (and cross class it to healers) and give us something about destruction. Say some burst or... just something.
4. Manawall is a very useful spell. I can't argue it has many uses. The only spell which has unarguebly its place in BLM's inventory.
5. Flare. While the idea of the spell is ok, implementation fails. This one should be more straight about mana requirements. Also it should definitely have a much bigger radius!

And about radius. Again I am comparing BLM to WHM. Holy (while WHM can't spam it all the way) has such an enormous radius! Blizzard II is still ok but Fire II and Flare have such a small radius that I rarely manage to hit even 2 targets with them (and Cure III btw but that's a different story). When tank pulls a pack I expect all my AOE nukes hit all the pack but that is not the matter. Please increase AOE radius in PvE for Fire II and Flare!!

[EzriNuru]

I have BLM at 50 and I enjoy playing it. However I 100% agree that Freeze and Flare are useless and I have no idea how they were green lighted in the current state.

[HoroBoro]

As a Level 50 BM with Relic (to qualify that I've thought about Black Mage for a long time): Black Mage is fun.

1. Convert is very useful. Double Flare combo. Get yourself out of jail card. Extra burn damage on raging cycle. Get yourself killed on HM Titan you're not paying attention during stomps D:
2. Freeze - Ok - this one is bad: I don't have this on my bar.
3. Apocatastasis - I have saved parties from wipes more times then I know with this. Tank has no gear? Apocatastasis during hard mobs. Healer falls asleep or goes into full DPS mode for the lulz? Apocatastasis so he takes less damage while healer gets their head back into cure mode. Healer not surviving during some aoe? Apocatastasis and see what happens.
4. I can tank with Manawall (as long as it's on CD). Nuff said.
5. Flare: best AOE attack. Best burst damage. If mobs aren't close enough, that's tank's fault D:

[hallena]

Flare are useless

No it's not

[HinaCake]

I am leveling BLM now and almost finished it. And guess what - I did not equip BLM crystal at all during that. Why?

Yes, why? There are no actually useful spells until maybe Flare which is at 50. Yes, Manawall is a decent one but really - can do without it. But what gets worse - I lose ability to cross-class Conjurer. WTF? Never thought the job is making you worse than your parent class. So I lose ability to Raise, Protect, Stoneskin... Yes, those are not my primary duties but they are so useful!

Equipping your job crystal gives you a pretty decent stat boost.
Having Protect or Stoneskin in a party is really not necessary because your healer has either superior versions(WHM) or the same as you(SCH) and since you can't combat rez Raise also has a really limited use.
Jobs are intended for party play while classes are for exploring/playing alone, so I would advise you to equip your job crystal at least while in a dungeon.

[Hikozaemon]

I have BLM at 50 and I enjoy playing it. However I 100% agree that Freeze and Flare are useless and I have no idea how they were green lighted in the current state.

seriously??????????????? really????

because critting a crowd of enemies for 1400-2100+dmg each or outright kill plumes in garuda spawn is so useless. I can cast 3 1400-2100 flares in a row into a crowd. thats so USELESS aint it.

[Louro999]

You guys need to wake up. Flare can do some nice damage on crit yeah, and so what ? BLM is already the lowest crit rate job. You cannot spam Flare. You guys need to realize something.

Think BLM is the best AoE job ? It's not.
With my full dl with relic+1 my non-crit flare (with no buff) average 1150. I can't spam it, it wouldn't worth it, I use Firaga, Fira, Fira, Fira, Flare, Transpose, Firaga, Fira, Fira, Flare, Transpose, etc... My Fira does average 450 aoe. My flare average 1150. Both with Astral Fire III up, because without it, damages are awful.

Now guess what ? The best AoE job is WHM. With same gear than my BLM, the WHM, with all stat points into Mind, can aoe with Holy for 700 average damage. And they can spam it because it does not consume all their MP.
As BLM with no Astral Fire up, my flare average damage is ~600. And I spent all my points into Int.

Something is clearly wrong.

[NyneAlexander]

After reading this entire thread, I just wanna say that if you are casting flare when you have over 350 mp, you are doing it all wrong.

[Volgera]

Flare useless?

Casting 2x Flare with Raging Strike in CM runs, those adds survives only if they are Gods!! ¬¬