Black magic...kinda sucks

[Sunspawn]

ITT: Scrub dug a hole and now is too embarrassed to get out of it.

On a more serious note, blm is only a bit worse than other jobs at progression - with the focus shifting away from tight dps checks, losing casts, while feeling icky, does not harm progression since most wipes are due to failing mechanics, not failing dps checks. And the rotation is granite-static, not to mention you have so few buttons to press. As a monk main and blm-for-fun, going from having a baseline of 6 gcds I need to use in equal measure with about double the cooldowns of blm to mashing Fire 4 with the occasional B3>T3>B4>Foul>F3 makes me appreciate the simplicity of the rotation every time anew. Not to mention that, for the most part, you don't REALLY need to think about TA and such, since most of your casts are Fire 4 anyway and you already align with TA naturally thanks to TC.

[Malkria]

ITT: Scrub dug a hole and now is too embarrassed to get out of it.

Um...what? What exactly am I supposed to be embarrassed by?

When someone says "X class... kinda sucks" or similar, this makes people think that the first person is coming from a place of dislike. And considering you've explained through various posts that you basically dislike BLM from point A to B... I'm not entirely sure you're entirely honest on this front.

Yes I have talked a lot about what I don't like about the BLM, but that honestly is because I do like it a bit. Though I will also admit it's a love and hate attraction. Like I said I do like that I can noticeably feel my contribution to a fight as well as see it, something that has largely kept me from doing a lot of DPS classes over the years. Healing has a very noticeable and immediate feedback vs DPS, and while tanking does to in it's own way...I hate melee classes because ranged just feels better to me. I picked up the BLM to round out the casters on my character becuase they are primarily how you get ranged combat, and once I finish RDM and ARC I probably will move on to focusing on crafting and stick with what I have unlocked until the next expansion, if I stay that long (though already been around for a year).

But because I like it I also notice it's flaws. Yes it does do significant damage, but that damage falls flat far to easily if you mess up whereas while you might not be optimal in other jobs if you make a mistake you still can keep the rhythm going. Dropping your eno buff and having to either hard cast a fire three or use up swift cast feels pretty harsh vs other jobs. Furthermore like I said, and I do see your point on the job comparison, other the ley lines nothing actually roots you into a spot. This is coming from comparisons to other 'turret' play styles where you are either rooted for a buff or your speed is so penalized you might as well not be moving at all.

Do I hate the BLM? No. I don't love it and see it as flawless however either. It's "decent" for it's job, but in my eyes it neither is an interesting job in it's playstyle nor in it's aesthetics. Almost every other job has more interesting mechanics as well as greater aesthetic flair. Maybe if we still had cross job skills to unlock and some way to go a step further and customize jobs to our playstyle a lot of my issues may be potentially fixed. But until then yes I see the good in BLM, but I also see several flaws and the more I play with it the more they are apparent. It's functional, it does it's job, and it isn't broken...but that doesn't mean, at all, there there isn't significant room for growth.

[Dualgunner]

I think the main issue that this is coming down to and why people are thinking you hate the job is because a lot of the things you see and are pointing out as issues are things other Black Mages see and consider features of the job that they enjoy working around.

[Malkria]

I think the main issue that this is coming down to and why people are thinking you hate the job is because a lot of the things you see and are pointing out as issues are things other Black Mages see and consider features of the job that they enjoy working around.

Which as I said is in itself fine. The fact that we have CC in the spell Sleep doesn't break or hurt the BLM in any way despite the fact that nobody uses it....pretty much ever. But that doesn't change the fact then that it could be re-purposed to not be something taking up space on our hotbar. You can enjoy a job despite or even because of it's flaws, look at PLD and MCH back in heavenward for example. Now they are in pretty decent spots between them, but before you had what was arguably the worst tank and a job that didn't differentiate itself from ARC as much as it should. At least the latter feels more distinct in my opinion.

Like I said, I have a love hate relationship currently with the BLM. That doesn't mean I can't see the good parts of the job, and like I said there are things I in fact find better in the BLM then any other DPS i've played thus far...ever. But while I am willing to 'work around' the parts I don't, doesn't mean I can't think of better and more interesting aspects to replace them. Ley lines for example I feel strongly should be built into how the BLM works to be as integral as the ice/fire rotation is currently; as well as making a new thunder spell 'neutral' AoE and a way to have both fire and ice feel distinct yet separate ways to do damage on mass or to a single target. Again, what we have works, but I feel the job could be so much deeper without much effort and THAT is the core of my issue as it has developed to today.

[Jandor]

I am currently leveling Black Mage after ignoring it for so long. To me it feels that unlike a lot of jobs it has kept it's core identity, it knows what it wants to do.

Black Mage wants to stand still and throw huge fireballs and big chunks of ice at people, and I'm liking that.

Edit: Be nice if Umbral Hearts felt a bit more impactful though.

[Friske]

I think the main issue that this is coming down to and why people are thinking you hate the job is because a lot of the things you see and are pointing out as issues are things other Black Mages see and consider features of the job that they enjoy working around.

Yeah, I have some inkling that this is partly true too. I do understand how the OP feels though especially if one hasn't fully adjusted to the intricacies and the playstyle of blackmage, but once you begin to manage the careful tightrope walk of managing movement with casting spells, then the satisfaction should soon follow.

Back in mid 2015 right as Heavensward was released, you could've made a very good case for Blackmage adjustments though. Back then the enochian timer was 10 seconds, triplecast didn't exist, and the OGCD usage was counter intuitive to a casting class (especially without triplecast to weave in our OGCDs). Nowadays however, it's improved dramatically with a permanent enochian buff, 13 seconds on the timer, triplecast, between the lines, and with the next patch, faster AM recovery times. The issues have been dampened quite dramatically, thus leading to less stress from worrying about enochian, and more time spent enjoying explosions.

Does the blackmage gameplay need to be made more interesting? It could be, I can agree with that. Personally though? I enjoy the simplicity of its rotation. Instead of dealing with most of the difficulty via managing mechanics that are intrinsic to the job's spells/abilities, the difficulty is instead offshored to managing movement, and the job gives us tools to handle it as we see fit during an encounter. This is where I think part of the complexity and its appeal comes from (other than critical+direct hit fouls).

[NoctusT]

I don't get the people complaining. BLM can be improved so its a bit more viable for raid (vs the meta jobs) such as changing umbral hearts or fixing manashift for a start. But our rotation is really easy and the challenge of the job is adapting to the fights. Most of the complaints I've seen can be solved by learning the job and learning the fight. Perhaps you should spend some time practicing instead of complaining on these forums???

[EllieShadeflare]

Back in mid 2015 right as Heavensward was released, you could've made a very good case for Blackmage adjustments though. Back then the enochian timer was 10 seconds, triplecast didn't exist, and the OGCD usage was counter intuitive to a casting class (especially without triplecast to weave in our OGCDs). Nowadays however, it's improved dramatically with a permanent enochian buff, 13 seconds on the timer, triplecast, between the lines, and with the next patch, faster AM recovery times. The issues have been dampened quite dramatically, thus leading to less stress from worrying about enochian, and more time spent enjoying explosions.

Some nitpicks: Enochian was 30s (with Blizzard IV refreshing it by 5s of the previously refreshed duration), it was entirely separate from the Astral Fire/Umbral Ice timer (which was expanded to 12s mid expansion) but yeah. Otherwise, right as rain.