How is BLM in new expansion?

[Bklyn718]

My BLM is lvl 57 and all these comments are making me reconsider having a BLM as my main. Im worried that it will suck end game because of its lack of free movement.

[Twilite]

I've actually thought about dropping BLM today. Really, the drive to continue is not as strong at before. Kinda getting burned out on looking at cast timers, duration timers, looking for procs, and then add the leylines/enochian nonsense on top of all that.

[Distaste]

Simply put, 3.0 BLM is trash except on paper and dummies. I'm sure there are a handful of people out there that will be able to micromanage everything to make the 3.0 BLM work, but most people won't. This isn't a case of easy to learn hard to master, this is hard to learn impossible to use. There is too much movement going on in fights, too many factors to watch, and too much to calculate; if one thing goes wrong then everything needs rethought and adapted. The class is pure frustration and I'm not sure I will continue with it.

Ley Lines- Any AOE that makes you move reduces this "meh" status. My friends continually laugh at me as I pop it only to get targeted by AOE and have to abandon it. What this needs to be is a simple buff "able to cast while moving"
Enochian- 5% more damage is alright...but seems really underwhelming
Blizzard 4- why is this locked behind enochian? Why does this not apply umbral?
Fire 4- again why lock this behind enochian? Why doesn't it apply astral?

[AkkoAihara]

~~~snip~~~

This...so much this...

tbh i don't mind the Ley Lines and Enochian concept at all ... I kinda like it atm
In my opinion the real problem (paine in the ass) is, that fire / ice 4 are not refreshing af / ui...i think if they would also refresh af / ui, blm would be worth to play in endgame content

[ekental]

BLM now has:

• Worse AoE than SMN
• Comparable single target to SMN with none of the mobility. So in every actual encounter SMN has better single target DPS too.
• Less utility to stay in Ley Lines because Manawall nerf.

It really boils down to the DPS losses from:

• Leaving Ley Lines,1/2 the size of most trash mobs AoEs.
• losing Enochian.

Ley lines is mechanically just an unfun concept, but ignoring that it's just too small and forces BLMs to be impractically immobile for any content.

The core issue is Enochian.

• Needed to cast Fire IV/Bilzzard IV
• Maxing DPS = refreshing Enochian at the last second
• Movement during recast= Swiftcast save at best, 30 seconds of no Enochian at worst and 25%+ DPS loss for the next 30 sec. Even MNK stack recovery is better than this.
• Even if you knew every fight perfectly, there's no fine control in a BLM rotation because RNG procs, which means no fine control of Enochian refresh timing either. So either the rotation is cut short or Enochian is lost. Both are lose-lose scenarios for DPS.

It's just mind boggling. I assumed similar classes would have comparative strengths or weaknesses. Right now one is just practically better than the other in every aspect.

SE clearly does no testing in actual content with these abilities. If we go by history it'll take months of poor performance + months of "careful consideration" = +potency to a few spells (i.e. patch 2.3)

[Larin]

I'd like to mention an issue I have is the new buff icons are too similar in their color. All 3 are blueish/purple and for someone like me it is hard to tell them apart. I don't see the differences between similar tones. Enochian should have an icon with a different color. Red, yellow, green... Just pick one. Please.

[Picori]

People keep talking about area attacks but not pointing out even if SMN has some good skills now they can't just spam it like a blm can with flare.
Death flare needs 3 stacks. If waiting for a atherflow that's 60 seconds, then if pain flare used to add a stack means if I just did that that's other 30 seconds to get 3 stacks as it's a 10 second cool down each.
Enkindle is 180 seconds so can't spam that.

[ekental]

SMN ... can't just spam [skills] like a blm can with flare.

The Aoes:

• Flare: -10% per mob to -50% at the 5th mob. 30% better than Fire II by then. (Not spammable -> Ley Lines doesn't affect MP regen ticks)
• SMN dot potency: 100% to 4 mobs & 50% for additional mobs
• Pain/Death flare: No negative scaling/mob.

While a SMN has stacks and is using Dots + Painflare + Flaming Crush AoE DPS > BLM.

If 3 stacks + Aetherflow up+ Deathflare/Enkindle there's no contest.

So 1 Min of superior AoE dmg until dropoff.

The 2 Scenarios:

• Things die before you get to dropoff, more stacks for the next group & more time for Aetherflow to re-up.
• Everything burned on a big pull, where tank's HP is unsustainable. The added DPS only means a the SMN can handle a bigger pull than the BLM.

A SMN would be bad only if enough of a group survived the 1 min window.

In practice SMN AoE > BLM.

[Drakolos]

I played both classes at a very top level and I can say at 2.5 at nearly every encounter the SMN had the upper hand over the BLM. The SMN was always better if there are more than 2 targets, and that's nearly in every fight. The DPS of a SMN at Ramuh, Ifrit, Levi or King Mog due to the many targets was just incredible. Yes, there were some mana issues but not really a big deal. I saw some SMN spamming Ruin II even if they stay still and complaining about mana issues then...I have the BLM at 60 and I loves the new mechanics behind the new skills but it's just not FF14 friendly. The punishment for moving is now to huge as it was already. After many runs at fraktal I'm getting used to it at the boss fights. But it can't be that you need perfect experience of the fight to play your class proper. At the moment I can't see any reason to play a BLM over the SMN at endgame content where movement is vital. I'm maining BLM since 2.0 and its just not enjoyable anymore.

[Akiza]

SE made the Black Mage more technicall like Summoner and now all Black Mages are crying because they don't have a simple rotation and high dps.