Thread: So no buff till 2.3... how about a compromise to tide us over?

Nice simple request.

Back in the 2.1 series of patches, the devs put a small "bandaid" fix on going from UI3 to AF3 using Fire 3, such that ~2/3-3/4 of the way through the cast of Fire 3, you lost your UI3 buff and any potential mana tick you may have had.
At the same time, they "synced" the UI ticks to the server clock, as opposed to them being synced to the character, occurring 3 seconds after YOU got the UI buff, regardless of the global timer.

The effect of these 2 changes was immediately felt. Everyone's dps went down, and the once smooth BLM rotations (HA! Cause 2 chance based procs is "smooth") became visibly clunky and unpleasant.

So right now, BLM is be all sane accounts dead last in its dps potential, AND the most punished by the latest endgame mechanics... And it is to stay that way for another 4-6 weeks while we await the potential ST overhaul.
I am concerned that in another 4-6 weeks while we wait for our buff/fix, BLMs will have become like the "old" Warriors... You bring them for Brayflox SRs cause they kinda suck everywhere else.

A simple solution while we anxiously wait for the promised, yet undisclosed changes, would be to undo the bandaid fixes applied to BLMs back in 2.1x, to give us back some of the dps and fluidity that we all came to love at the start of the game.
Assuming there is some record of legacy code, OR the bandaid fix on UI3->F3 can be simply be revered or just commented out, then we can (with little effort) bring back some of BLM's old dps, so we wont all be quite to restless while we wait for our adjustments.

Originally Posted by Halloween

you're too late. we all cried about this for like 2 weeks. nothing happened. apparently, a double standard is what they were going for.

lol, that made me laugh

Here's an idea.
If the original issue "was" double-dipping the cast time reduction, then instead of making said reduction built into AF3/UI3, make it a separate effect, obtained when you reach 3 stacks of AF or UI, (with a 10s duration and refreshed every time you enter AF3/UI3) and make it be consumed at 50% of the cast time of the next cross-element spell.

So I would do B3, I get UI3 AND a buff that says "your next fire element spell will have a reduced cast time". Hell, lets make it "your next fire element spell will have NO cast time", it wont affect total dps but lets you transition on the move.
Now when I use F3 (lets go with 50% cast time), it will cast in 1.75s, but at 0.875s into the cast, I lose that buff which lowered my cast time. Now if I break the cast and do F3 again, it'll start from 3.5s.
Also, using this extra buff method, if I just mash F3, I will cast my first at 1.75s, the buff will vanish at 0.875s, and my 2nd one, unless I break my first cast before 0.875s, will take the full 3.5s... Double Dipping Fixed.

Now that we have fixed the "unintended" use for the cast speed bonus, lets resync the UI ticks to the character, instead of the server, so we have a nice, consistent rotation, where you know your mana pool size, you know how many spells you can cast, and you always know exactly when you will get your next mana tick.

Fluidity RETURNS!

Okay, overall.

BLM is excellent for speed runs, which in turn are an excellent source of myth tomes which get you I90 gear. So if nothing else, you should finish leveling your BLM, or PLD/WAR, or WHM/SCH, solely for the ability to do Speed Runs to get your gear significantly faster.

BLM is also very good for fights where they can turret, and where things need to be bursted down.
T5 for example, is not a very movement heavy fight, with 2 aoe phases, as well as fast Conflags and Dreadknights that are easier to kill with a BLM than an SMN.

The theme of the new Coil, T6-9, is a lot of movement and mechanics, with rather few hard dps checks, or things that need to be bursted down quickly. (aside from the occasional center bulb in T6)
At this tier of equipment, BLM starts simply falling behind in terms of its maximum dps output, and also suffers the highest dps loss when it has to move. Frankly, BLM is not that great for T6-9, unless you spend a LOT of time "mastering" the movement and mechanics of every single fight... supposedly there's a small handful of the BLM community who has found a way to do amazing dps in T6-9... Though most of us have yet to learn their secret.
That said, by that point, you might as well level Arcanist to 50 and just run Summoner, it simply does better in these more movement heavy fights than BLM.

Still, Yoshida has stated that they will be buffing BLM. No concrete information yet, but we're all hoping that they take our overarching concerns, and some of the more reasonable suggestions into account.