How to Fix Black Mage for Good

[EllieShadeflare]

So, 4.2 REALLY gave Black Mage a boost in effectiveness that made us competitive. Great! This is the kind of thing we've been needing since 4.0, since we had been arbitrarily weakened because... reasons despite us being the pure DPS caster. Samurai is still having issues, but... I'm not fully adept with Samurai and as a result can't talk much about it... but I WILL talk about Black Mage because I am more experienced with it.

While Black Mage is in the best spot it's been in since 4.0 (if not Heavensward), I first wish to talk about some of the biggest things that makes Black Mage "tick" in Stormblood. Things that work REALLY well.

1.) Black Mage is 100% GCD locked for its damage.
Take any other class. Literally pick ANY class. Healers? Tanks? Other DPS? Other Caster DPS, in particular? There is something that makes Black Mage stand out amongst all of them, and that is its complete inability to deal damage outside of the GCD.

If Black Mage were designed in any other way, this would be a problem. However, Stormblood has masterfully handled this unique restriction in some rather beautiful ways. First, it removed irrelevant tools to our roster (Apocatastasis became Cross-Role so someone who had more free time in their rotation could use it instead and we totally ditched the pile of garbage that was Lethargy) and gained more emphasis to making our GCD usage count. We gained Triplecast as a supplement to Swiftcast so that we were afforded extra movement, we were given ways that (despite animation lock) allowed us to move from area to area swiftly without dropping our DPS too heavily (Between the Lines and Aetherial Manipulation's big buff), Firestarter and Thundercloud were made more forgiving to our rotations and our damage was made great. Where most jobs would cringe at the inability to weave oGCDs, we make up for by having simply more powerful spells per cast and the means to brute force some mechanics (Manaward).

In moving forward, suggestions need to embrace this identity and compliment it.

2.) Black Mage's roster is mostly cohesive to the role it wants to play.
This has been a complaint by many about various other classes. Summoner, Bard, Machinist, Monk... I'm pretty sure you could find threads about how Dragoon, Red Mage, Samurai and Ninja also don't fit the skillset they're given. However, Black Mage has been made in a way that highly emphasizes our role as a pure DPS class.

The only forms of support Black Mage has comes in the form of Cross-Role abilities (shared by more supportive Summoner and Red Mage), Sleep for early levels and Eureka... and our sheer damage. All of our abilities (save for Scathe, Sleep, Blizzard II and Freeze) add to our damage in some shape or form, whether it be dealing direct damage (see our rotation), extending our rotation (Blizzard IV, kinda), forcing out our procs for easier usage (Sharpcast) or direct buffs to our DPS (Enochian and Leylines). As a result of this, Black Mage isn't generally expected to do much more than the damage it deals and... that's fine. This also hides the fact that it's easier to increase our damage higher than to decrease it (since we're not providing a major raid contribution beyond our insane damage potential) when balancing comes.

As a result of this, I've generally pointed out in many other posts that most other DPS that have focused heavily on their support aspects have been nerfed as a result of doing so, or are highly complained about due to their overpowered nature. Red Mage is a particular case study on why giving supposedly hyperpowerful support to a DPS class isn't the best idea (Embolden is a powerful boost, kinda but multirez is a utility that gets less useful after progression with these two abilities serving as justification for Red Mage's sheer weakness), whilst Ninja is a case study on how to properly balance a support DPS (low but passable personal DPS potential, high rDPS contributions, wonderful results). I've also spoke out against the idea of Black Mage providing a Magic Resistance debuff, both for the reason that our damage would have to suffer as a result (For every 1% we give on a debuff, we would have to sacrifice at LEAST 3-5% of our own potency, since we are guaranteed to buff both of our healers' damage) and would force a forced-magic meta in the same way we currently have a forced Bard/Machinist + Dragoon meta.

When it comes to defensive supports, while nearly every DPS has one, I don't think it'd fit Black Mage very well anyway. Few DPS players can use their utilities well enough as is, and besides the point, we'd either have an AoE shield (with a massive, almost not worth it CD on top of a pathetic threshold) or a constantly applied damage-down debuff that'd still demand us to lose some potency (unless it was MAYBE Foul that did it) or force us into another forced BLM meta.

...basically, the jist is that we neither want a forced meta, nor do we want Black Mage to become worse than it is or be distracted from its DPS duties.

3.) Our RNG is better than other jobs.
It's no secret that nearly every job in FFXIV plays with RNG at some point. Procs to use abilities or even entire mechanics built around successful crits or blocks are a dime a dozen in FFXIV, but only Red Mage and Machinist have the ability to match Black Mage in how often we can confirm our RNG options.

But hey, BLM even does that RNG thing better than Red Mage and Machinist anyway, since we don't rely on our RNG for our rotation, beyond forced procs at certain points. Firestarter after our opener is a great damage dealer, or great way to get back into Astral Fire from a Blizzard IV, whilst Thundercloud is a powerful burst that exceeds Fire IV in total damage thanks to its DoT. While Thundercloud and Firestarter help us out, we're not constantly scrambling, hoping that we get them.

4.) Oh! There's the kaboom.
Admit it. There's nothing like having a rotation of constantly 240+ potency attacks in our roster. From the beefy but comparatively weedy Blizzard III and Blizzard IV's 240 and 260 respectively, to Fire IV's whopping 555 potency, to Foul's mighty 650, no other job can boast having a rotation that is ALWAYS inflicting above 200 potency. Well, discounting switching between the stances with the III spells... but you get my point. It's just a feel good job with powerful DPS.

Of course, despite my glowing praise for the job's design, I do note some flaws with the system, that ought to be addressed... and in no particular order:

1.) THOSE skills.
Everyone remotely familiar with Black Mage knows the ones. Sleep, Scathe, Blizzard II and Freeze. They're so commonly associated with Black Mage and skill bloat that they're common names among BLMs. Each one deserves a particular point to showcase their uselessness:

• Sleep: We get it. It's a classic that's been with BLM since the very first Final Fantasy. Unfortunately, the grandfather principle doesn't slide with this ability, and beyond needing it for one of our class quests and exploring Eureka, it's absolutely useless.
• Scathe: Back when Black Mage only had 270 potency DPS spells with Fire, the occassionally instant 360 potency of Firestarter, and the 300 + 240 dot Thunder III burst through Thundercloud, Scathe was our goto on the move ability when we had to suffer through AoE hell abilities, since it wasn't a massive DPS loss (well, as massive as 270 vs 100 with a 20% chance to be 200 was). But with the likes of Triple+Swiftcast and the ability to guarantee Firestarter or Thundercloud, Scathe has seriously lost a place in our roster. This particularly baffles me because of how easy it is to replace, improve or do something with, as this ability is actually worse than Tri-Bind in any form. Yes, even pre-buff Tri-Bind is better than Scathe.
• Blizzard II: It's Tri-Bind. But worse. And centered around the Black Mage. The only use this ability had was on White Mages who didn't get Holy, and on Summoners who had a worse skill than this (when Tri-Bind was actually worse).
• Freeze: A placement AoE style utterly wrecks this spell. If it was simply a target-AoE, it'd be fine, but there's still better spells and it still lacks a place.

Solutions? All pretty simple, I think.

• Sleep: Perhaps inflict a Drowsy effect that increases Foul's potency by 100 or something. I dunno. Just do something that Black Mages can benefit from this.
• Scathe: Either increase its potency or remove this ability so a better one can be put in place. That's all people want.
• Blizzard II: Honestly, no idea how to make this useful. Maybe make it a target AoE. Iunno.
• Freeze: Let each successful cast give Umbral Hearts. Three casts to give three Umbral Hearts. Make our AoE rotation actually be a mostly pure AoE rotation. Maybe also increase its potency by 50-150, and give it Flare's dropoff mechanic. DEFINITELY MAKE THIS A TARGET AOE.

2.) Umbral Hearts? More like Umbral Farts.
This one's a common complaint that I didn't get for the longest time before I really spent time looking into it. Sure enough, the net gain of using Umbral Hearts vs not using them is... one Fire IV. At least Convert gives two.

As a result, Umbral Hearts really should be improved in one of the following ways:

1. Give Fire spells casted with Umbral Hearts an additional (at least) 20 base potency per cast.
2. Completely negate Fire costs in Astral Fire (allowing for an extended Astral Fire phase but one that can be easily ruined by greediness. Breed some skill!)
3. Something interesting. Giving a bonus Fire IV doesn't really help in our single target rotation.

As it currently stands, there's nothing absolutely useful about Blizzard IV in the singletarget rotation. In our AoE rotation, however, being able to Double Flare or have 2 Fire IIs and a Double Flare is far more intriguing and useful... and it baffles me how such a powerful AoE boon is on a single target ability.

3.) Damage over contribution?
A bit more minor, but... Compared to most other jobs, Black Mage's rDPS suffers when not playing at the skill of the highest percentile, and even then doesn't match other classes when comparing the same percentile. This is because Black Mage's DPS is too low despite not having the proper support tools. Although most of the QoL changes suggested above SHOULD do the trick, it wouldn't hurt to give an additional 10 potency to Fire, Fire III and Fire IV as needed. But maybe it's not really needed. Who knows?

This may have been a massive post, but I think I've covered all that I think is neccessary to help BLM become a better job.

[Mhaeric]

Blizard 2 is useful for what it does in early dumgeon content as an AoE filler in the ice rotation while you still lack Blizzard 3 amd mp regens more slowly. It only amounts to like 2 or 3 of the lowest dungeons, so that's not the best argument, but it does have a purpose at the level it exists at.

[Seraphor]

On removing sleep and scathe... no.
BLM is not the powerhouse at low levels it is at higher levels, and you said it yourself, sleep is useful early on.
BLM is actually one of the more fun jobs to play early game because of this.
Why does it matter that a couple of minor skills become useless by end game? Just don't use them.

They could be enhanced with a trait I suppose, but there's no need to remove them or buff them to the point they're no longer low level skills.

Freeze definitely needs something doing to it though.

[GunksFoy]

I don't know that Scathe is ever useful. I suppose for movement at very low levels, but even then there aren't really enough AoEs or large enough ones to notice. Sleep is only useful in low level solo content. For dungeons it's pretty much only useful if your healer is abysmal and the other dps/tank don't blast the enemies you sleep instantly. They could both be removed and no one would notice or care. Although, I would rather seem them improved and useful rather than deprecated.

[EllieShadeflare]

On removing sleep and scathe... no.
BLM is not the powerhouse at low levels it is at higher levels, and you said it yourself, sleep is useful early on.

I never said "remove Sleep", because one of the quests forces you to use Sleep. I only said "MAYBE remove Scathe."

That said, BLM does throw better potencies pre-Level 50 than most other jobs do (Heck, compared to ARR, a standard BLM at level 50 is massively overpowered, thanks to the fact that unlike in 2.0-2.55, BLM has access to 180 BASE potency Fire spells, compared to the original 150 Base potency spells), so not sure why you'd think we're not a powerhouse.

BLM is actually one of the more fun jobs to play early game because of this.
Why does it matter that a couple of minor skills become useless by end game? Just don't use them.

You say that, but few jobs have useless skills by the end of the game, making these spells all the more jarring. Freeze and Blizzard II have no purpose in our skillsets, Sleep has no purpose beyond soloing, and Scathe doesn't need to exist anymore if they're not going to do anything with it. We already got rid of Lethargy that proved to do absolutely nothing but get in our way.

All things considered, it's better to have more useful buttons than keeping useless ones which is why I proposed the Drowsy effect or suggested that Scathe be buffed.

I don't know that Scathe is ever useful. I suppose for movement at very low levels, but even then there aren't really enough AoEs or large enough ones to notice. Sleep is only useful in low level solo content. For dungeons it's pretty much only useful if your healer is abysmal and the other dps/tank don't blast the enemies you sleep instantly. They could both be removed and no one would notice or care. Although, I would rather seem them improved and useful rather than deprecated.

Scathe was useful before BLM was buffed into what it became in HW. Our damage, while impressive, wasn't anywhere near what it is now, and we were more heavily affected by slower cast times (due to how bad Spell Speed was).

Sleep shines a bit in Eureka, where it's a pretty good idea to use as your gimped version of a stun when you're soloing.

[Seraphor]

Scathe could potentially gain a unique trait at high levels.
Increase its potency substantially, say to 200+. But when you use it, it applies a “buff” (or debuff I guess) to yourself on a 90s countdown, that decreases the damage of the next Scathe by the time it has left as a percentage.
80s left on this “debuff” = Scathe does 80% less damage.
This essentially makes it a cooldown, but one you can use early for a DPS penalty. Making it more useful for using on the move if you happen to ‘save it up’ for as much of those 90s as you can.
(lore could be that unaspected aether is more difficult to manipulate, and BLM is master of elements, so it has to accumulate unaspected aether naturally)

Sleep I think is fine for its low level utility, I would rather see Freeze become a viable ‘utility’ spell to replace Sleep to be honest.
Sleep feels like a Thaumaturge spell while Freeze is more a Black Mage spell. (which they are but I mean thematically)
Remove its ground targeting mechanic and have it targeted like Fire II/Flare, or even self-targeted like Blizzard II, with a wider radius it’ll still be effective if used properly.
In addition have it instantly recover all MP if a target is hit (kinda the opposite of Flare, shouldn’t be a big deal as a Blizz III will pretty much do this anyway, just 3s later) making it a viable alternative to Blizz III in an AoE rotation.
Or just have it reliably Bind targets, or inflict Slow, Heavy or Silence in addition.

Also, hows this for a rDPS boost that maintains the ‘selfish DPS’ role?
A high level trait that boosts your magic damage by % based on how many party members are standing in your leylines. Even 2% per party member could be useful, that could be at least 4% with the two healers in there.

[Shurrikhan]

[On Umbral Hearts] I absolutely do not want to see Blizzard IV become more required than it is. I like that, situationally, I have more than one rotation. A skill's place in rotation is perfect, imo, when it is typically positively cost-effective, but with known timings or situations by which it ends up merely break-even or less. It can be always optimal in an always optimal rotation, but there should be meaningful ways to adapt to our circumstances.

[On Sleep and Freeze] I feel like these fail currently for far more general reasons than either skill in itself, namely the lack of an anti-evasion or -defense bonus in CC, in contrast with a few other MMOs, and XIV's intentional inability to queue macros combined with their neglect of special targeting functions (such as being able to assign any ground AoE not to move its indicator beyond max range, to activate on button-release, to click through targets, to center itself upon mouseover or snap-to target, or even just to be assigned current-target placement via a context menu via the skill in the A&T pane or on the hotbars themselves.

The Freeze suggestion seems fitting enough, though I'd prefer a simple pure potency buff as to provide a more immediate AoE damage option vs. Blizzard IV, should one lack the time to utilize the benefits of a Blizzard IV's Umbral Hearts (again, I prefer to be allowed to adapt to the situation, rather than have a single functional answer to any and all). Heck, if this game actually had defense, resistance, and (partial) evasion be real things for (at-level) mobs as well, that bind could be a hell of a bonus before a Foul.

[On Scathe and Blizzard II] They're both badly undertuned, and while not necessarily mechanically underutilized or underdeveloped, they each certainly have far more they can accomplish and be more satisfying integrated into.

[GunksFoy]

Scathe was useful before BLM was buffed into what it became in HW. Our damage, while impressive, wasn't anywhere near what it is now, and we were more heavily affected by slower cast times (due to how bad Spell Speed was).

Sleep shines a bit in Eureka, where it's a pretty good idea to use as your gimped version of a stun when you're soloing.

That's why I said "is ever useful" instead of "was ever useful". It used to be passable, but now more or less worthless. As for Sleep, I'm not a big fan of moves that are semi useful in a single place and virtually nowhere else. Sleep needs a rework or the boot.

[Seraphor]

That's why I said "is ever useful" instead of "was ever useful". It used to be passable, but now more or less worthless. As for Sleep, I'm not a big fan of moves that are semi useful in a single place and virtually nowhere else. Sleep needs a rework or the boot.

New players join every day...

[GunksFoy]

New players join every day...

And as I said, even at low levels Scathe is useless. Or at the very least nigh useless. There are so few AoEs at that level that you will rarely ever use it. And you should have SC always since it's a cross role, and the odds you need major movement more than once in 60s at level 30 and below are low. Scathe is so bad that if it didn't proc it would probably be better just to not use it because the movement will take less time than the GCD and you can start casting a real spell sooner. If it procs it would be fine, but that's a big if given the low chance.

EDIT: I'm not saying FOR SURE it would, but the dps change would be absolutely negligible at that level anyways, and I would prefer new BLMs learn to better utilize their abilitiies (SC) and learn to slidecast than get in the habit of using Scathe.