Black Mage

[Silver-Strider]

Bad Idea
Turn Ley Lines into a toggle ability that reduces BLM damage by 10% (adjust number to whatever for balance) but front loads all their abilities to be instant cast while Ley Lines is active. That way, they can still attack on the move while losing a little bit of their damage.

[Tzain]

I think they should just make all spells cost zero MP in Umbral, or they should fix it so the MP regeneration doesn't rely on the server tick. Also, 10% probably isn't enough unless there is a mobility adjustment as well.

I read this and started to take a closer look at how the Umbral/Astral mechanic currently works and how it affects and is affected by MP costs.
Then I started to compare it, what I recall from 2.0, and how my Red Mage plays currently (in regards to mp usage) and realized that there are some very deep seated problems that need be addressed in a core mechanic of the job.
As a result, I'm stepping out of BLM theory crafting as I now think I have gone beyond 'Fixes' and into 'Fundamental Overhaul'.

[Llugen]

That's basically where I've been at for most of this thread, to be honest. Asking my entire party to accommodate me playing BLM and work around me is just too much, plus playing RDM/SMN is way more convenient with the ability to raise and handle mechanics like a champion, not to mention the inclusion of party buffs.

This is a problem with the design of the job ("turret" DPS) as far as I'm concerned, at this point. Really all I want to see is less punishment for needing to handle mechanics outside of swiftcast/triplecast, and the best way to do that is better/more procs and other instant casts (Fire/Blizzard, Foul, Fire IV starter, etc).

BLM does not need to be a movement machine like flipping SMN during Dreadwyrm Trance, but the punishment for having to move in an emergency is a MASSIVE margin over the other caster jobs.


Edit: Hell, give the job Astral/Umbral IV, making it so that in Astral the costs of fire spells are not doubled and spells consuming Umbral Hearts cost zero MP (as well as increased fire damage to 2x), and in Umbral, your entire MP bar is regained with a single server tick and nullifies all MP costs to zero.

[zuzu-bq]

BLM been fighting against MP ticks since ARR days.

[Tzain]

That's basically where I've been at for most of this thread, to be honest.


Edit: Hell, give the job Astral/Umbral IV, making it so that in Astral the costs of fire spells are not doubled and spells consuming Umbral Hearts cost zero MP (as well as increased fire damage to 2x), and in Umbral, your entire MP bar is regained with a single server tick and nullifies all MP costs to zero.

You know, if we admit that Umbral/Astral mp management is 'too big to fail' then maybe we can match the spells to the playstyle (Blizz -> Thunder -> Back to fire).

What if Blizz spells were DoTs?
And Thunder spells were insta-cast DD? (helps with mobility issues)
Change Thunderstorm to 'Coldsnap'.

So you'd cast Blizz 1/3 on a single target (or Blizz II on a group) to kick off the phase, thunder a few times to get to full mp, switch to Astral and Firespam. Blizz DOT starts to run low, you shift back, refresh the dot, get some mp back and boom goes the fire spell again.

And if you really want to get weird....
have fire spells proc a stack of Coldsnap, have Blizz Dots proc a Stack of Firestarter.

This way you have an positive incentive to go to Umbral, to use up the coldsnap procs and to refresh the dots to generate firestarters. (assuming we go with a 'proc stack' mechanic, which I get the feeling people would enjoy)

Darn it....I thought I was done with the theorycrafting!

[Llugen]

Interesting, certainly, but that sounds like an expansion-worthy overhaul to me, particularly since it would need to be balanced at lower levels as well and fundamentally change the way the class has worked even from level 1. BLM needs help immediately, so I don't see this being viable for, say, 4.2.

[Tzain]

Interesting, certainly, but that sounds like an expansion-worthy overhaul to me, particularly since it would need to be balanced at lower levels as well and fundamentally change the way the class has worked even from level 1. BLM needs help immediately, so I don't see this being viable for, say, 4.2.

You think?
I figured it was fairly drop-in-ready since, from a mechanics standpoint, I'm really just taking the thunder line and renaming it Blizzard and taking Scathe and renaming it Thunder.

[Llugen]

An entirely new stance with procs happening in opposite stances? That's how I read it, anyway

[Tzain]

An entirely new stance with procs happening in opposite stances? That's how I read it, anyway

I must not have explained it properly. Let me try again.

You cast Blizz III, you apply a Single Target DOT to the enemy. Each tick of that DoT has a chance to proc Firestarter. You are in Umbral III state.
You cast Fire III, you are now in Astral III state.
You cast Fire I, it has a chance to proc Cold Snap, which acts the same as Thunderstorm did for the Thunder Dots (do full DOT damage instantly).
The Blizzard DoT procs, you get a Firestarter.
You cast Fire III.
You cast Fire I, it procs Cold snap. You cast Blizz III to instantly use the cold snap, doing full DOT damage and putting you into umbral III. (*)

Like i said, the opposite stance procs is the odd part, but that's just to give some flow to the style and to get around that annoying thing where you proc firestarter after queuing Fire I already.

*this part feels clunky. Assuming that procs stack, I might require Umbral phase to consume Cold snap, so it becomes a sort of 'burst damage phase' and 'MP regen phase' if you have a few stacks from the fire spam. Plus, there's no real reason not to allow all fire spells to proc and not just fire I.
Hopefully that makes more sense?

[Shiroe]

can someone for the next live letter or in any other (soon?) interview, ask Yoshi when.t.f. and how.t.f. is he going to adresse the blm issues pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, and become our blm saviour...
(otherwise, blm are going to keep on dying out)