Holy and Flare diminishing returns nerf

[Malevicton]

Honestly the main reason it doesn't bother me is because I'm not a fan of AoE. Mass chain pulling reduces my rotation to Fire 2 spam and Flare, or Doom Spike, or Death Blossom+ Katon or Doton depending on the situation, or Holy (and so on), and anything to discourage that is a welcome addition by me, because that's boring as hell. It's one of the reasons why I let out a sigh when I queue up as a SCH for something and have to spend my time constantly healing a tank that chain pulls and doesn't use cooldowns (I don't refuse to do this, of course, that's my job as a healer), but I could be helping a hell of a lot more if you pulled a little less and let me DPS to make things go faster.

you do know this isnt going to keep people from mass pulling, right? You also realize that even with the dps afforded by a sch using smaller pulls doesn't make up for the time gained by AoEing? Also that you not being able to aoe is contingent on the tank not using cooldowns because a sch can shadowflare+full dots+bane even on large pulls (well that might not be true anymore with the lustrate changes, but has been true up until now)?

[Edellis]

You didn't read, it's only viableonce we get to lvl 60 unless it has a secondary effect that they have kept hush hush on.

Of course it does. Why the hell would you get a skill that literally does nothing. That would be like getting transpose before Fire. Or Halone before Savage Blade. Or Freeze at all.

People need to calm down.

[Odett]

Sorry if I come off as rude, by the way, I don't mean to. It just bothers me a bit that people talk about these diminishing returns like the sky is falling as if AoE is all that BLM's are good at. It reminds me of when Titan EX first came out and a lot of people actually didn't want BLM's in their parties because of the heavy movement that fight required due to so many people couldn't play BLM while moving. We're still going to be great single target DPS, and all the single target skills we are getting are just going to strengthen that.

[Noshpan]

As someone who mained Black Mage for for several months, I have no issue regarding the diminishing returns on power-hitting AoEs such as Flare and Holy. It has been getting to the point that, while you'd see DD farm groups on the PF, they also don't want any melee dps or Summoners. And good luck forming your own farm group if you're a melee damage dealer.

[Odett]

you do know this isnt going to keep people from mass pulling, right? You also realize that even with the dps afforded by a sch using smaller pulls doesn't make up for the time gained by AoEing? Also that you not being able to aoe is contingent on the tank not using cooldowns because a sch can shadowflare+full dots+bane even on large pulls (well that might not be true anymore with the lustrate changes, but has been true up until now)?

Yeah, I know, I just don't like having my rotation simplified. Being able to AoE is entirely contingent on a tank's ability to manage their cooldowns, though, and that's where I'll disagree with you. Due to swiftcast not always being available, I sometimes find myself cancelling my Shadowflare in order to panic Lustrate (which equals a lost Bane) because the tank's HP is spiking that bad, which would not have happened if they had used Rampart, or Sentinel, or Vengeance, or Bloodbath under Unchained/+Berserk, and so on. Your ability to not only initiate, but more importantly, maintain DPS as a healer is entirely contingent on your tank's cooldown management.

This also takes group composition into account, of course, where you have to make sure that non-magic users don't get TP-starved because the group couldn't AoE something fast enough.

[ChaozK]

If It's A Buff To Astral fire buff that would be awsome

It gives +5% magic dmg.

[Yuji-Ikaido]

Yet another case of forcing their methods of fighting down our throats at the expense of relegating skills to the garbage heap. Flare still eats all of your MP, but now there's literally no incentive to cast it. White Mage has lost their only real reason to be casting Holy too, since it was already nerfed in damage a long while ago and we're not exactly known for our insane DPS.

If they don't want us using the damned things, then just remove them from the game. Don't nerf them to the point where it's meaningless to even bother. I'm looking at you, Blizzard II.

I couldn't agree with this more. The abilities as they are now are practically a waste of space. Every ability should have meaning, these did. I didn't think they were ever OP as they only helped in very particular situations mainly for repetitive grinding. Now these abilities essentially have no purpose. It's a very bad decision.

[kiraan]

Don't forget AST cards can buff our damage and DRG can increase critical strike ( which increase critical damage too now).

Try to see the whole picture!

[DreadRabbit]

snip

The skills aren't a waste of space. BLM wise you just have to shift your rotation and switch between Fire II and Flare more. And to a degree Flare was OP considering that it despite it being our mega skill, it was so easy to spam.

Yes, it takes all of your remaining MP, but there's a hidden minimum of I think 240 or 260 MP to cast Flare. That meant you could go ham on Fire II or other spells, then send out Flare. Also remember that BLM's are the MP regen kings. Hit Conversion, get just over 1k or 1.2k MP back, more Fire II and Flare. Then you can transpose and instantly get the MP to send out a Blizzard III, taking only 1 or 2 more seconds to cast Fire III and repeat the process all over again.

The whole "it costs all of your MP" thing isn't that much of a cost when you consider how quickly you get that back. That's why it was spammed in the first place. If a Summoner or the healers had a spell with that cost, then it would actually mean something because they can't get that MP back as easily. We get it in a matter of seconds. So I for one don't see the diminishing returns as a big detail. Flare can still be spammed and will still be one of our more powerful skills until we hit the level 60 skills.

[tjw]

Well, good news; Enochain has a 5% increase to magic damage dealt while active. BLM rotations for maximum deeps is going to be something to watch for now, both AoE and single target.