Do you think the devs intended multi-flare blm?

[Kelg]

Yeah, let's remove the one thing blm is good at.

[Gormogon]

So, when you wrote that I was doing good while I wrote that that BLM is essentially the best AoE DPS job but not anymore when I proceeded to also argue that the job is pretty bad when it comes to single target dps or being forced to move a lot, then proceeded to repeat what I said in different words, you... wait, what was your point exactly?

I agreed with you on the part that parsers skew players perception of what's going on.

BLM have as many flaws as other jobs. While BLM don't parse HIGH on Parsers when it is single target it's simply because of how their rotation works not because they have a massive design flaw and they need a major revamp like some people react to such extremes. The moving part isn't that of a deal as people make it out to be.

I don't know why you and others go to extremes to try and make a point instead of just being rational and yes I agree but not with that part of your post.

Never in my life have I seen people care so much about losing a little DPS that they go bonkers over it.

[Pacifyer]

To OP. Multiflare is intended by devs. Actually Flare is BLM's visit card and really the only one useful spell from the job. Also have in mind that Doubleflare can only be executed once per 3 minutes (Convert cd) and Tripleflare once per 5 minuted (pot cd). This does not make any impact on gameplay aside from Brayflox farm.

I do agree that BLM has its place in the game. But there should be a place for it in endgame (read raids).
Currently there are several problems that make BLM bad for raids:
1. It suffers too much from movement/avoiding mechanics. Interrupting casts midcast without decent filler (scathe is sooo bad)
2. It has totally low single target DPS even if standing still
3. There are very few situations where BLM can show his AOE potential.
- Levi - none (maybe 1 swiftcasted flare on 2 adds if tanks stack them)
- T6 - 1 swiftcasted flare for central bulb (once or twice in a fight)
- T7 - none, all mobs are spread out to avoid melee being cleaved
- T8 - Flaring Dreads 2 times
- T9 - none, all mobs are always spread out
- Fore most of these situations SMN is much better to Bane/Enkindle
4. It totally relies on RNG on Firestarter and Thundercloud procs and those procs almost can't serve a purpose to plan on movement.
5. Firestarter and Thundercloud procs overwrite themselves if they are not being used immediately.

What I am proposing to do to counter most of these problems:
- Change both Firestarter and Thundercloud to be a stackable buff like Umbral Ice with 3 stacks.
- Increase probability on Thundercloud procs drastically. 5% is so low that you can't ever expect it to proc in time for anything. Maybe 25-30% could do the trick however it is still so much relying on luck... I expect at least 2 thundercloud procs per fire rotation.
- (optionally) increase probability of Firestarter proc to 50-60%.
- (optionally) increase duration on Firestarter and Thundercloud procs to allow situational usage of them.

As a result we get:
- Increased single target DPS. Imagine us having Thundercloud for Ice phase. There won't be a situation when say add spawns requiring immediate DPS but we are oom and can provide only our downtime fillers for it...
- Being able to plan on movement having stacked a couple of fire/thunder procs
- We are not overpowering BLM as he still can't stack all these until he stands and hardcasts Fire/Thunder

[Mardel]

@ Pacifyer

Your changes won't don't much of anything. Like you said even standing still blm damage for single target is bad. So why would stackable procs help? They will just use a GCD anyways, and there is the biggest issue of them all. When you get a fire proc it is NOT off GCD so in reality it doesn't help as much as it should.

[Pacifyer]

@ Pacifyer

Your changes won't don't much of anything. Like you said even standing still blm damage for single target is bad. So why would stackable procs help? They will just use a GCD anyways, and there is the biggest issue of them all. When you get a fire proc it is NOT off GCD so in reality it doesn't help as much as it should.

It will help. As for Firestarter this will help to:
- Avoid loss of consequent procs overwriting
- Plan on using stacks for burst/movement

As for Thundercloud:
- Increase Ice phase DPS drastically to equalize it with Fire phase
- Plan on using stacks for burst/movement
Have in mind I mentioned drastical proc rate increase.

Putting any of these procs off gcd may end up being OP in some situations especially in PvP.

And I should say - do not expect a strong buff to BLM. It is not THAT useless. But some tweaks like I mentioned might negate this gap and make it at least viable for most situations.

[Mardel]

It will help. As for Firestarter this will help to:
- Avoid loss of consequent procs overwriting
- Plan on using stacks for burst/movement

As for Thundercloud:
- Increase Ice phase DPS drastically to equalize it with Fire phase
- Plan on using stacks for burst/movement

Putting any of these procs off gcd may end up being OP in some situations especially in PvP.

If the procs still have timers then won't they just disappear overtime? Unless you what you want is essentially aetherflow for blm. If this happens then soon people wouldn't want a smn change because killing faster/sooner is always better than later.
If anything they should have changed it so:

1. thundercloud let you use "Burst" (potent strong lightning attack)
2. build fire starters to "Flare" (kind of how warrior wrath works) Not the crappy flare we have now but like a big boom, (not draining the mp pool completely).
3. Freeze should have been an Ice Sheet AoE circle like bard's fire circle. Where each "tick" gave you back some mp and did light damage to the monsters inside.
4. Made scathe a dot of sorts, maybe a baby "Foe Req." 5% extra magic damage on target
5. Apocatasis is an AoE buff around you and just helps negate magic damage in general.
6. Aetherial Manipulation takes you to the target, but decreases the cost of the next spell used in half. (Blm version of Presence of Mind)


Any of these would be a very nice way to change blm. Alternatively they could change it back to 1.23 where thunder was the big single target damage and all fire spells were AoE

[Pacifyer]

If the procs still have timers then won't they just disappear overtime? Unless you what you want is essentially aetherflow for blm. If this happens then soon people wouldn't want a smn change because killing faster/sooner is always better later.

First read what I wrote
- (optionally) increase duration on Firestarter and Thundercloud procs to allow situational usage of them.
Second, having them permanent may end up abusing them for extreme burst in some situations and will be OP. What I intend here is to allow BLM to react on boss mechanics without severe DPS loss like it is now, to increase ST DPS due to Thundercloud proc rate and remove ice phase downtime.
With these changes I expect dummy dps increase for like 15% and a severe decrease of an impact of boss mechanics. I would not ask for more.

As to your proposed changes - they are ment to do a complete rework on the class. And I am proposing to make minor changes to it with quite predictabl eresults addressing current problems.

[Ryans]

God I hate the fact that (in my personal experience) 90% bards and blackmages forget they have quelling strikes. If you insist on going all out in the first 5 seconds of battle, at least have the decency to use quelling. It isn't a sign that you are a good DD if you pull threat from the tank as so many people have gotten into their heads. It also isn't a sign that the tank is bad if you pull threat from them. There are a lot more things a tank needs to watch out for than a DD, specifically when it comes to AOE pulls and they don't need their job made harder. I make a wish every night before bed that people will eventually stop thinking everything is a race and realize that waiting 5 seconds before you pop your cooldowns make life easier for everyone.

[Ryans]

To OP. Multiflare is intended by devs. Actually Flare is BLM's visit card and really the only one useful spell from the job. Also have in mind that Doubleflare can only be executed once per 3 minutes (Convert cd) and Tripleflare once per 5 minuted (pot cd). This does not make any impact on gameplay aside from Brayflox farm.

I don't think you know what the multi-flare rotation is cause it's not what you said.

[Zakalwe]

I tear hate off tanks all the time with my flares lol

And actually you can do 3 at full power, boosted further with Raging Strikes. The timer on Raging is just long enough for 3 flares actually.

Raging>Swift+Flare>Convert>Flare>Pop Mega Ether>Flare>Raging ends. Couple it with Foe and it's quite a spectacular sight.

Usually when BLMs pull hate off of me it's because of some nice crits in a double or triple flare combined with their failure to use QS. Would that come in at the beginning of the rotation or at some other point?