Black magic...kinda sucks

[Popotato]

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. While you might find this rewarding, this is still a fact of the situation and a reason most people prefer the RDM and SMN over the BLM. Yes it is turret dps, and yes it is functional...but that doesn't change the fact that it's both rather mediocre to play AND goes against the high mobility that most fights call for.

Completely subjective. Just because you aren't prepared to put in the work you are meant to for a fight doesn't mean other people aren't either. All jobs need a good deal of fight knowledge, and those that play BLM have to put in more. But those BLM players are perfectly fine with that because they like that planned playstyle. If you personally aren't fine with that, then once again, this probably isn't your ideal job.

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.

Once again, misinformed. Spell Speed isn't mandatory, Spell Speed is melded based on taste. A crit build is equally, if not more viable. This is especially true if you're using the Flare rotation. But really though, at the level you are playing BLM, the mandatory melds for any job are... none. Any job is perfectly functional at a casual level with absolutely no melding. If you feel like you struggling with the job is simply a matter of not having spell speed, then prepare yourself for disappointment once you do meld it.

Also, I don’t understand why you emphasised, “stick with the job.” If they stuck with the job, then they like the playstyle. And just because you don’t like the job, the people that stuck with the job because they enjoy it aren’t allowed to keep the play style they love?

You don’t have to like every job. If you don’t like a job, you aren’t forced to play it.

So if my stance is subjective, your stance is...well since I can't think of any diplomatic way of putting it, i'll move on.

You are a level 65 BLM who's struggling with the job in Shisui of the Violet Tides, and have been prompted to make a post on how the job isn't to your tastes. All posts on this forums will have a level of subjectivity, but some are more subjective and misinformed than others.

First off, how would stack degradation vs outright removal "100% kill the job"? Now who is being 'subjective'? Second Ley lines are not the best thing ever since 90% of the time it seems the game wants to target any aoe on your position as soon as you lay one, I might be paranoid but it almost feels like an algorithm in the game. Much like how some attacks will only go after DPS and not the healer.

Like I said originally, I wasn't quite sure how you wanted to implement the stack degradation, but based on the way I understood it, I hope you know that Fire IV doesn't refresh the AF timer or increase the stacks, and AF stacks increase the potency of fire based spells. If it degraded every 3 seconds, you would either be using Fire every second spell to stay at AF3, or using Fire IV with a lower potency since it wouldn't be at 3 stacks, and then having to use a higher cost and longer cast time Fire III to go back to 3 stacks. Objectively, no matter how you spin it, that would be lower damage than what it is now.

Ley lines first off are not that powerful, at best I get another fire 4 off before having to cast fire 1 to reset my timer. Now this might bet better with more spell speed, but that just highlights all the issues the job has.

Once again, completely missing the point. Spell Speed is not about fitting an extra spell under Astral Fire, that does hardly anything for a BLM. It's about fitting more spells into an entire fight. BLM has an infinite resource pool. The only thing that stops a BLM's rotation is when the fight ends. Therefore, before the fight ends, you want to use as many spells as possible, and Spell Speed helps with that. One reason why RDM and SMN and just about any other DPS job doesn't want spell/skill speed is that they don't have infinite resource pools. It can also mess with timings oGCD timings, such as with MCH, but that doesn't apply at all to BLM. Once again though, Crit is just as viable as spell speed.

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.

I double checked FFLogs to make sure. BLM out damages SMN at all percentiles in fights where there is only a single target. This includes God Kefka, a movement-heavy fight. Fights where there are adds or multiple enemies, SMN wins out since it has superior AoE and can use multi-DoTing to inflate their DPS. In fights where such heavy inflation isn't possible, BLM does more damage.

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.

Every job needs to learn the fight to optimise, and that is no fault of the job. You don't need to be a crafter to meld Spell Speed or Crit or anything for that matter. Any job needs a perfect rotation to maximise DPS, and if anything BLM has one of the easiest rotations to remember, and the challenge is applying it to a fight (which once again, is not a fault of the job, it's a part of it's identity).

The last point though, just reeks of misinformation. If you drop your AF/UI, you just use Blizzard 3 and pick up where you left off. Since you have an infinite mana pool, if you die, you aren't forced to manage low resources. BLM has a very low penalty for death or mistakes, probably the lowest in the game. The job you've been comparing it to this entire time, SMN, has by far the worst recovery from a mistake or death. You lose up to 2 minutes of progress, your mana stays low if you don't have Lucid Dreaming, and half of that mana is dedicated to your pet. You have to wait for your cooldowns to realign. BLM has one of the lowest penalties for a mistake in the game.

You can sit there and claim that I'm just mad because I don't know the job. Thing is, I do know the job, and yes triple cast is nice but it still doesn't change ANY of the issues I presented. Do I next need to max out my crafting and memorize all the fights before my opinion becomes valid?

Saying Triplecast doesn't change anything just makes it really obvious you haven't unlocked it yet.

I don't know what your obsession with maxing out crafters is. Go to my profile and look at my crafters. I can play BLM without any problems.

The least you can do before you comment on a job's balance is to play it at level 70. You haven't even mentioned Polyglot in any post yet. You can criticise BLM's leveling experience, that's fine and you have more than enough merit to do that. But right now, you're complaining about the job based on your struggles in Shisui of the Violet Tides. That just shows inexperience with the job and an inability to control the job's kit, and that makes it difficult for most people to take your criticisms as valid.