Black Mage

[Llugen]

We want to lock as little of our damage ceiling behind RNG as possible.

Oh? And why is that? All the other ranged classes' damage/gauge relies pretty meaningfully on procs (Bard is obvious, MCH is pretty obvious, gauge on RDM is a big deal, and if you can avoid Ruin II on SMN and instead use Ruin IV when you get it, it's quite lovely).

I see no reason for the RNG not to lie in our favor. Plus if consistency is what we're after then things like Thunder Ready and an added trait that grants a Firestarter after three consecutive Umbral Heart-using Fire IV would fit well.

[zuzu-bq]

The idea of granting a firestarter is lovely. Lowers rng dependancy, eases movement while letting us use thunderclouds more reliably and killing the duality of sharp Fire vs Thunder. There are other ways they could make it too, but I also had that same idea to tie this effect to Hearts. Remember.... BLM deals with a lot more rng than people commonly think...

[Remedi]

Well I said earlier that scathe should be reworked since by now it has been eaten away from power creep, frankly speaking from 60 onward it should at least be 200 potency base (still a big difference from F4 ofc) also it should have some other effect baseline since let's be frank it doesn't do anything for us execpt screwing us.

I have various ideas like making him extend/refresh AF/UI or beign able to proc firestarter/thundercloud while not costing any MP and tbh we do have the precedent of SE changing completely an ability like when they did it for shield swipe in HW.

Regarding F1/B1, personally I'd like for enochian to upgrade them to F4/B4 (and making so F4 procs firestarter and refreshes AF), some might say that it would make BLM rotation too simple but meh this are my 2 cents

[Tzain]

Or letting Firestarter and Thunderstorm stack their procs? Like having up to 5 firestarter procs waiting to go?
This way Sharpcast adds 1 to the stack. And double procs don't hurt as much?
Plus you could store them up for burst moments or when forced to move.

[zuzu-bq]

There were many ideas about this but most resolve around easing the keeping of stacks to help into Thundercloud use. Its a mix of QoL with a damage increase while shaving off the rng implications of BLM procs. The nature of Thundercloud and Firestarter can make Sharpcast to become a bad choise after you already used it for the proc of your choice, so fixing that while giving BLM a damage boost would be too good to be real. So good that I doubt it will happen.

[Llugen]

I like the way Aetherial Manipulation currently works because it's great to move to healers and such, but I could see that being another skill entirely. Aetherial Snap, or something. It'd be great if manipulation/BtL worked during casts, but alas.





At this point all we can really do is continue to raise awareness of the issue (promoting in particular that, of the 16 recorded groups (on everyone's favorite website) having cleared unending coil, NOT A SINGLE ONE has brought a BLM and furthermore BLM is the ONLY job that has not cleared unending coil) and pray they address it in the next live letter/patch pending. Someone brought up that there IS a precedent for overhauling skills that desperately needed work mid expansion by referencing shield swipe, I forgot about that. We can only pray, it would seem.


It would just be really fabulous if we could get some direct dev feedback. Also, I want to take a moment to say that I don't think all of my ideas are perfect, I just think having more ideas breeds having even MORE ideas, and stumbling through some bad ones can lead to some great ones. The more we collectively brainstorm the better, even if none of them are used.


Oh, to add insult to injury, someone in my FC pointed out to me yesterday that "the most iconic class of the entire FF series is laughably gimped in this game." Not sure if I should be laughing or crying.

[Remedi]

At this point all we can really do is continue to raise awareness of the issue (promoting in particular that, of the 16 recorded groups (on everyone's favorite website) having cleared unending coil, NOT A SINGLE ONE has brought a BLM and furthermore BLM is the ONLY job that has not cleared unending coil) and pray they address it in the next live letter/patch pending

However It needs to be said that, from watching the compositions, it's mostly paranoia that forbades BLm from clearing the fight since a group without NIN has cleared it, I mean the point of it probably missing the dps to clear the fight really doesn't seems to stand at this point

edit: Ofc I'm not saying that BLM is fine yadda yadda yadda or anything mind you but at this point considering all the comps that killed ultimate the only reason some1 has not killed it as a BLM is also a problem of how they are perceived by the community just like DRG and the floor tanking of them

[Llugen]

I suppose I feel like that doesn't actually make it better. If the community doesn't like the class then they aren't going to play the class, and the result is the same. It still needs addressing.

Do YOU want to try to play BLM in that movement mechanical nightmare? Just about everything comes up perfectly for SMN, why would anyone give themselves the headache?

[Galvuu]

Do YOU want to try to play BLM in that movement mechanical nightmare? Just about everything comes up perfectly for SMN, why would anyone give themselves the headache?

If I got rewarded with top tier dps, yes.
That's the fun part, having this tight and perfect plan that I can execute lovingly while most people fall flat on their asses
I genuinely like the turret thing just because of how deeply strategic the job becomes. This is the quintessential chessmaster job.

Anything that reduces rng and can also help with mobility is fine tho. Like, using 3 Umbral Hearts could reset the Sharpcast cd (buffs hearts, buffs dps, bufs mobility and has no rng all rolled into a package).
This would alleviate your woes, further play into the whole "master planner" thing we already have going on and give us a tiny buff (not sufficient in itself, but something nice).

Just a random example to illustrate where I'm coming from- less rng is good, so having tools to force/secure procs is also good (and helps with what you and others are talking about regarding mobility and whatnot).

(I feel like you and i always end up on different sides of the fence when it comes to this, although this time I'm trying to sorta meet halfway. I just hate rng that much.)

[Remedi]

I suppose I feel like that doesn't actually make it better. If the community doesn't like the class then they aren't going to play the class, and the result is the same. It still needs addressing.

Do YOU want to try to play BLM in that movement mechanical nightmare? Just about everything comes up perfectly for SMN, why would anyone give themselves the headache?

True, but I feel like it can be used against us by SE, that's why I keep saying to be very careful