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.

[Alym]

Snip

If you need proof, look no further than the damage buff BLM got during Second Coil because they were so far behind SMN due to all the movement; no one wanted a BLM over a SMN so we got buffed and were only then just slightly less desirable than a SMN. Also, I never heard of SMN MP being a big deal before Final Coil with the exception of possibly Turn 8. Again, SMN wasn't preferred for only two patches where Final Coil was endgame. For First and Second Coils their battle raise could actually be used (while BLM's best current utility, Apoc, was mostly useless back then), they have a lot of instant casts for movement, can DoT multiple targets, and still do damage during jumps when no one else can.

So really, I can say the same back to you: what game were you playing?

More to the point, however, it's not just about "watching timers." In a fight where a boss frequently goes invulnerable or throws out tons of AoEs, Enochian and Astral/Umbral can fall off because you cannot cast an appropriate spell to save either one unless swiftcast is up. If either of those things happen, so much DPS is lost that BLM stops being competitive. If you lose Enochian it may gone for up to 30 seconds. If Fire IV was so insanely powerful that we were really far ahead by using it and losing Enochian balanced the DPS numbers, sure, but that doesn't seem to be the case. With a perfect Enochian rotation, we're matching other DPS classes. Without it, we're far below them. This becomes a problem when it's so easy to lose Enochian or mess up the rotation because a single AoE came your way or the boss jumps/becomes invulnerable.

[Sleigh]

SMN was never preffered over BLM. In first coil, they ran out of mana much sooner than any other MP using class, forcing either massive DPS loss or a BRD to play manasong before the other classes could take full advantage of the MP regen. Additionally, if movement was required and their DoTs fell off, their DPS suffered much more than a BLM's would because DoTs were their primary form of damage. There was a long stretch where SMN simply were not allowed into any competitive content. They also didn't add much more utility than a SCH already added via Virus/E4E. Their DPS was never higher than BLM's either. I don't know which game you've been playing.

As far as "more complex because I have to watch timers now"

Seriously? Every other DPS class in the game has had to live or die by their ability to keep track of their timers. BLM can learn to live with it.

SMN was top DPS in 2.0, and none of the fights/phases sans T4 (where BLM was king) were long enough for SMN to go OoM unless your group was complete shit. SMN had Thunder, and BLM was doing about 5-10% less than 2.3 BLM, and all the melee were highly less effective than 2.1/2.45 buffs turned them into.

Then 2.1 hit and both BLM and SMN got nerfed, and BLM not only got nerfed but they got a lot more awkward while SMN became more basic; SMN still reigned supreme, especially in the 2.1 content. 2.2, BLM DPS just wasn't up to par, and the fights were exceptionally well designed for SMN (T8 the only outlier). 2.3, the damage buff to BLM finally put it at a level where it could do well, but SMN did pretty well too - it was a point where BLM/SMN were pretty well balanced IMO except for T8, and BLM had to work really hard to win in T9 due to its nature but it could do it.

2.4, the MP issues came - all fights were T8 in length and relatively BLM friendly. Once you put MP issues into the mix, SMN is a bit lower than BLM, so it became pretty bad.

Flash forward to 3.0. I have Hive weapon and I can safely say BLM does win on a dummy (barely) now, but SMN's gonna win in any dungeon, any extreme primal, every time, GG. No MP issues, extreme AoE, still mobile. BLM got both nerfed AoE, and their mechanic became one of the most sensitive to not continuously attacking in the entire game, dare I say the most sensitive of anyone. BLM is quite effective still at what it does, but holy shit does it do bad when there are mechanics, if you think BLM can stand against anyone in Bismark/Ravana extreme, you're wrong, and SMN is topping the charts.

[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.