DPS frustration

[Zfz]

Perhaps you could try out the Red Mage.

BLM is very punishing compared to the RDM because of its cast time and maintaining buffs. The fact that these buffs require targets to maintain (instead of just activating them) means BLM play is deeply tied to knowing the encounters and having a feel for how fast things die, as well as positioning.

This makes the BLM extremely frustrating to play at first. I also felt the BLM to be impossible at first in 3.x when Enochian was first introduced. It took me literally weeks of doing all the daily roulettes on my BLM to perform adequately in encounters with which I'm familiar. In encounters I'm not, targets dying and boss phasing out and bad positioning that keep me moving all the time would completely obliterate my dps.

4.0 BLM is a lot better, but the basics haven't changed. So perhaps it's better to start with RDM. Once you are confident with the RDM, it's possible to judge whether you'll like the BLM. If you think the RDM is too easy and boring, then you're probably one who would like BLM and perform well with it; but if you love the RDM and don't find any reason to take up a more "busy" job, then you probably simply isn't a good match for BLM.

Personally I can do fine on the BLM but I'll never be the top 5% or even 10%, and I don't find it worth my time to practice getting there. So I'm maining the RDM, and I get more fun out of it than I would from the BLM.

[Kohdo]

BLM is not a dueling class but has great AOE dps. It's a bitch to use in trials because of the amount of movement required and BLM's long cast times, and this has become more noticeable with the new trials in Stormblood. You can mitigate this somewhat by using skills like Triplecast.

Like Mira said above, Red Mage might be a better fit for you. Faster cast times and less buffs to worry about equals a faster paced play style, but you'll find RDM's AOEs lacking in comparison with BLM.

[Fynlar]

Alright, I'll admit my words were harsh, but what I meant to say was "No job is easier than another,

Sooooooooo not true.

[Atreides]

Tanking is easy. Healing is not much harder. so WHY does it have to be so difficult to do passable dps in this game?

My warrior easily outdpses my black mage in ex trials becuase black mage has to juggle a short timer with a fairly complex rotation, while white mage can do about half as much damage by spamming ONE button!

If anyone can offer advice or help I'd appreciate it becuase I'm about ready to give up on dps in this game. definitely not the easy job it's made out to be, dps should be commended on their dedication and months of practice they put in to get that 3k+ dps.

3k+ DPS is tank DPS though, I think you mean 4k++.

But yeah if it comes to DPS I would never recommend BLM to a beginner or someone not skilled enough to get the most out of it as BLM is one of the more complicated jobs imo.

[BigRed5392]

"No job is easier than another" is innacurate, or at the very least unproveable. my own experience shows I can tank and do decent dps (for a tank) far more easily while holding aggro and not dying. This would indicate tanking is easier. It might not explain the large number of awful tanks however.

tanking is easier for you. May not be easier for another person, while someone else may think blm is the easiest job.

don't mix fact with opinion, its a common mistake.. but too common. :/

like some people think monk is easy, while other think its hard. Its all on opinion and perspective.

Look up "work to game" on youtube, their guides are helpful as well as suggestions with hotbar lay outs fir pc and controler. they helped me a ton, in tightening up my hotbar to make doing my rotations easier to do, to pump out those large deeps :P

[ElazulHP]

Well in my case I can say with certainty that I'm not good at certain dps jobs. I make an absolutely terrible Samurai for example, but I make a pretty decent Bard(my Bard DPS is higher than as SAM). I just didn't click very well with Samurai. Got suuuuuper bored with it after a while too. What i mean by this is some people are better at some things while others are better at another.

[Sylvina]

I think "3k+ dps" should be easy to ilevel 310+

OK if anyone wonders why I'm not responding to a lot of these posts is many of them border on trollish to insulting. yours was not one of those.

I can easily do 3k or more dps on a dummy, that's not hard with BLM. SMN is a little harder, my pet and self dps account for a total of roughly 3k, and my DoTs are about 1.2k. This is with item level 313-314 for BLM and SMN respectively.

Problem I have with BLM is the minute I am in actual combat and have to move all the careful planning and rotations fall apart. theres so much to pay attention to in a ex trial like susano that it becomes borderline impossible to manage a short timer on top of it all especially when ONE wrong button press can be so punishing.

[AiharaMizuki]

Problem I have with BLM is the minute I am in actual combat and have to move all the careful planning and rotations fall apart

As many have said, myself included, BLM is more than just practicing rotation on a dummy. You need to actually play a lot of BLM in said EX trials for you to actually get better. It doesn't take "months" of dedication to do at least 3k dps. From personal experience that you can verify on FFlogs, took me 16 Laskhmi kills to go from 2.6k dps to 3.8k.

my own experience shows I can tank and do decent dps (for a tank) far more easily while holding aggro and not dying. This would indicate tanking is easier.

That's subjective. Different people can and will have different opinion. There are people, several who have already made a reply on this thread, that may find tanking hard but a dps class easier.

Also there are several people pointing out that the numbers on your fflogs isn't exactly good. Holding aggro, not dying and doing mechanics is arguably the bare minimum for a tank. A good tank can do all of that while putting out big dps.

[Sylvina]

Also there are several people pointing out that the numbers on your fflogs isn't exactly good. Holding aggro, not dying and doing mechanics is arguably the bare minimum for a tank. A good tank can do all of that while putting out big dps.

If 5k is "good" for a dps and a tank is doing 2.4-2.7k dps I'd say thats "decent" at least. it's about half the dps numbers. I cant even access FFlogs and honestly dont care about it and dont think its good for the community. Parsing should be for personal improvement only.

Doing DPS is never the tank's primary job and a tank shouldn't be expected to do as much as a dps.

[ArcaviusGreyashe]

If 5k is "good" for a dps and a tank is doing 2.4-2.7k dps I'd say thats "decent" at least. it's about half the dps numbers. I cant even access FFlogs and honestly dont care about it and dont think its good for the community. Parsing should be for personal improvement only.

Doing DPS is never the tank's primary job and a tank shouldn't be expected to do as much as a dps.

I don't think FFlogs is bad, as long as the people using it use it correctly... For example, sure, your parses are rather bad, at least those that are uploaded, but that means that if I go there, I can analyze your play, and maybe help you. For example, I just went there for 5min, and I can say that you didn't refresh Storm's eye enough, but still managed to use storm's path less, which means that you didn't get enough opportunities to refill your gauge, while being an OT. You never used Uprising or your dash either.

But I don't say it because I want you to feel bad. I say it because those are things you could improve by working on it, and that's how you get better as a tank, or a DPS. I'm the Raid leader for a small roster that's not that great, clearly, but I do spend a lot of time studying logs and trying to get to the core of it, understand why some have bad DPSs while others are skyrocketing. FFlogs is a formidable tool, as long as it's not used for DPS-shaming. And that's definitely not what I'm trying to do here. But yeah, some tanks spend weeks optimizing that way, and going from 2.7k to 3.2k doesn't seem like much... but it's basically the same progression that a SAM would do going from 4.3k to 5.1k. Sure, the difference seems bigger, but if you think in percentages, it's the same thing. But for example, I'm much more critic of my tanks than I am of my DPSs.

My whole point is that : we all have different expectations, but we can all rise up by training and studying what we lack, where we're bad. That's why some people asked to have a video of you playing BLM. They want to see what you're doing, so they can correct you. You don't have to post it there, or anything, I'm not trying to shame you, although I don't always like your phrasing, and I may seem myself agressive... But eventually, what I'm trying to do, here, is helping you get better, and many are doing the same. But capture one of your tries, send the video to a friend of yours that can play it well, ask for advices... It's alright to be lacking some DPS when you're learning a class, but don't let that distract you. Don't forfeit, don't complain that the game is badly conceived, but keep trying, analyze what you're doing, what you can improve, and so on, and you'll get there. Don't worry about it, and don't be ashamed about your performances, we all started somewhere, and I still do really bad parses myself.

We musn't forget that this is a game, and although I don't like people making little of the work of others, I understand that your comment was made under a bad mood, so it doesn't matter. But please, if you really want to go BLM... Go, mate. You'll get better, by yourself, or by asking directly for help. Believe me, we're seen as a bad community because of irrelevant jerks such as myself that react impulsively, but deep down, many of us in the community want to help others.