BLM Utility ideas!

[Shurrikhan]

Scathe?

That's not utility. This thread isn't a how BLM can be made stronger thread. It's a how can BLM bring utility to the raid by enhancing other player's damage or reducing incoming damage thread.

Those two things are one and the same in effect. Your version just happens to reduce job identity in the process, while making BLM itself stronger does not. That's why you're seeing resistance to the very premise.

It doesn't matter whatsoever whether BLM comes to read rDPS parity in a greater number of compositions as a result of pDPS or rDPS. It only matter that it ends up balanced for its overall contribution.

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The only things I want:

• Umbral Ice mana ticks now run off a client-side server tick, which ticks every half-GCD for 40% of its current (per 3 seconds) value each tick, allowing for more breakpoints at which to leave UI phases. You can still be forced to delay slightly if you swap to UI with too little mana to cast B4 or T3 and don't have Thundercloud or Foul readied, but rather than that duration lasting anywhere from .01 to 2.99 seconds, it's not consistently a half-GCD.
• Surecast and Swiftcast animation lock durations reduced slightly. This applies to all users, not just BLM.
• Enochian as a trait. Blizzard IV and Fire IV require only UI or AF, respectively. This requirement is also checked only at the start of cast. Once begun, Fire IV and Blizzard IV cannot be forced to cancel by the loss of AF or UI; the former will simply hit for less while the latter will only generate a single Umbral Heart.
• Fire IV and Blizzard IV slot-combined.
• Between the Lines and Ley Lines slot-combined. Cannot queue BtL before LL animation has started forming.
• AF %damage multiplier reduced from 40/60/80 to 30/50/60. Fire spell potencies increased to compensate. DPS unchanged.
• For symmetry and as a slight buff, Ice spell potencies increased in turn, often to the same potencies as their analogs. Most notably, Blizzard III and IV themselves now hit a little harder, which is the only really buff to maximal BLM dps included here. Greater damage on B1, B2, and Freeze as well, ofc. Freeze now situationally viable in AoE.
• AF and UI now decrease the cast times and mana costs of the opposite spell type by 20% and 25%, respectively, per stack, rather than solely by 50% and 75% at third stack. The 10% Fire damage penalty on UI also removed.
• Overall effect: Being forced to swap between UI and AF in less than ideal timings now diminishes DPS by a lesser amount, and cast times in swapping between the two are even shorter, allowing for more mobility. Slightly less dps loss from getting screwed over in terms of mobility or by interruption.

[Sunspawn]

I agree with the crowd that wants QoL and personal DPS buffs to bestmage and samurai instead of utility.

[Capn_Goggles]

Giving BLM utility would violate the very core point of the job. BLM will benefit much more from buffs to underperforming aspects of the job and QoL improvements than it will from giving it the same generic "press X to buff raid" utility people seem to love, and flat potency increases are boring. Improve Umbral Hearts, extend AF/UI duration by a second, and at this point it's worth just making enochian a trait rather than a buff considering it's borderline impossible to drop.

[Kabooa]

Giving BLM utility would violate the very core point of the job. BLM will benefit much more from buffs to underperforming aspects of the job and QoL improvements than it will from giving it the same generic "press X to buff raid" utility people seem to love, and flat potency increases are boring. Improve Umbral Hearts, extend AF/UI duration by a second, and at this point it's worth just making enochian a trait rather than a buff considering it's borderline impossible to drop.

Well 2 out of 3 of these mean nothing at all.

What change to Umbral Hearts are you proposing?

[Capn_Goggles]

Well 2 out of 3 of these mean nothing at all.

What change to Umbral Hearts are you proposing?

Umbral Hearts have a fairly small impact on single target rotations compared to AoE, as it results in a whopping one extra Fire IV at the expense of staying in umbral ice longer and potentially playing russian roulette with mana ticks, and even in AoE situations works out rather weirdly due to the intermixing of single-target spells in an AoE rotation. Firstly I'd have Freeze generate umbral hearts while under the effect of enochian the same way Blizzard IV does, secondly I'd probably make umbral hearts reduce the cast time of fire spells the way umbral ice does, which while not directly influencing DPS assists greatly in dealing with forced movement and being able to better weave buffs or procs between spells.

Enochian being a trait is mostly just a QoL "why is this even a button any more" change, which is always nice, and the minor increase in duration to AF/UI is to accommodate how much BLM's rotation was tightened down since HW.

[Kabooa]

The thing is, that doesn't change the relative strength of the job. The QoL issues presented here don't really occur as the mastery of the job increases. The Umbral Heart change would be welcome, but again, its impact would be fairly minor. Forced movement phases are planned in advance, with minor ones covered by sharp and swift, and major ones covered by Triple.

Easing someone's path up Black mage's stairs is fine, but you're still a few steps short of the next floor.

[Karshan]

To give an honest answer here, I think we should also discuss what the real issue is.

Is it : what does BLM lack, OR what does BLM lack to be more accepted in parties ?

Because when I play a BLM yeah raw dmg would feel good, but I don't think it will do good in the second case, and here is why : people are as "selfish" as us. I firmly believe that, aside from god tier rosters going for WF, most comp choices in ok-tier rosters are just veiled epenis expectations on fflogs. And if my suspicions are right, they won't care that their BLM does 7000 instead of 6500, but they will care that they do 6000 and not 6500 because they took in a BLM over a BRD or MCH.

And if you can't change humans' hearts and secret desire to be shining, you better give BLM tools to help others shine, because that's what others seek (as someone said, if check is at 5.5k, numbers above are here for the competition, and competition means avidity for higher results).

So yeah, choice of reason would be raw damage, alas I believe most players are secretly disappointed when not buffed enough, and in that case utility would help BLM better.

It's just my 2 cents cause I'm nowhere near your levels of BLM mastery, but you don't need BLM mastery to understand what drives people ;P

[HaroldSaxon]

The thing is, that doesn't change the relative strength of the job. The QoL issues presented here don't really occur as the mastery of the job increases. The Umbral Heart change would be welcome, but again, its impact would be fairly minor. Forced movement phases are planned in advance, with minor ones covered by sharp and swift, and major ones covered by Triple.

Easing someone's path up Black mage's stairs is fine, but you're still a few steps short of the next floor.

There's still some QoL that really should be looked at though. Mana tick issues in Umbral ice should not be a thing at all. Other than that, the rest are design issues.

Umbral hearts are a pretty bleh mechanic. Right now I only use Blizzard 4 if I need to due to either mana ticks or because i'm running a high spellspeed build. If my foul timer is looking good and i've got a thundercloud proc, I try to skip it.

Foul really should not be on a static timer, but on a "number of B4's/F4's cast" - which would also help "buff" Blizzard IV indirectly. Then you have the issue of using certain OGCD's on demand. We lose more than any other class when using Apoc/Addle/Manashift on demand (the first two because of weaving penalties, the latter because we need to wait until UI and weave it). We're reliant on being in either the right spot in our rotation and/or having a proc to use them without penalty.

I would also suggest that manashift needs buffing because quite frankly compared to Refresh its a joke.

To give an honest answer here, I think we should also discuss what the real issue is.

Is it : what does BLM lack, OR what does BLM lack to be more accepted in parties ?

Because when I play a BLM yeah raw dmg would feel good, but I don't think it will do good in the second case, and here is why : people are as "selfish" as us. I firmly believe that, aside from god tier rosters going for WF, most comp choices in ok-tier rosters are just veiled epenis expectations on fflogs. And if my suspicions are right, they won't care that their BLM does 7000 instead of 6500, but they will care that they do 6000 and not 6500 because they took in a BLM over a BRD or MCH.

And if you can't change humans' hearts and secret desire to be shining, you better give BLM tools to help others shine, because that's what others seek (as someone said, if check is at 5.5k, numbers above are here for the competition, and competition means avidity for higher results).

So yeah, choice of reason would be raw damage, alas I believe most players are secretly disappointed when not buffed enough, and in that case utility would help BLM better.

It's just my 2 cents cause I'm nowhere near your levels of BLM mastery, but you don't need BLM mastery to understand what drives people ;P

It depends on the situation. For progressing new fights - BLM lacks the raise capabilities of SMN, and RDM is absolutely broken in that regard. It is also reliant on knowing the fight to make the most of your DPS and your strats need to be different in some cases to take into account BLM.

For clear runs - as well as the strat issue, BLM lacks contribution to raid DPS. I'm not saying it should get utility - i'm saying that the personal DPS it provides should equal to what other classes provide in raid DPS. Furthermore, there are a lack of single target/role specific buffs that suit BLM - DRG single target buff (only one in the game!) suits classes in their burst windows (as they are short duration and high potency) - which means currently BLM is only the option on the 2nd/4th/6th etc tethers. Regarding role specific buffs - there is nothing like Disembowel for casters that has 100% uptime (and honestly these kind of buffs should be deleted).

Outside of that, duel caster comps are not ideal because of the main stat class party buff's you lose (tanks losing the STR buff for instance) and the potential to lose such powerful utility that NIN, Bard or Dragoon provide if you replace one of them.

The sad fact is - BLM has been in its best spot in a long long time - and we're still not close to being apart of the big three. Meanwhile, MNK and SMN outclass us, and MCH probably adds the same raidwide damage while having free movement and massive utility

[Remedi]

Mana shift is such a joke that I don't get why some ppl insist that it's weaknesses can be covered by other role actions.
I don't even understand why a role action would need the help of another to be functional

[Kabooa]

Mana shift is such a joke that I don't get why some ppl insist that it's weaknesses can be covered by other role actions.
I don't even understand why a role action would need the help of another to be functional

This is kind of my primary thing. I find the relative strength of the Jobs fine, but the Caster Role is heavily lacking in the Role abilities. Technically melee as well, but they directly boost Ranged and Tanks, so...