Anyone else think caster has suffered this expansion? (hopes for the future)

[Cicero634]

What I mean from the title is just in general the fun of playing caster seems a bit absent. I have been a caster main for a little over 2 years now. I mainly put my time into playing SMN especially in Shadowbringers I almost exclusivity played that job. So the main issues at least I have with the role as a whole is just the oversimplification of it as well as SMN. There isn't a caster currently that offers a very engaging rotation with lots of things to think about in the same way old SMN did. Also yes BLM is engaging but not in the same way you are playing around the fight because you have broken legs. But you aren't playing around your resources, dots, charges, ect. Might be directed to RDM for resource management but it is very stagnant in terms of a rotation. Not many active things to really worry about.

So as I've stated I enjoyed the old SMN even if it was pain to play. It was very fun playing around all your resources and your dots. Lots of things to offer and unique ways to optimize things and sort of show off as an individual. It required a lot of thinking about the fight and your own rotation/cooldowns. And since Endwalker I had changed from SMN to playing RDM and BLM. Endwalker really took away everything unique from how SMN played there currently isn't a caster that is as clicky and engaging as old SMN was. All of the casters currently are pretty stale at least to me. This is a combination of burnout and overall just the current state of job design (2 minute). SMN in particular looked very promising but looking past all the shiny job actions it isn't too hard to play. And this is a good and a bad thing.

I really don't know what else to say other than casters really are boring this expansion. The gameplay variety from each job has really been pulled closer together more than ever. Used to be fun in this particular role to swap between the 3 but they are all so similarly feeling now. BLM is definitely the outlier but the main draw is just the dopamine of hitting big number. Puzzling out encounters to maximize casts can and has been fun. But just isn't the same as having a very well or crazily designed toolkit. Old SMN had so many issues but I only wish that they in the future will try to have a caster that has a similar feeling. I like having to pay attention to all the little things as well as the encounter it really keeps everything interesting and fun.

My first forum post let me know what you guys think if anyone actually does manage to see this. And if anyone is wondering I've now decided to switch to NIN. Sorry if this is very biased and mainly talked about SMN.

[MagiusNecros]

Meleewalker has it's name for a reason.

Doesn't help the bosses have a hitbox the size of a football field.

[VentVanitas]

EW SMN is one of the most vapidly designed jobs XIV has ever introduced and I'm tired of pretending to be nice about it. There is no thought to playing it, no planning, nothing. It brings nothing new or interesting and has no room for depth or growth- not without needing another extensive rework. Just press buttons on cooldown and watch different flavoured explosions.

What an absolute joke.

[Ggwppino]

I'm playing it in hopes that it gets reworks like the mnk in shB that made it playable. Instead a year and a few months have passed and we still have the same boredom. This was not the expansion of the smn, the only thing to hope for is in 7.0 that half a skill will not be added to replace a ruin 3 of the rotation, but the right measures will be taken. This year sqe released two big games and maybe the ff14 team was halved(?)

[elioaiko]

I think just SMN got the short end of the stick with the rework being pretty much barebones and most interesting bits saved for new expansion.

RDM feels fine tbh and they even got an ability that plays into their WHM aspect. AoE rotation still feels awful.

BLM is BLM, it remains indifferent in light of all job changes.

I also think that a lack of new caster dps is hurting the role as well. You only have 3 options.

[Shiroe]

feel a lot has been cut short, not just casters (though of the classes, they are most cut short atm, even if Smn did get a full rework for EW)
...new mounts, glamours, rewards etc. feel a bit lacklustre (can tell, Yoshi & Co. are not fully on FF14, with FF16 in the works)

[Rithy255]

Personally I really like casters, I think you have a case where they have unique upsides and unique down sides, that's way more you can say about any melee really. In terms of "meta" casters and ranged aren't really ever considered for the 4th DPS slot, due to how strong melee is currently, my main hope is they balance out so casters (and phys ranged) can perform slightly better, considering that casters such as BLM/RDM, need way more planning then melees generally speaking.

Hopes for casters in 7.0
Black mage: Just more of the same, personally i think BLM should be performing ever so slightly better then melees (spicy take I know), I really don't think the job needs to change that much.
Red mage: I'd kind of like more Utilities on RDM, Magic barrier was kind of nice, but perhaps something such as a decent healing utility or something that fits with its white mage aspects, I think also adding a little more mobility to RDM, as it can struggle a lot more then people realise, overall the Job is something I enjoy.
Summoner: I hope they make SMN more fun personally, I didn't really like old SMN but new SMN isn't really something I enjoy too much, I think it's main upside generally is how it's way more mobile then any other caster, I think they could likely just build upon what we got on ew and it will be fun for the people who like it, it's certainly a good "starting point" caster job.
New caster?: Hopefully a DOT class, with some similarities with old SMN, while being it's own thing, Hopefully more of a selfish job that doesn't give out a 120 raid buff, Maybe a nice niche Utility but if SMN/RDM keep rez, I think it would be fine without a rez, maybe something a bit more mobile then BLM/RDM but not as mobile as SMN, in general I'm really hoping we get a new Caster and a new tank in 7.0

[Keichi]

I dont know, if the caster suffering.
I dont had much problems as a BLM or Red Mage. Even the Healer are ok. I only didnt touched the smn. His skills flow feels good, from the test i maked shortly after the release. But i didnt know how the rotation should be. And ifrits dash is disturbing my flow (the same problem is with the meele phase of the Red mage).

I only think, that trojan is a caster unfriendly dungeon. To much aoe and movement forcing. And the first Boss dies to fast, for making dmg^^.
And, maybe some raid boss make to big aoe, who are hard to notice early, and create to much moving^^.

At last for the blm does it looks ok.

What i agree is, that the caster can be look boring. Nearly all things are instant explosion typ attacks, who appears by the enemy. It would be look more interessting, if they would rework the animation a little and create more attack variations.
Like with ice 2 (i think this was the one). Whe create ice spikes around the enemy with it. Wouldnt it look more interessting, if whe send the spikes to the enemy, similary to the reaper spikes attack?
Or that fire 2/3 becomes a wall of fire, that is send to the enemy. Like how a move in eso is. Or Madaras fire attack?
Or, lets some attack be a beam. Like some enemy from bozjia can do it. And, make the Paladin spells look more noticable^^.

The only problem i would see with this kind of attacks could be the area they affects.
The area could become to big/small and can make a attack to strong or weak (the original ice2 had a nice idea, but the reach was to short for using it as the first aoe).
And maybe, they could make a new thunder move for the blm.

[Tamaerl]

I feel like the current Endwalker iteration of SMN kinda stifles any potential future skill advancement with how the pets operate. I don't see how one could include other primal summons without it being awkward with this current version of summoner, which means before long they're gonna have to do yet another SMN revamp.
I think maybe the best way to tackle SMN in a way that allows for growth is to have the egis work similar to how they did before Endwalker, where they were more permanent fixtures and have the full primal forms be temporary forms the egis can take for special attacks, similar to how the SMN pets currently work in Endwalker.

As for BLM, the only thing I could think of for a future skill is maybe something like Astral Soul for some small QoL; it would function exactly like Umbral Soul except for fire phase (it could just take the place of Umbral Soul whenever you're in fire phase), and it would mostly serve a niche purpose of extending your fire phase during things like transitions where the boss suddenly becomes untargetable or you're in a dungeon going between fights
Otherwise, BLM is in a great spot tbh

[Lelila38]

As a Blm since ARR launch, being a caster has rarely felt so unrewarding as of now. We need to put in a lot more work than melee to not even be able to keep up with them dps wise. We have positioning issues, uptime issues, lack of mobility, yet melee out-dps us without even trying.
Unpopular opinion, but Blm should do more dps than melee. Blm has zero utility, which was always used as an excuse for its high dmg, but we don't do any more atm. We traded high numbers against being able to move at will and against having anything to help the party (what little we had was taken from us). That was not a problem, cause what we brought was killing the boss faster, but since we don't atm, the only reason to even bring a caster these days is the 1% buff and a tad faster lb build up.