Thread: Ideas to Improve The Black Mage (for 4.2 and beyond!)

I think it would be nice if Fire didn't consume umbral hearts. I find the most restrictive part of a BLM rotation is the fire phase with umbral hearts. If you are forced to move at any time after entering Astral fire and you don't have instant cast cooldowns available, you do not have enough time to cast all 3 Fire IV's with umbral hearts and are forced to waste one of the hearts on a fire to maintain AF. It would be a nice QoL improvement to be able to cast fire freely without wasting hearts to maintain AF.

Originally Posted by Rathael

I think it would be nice if Fire didn't consume umbral hearts. I find the most restrictive part of a BLM rotation is the fire phase with umbral hearts. If you are forced to move at any time after entering Astral fire and you don't have instant cast cooldowns available, you do not have enough time to cast all 3 Fire IV's with umbral hearts and are forced to waste one of the hearts on a fire to maintain AF. It would be a nice QoL improvement to be able to cast fire freely without wasting hearts to maintain AF.

At base Spellspeed you've 10.9 Sceconds to perform the first half of the Fire Phase. Astral Fire is 13s Yes you've time. If you're struggling consider changing what you're doing and how you move. Sharpcast can be used to let you Fire earlier and have a Firestarter, Triple and Swift can be used if you think you've to move too much.

Originally Posted by zuzu-bq

At base Spellspeed you've 10.9 Sceconds to perform the first half of the Fire Phase. Astral Fire is 13s Yes you've time. If you're struggling consider changing what you're doing and how you move. Sharpcast can be used to let you Fire earlier and have a Firestarter, Triple and Swift can be used if you think you've to move too much.

I may not be positioning with absolute optimal positioning all the time, but even then 2.4 seconds error margin feels unforgiving. There are many mechanics that demand you move for longer than 2 seconds.

I'd also feel more relaxed if AF maintenance and moving DPS were separate concerns. I would like to be able to choose when I want to DPS on the move, rather than it being dictated to me by AF. This still requires optimal decision making about when to use Swift and Triple cast.

2.4s Error Margin is a whole GCD, specially for BLM that tend to stack SpellSpeed, this starts to be longer than a GCD. While I think its a shame they tightened the error margin from Heavensward to Stormblood, making the rotation actually harder to perform (unless you struggled with old Enochian). I don't think this is by any mean hard to pull off unless you don't want to practice. When the window for mistakes is as big as a GCD, no this by no means require optimal play. Just try a bit harder and you'll pull it off.

The movement is whole point of moving is AF maintenance though. The two things are combined and you've to find solutions for it as a BLM. If you don't enjoy this you should probably rethink if you like the job as a whole. Sometimes people force themselves to play a job they truly don't like just because they think the asthetics are nice. Instead of pleading for the game to adapt itself for you, adpat yourself for the game.

I have a slightly more conservative suggestion, for just a slight adjustment that’s probably a bit more likely to actually happen than most things in this thread.

One glaring issue I can see with BLM (besides turretting not being compatible with a lot of raid mechanics) is that Leylines only increases spell/cooldown speed by 15%.
If we compare this to the Ninja, which gets a similar 15% speed increase that it can get off every 30 seconds or so, but doesn’t have the requirement to stay in one spot to get that bonus, it’s clear BLM has a serious disadvantage.
I think the effect of Leylines should be buffed, perhaps with a 20%-25% speed increase instead. Plus it could perhaps increase the countdown for AF/UI from 13 to say 16 seconds. So as long as you started an elemental phase when you were in your Leylines, you’d have a few extra seconds, making it easier to keep up Enochian when forced to move for mechanics.

cont...

In addition, to provide some party utility, I think Leylines should get an upgrade in the high 60’s where party members also get a 10%-15% spell/cooldown speed increase when in your Leylines. This would encourage BLM’s to stick with the other mages and to better position their Leylines for party support. This would stick BLM in a good supportive mage role without giving it anything lore breaking like a raise.

I don’t know if this would be quite enough to get it in the meta, but at least I wouldn’t feel like I’m putting all this effort into staying in my Leylines and taking hits for practically nothing…

Part of BLM's identity in recent times is that its core spell, Fire 4, is not on the GCD. I enjoy that personally.

Originally Posted by EllieShadeflare

Personally, I'd disagree, due to the fact that Enochian's new function punishes slow cast times, but... you do you, I suppose. At least this is a more polite post than the post you made in the other topic.

You can disagree all you want, its a core part of the classes design and is perfectly functional for competent players.