Is BLM truly simple?

[Gildarts]

People need to stop throwing around parses like this as if they do that every week. They don't.

people need to stop throwing around posts like this every week. but they don't

[Zencurse]

What Mjytresz appears to be failing to realize is regardless of the difficulty of the content (as a vet of multiple MMO raids, I would indeed claim that FFXIV raiding is generally easier than most however, but again this is unimportant) there will always be a thriving theorycrafting community in most successful MMOs. This is just because a very common goal amongst a subset of the gamer community is to "be the best at what they do" or "have the highest efficiency they can reach".


Even if the content was, as you so claim, trivial in nature (and I assure you, though easier than many other MMOs I've played, FFXIV raiding is far from trivial) speed runners, number-crunchers, theorycrafters, min-maxers, all would still flock to the forums in order to find the closest to "best" way to succeed at endgame. As a final note: unless its a very bad joke, I would not take anyone whose signature is "I'm better than you, Days since Last Ban: 5" very seriously in this discussion.

However we are now off-topic again, to the OPs question: If you wish to deal about 70-80ish% of a Black Mage's potential DPS (might be more, in my experience though with other Black Mages in equiv gear its around this) then you can very easily by just following a basic rotation. This potential DPS is however much lower than the potential dps from other classes by just "following the rotation". If you want a class where you maximize both your potential dps without really getting into the nitty gritty AND also is simplistic in nature, I agree with what many others claim: look to the Bard. If you do not like the Bard? Summoner has a much higher bar in terms of access (rotation tends to be more involved) but also has a similar potential dps ratio vs. min maxers of the class once you basically "have it down". Finally, if you do wish to play Black Mage, and are worried about your "performance" against other players of similar skill level, do not worry. You will be fine. We may have had some issues prior to 2.4 but the recent buffs have brought us more in line DPS wise without the need for all the efficiency min maxing we had to do before the patch to be competitive.

As a parting note though if you do decide to play Bard: Accept the fact you are more support than DPS. Learn where and when to play Songs and play them. Nobody in a raiding situation will want a Bard that never plays songs, in fact their utility is a major factor of why they are taken in raids. In almost EVERY fight the Bard will be dealing the least damage (some high mobility fights are exceptions) but in general they will also be the most integral member, surgically providing support to any role (Melee DPS? Peon. Caster DPS? Foes. Healer need mana? Ballad.)