BLM Buffs Inc!

[Timethiuas]

I want Drain. I don't care if they make it an ability or a spell, but I would really like it as a way to get back some HP while soloing.

[Aikaal]

I want Drain. I don't care if they make it an ability or a spell, but I would really like it as a way to get back some HP while soloing.

/ac "Sleep" <t>
/ac "Physick" <me>

You shouldn't have issues... unless you don't have 4 levels in Arcanist.

[SongJoohee]

I can't see Surecast being altered to allow us to cast while moving, it completely goes against the identity of Black Mage, as much as I would like it, I would like any of these)

a) Stackable Firestarters (2, or 3) to stop so many of these constantly going to waste.

This solves the issue that's been there since 2.0, I feel up to 3 would be a good amount, you could "store" 1, and then you have the 2 "spare" that stops them going to waste. If it's up to 2, you will still have the issue of losing some, but atleast you can have 1 stored for usage during movement.

My issue with this is the identity of BLM and the potential for burst damage. BLM burst is pretty strong as it currently is, can you imagine if you have a stack of Firestarters, maybe a Thundercloud too? Any burst DPS checks would just be obliterated. Firestarter hits for what, 1,1k? If it stacks to 3, 3.3k damage in 3 GCD from Firestarts, add a Thundercloud and then a swiftcase Flare, if it was for example for a 10s burst... It's obscene and then factor in Foes Req, Potions, Raging Strikes and Crits and it just goes through the moon. I would love that, whether it's balanced or not is another question ^^

b) Add Miasma or Bio to Cross-class abilities, with possibly some changes to WHM offensive attacks to balance this out on that side.

As others have said, BLM have a spare cross-class, sure, Physick is useful now and then, but it's such a rare occasion where Physick would actually save someones life.

This solves the mana tick timing introduced in 2.1, we often have to sit and wait for a slight moment for a manatick, with another Dot, we can reapply this and thunder while waiting for the 2nd tick, and then continue with Fire. This also makes movement slightly less of an issue as we will have both Thunder and Miasma ticking while dealing with whatever makes us move.

c) Buff to Scathe. The nerf in 2.1 was pointless. I'm not even sure why they did it. I would love to see Scathe be buffed a bit and made more reliable, atm you play the lottery of Normal Potency/Normal Crit/Double Potency/Double Crit, I've seen it hit anywhere from 200-1000 damage.

d) Change Aetherial Manipulation. Change this to a teleport, to teleport us anywhere we say, rather than to a party member.

I've been making a lot of us out of this recently but having it limited to party members is very prohibitive. I can see the issues with it though, such as aiming ground targets seems to be pretty horrible on gamepads.

And I guess e) Please for the love of god either just remove, replace or make Apocatastasis useful for something other than applying on random people to see them go "Wow I've never seen this before, what does it do?"

[Yumi_umi]

@ song
If blm could teleport anywhere then wouldn't they become a rift walkerrrrr? Lol

[Kenji1134]

So any news on BLM buffs?
Yoshi?
Throw us a bone please? =)

[rex1976]

my guess is some form of levitation ability that just stays up(like shield oath or vengence). allowing casting while moving without breaking ff/mmo traditions. this however won't fix the gap between blm and smn. pre 2.2 there was a small gap between blm/smn single target dps. that gap is growing with each upgrade... pre 2.2 elite blm would push 250ish while elite smn would push 270ish. currently blm are pushing low 300's while smn are pushing low to mid 400's keeping pace with melee. bard and blm are both being left in the dust. we need sustained damage not more zerge abilities. stacking procs won't have any effect on your sustained dps. our zerge is fine as it is.

[NyneAlexander]

my guess is some form of levitation ability that just stays up(like shield oath or vengence). allowing casting while moving without breaking ff/mmo traditions. this however won't fix the gap between blm and smn. pre 2.2 there was a small gap between blm/smn single target dps. that gap is growing with each upgrade... pre 2.2 elite blm would push 250ish while elite smn would push 270ish. currently blm are pushing low 300's while smn are pushing low to mid 400's keeping pace with melee. bard and blm are both being left in the dust. we need sustained damage not more zerge abilities. stacking procs won't have any effect on your sustained dps. our zerge is fine as it is.

So I heard y'all wanna float...

[Zencurse]

So any news on BLM buffs?
Yoshi?
Throw us a bone please? =)

Well when they last buffed classes, they essentially buffed straight numbers and buff durations. Which inadvertently increased Monk dps by more than I believe they were anticipating (the SS requirement for the straight dps rotation was reduced, allowing them to stack det/crit). So likely they'll just give a potency buff to some of our abilities, perhaps revert the mana regen in UI back to its original state. This would essentially be the Black Mage analogue to the Monk/Dragoon changes made back in 2.1

[Kenji1134]

You mean like "Float"?

IDK about SMN doing 400+ on ST fights. Fights where they can multi-dot sure, but not ST fights.

Aside from adding something to address the mobility issue, it seems like BLM needs a slight overall damage boost.
Maybe bring AF3's bonus up from 180% to 200%.
Allow Firestarter AND Thundercloud to stack to 2.
and uh...
UNDO THE UI3 NERF!!!

Put a damn recast on Flare, and UNDO THE TIMING NERF that makes the rotation feel excessively clunky!
Hell, that "fix" alone knocked about 5% off every BLM's dps.

[Sleigh]

You mean like "Float"?

IDK about SMN doing 400+ on ST fights. Fights where they can multi-dot sure, but not ST fights.

Aside from adding something to address the mobility issue, it seems like BLM needs a slight overall damage boost.
Maybe bring AF3's bonus up from 180% to 200%.
Allow Firestarter AND Thundercloud to stack to 2.
and uh...
UNDO THE UI3 NERF!!!

Put a damn recast on Flare, and UNDO THE TIMING NERF that makes the rotation feel excessively clunky!
Hell, that "fix" alone knocked about 5% off every BLM's dps.

In a stand-still fight with i110 weapon and i100 average gear it's very possible to go past 400 as SMN. Our i115 weapon SMN can get up to 430~ ST DPS, so there's that. It of course doesn't translate to real fights perfectly but it doesn't lose too much.

Haven't tried BLM in i110. If/when I get i115 weapon the gap will be much clearer at this gear level though I'm 90% sure there is still quite a gap in ST DPS between BLM and SMN.