BLM Utility ideas!

[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