How is BLM in new expansion?

[rulebreaker51092]

Blm is no longer fun in my opinion, and it seems to have become more of a chore to play than anything. In fights with a lot of dodge mechanics, odds are you will be last in DPS unless there is another BLM who is worse than you, a BRD, or another DPS that is just really bad at their job. BLM is way too punishing, and it feels awful when a tornado spawns on you, you lose your whole enochian rotation and you have low mana, and then you look up to see everyone still doing dps. These people who are saying it is a more rewarding experience and punishes those who can't perform their jobs are honestly just in denial or think themselves to be so elite, that they can still out dps anyone with their blm - but the numbers just don't add up. They need to: A) Make Ley Lines bigger or just give us a non-stationary SS buff, B) Increase the duration of AF and UI, and C) If we cast Blizzard 4 while enochian is on, it should go off regardless of whether or not we lose it during the cast.

[seekified]

Blm is no longer fun in my opinion, and it seems to have become more of a chore to play than anything. In fights with a lot of dodge mechanics, odds are you will be last in DPS unless there is another BLM who is worse than you, a BRD, or another DPS that is just really bad at their job. BLM is way too punishing, and it feels awful when a tornado spawns on you, you lose your whole enochian rotation and you have low mana, and then you look up to see everyone still doing dps. These people who are saying it is a more rewarding experience and punishes those who can't perform their jobs are honestly just in denial or think themselves to be so elite, that they can still out dps anyone with their blm - but the numbers just don't add up. They need to: A) Make Ley Lines bigger or just give us a non-stationary SS buff, B) Increase the duration of AF and UI, and C) If we cast Blizzard 4 while enochian is on, it should go off regardless of whether or not we lose it during the cast.

The way BLM is now is how MNK has always been to some extent and how DRG was before 2.45 and now is once again with the new buff to keep up with positionals. Playing BLM to an acceptable level was easy before - adding a bit of complexity to bring it up to par with other jobs in terms of effort/reward is not a bad thing. They've done the same with BRD and they're crying out that their job's been ruined as well simply because it's harder now. You still put out 1100 DPS sustained on dummy and probably about 800 in actual fights, which is exactly what I'm doing as DRG.

[AkkoAihara]

...

Oh...u have played a lvl 60 blm?^^
If u say the BLM is like MNK an DRG now ... pls don't forget the 2.3 sec Cast Time to refresh your 10 sec buff

But since i can't compare those classes, maybe they have also something like cast times to refresh their buffs...

[seekified]

Oh...u have played a lvl 60 blm?^^
If u say the BLM is like MNK an DRG now ... pls don't forget the 2.3 sec Cast Time to refresh your 10 sec buff

But since i can't compare those classes, maybe they have also something like cast times to refresh their buffs...

I haven't, but my best friend is a BLM and we've discussed things at length and I've read up enough on the intricacies on the job to at least have an opinon, even if I obviously haven't tested things myself.

I don't mean to be rude here, but historically many BLMs come across as lazy and adverse to challenges. They also tend to be the ones who rarely bother to level another job. Call me judging, but that's my two cents.

[HaroldSaxon]

The way BLM is now is how MNK has always been to some extent and how DRG was before 2.45 and now is once again with the new buff to keep up with positionals. Playing BLM to an acceptable level was easy before - adding a bit of complexity to bring it up to par with other jobs in terms of effort/reward is not a bad thing. They've done the same with BRD and they're crying out that their job's been ruined as well simply because it's harder now. You still put out 1100 DPS sustained on dummy and probably about 800 in actual fights, which is exactly what I'm doing as DRG.

You do realize that Monk had their Greased Lightning timer increased in 2.1 because of the same issues that are being complained about, and their damage up buff isn't required to be up for the rotation to work.

Its not ruined because its harder, there are inherant issues with a 10 second Astral Fire Timer along with a "stance" (enochain) that when refreshed gets its timer reduced. Combined with the nerf in spellspeed, the nerf with seleen, the 3.0 second cast time for Fire 3 and cast time on Fire 1), its slower to refresh your stacks than an instant cast melee attack - the rotation does not allow you to do everything as well as being as mobile as what you need to be end game fights.

Then you have the Thunderclouds being made useless, and Ley Lines being made very situational due to the amount of movement in end game fights.

But from your posts, you've made it abundantly clear that you aren't being objective here. And the fact that you think that its fine for BLM's to drop down to 800 dps in actual fight just says a lot.

[Syn-X]

I've been a BLM main since the beta on PS3 and I've stuck with it even though the rotation was easy and boring. Now its actually fun to play. I guess not many people like a challenge.

[Kenji1134]

Sigh... WTB front-loaded AF/UI effects.
Its a possible compromise.
Basically as soon as you start casting a spell, the appropriate buff is applied, along with the gcd and so forth, though you still need to finish casting to do any damage (and pay the mana cost at successful cast completion).
This would mean 2 things.

1. You can no longer time your UI3-F3 to get the 2nd UI3 tick during the first ~75% of the F3 cast. Instead the moment you hit F3, you are in AF3, no questions asked.
2. If you are forced to move at a time where you need to refresh AF3, you can simply hit F1 while moving (assuming you meet the mana cost), it will instantly refresh AF3, start the gcd, and be interrupted.
This way we would have the option of saving the AF3 condition at the cost of losing 1 gcd worth of damage... "Like Monks"

[Dajinn]

Agree on the front-loaded AF/UI effects, the whole waiting for the phases to change before you can start casting is troll-tier. This game is a little behind in some actual programmatic effects to the point where it's a little annoying.

As an aside, is there an optimal rotation yet? I don't know about these B3 > T1 openers with thunderclouds and swiftcast flare converts thrown in...

On reddit there's a rotation of basically just:

Leylines > F3 > Enochian > RS > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Sharpcast F1 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Firestarter > Convert > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Blizzard 3 > Blizzard 4 > Rinse Repeat.

I don't see where anyone has the time or the desire to throw in thunderclouds or to waste time casting a puny thunder 1 with how tight these timers are so I've been sticking with the above rotation above because it pulls 1100 on dummys in law gear. My only complaint is you cut it super close on the last F4 with raging strikes(need a little more spell speed).

[seekified]

On reddit there's a rotation of basically just:

Leylines > F3 > Enochian > RS > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Sharpcast F1 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Firestarter > Convert > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Blizzard 3 > Blizzard 4 > Rinse Repeat.

I don't see where anyone has the time or the desire to throw in thunderclouds or to waste time casting a puny thunder 1 with how tight these timers are so I've been sticking with the above rotation above because it pulls 1100 on dummys in law gear. My only complaint is you cut it super close on the last F4 with raging strikes(need a little more spell speed).

That does seem to be the ideal at the moment - he says throwing in Thunders is a straight DPS loss. Kinda odd, but hey.

[Dajinn]

BLM is just ass right now. inb4 "git gud" and "learn the fights". Having to juggle two stances is just absolute trash. I'd rather them just drop enochian altogether, make ley lines into a self-only attack speed buff like fey glow that doesn't leave a stupid ground marker, and just make fire 4 and blizzard 3 refresh astral/umbral. I keep going back and forth with the love/hate state of the class right now, I'm like it's not so bad, then I do another dungeon and I'm like fuck this garbage. I'll leave it to them to find out uses for blizzard and fire 4, maybe just make them only available on a proc from fire 3 and increase the potency to keep their dps in line.