My Analysis of BLM's issues and why it is currently the worst DPS class.

[Cynfael]

So in some other words the perception and reality of the job elude some players. Simple answer, rotations and how you manage your spells has a huge impact. BLM is not that far behind in terms of DPS. It's more of how people rotate and how fast they can adjust to a situation. While BLM is a stationary character to cast it must stand and be able to avoid aoes. BLM in my personal experience it seems pretty well in par as long as you know your rations, proper geared, and positioning ( how often you get interrupted ). By the way there are several threads that have touched on your analysis already. Overall player experience varies.

All of that is BLM 101. The gist of recent discussions is that you can play extremely well as BLM in top-tier content and still not be on par with your DPS peers.

[ManuelBravo]

All of that is BLM 101. The gist of recent discussions is that you can play extremely well as BLM in top-tier content and still not be on par with your DPS peers.

The needs to BLM DPS involve as little interruptions as possible to be effective. It would make sense that DPS would not be on par with others in a situation where interruptions will constantly be happening. It's common sense hence back to the basics which are the fundamentals to everything. Again all of these has been covered in old BLM threads.

[Kabooa]

The needs to BLM DPS involve as little interruptions as possible to be effective. It would make sense that DPS would not be on par with others in a situation where interruptions will constantly be happening.

You are blatantly wrong in your assessment. A black mage at near perfect play is at best 3rd to 4th on personal damage, and easily drops down to 7-9th once you factor in the Raid DPS contributions the other jobs bring.

About the only jobs they bring more damage total than is Red Mage (Who brings unparalleled recovery options) and Bard (Who is only slightly under all things considered, but brings MP song and defensive party options)

Savage Omega 1-4 is currently around 97-99% uptime for Black Mage, with minimal if no use of Scathe, so the capability to deal even more damage there is minimal. Even in Unbinding Coil, the few bits of data we have on them shows Black Mage at an effective 95-96% if we use machinist / Bard (Jobs that will always be capable of hitting the bosses) rate of 77-79% compared to black mage at 74-76.

[HaroldSaxon]

The main issue is Disembowel. All things being equal I'm usually at the top of pars in the content I do on my BLM, but generally the other people in the content I do are not top tier or really caring so much about going all out like I do.

The issues lies in synergy.

Let's pretend that BLM is top DPS in all content by straight up numbers. But bring in the synergy that BRD/MCH/NIN/DRG have and they all buff each others damage beyond what 4 BLMs performing at the same level could do even though their personal DPS numbers might be the highest.

I don't want to see that synergy removed to make BLM more viable, I would like BLM to be boosted to compensate.

All in all I agree with everything you said.

The thing is, even if Disembowel is removed, BLM still wouldn't be anywhere near the meta. It would require a DPS boost to BLM at the bare minimum for it to happen.

I think its healthier game design if there was synergy between classes that is more active - things like stacking buffs, or putting single target buffs like Dragon Sight on DPS carries. I'd be more open to it if the damage types were balanced between classes and there were options for each damage type like that. But they aren't (that are 100% uptime buffs that are "passive").

There is a reason I don't play BLM for higher tier content. One of them being too many interruptions to play and be effective. Playing Savage/Ultimate does make sense and BLM is only suitable for battles that don't require too much moving around. There is no need to prove anything it makes common sense that would be the situation. While it may seem unfair that higher content may be unsuitable for certain classes the basics still apply. Again all of these has been covered in old BLM threads.

The needs to BLM DPS involve as little interruptions as possible to be effective. It would make sense that DPS would not be on par with others in a situation where interruptions will constantly be happening. It's common sense hence back to the basics which are the fundamentals to everything. Again all of these has been covered in old BLM threads.

Even if the fight was a 100% training dummy with 100% uptime, BLM does not get anywhere near the meta. You are absolutely incorrect.

[ManuelBravo]

.....

Even if the fight was a 100% training dummy with 100% uptime, BLM does not get anywhere near the meta. You are absolutely incorrect.

Oh? and to what is this census based on? What is your source and has this been compared since the most recent changes to BLM ? I would love to see that and compare notes based on your Analysis. Seems everyone is 100% sure of their numbers, I've yet to see any actual data comparisons or sources that are creditable. I didn't see it in your opening statement so I was impressed on how you broke the information down, however you might want to consider adding a reliable source that has tested your information or at a bare minimum has done test on it.

[HaroldSaxon]

Oh? and to what is this census based on? What is your source and has this been compared since the most recent changes to BLM ? I would love to see that and compare notes based on your Analysis. Seems everyone is 100% sure of their numbers, I've yet to see any actual data comparisons or sources that are creditable. I didn't see it in your opening statement so I was impressed on how you broke the information down, however you might want to consider adding a reliable source that has tested your information or at a bare minimum has done test on it.

The source is in my original post. The most recent changes to BLM was in 4.05 when Omega Savage was released, so yes, its compared to the most recent changes to BLM.

Where are your sources?

[ManuelBravo]

The source is in my original post. The most recent changes to BLM was in 4.05 when Omega Savage was released, so yes, its compared to the most recent changes to BLM.

Where are your sources?

To test I use https://www.mooglemedia.com/blm-guide/ and have tested it in my opinion is one of the best guides out there. Second if your on PC their is a program that can measure your DPS called ACT (Active combat Tracker ). This is something that raid leaders use. I've worked some people to gauge that for me. To proof my point you can do all the testing that you like it still won't change the one key point...player experience that is needed to properly measure. Now then based on your analysis I can tell you one thing for sure. Not everyone is at the same point in terms of experience with raids. Some are better than others and can really shine. The problems is their experience during the battle. As a BLM one of the major problems is the casting times and CD vs the flow of battle. In other words it's no surprise BLM would be one of the lower DPS when they are constantly moving. I mean come on even in normal raids some BLM are completely incompetent and lack experience, don't understand basic mechanics, and are ignorant of the 80% cast off timer vs 100%. It's no surprise that BLM players think something is wrong. Once again basics that have been constantly talked about in various threads. Nothing new.

[Wintersandman]

snip

Thanks for the website as you just verified everything everyone has been saying. The damage scheme changes once Raid DPS is factored in as the website even pointed out it is Personal DPS not Raid DPS.

[Cynfael]

The needs to BLM DPS involve as little interruptions as possible to be effective. It would make sense that DPS would not be on par with others in a situation where interruptions will constantly be happening. It's common sense hence back to the basics which are the fundamentals to everything. Again all of these has been covered in old BLM threads.

This is old hat for top BLMs.

The issue is that BLM isn’t very competitive even when cooldowns and positioning are planned and executed perfectly. The Job isn’t somehow incapable of completing end-game content; it just doesn’t do much of anything notably well right now. Uptime is not the real issue for practiced BLMs.

[ManuelBravo]

This is old hat for top BLMs.

The issue is that BLM isn’t very competitive even when cooldowns and positioning are planned and executed perfectly. The Job isn’t somehow incapable of completing end-game content; it just doesn’t do much of anything notably well right now. Uptime is not the real issue for practiced BLMs.

Your right, however in end game I've yet to see a BLM that can do it while maintaining their Damage flow. For the most part seems most spend time avoiding aoes or purposely dying rather than interrupting their spells. To each their own I guess.