How is BLM in new expansion?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Aikaal]

Andddd this is the first time sinc eI play this game SMN is funnier to play than BLM (for me at least) :3

[Urielparadox]

DrgS new stance requires timer refreshing however the positional only do damage if you miss a positional it will be a chunk of dps lost but you can still keep your stance on. Essentially it's the same as Enochin but you never have to worry about loosing it.

Anytime a boss goes immune thunder can still be used. I throw it up on the never reap boss befor he goes running around. The thunder stater procs help deal with the adds. However when theory crafting it's a dps loss and it needs some tweaking because it just doesn't work right now with balancing stances and keeping up Enochin, and manawall loss of mobility, those thunder stater procs would have been nice to keep. We already have 2 worthless spells and now we have 3. Thunder usage now requires you to know the fight well befor you can use it, and even then it's not all that useful.

[Aikaal]

Uhhhh, an immune boss won't be affect by any DoT so Thunder is useless.

[Giyari]

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

Ya know what would be awesome, if SE made the thunder spells instant cast high damaging spells that are off the GCD so you weave them into your rotation, with a reasonable cooldown.

It would make sense if the remaining BLMs choose to drop thunder alltogether.

Something like the thunder spell in 1.0 if im not mistaken, the one with stun effect.

[Kenji1134]

I like it!
Instant Thunder, with Thundercloud proc!
Instant Instant Thunder! So Instant... its already happened... 0.o

[MistyMew]

BLM needs some immediate attention.

I dont mind rotations to learn or adapt to! but they MUST design abilities to possible in the current design of move every couple seconds ...then again..and again..and one more time BEFORE theres a chance to cast yet another 3 second spell.....again. <-- now that is slightly exaggerated.

Changes are fine but then design fights to allow them to be used effectively.

Simple fix stop the ridiculous movment or change the timers slightly..(i actually like the new moves the idea of the new roatation is fun!!BUT not practical at all with the bad fight designs., thats why they need attention

It has nothing to do with a challenge its a flawed design to begin with, so fix it.