BLM Buffs Inc!

[Tempting]

Even though everyone hates on PvP, I still hope some of the "buffs" have BLM PvP in mind.
Because my god are we terrible compared to all classes.

And a lot of reasons BLM PvP is terrible is because of same reason we lacking in PvE. That is the mobility and visual interruption range.
If you think its bad in PvE, imagine PvP because people KNOW your casting so obviously walk behind a wall or behind your character to avoid you ever casting.

[Yukio]

Give Scathe a boost...
1. A little more consistent damage - better that it does ~400 all the time than mostly doing ~200 and once in a blue moon crit for ~800
2. Have it refresh the active Astral Fire/Umbral Ice stack by ~3 seconds OR a flat damage increase for a short duration
3. Shorten the cast time slightly on Thunder spells so there is enough time for Thunder II + Scathe during Umbral Ice rotation (or just make us go with Thunder I + Scathe)

Alternatively, add a DoT with Fire III or Blizzard III so there is a consistent DPS boost that doesn't break even while we are moving.

They should also fix a personal pet peeve of mine... if a mob dies or move out of LOS while casting, please just interrupt the cast immediately so I get 1 second of my life back.

[Kenji1134]

So after multiple runs of T6 on BLM... finding a group that runs on EST time can be surprising difficult on some servers, I have come to the simple, undeniable conclusion that SMN is simply FAR superior to BLM for T6... But why?
*And why do I bring this up in the buffs thread?*

SMN is superior in this fight not only due to it's dot nature, 3 dots and Garuda... aka flying glorified dot, but because you CAN actually maintain nearly full dps for any number of short movement phases... How? Ruin 2.

As a SMN, you need to stand for 2 dots, can cast Bio on the move, and when you need to move, you can replace Ruin w/ Ruin 2.
The catch is that Ruin 2 costs nearly twice as much as Ruin, justifying it as a "higher cost mobility damaging spell". Now somebody please come in an say "Well BLM gets that via Scathe, and you can Swiftcast things on the move too!"
This is true... but Swiftcast has a 60s CD, and we need to move every 20-25 seconds. And Scathe does maybe 1/3 of our normal dps... Scathe makes us pay in damage, instead of mana, which could use a change.

Here is my suggestion.
Change Scathe to function in the following manner:
Instant Cast
Regular GCD recast time
Base mana cost of 479 (1.5x the cost of Fire 1)
- 150 Base Potency -
*Now the fun part*
Is affected by Astral Fire in the same way as other Fire spells. (AF3 = 1.8x damage, 2x mana cost)
Is not affected by Umbral Ice (lowest mana cost is 479, lowest potency is 150)
Refreshes currently active Umbral Ice or Astral Fire stack. (Note: It does not add any stacks, it just resets the duration to 10 seconds)

What will this accomplish?
Well in AF3, it'll do the same damage as Fire 1, but its instant, cant proc Firestarter, and you can only do 3 of them before you need to switch back into UI to recharge. Its a higher mana cost, less rewarding, mobile DPS MAINTENANCE tool.
In UI3, it'll do the same net damage as Blizzard 1, instant, 4.5x the mana cost, so you dont want to use it before switching into AF3, meaning you still want to STOP before you switch to the fire cycle. Again, higher cost, limited use in rotation, but mobile!
And lastly, if you are about to have your stack drop, again, due to having to run around, or you have to be devoured to get rid of Honeyglazed, etc, you can quickly throw this new Scathe to refresh your stacks.

"But wont this break pvp???"
I kinda doubt it.
This would allow a BLM to run around and deliver a total of 810 potency before having to stop and start recharging. Versus a total of 1350 potency for a typical 5 fires, plus firstarter procs. Thats a pretty big loss.

"But then they can just run around and spam Scathe under UI3 forever!"
Okay, so 150 potency per gcd, with no added effects. Its like a bard kinda chasing you, but without autoattacks, and extra crits, and dots, and everything else... Not too sure how its threatening... Hell, maybe SE can slap the same code that's on bard abilities onto this new Scathe. The farther you are from your target, the less damage Scathe does. So if you want to "properly" PVP as a BLM... aside from Sleep spam... you must either stand and cast, or you can pretend to be a lousy bard and chase people spamming a weak instant Scathe at them... *menacing pvp black mage*

[hamsteak]

i'm starting to wonder if this will be an overhaul like warrior, or a straight up buff to damage like monk and dragoon

[Kenji1134]

I just want to know what they plan to do. It has been close to 4 weeks now, give us something.

Here are the 2 big questions.

1. On a standstill dummy fight, will BLM be "competitive" with other dps classes?

This in itself could be (partially) solved by giving BLM its own -10% Magic Resistance Debuff, freeing us from Bards on ST fights, which seems to be most of the current endgame.
I do not expect a perfectly played BLM to beat a perfect played MNK or DRG on a dummy fight. But I would expect to do AT LEAST 85% of their dps, in a perfect situation, WITH a personal -10% Resistance debuff, aka NO BARD.

2. Will the issues of BLM mobility and proc reliance be addressed?

The current endgame theme seems to be "movement and mechanics". Well there are 3 classes that take a significant hit due to movement, MNK, DRG, and BLM. MNK and DRG dps takes a nosedive when they need to move out for a circular aoe. Most other repositioning mechanics can be performed with minimal dps loss.
For a BLM, if you are moving, you are not casting... or you are Scathing... ugh... And if you are not casting, your dps consists of your 35 potency Thunder ticks, amazing.
The solution is: Sprint (still not casting). Aetherial Manipulation (every 30s and still costs about half a gcd at least). Scathe (1/3 of your normal dps output and cuts into your normal rotation). Or sit on a proc, IF you get a proc, and it doesnt expire while you sit on it.

Regarding proc reliance, maybe its time for us to finally move away from this excessive RNG and invisible timing based gameplay.
You cast Fire 1 and hopefully get a Firestarter proc, that you cant use yet because waiting for it to happen is a dps loss.
You keep Thunder up, and once in a while you get a Thundercloud proc... Other times you magically get 3 Thundercloud procs in 20 seconds and your dps goes through the roof... Other times you wonder if the Thundercloud trait is broken cause its been 2 minutes since you got a proc.
And our beloved mana resource... Yeah, not sure exactly when we'll get that back. Could be right now, could be in 3 seconds, dunno. Every cycle comes with a built-in waiting game, unless you are a race that naturally has 251 Piety with a Scholar in the party... cause they said in the beginning that your race wouldnt matter, right?

There are a number of ways to address all of these issues.
- Lower the base mana cost of Fire by about 10, such that a Highlander, who has the lowest Piety of any race, can do any rotation.
- Make Firestarter a stack based mechanic with up to 2 effective procs. Think Warrior's Wrath stacks. Lets call them "Ignition" stacks, you use Fire 1, you get a stack, UP TO FOUR! If you have TWO or more stacks, you can cast Fire 3 instantly and for 0 mana.
- Change Scathe from being an upfront dps loss, via terribly low potency, to an upfront MANA loss, by removing the current trait, and giving Scathe the same potency as Fire 1 when under Astral Fire, and the same potency as Blizzard 1 when under Umbral Ice. Make the mana cost somewhere around 480-500, so its use is prohibitive, and make the mana cost double when you are in Astral Fire, again making it VERY prohibitive.
- Additionally change the trait for Scathe to set the duration of your current elemental stack to 10 sec, so we can refresh our stacks on the move if needed.
- Make the Thunder spells, which are exclusive to THM/BLM, apply the -10% magic damage resistance debuff for 30 seconds regardless of the rank of the spell used. OR, since this would increase SMN's dps as well, make an "elemental resistance debuff", so Foe's Req would still be the superior option for other classes.
- Lastly, DO SOMETHING to make Surecast ACTUALLY USEFUL for its BASE CLASS. The idea of making it just let us cast on the move seems to fall on deaf ears, so here is a simple workaround. Keep the current effect of Surecast so other classes can use it. But change the trait to add a new effect to Surecast: Your next 3 Scathes COST NO MANA.

There, all done. Copy and paste some warrior code, change a potency here and there, subtract 10 from one number, and add a small extra effect.
Now any race of BLM can do any rotation. Firestarters are never wasted, AND are predictable, so you can stock them for bursts, or extended movement, or use them as available. Movement incurs a mana and rotation penalty, though we can bypass it a little with skilled use of Surecast.

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tl;dr - All I want to know is if I should even bother sinking any more gear (and time) into my BLM, or will they still be inferior to SMN, and most other dps, in endgame raid content?

[Exstal]

...wait for the live letter?

Also, BLM should always be inferior to SMN. SMN is a far more skill based class and it's justified that it should be higher DPS. Don't throw in the towel because you refuse to stick with the class you love. There are many groups, even one who posted a video in this sub-forum, using BLM from SCoB: Turns 1-4. Play what you like, not what brings the biggest numbers.

[raelgun]

...wait for the live letter?

Also, BLM should always be inferior to SMN. SMN is a far more skill based class and it's justified that it should be higher DPS. Don't throw in the towel because you refuse to stick with the class you love. There are many groups, even one who posted a video in this sub-forum, using BLM from SCoB: Turns 1-4. Play what you like, not what brings the biggest numbers.

this is someone who played affy lock in wow and has WOL rankings, smn in this game isnt more skilled base then blm, the innate damage you do along from just dots which dont require debuffs on mobs like affy has to manage which grants dots more damage on a target, and pets just smacking away on a mob, smn just in this manner already does a lot of damage, smn in this game isnt really skilled based, just this game has a massive pool of unskilled players in general, which is what you are seeing.

[Kenji1134]

Heh. It'd be nice if they did give us some useful info during the live letter.
I dont remember how long it was between the announcement of the Warrior changes, and them actually posting the preliminary WAR changes, though I dont think there was much difference between what was originally posted and what ended up being implemented.

Either way, it has been almost 4 weeks, some dev reply, at least stating what their overall goals are, or if they at least agree with that the general playerbase believe to be the dire shortcomings of the BLM class are (mobility, proc wasting, overall dps)... would be nice.

[Kuroyasha]

You do realize E3 is right around the corner so-to-speak, as it's in less than a month. I doubt they're going to give away much b4 then, even with the live letter.

[Exstal]

Having played both, it's easier to be a good BLM than it is to be a good SMN. There's less you have to pay attention to on BLM, thus easier to perform on. I don't pull it out of nowhere >_>