Feast Class Feedback: Black Mage

[Koltik]

Same disclaimer as my Astro post: Before I say anything, I want to mention that according to the SE JP PvP Stream, Adrenaline Rush TV, the first round of balance changes are coming on Tuesday and we won't have S5 until around 4.1. That means there are still a couple of months of pre-season, at least, so they are taking their time balancing. They are also using forums as a main source for balance adjustments.

Personally I've played Black Mage more than anything else this season. I've gone from unranked - Platinum with BLM being played most of the way through, and played roughly 300 games this pre-season as a BLM between multiple characters.

BLM is by no means weak, however extremely easy to counter. When they are countered, they turn into a wasted slot for ranged. No other ranged suffers from this, and as such it will be very difficult for a BLM to be competitive in higher level play.

BLM is currently in a very solid position when fighting in lower ranks and against uneducated players. Unfortunately they suffer from the same Line of Sight issues as before, reliance on Thunder procs for their burst, and ease of getting interrupted in higher level play.

Black Mage suffers from these major weaknesses:

1. In higher level play, a 2 second cc turns into a 3-4 second CC if it hits right at the end of a cast, just before it finishes. Good tanks who abuse this can keep a BLM from casting for up to 6 seconds, and this doesn't even consider Line of Sight issues that BLM's also suffer from, the need to kite when being focused, or DRK's Unmend.
2. BLM's immobility makes them extremely easy to counter. Players who are aware of this abuse walls and trees to simply hide from a BLM damage since their cast times are so long. The BLM cannot chase the target as they can continue to just run around walls or trees and completely avoid BLM damage. No other class, ranged or otherwise, has this problem.
3. BLM is the only ranged class that relies on hard casts to do damage in PvP. SMN has 1 cast, which is a DoT, and only has to be done once every 15 seconds. This is the primary reason that BLM's are so easy to counter.

With that said, they also have the following strengths:

1. Good burst when they are not being controlled by the issues stated above. A BLM can do roughly 8k damage that hits within the spam of three seconds, however it requires 10+ seconds of uninterrupted casting to pull off.
2. Ability to secure kills with sleep on healer.
3. Good survivability for a ranged with well placed Aetherial Manipulation usage.

Unfortunately the problem is that one of their main strengths, and of course their primary purpose, damage, can be almost completely negated by the issues in the weaknesses. In games where BLM is ignored, they are very strong and can definitely be competitive. However that's the problem - once you hit higher level matches, a BLM can be nearly completely negated and is essentially a wasted slot.

To give an example with numbers, in games where I am ignored as BLM and people do not Line of sight I hit 250k+ in damage, with the highest being 300k over 8 minutes.

In contrast, in games where I am being CC'd by PLD/DRK, and players are Line of Sighting / tree hugging / wall hugging I typically average 160k damage with the lowest being 140k over 8 minutes.

Summoners on the other hand, when played well, can hit 250k-280k+ every game regardless of whether or not they are being focused.

To give another simple example, BLM relies on their Thunder 3 proc to do their burst rotation, as it's their only instant cast outside of Swiftcast every 30s. In order to proc Thunder 3, you need to do 6k damage to your target over the course of the DoT. This is only two Fire 4's, however you would be surprised at how often you cannot even get two Fire 4's off against the same target when the enemy team is going out of their way to avoid you, are focusing you completely, and/or cc you at the end of every DR.

Casting Thunder is a glaring tell to the target that the BLM will now be nuking them, and the target will often duck in/out behind walls to avoid the nuke follow ups. Add a tank to the mix that is stunning and silencing on demand and the BLM will have a difficult time getting that 6k damage in on their intended target. This happens on a regular basis in higher level games.

Unfortunately I am not sure what to do about a fix, just that this is a problem and will put BLM and their team at a major disadvantage in higher level games. Personally I would love to see cast times be brought down to 1s, or allow BLM to cast while moving, but I am not sure how this would play game play wise.