Black magic...kinda sucks

[WhyAmIHere]

This thread, my goodness.

BLM is fine.

[HyoMinPark]

Um...first off if I have to memorize each dungeon just to play a job, no thanks. Every other job is leagues more forgiving in that regards and like I said more fun to play, and I didn't need to play russian roulette with boss attacks to figure out what I can eat or not. Second of all that doesn't negate, at all, my point about mobility. Yes if you know what you are doing you can avoid a lot of the mechincs, but the mechanics are NOT as punishing to any other job like they are to the BLM. Third, even if you do all this, it's twice the work of say the SMN who has free range and comparable damage; and in the other direction doesn't have the utility of the RDM. So in essence...there is NO reason this class should be this difficult to play or but heads with the dungeon design as much as it does.

Memorizing each fight, learning where you can stand, when you have to move, and what attacks you can eat without pissing off your healer is the aspect of BLM that makes it a challenging DPS job. The rotation in and of itself is relatively simple for the amount of monstrous damage it does; the punishment for this simplicity is that movement impairs your damage.

That being said, BLM is more mobile now in 4.2 than it has ever been before. Swiftcast, Triplecast, Firestarter/Thundercloud procs, Aetherial Manipulation, Between the Lines...all of these help make this job more mobile than it ever was before. Even Enochian is easier to keep up than it was in Heavensward—that was one of the biggest complaints about BLM, and it was fixed with Stormblood. Even Enochian’s cooldown timer is half of what it used to be. If it does drop, it’s still a loss, but not as punishing as it used to be.

It’s fine to dislike the Enochian mechanic; that just means the job isn’t for you, not that it needs to be changed. If you don’t like the design of the job, then simply don’t play it. If you want a more mobile caster, play SMN or RDM. While the latter struggles for validity outside of prog in statics, if raiding isn’t your concern, this won’t be an issue.

No I recognize the job and it's intent, but the fact remains that it's intent goes agaisnt the design decision of the game. Yes you can 'know the fight well'...but that just means you have to put in twice as much work as the other jobs to do even half decent DPS.

That’s part of the challenge of the job. BLM’s design does not go against the design of the game. If this were the case, BLMs would not be clearing content. Considering they are top DPS for most of the current high-end raids at the moment, that’s obviously not the case.

No, every other black mage who decided to STICK WITH black mage makes this work, and from what I understand the job gets MUCH easier to play once you max the crafting, slot in max spell speed, and know the fights. But you know what I need to play RDM or SMN as a magic dps? Decent gear and just knowing the basics of the class. I don't need to max out my gear, crafting, or memorize every mechanic I can eat vs needing to dodge.

The bolded part of this is blatantly false. SMNs and RDMs still need to know how to make the most out of their jobs in order to pull off decent damage. They may have an easier time than BLM, but that’s doesn’t mean you can just slap gear onto and a Diamond Weapon and have awesome damage with a basic/mediocre rotation. This goes for all jobs in this game. If you want to make the most, you have to learn optimization; some jobs it’s easy, others it’s more difficult.

You also do not need max gear in order to pull of good numbers on a BLM. To pull off the best, yes. But good numbers? No.

No, it isn't. SMN can easily outpace a BLM in most fights. Plenty of analysis of that. Yes in perfect conditions a BLM can do more damage, but most fights don't allow for that. The SMN can just naturally do more then the BLM who has to work twice as hard to match let alone surpass their damage.

BLM is literally top DPS in all current raid fights save for Phantom Train; SMN parses higher than them only because they can pad on the adds. For Demon Chadarnook, Guardian, Clown Kefka, and God Kefka, BLM is at the top, where it should be.

First off, again look at all the requirements to play the class well: You need to memorize the fights and mechanics, you need to max out crafting so you can max out spell speed, you need to have perfect rotations to maximize your DPS, you also have the penalty that if you mess up your DPS comes to a screeching halt. NO OTHER JOB HAS THIS MANY REQUIREMENTS! Even more, a decent SMN can still outpace most BLM.

Plenty of other jobs have their own requirements to maximize their damage. BLM is not alone with that. Take BRD/MCH for example: both need piercing resistance down to be competitive (it’s a flat 5% damage boost to them, and if they don’t have a DRG, that’s 5% damage just gone); BRD needs to optimize when to snapshot DoTs and which buffs take priority in snapshotting; and MCH is heavily reliable on ping in order to play well—trying to squeeze everything into Wildfire with high ping is a nightmare; you will never not clip your GCD. I’m not saying these two are inherently harder than BLM to play; I’m just saying that BLM is not alone with needing to optimize its rotation, and this optimization includes movement and pre-positioning. Optimization varies between jobs, and all jobs have different things they have to do.

You do not need max crafters for melding. You can ask friends or FC mates with the applicable crafters to help you with your melds. And Materia Melders can do the guaranteed slots for a small fee. Crafting is not a necessity for being a good BLM.

For "BLM to not top the damage"...not exactly sure what you are saying here. If I am not topping the damage as a BLM? If the job in general is not top damage?

If you are not top DPS as a BLM, there are many variables as to why: your gear versus the other DPS, for example. Another would be your rotation. If you’re making mistakes in your rotation, that’s why your damage would be lower. Not because the job itself is suffering. As of Patch 4.2, BLM is finally to the point where they are dealing the monstrous DPS they should have. SMN could use some adjustments to its damage compared to it’s utility, and same for RDM (by this, I mean buff RDM’s potencies because its Raise utility dies the minute you leave prog), but BLM is hardly in a bad spot right now.


I was going to respond to more, but that would make this post ridiculously long. I will just say this though: your IRL gender is irrelevant to this conversation. Stop bring it up. And come off it with the passive-aggressive remarks about “winning” or whatever. And this “9.9” nonsense. The more combative you sound, the less people are going to want to listen to what you have to say.

[Mhaeric]

You also do not need max gear in order to pull of good numbers on a BLM. To pull off the best, yes. But good numbers? No.

QFT.

My RDM has a ~5 ilevel and melding lead on my BLM due to rdm specific Eureka gear, and my BLM still easily out-damages him.

Trying to find the post I made where I listed my caster parses. I'll edit this with the link once I find it.
Found it.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...75#post4651175

The BLM lead is substantial, despite the lower ilevel. And although this is on a dummy which lets you turret without interruption, that lead is only lessened rather than lost during practical play.

[Kabooa]

, but BLM is hardly in a bad spot right now..

Realistically speaking it's in a good spot. Mechanically it's pretty strong. Needs a few more tweaks, mostly in the role actions, but otherwise it's fine there.

Even when it was busted in 4.0 it flowed fine, especially after the MP adjustments removed how important the mana tick was.

The Firestarter/Thundercloud duration changes, paired with the potency for Fire 4, were a lowkey, subtle, and effective flow buff as well.

In terms of flavor, mechanics, and flow, it's scoring pretty good.

[HyoMinPark]

Realistically speaking it's in a good spot. Mechanically it's pretty strong. Needs a few more tweaks, mostly in the role actions, but otherwise it's fine there.

Even when it was busted in 4.0 it flowed fine, especially after the MP adjustments removed how important the mana tick was.

The Firestarter/Thundercloud duration changes, paired with the potency for Fire 4, were a lowkey, subtle, and effective flow buff as well.

In terms of flavor, mechanics, and flow, it's scoring pretty good.

Oh no, I totally agree. BLM is in a really nice spot right now. I almost wish I was good enough to play it in Savage. Sadly, I struggle with the not moving part. X3 Guess that’s normal when you main BRD lol.

[EllieShadeflare]

Heck, if you REALLY want a BiS weapon, wait for 3.35 and the next part of Eureka. The weapon will either be 365 or 375, and probably keep its 5 materia slots, making it the best weapon in the game for Black Mage. It comes with great SpS and crit (aka, the stat priorities for BLM), and the five materia slots mean you get to max out on Direct Hit or Determination for more glorious damage.

Hell, if the rest of the set reaches 360/370, it's gonna be BiS for the left side because of all those materia slots and its great for BLM stats.

[Seraphor]

Can I ask what other jobs you've played up to the level you've played BLM?

Yes, BLM has issues to overcome, it has handicaps, that's part of the design.
You seem to be adamant that these handicaps are detrimental to the class, whereas what everyone else is arguing is that these handicaps are a valid component to the challenge this class provides.
It's a difference of viewpoint.

The main difference seems to be that you think other jobs don't have any handicaps.
Others are trying to tell you that this isn't the case. Do you actually have experience in other jobs?

[whiskeybravo]

This guy lol

I don't think I can add anything considering the dismantling that everyone else has tried to do.

Nothing wrong with BLM, get good son.

[Popotato]

I've given up on this "discussion" and this question is off-topic but I'm still wondering, can someone help me out on what OP means by 9.9?

[Zerathor]

I've given up on this "discussion" and it's off-topic but I'm still wondering, can someone help me out on what OP means by 9.9?

I'm not entirely sure. I'm convinced this entire thread has been b8 at this point. Especially after seeing the OP's other posts.