Easy Black Mage improvements!!!

[StouterTaru]

1 - You don't understand the former issue or its fix. The issue was that each B4 would reset the timer 5 seconds less than last, as it does now. However, using Enochain while it was still up was the same as casting B4. Since the patch you always get 30 seconds from the ability

2 - Unrealistic

3 - 15/30 seconds is unrealistic, but I could see them upping them to 12 seconds

4 - Flare nerf wasn't that huge, but it was pretty pointless

5 - Useless skills are useless, I'm fine with them not taking up space on my hotbars. And I use lethargy and aetherial manipulation frequently.

[Kenji1134]

Well Monks just got a duration and 2.36% net damage increase... So I do not see why it would be so unreasonable for BLM to get a buff duration increase to the same 15s?

Some argue that the reason Monks got the increase was that the buff is applied at the start of the gcd, so it is "effectively" reduced by the duration of 1 gcd... BLM would LOVE to have that problem. =P
BLM has the reverse problem. Buffs are applied at the end of the gcd/cast, and IF you fail to finish the cast before the buff falls off, you are screwed, we are all aware of this.

You know, back in the day Yoshida said that BLM was his main... I get the feeling he switched over to DRG for HW. =)

[Ferth]

You misunderstand the fix they applied to enochian. It applies to the ability itself, not the time increase from blizzard 4.

Before the fix if you used enochian while it was still up it would only refresh the duration to the next tier. So if you used enochian, refreshed the timer with blizzard to 25 then again with blizzard to 20 then again with blizzard to 15, then with enochian you'd be stuck at 10 seconds on enochian but a full minute in the recast.

Now in that same situation enochian will renew to 30 seconds whenever the actual ability is used, but when refreshed with blizzard 4 the duration reduces as expected. If every blizzard 4 refreshed it to 30 seconds blms would be nerfed pretty quick.

That being said, I would like to see fire iv activate firestarter, and freeze repurposed to be a strong single target ice attack with a cool down if we have a lot of time on enochian but no more mp for fire spells.

I agree that the nerf to flare was poorly thought out, especially when paired with all the buffs to aoe damage that summoner got. I think the real answer to blm's aoe is to drastically reduce the tp cost of aoe skills on other classes. Drg in certain situations can pump out a ridiculous amount of aoe damage they are just severely penalized afterward if they don't have time to recover. Same for
Monks. And their aoe abilities are not strong enough to warrant the restrictive cost of use.

I don't want them to change atherial manipulation, though I'd like to see the nerf to mana wall reverted, even if it just absorbed one hit it would be more useful than it is now.

I'd like to see lethargy be more useful, sleep also, but I think that would require a drastic shift in the development dynamic. Right now they clearly don't want to balance difficult content for debuffs. Until they do these abilities will largely be useless beyond open world content.

[Aphotic]

To bypass the character limit, just edit your original post. Then you can fit everything in one.

Thank you so much, I don't post on the forums much, this will be used next time.

[Aphotic]

You know, back in the day Yoshida said that BLM was his main... I get the feeling he switched over to DRG for HW. =)

I do agree with you there, I believe he did, similar to many who also did this expansion. Still he could really show us some love, since he use to wear the black.

[Aphotic]

Thank you all for your opinions, others not so much :P I did understand the previous problems before 3.05, I guess I over hoped and maybe in the same moment misread the actual text of the enochian adjustment. However even though, It wouldn't be too outrageous to have them rework or to change how enochian is applied and maintained. Namely the constant buff without timers.

[StouterTaru]

Some argue that the reason Monks got the increase was that the buff is applied at the start of the gcd, so it is "effectively" reduced by the duration of 1 gcd... BLM would LOVE to have that problem. =P

Start of the GCD or end of it comes out the same either way. The reason is that monks take 9 GCD to build their buff and 3 to refresh it. BLM takes 1.4 GCD to build it and 1 GCD to refresh it.

[Mindclaw]

1. As already mentioned, it's working as intended.
2. It would be too OP.
3. Should the timer be increased to 12 sec or more you could juggle the stacks with transpose, could help the class, could make it OP, not sure.
4. Can't have highest ranged single target AND aoe.
5. All classes have useless skills. And just because you can't use some of them doesn't mean nobody can, Atherial Manipulation is great utility, for example it allows you to ignore some aoe and just teleport to you group. And both shields absorb what they should (Manawall can save you ass in A1S).

[Heavensword]

5. Most other classes have a minimal of these "useless spells" but we have way too many.

... you do realize there is still something called "PvP" in this game, right? All the aforementioned skills like Sleep, Freeze, Surecast are there to lock down your targets as you set up to burst them down with your PvP action+Rotation. AM also do wonders to help kite melees off your back.

The points I do agree with are that both AF and UI3 stack timers are in a very awkward place right now. It feels like the 10sec timer is left over from developer's laziness in planning and just trying to shoehorn pre-60 timers into Enochian mechanic. I know this has been suggested before, but simply increasing AF and UI timers to 12 sec each will smooth out a lot of the clunk that is limiting BLMs right now.

Either that, or amend the system so that the server checks for qualifiers for F4/B3 AT THE START OF THE CAST instead of requiring UI and Eno to be active for the entire duration of the castbar.

[Phoenicia]

5. I would also like to see some modification of our other talents/spells. We rarely utilize or have need for most of our other spells.

"You" rarely utilize those spells, they're not useless.

I will agree with you that Freeze was a bad joke by SE and Sleep is useless. Surecast... Has its uses if you know big AoE damage that would interrupt you is incoming I guess?

But Aetherial Manipulation? That's the best thing since sliced bread! It helps you "move" while minimizing movement so you can continue casting.

Manawall/Ward are the second best thing since sliced bread! (After Aetherial Manipulation of course!) They prevent enough damage on many mechanics so that they don't kill you outright.

PLD cannot survive the fourth tank buster in A1S without Apocastasis because it would be down to Rampart. And ANY tank buster that the PLD/WAR receive Apoc on they will love you for it. Alexander Savage is full on magic damage tank killers and Apocastasis helps a LOT in filling the gaps on the tanks' (specially PLD) CDs.

SMN didn't get a repurpose on any of its abilities/spells, they got a rename. That's whole different thing. Tri-disaster (new) is a whole new ability, not the same old spell (renamed Tri-Bind) that bound 8 targets. The old spell is still as useless as it has always been.

Also, One-Ilm Punch and Haymaker said hi.