Black Mage

[NoctusT]

Maybe over thinking can cause that sense of doubt.

The reason this was posted and the reason folks put this much thought into it was BECAUSE we love playing BLM.

[Lelila38]

Start of the patch cycle the rotation felt clunky, now with almost 2k Ss it finally feels good. Still it's disheartening to look at all the effort we Blm put into our class (very punishing, have to know fights very closely,...) and compare to other classes that bring more utility, decent dps and press pretty much 5 buttons to do it.
Also we have zero synergy with the team. There's nothing left that buffs magical dps, but there are several buffs for physical dps, feels unfair.

[Lastelli]

Uhmmmm. Do not forget that fflogs underestimate thunder's damage, so blm's dps is actually much closer to sam's than many people think. I wouldn't call blm damage "lackluster".

I won't argue against the other points, but blm and sam were designed to be the selfish dps with little utility. If SE were to give BLM some sort of utility, they should heavily nerf its damage.

[BlackcatChen]

Uhmmmm. Do not forget that fflogs underestimate thunder's damage, so blm's dps is actually much closer to sam's than many people think. I wouldn't call blm damage "lackluster".

I won't argue against the other points, but blm and sam were designed to be the selfish dps with little utility. If SE were to give BLM some sort of utility, they should heavily nerf its damage.

Before saying this, I suggest going up to a Striking Dummy, place Thunder III on it, and watch its ticks carefully on the floating text. You'll notice something interesting that you did not know before posting this. You are actually overestimating Thunder's DoT.

Also, other way around. They're way too close in personal damage right now to classes that DO provide raid damage buffs in its same slot. Namely MCH and SMN. BLM and SAM need vastly more personal DPS than they have now if they are to stay as "selfish dps with little utility".

[Kabooa]

As they say experience can vary by play style. ^^ BLM is still over all the best Mage wise so far for me. Maybe over thinking can cause that sense of doubt. Enjoy and play the game the way you want to ^^.

While this is fine in casual content, when pushing into Savage raids, A Black Mage brings nothing that the other casters don't, and far less than an equally geared, equally skilled Machinist/Bard. And since Machinist / Bard don't overlap each other, you might as well take the machinist / bard.

Pug groups, which a majority of the fun comes from (Since you can only do the raid content once a week otherwise), are starting to actively remove Black Mage from caster slots, and some remove caster slots periods.

[SpeckledBurd]

I will say on point 2, the power creep of Ranged Physical doesn't just impact Black Mage, it's a persistent problem that impacts not only all casters but the melee as well since every buff to a Ranged Physical is also a buff to Dragoon's Disembowel. Since Ninja is still the most valuable job in the game since it was implemented in ARR due to aggro shenanigans and Trick Attack, this basically creates a hard lock on DRG/NIN and keeps a stigma towards MNK/SAM since they're the lesser melee (unless you go Triple Melee, which comes with its own issues).

The devs really either need to kill Disembowel or actually start nerfing whichever is stronger between Bard/Machinist rather than constantly buffing the weaker one until they're both doing damage on par with jobs that offer less support, because honestly I'm sick of the comp eternally getting locked into NIN/DRG/BRD/MCH.

[Lastelli]

Before saying this, I suggest going up to a Striking Dummy, place Thunder III on it, and watch its ticks carefully on the floating text. You'll notice something interesting that you did not know before posting this. You are actually overestimating Thunder's DoT.

You mean that act overestimates thunder's dot? I was aware of that, but iirc that's why after you upload logs to fflogs blm's dps is usually 200-300 points lower than what you could see on act. However, it would seem that fflogs severely underestimates thunder's damage because it doesn't consider the enochian 5% buff, but I might be wrong of course.

I agree, however, that sam and blm dps is too close to other jobs' that also provide rDPS utility. They should have nerfed brd instead of buffing mch. And they're clearly making a huge mistake with 4.1 drg and mch buff.

[Sfia]

I will say on point 2, the power creep of Ranged Physical doesn't just impact Black Mage, it impacts all casters and by extension of making Dragoon's Disembowel obscenely overpowered, the melee as well. Since Ninja is still the most valuable job in the game since it was implemented in ARR, this basically creates a hard lock on DRG/NIN and keeps a stigma towards MNK/SAM since they're the lesser melee (unless you go Triple Melee, which comes with its own issues).

The devs really either need to kill Disembowel or actually start nerfing whichever is stronger between Bard/Machinist, because honestly I'm sick of the comp eternally getting locked into NIN/DRG/BRD/MCH.

Absolutely correct, I didn't want to delve too much into the larger issues of job balance and rather attack what was specific to BLM right now. But this issue for BLM is pretty much shared with many others.

[Galaick]

however have you maxed out your potential?

This one actually made me laugh out loud

[Bernkastelx]

Checking some info blm is doing about 200 more than smn atm. After those buffs hit live smn is going to be doing more or very close to blm and they are going to be offering raid buffs. Doesn't make sense to not buff blm.