Black magic...kinda sucks

[Malkria]

BLM, just like every other job, definitely has useless spells. Granted, having spells that are rarely, if not never used definitely isn't ideal, but the good thing about those spells is that there's a very clear solution to them. Don't use them. It would definitely be nice to find a way to re-purpose those spells into something more useful and exciting, but if they're not useful, it doesn't impact the job's playstyle at all. So in saying that, re-purposing those spells doesn't fall under a "serious rework" because that would imply a change to BLM's core rotation. If they're not in the rotation outside of low level to begin with, then a core part of BLM isn't being changed at all.

That is a fallacy, because the abilities that are not being used are not in the 'ideal rotation' does not mean that the BLM doesn't need a rework. with three useless abilities and two that are highly situational that puts it far ahead of other jobs who might have at worst one or two highly situational abilities. Especially when said abilities could be reworked to make the job both more interesting to play, and ease some off the need to 'memorize a fight' by having either more movement spells or utility in the BLM kit.

Aetherial Manipulation and Between the Lines, the movement options you are referring to, are just part of BLM's options for mobility. You aren't taking into consideration Triplecast, Swiftcast, Thundercloud Procs, Firestarter procs, even Scathe, all of which are mobility options which allow for completely free movement.

Except they are NOT free movement. Again, thundercloud is a RNG proc and while you can push firestarter with a sharpcast you either need to have anticipated the need to have it beforehand or use both it and switft/triple cast to push it so you can move. BEFORE you can actually move. Free movement is just that, FREE. You are talking about moving during GCD and/or using instant casts to move, which in turn wouldn't be as much of an issue except that you both have to either rely on random chance and/or a combo of abilities to move without worrying about your DPS coming to a screeching halt.

Of the 7 other party members, you would be really hard pressed to not find at least one person standing at the place you want to be. Also, I can't think of a single fight that forces you to be so spread out from other members that there's no one you can jump to with AM. If there does end up being a fight like that, AM might have limited uses, but even then, you have a plethora of other movement options.

Except again you have to find, select, and THEN use AM. Which again could mean TWO people get damaged in a mechanic if you happen to pick the wrong person vs just yourself if you screw up something like the shadowstep. Again, it's a needlessly made complication to an otherwise simple blink spell.

Once again, the job isn't very punishing for mistakes.

Except you and others keep telling me that the job works best when you know the fight. It's simple logic at that point, because if it works best when you know the fight it works at it's worst when you don't Which means in progressive situations the BLM then becomes more of a hindrance with no utility and no way to support the team outside of DPS; which again will take a hit since you won't know the optimal way to setup and use your abilities. You can't have it both ways if you continue to insist that the BLM is all about knowing the fight.

I know you're tired of hearing this but in this case it's so evident, constantly looking at the timer is just a product of inexperience. With any job you play, the more experience you have with the job, the less you'll be looking at timers, gauges and hotbars. This is very much true with BLM, because the rotation is so static you can play the job without even looking at the timers.

You can claim that, but frankly I don't know any healer who doesn't still have to watch out for the refresh timers on hots or if shields are still up; let alone if the tank needs healing or support vs getting another damage spell in. Furthermore in every guide i've seen so far has cited keeping an eye on the timer. So if you have internalized the timer so much fine but apparently watching the timer is still very much a thing.




As a side note, if you need me to dig up every single recent or relevant post on the BLM to understand that a good number of people find issue with the job in various ways...well I would point out to you that a lot of my 'reference material' in this regard is front page of google searches. Plenty of people other then me have said the same things, and some of what I am saying now is coming from them. Yes the job is playable, yes it it top DPS, but no that doesn't mean that it doesn't need a fair bit of work when it has the most useless abilities and one of the simplistic rotations of any the jobs; when you have a dev saying that all the jobs need to have depth and interesting gameplay.