[Suggestion] Blm Firestarter: Let it stack to two for uninterrupted casts

[Fendred]

The black mage's firestarter proc, which allows for an instantaneous cast of fire III, is based on fire I hits. By the time the server registers the hit for fire I, the black mage will already be casting another spell. As a result, black mages have to interrupt their spell casting in order to make use of the firestarter proc. There are multiple issues with having to do that:

1) The black mage has to deal with the global cooldown resulting from the interrupted spell, so he can't use it right away, delaying the use of the firestarter proc to instantly cast fire III.

2) The player may have been in the middle of casting blizzard III to switch over to three stacks of umbral ice to recover mana. A black mage that fails to interrupt the blizzard III cast fast enough will lose the bulk of firestarter's benefits because he will no longer have the damage boost from three stacks of astral fire. Using the proc right away would just delay his mana recovering and deal an underwhelming amount of damage.

A simple solution to this problem would be to allow firestarter to stack up to two times. So say I cast "fire I" and it gives me firestarter while I am in the middle of casting another "fire I". With the current system, if I gain firestarter again from the second cast of "fire I", I lose the last instance of the firestarter proc. In the system I'm suggesting, if the second cast of "fire I" triggers an instance of the firestarter proc, that instance of firestarter is saved, and I would then cast "fire III" twice using the firestarter procs I have saved up.

The other change I would recommend would be to alter the firestarter proc so that it also causes the next cast of Fire III to deal damage as though the player had three stacks of astral fire up in addition to its usual benefits. That way, if he goes through with a cast of Blizzard III after a firestarter proc went off, he can still gain the full spike damage from the instant cast, 0 mana Fire III that firestarter provides.

Both these changes would allow the black mage to continue his casting seemlessly without having to constantly interrupt himself every time a firestarter proc shows up.

So why am I making this suggestion?

Black mages and casters in general have a queue for casting spells that lets the player start casting his next spell before the last one is done, leading to a very smooth basic rotation of spells. Then out of nowhere comes the firestarter proc and I have to hit the breaks. Its mildly jarring and annoying, and the fact that it doesn't stack with itself at least once means that I absolutely have to interrupt my next cast to use it properly. As a black mage, I want my spell casting to flow seemlessly from one spell to the next and give me enough time to react to any procs or spell effect durations that might be coming to an end. The black mage has to plan what he is casting next, and firestarter comes out of nowhere and disrupts my casting.

[xEscaflownex]

Or, just don't interrupt your casts, IE: You cast Fire I, it lands, begin casting another Fire I (during which firestarter procs), let it finish and use proc right after. I've encountered many BLMs who have output more DPS adopting this. The current system is fine, you are just doing it wrong in my experience and others. Can you upload a video of what you are talking about? when you say you are canceling casts, I'm picturing this lol? (IE, why would you cancel when your next Fire I is about to go off anyway, being that Firestarter is instant, they will pretty much land at the exact same time, with the same GCD, as opposed to breaking them up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6FHWhmtCbY

So why am I making this suggestion?

Black mages and casters in general have a queue for casting spells that lets the player start casting his next spell before the last one is done, leading to a very smooth basic rotation of spells. Then out of nowhere comes the firestarter proc and I have to hit the breaks. Its mildly jarring and annoying, and the fact that it doesn't stack with itself at least once means that I absolutely have to interrupt my next cast to use it properly. As a black mage, I want my spell casting to flow seemlessly from one spell to the next and give me enough time to react to any procs or spell effect durations that might be coming to an end. The black mage has to plan what he is casting next, and firestarter comes out of nowhere and disrupts my casting.

This is why you DONT interrupt your cast immediately, you let your cast finish THEN use the proc, giving you a whole 2 seconds or more to plan on using it lol, and continues the seemless flow, it feels "jarring and annoying" to you because you should be doing it another way.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3FkrM0QTIU for example

[Fendred]

X, but it can proc multiple times in a row. If I cast fire I and it procced, which my computer will not register right away due to latency between the server and my location, then I will be in the middle of casting a second fire I. If that second fire I lands and procs it again, I've effectively lost the first firestarter proc. My suggestion is to create a safety net so that the black mage doesn't lose any firestarter procs that happen to get triggered back to back. My second suggestion is just to do the same thing for when a firestarter procced and he is in the middle of casting blizzard III.

[Riichi]

Have you ever considered that the rate at which the devs want you to be able to cast Fire III from firestarter is actually lower than the proc rate, knowing how the system actually works?

[Fendred]

Have you ever considered that the rate at which the devs want you to be able to cast Fire III from firestarter is actually lower than the proc rate, knowing how the system actually works?

Irrelevant. The design of the black mages abilities should not interfere with one another during gameplay, especially when they are supposed to work together.

[Riichi]

That's still it though. It's part of the design. The game isn't forcing you to use another Fire I after you get the proc; It's your own choice what you do with it. Your perception of the way it works is off.

Let's pretend the chance of a firestarter proc was 80%. You'd be using about 40% of the time (I'm no statistics expert) between Fire I casts assuming you use it after the next cast during Fire I spam. You're basically saying this is what you want, a free Fire III with an 80% proc rate to boost your dps (which would completely break BLM's). Though I'm sure with this you'd still be unhappy because you don't get to use the Firestarter proc followed by the Fire I it stemmed from. It's basically boiling down to you feel icky because you don't get to spam it ASAP, and that's just your own problem with the class design.

[Jamie28334]

I agree with Riichi, you're trying to make the most of your rotations without sacrificing a free over-powered nuke so that you can sustain high DPS without messing up that rotation because of latency or whatever.
What I tend to do is if it proc's after I have begun casting another spell is I switch my rotation, immediately cast blizz 3, followed by a re-cast of thunder3 to reset the DoT (either with swiftcast or on it's own depending on how much mana I want) then immediately go straight back into nuking with my firestarter fire3, this means the rotation has simply changed. Eventually you're going to run out of mana from your fire1 nukes anyway and have to switch it over so why not make use of the proc as it comes up instead of trying to save it somehow?

[Fendred]

I understand that you're trying to be helpful along with Richi, but you are both assuming I am not already doing what you are suggesting. Of course I do those things, but those are the situations I'm referring to that end up making me feel like I've wasted a proc. If I know that I'm not getting the most out of a firestarter proc or just lose the proc completely, as a player, stopping my current cast is actually me trying to make best use of it because that appears to be the right decision. The current mechanics are deceptive to new players.

Think of it this way: A player who plays black mage enough is going to eventually notice that firestarter can proc in the middle of casting his next spell, and that another firestarter proc can happen at the end of his next cast. To the new player, the choice is unclear, or he actually makes the wrong choice by trying to do the right thing (stops his casts and uses the proc, slowing his dps). They need to alter how these abilities work a bit like what I stated above so that the player will intuitively figure out the correct way to manage the procs.

I'm not asking for help on how to dps, I'm saying that to help out new players, the firestarter proc needs to be changed slightly.

[SeraviEdalborez]

Or new players could just ask.

[xEscaflownex]

Hmm, we were all new players once, and did not have issues learning, it's been fine for the last 5 months, it will continue to be fine.