why does enochian exist for black mage

[megaowen]

This is something I would love to know its literally a skill that makes no sense lore wise or gameplay wise sure it has a 5% buff to magic, But other then that why does it exist, Its description says it lets you cast ice IV (no mention of fire IV which has to tell you itself) along with tells you about the 5% increase, But why do we need it to cast fire or ice IV at all lore wise its just fire/ice with more power put into it and we can use thunder IV without enochian so what possible reason would we need enochian for, Since if we can cast thunder IV without it logically we wouldn't need it for fire or ice IV, It just seems like enochian was slapped there to fill a skill slot we could of been given a skill that gives the black mage survivability god know it needs it after we lost the ability to use media and got drain instead which is a skill so abysmally bad it will never be used its cool down is to long and it heals you for barely anything I honestly hope enochian gets removed and replaced with something that makes sense and maybe drain gets either a buff or replaced with something that actually lets a black mage survive especially when it comes to storm blood I am a black mage main recently boosted some classes so I could actually do story because I knew black mage wouldnt survive going through story because no survivability so I know how bad it can be even trying to do story missions as a black mage hopefully we get survivability

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Because nearly every other job has a buff or multiple buffs it has to keep up, so why shouldn't blackmage?

[Kabooa]

It didn't make the cut in SB, it probably will in Not-Garlemald.

Also Black Mage does story just fine.

[Zerathor]

Blm would be the most boring job of the game without eno. And blm survivability is fine through the story. If you're doing your rotation properly, everything just dies. Don't forget sleep is also very useful in open world/story missions.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Ya'll only read "gameplay wise" but he asked for lore as well.

To sum up gameplay really fast, Enochian as a mechanic is meant to encourage maxing out Fire IV usage while still maintaining the buff with Blizzard III, Fire III and Fire I. Foul is a bonus for doing this for 30s straight and building as many fouls as possible is an integral part for Lv70 BLM. The key-idea is maxing risk (maxing Fire IV that dont refresh astral fire) and preserving it in time (Fire I / Blizzard III).

To give you an idea about lore and why Thundaja (Thunder IV) is not affected:

Disclaimer - I am not a lore veteran, a good bit is interpretation.

Black Mages attune their whole body to an aether aspect (Astral Fire / Umbral Ice), enhancing the powers of spells with equal nature - a process that is incredibly dangerous to do without possessing a protection against it, which is the Soul of the Black Mage - the gem stone you have earned at Lv30, something you see in the HW quest lines, novice Black Mages without a stone burned from inside-out. Thunder spells however do not have nor require an aspect associated with them due to having a different aetherial structure than Fire and Blizzard.

To further the topic onto Enochian - Enochian is a technique from the Mhachi civilization to harness more aether into a single spell without risks on the body - a catalyst basically allowing you to use more fire- or ice-aspected aether at once but with the risk of not maintaining it properly (doesn't refresh AF / UI stacks), giving access to Firaja (Fire IV) and Blizzaja (Blizzard IV). Since Thunder spells are of different nature altogether and do not put strain on the body the way fire and ice do, Thundaja (Thunder IV) can be used even without the protective catalyst Enochian since there is no risk involved with it, thus no limitation in the game either.

Just my own interpretation of the Mhachi spell structure.

[F_Maximillian]

Enochian is a term to describe angelic/mystical languages, it isn't uncommon for magic users to have to tap into a higher level of knowledge in order to use more powerful spells so enochian fits perfectly into the lore. As for survival there's almost nothing threatening in the open world so unless you're trying to solo dungeons on-level (while admirable is not advisable) survival shouldn't be an issue as well.

[Jandor]

It should probably be a trait, start up the counter automatically when you have stacks of AF/UI.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

It should probably be a trait, start up the counter automatically when you have stacks of AF/UI.

Which removes the initial risk of messing it up.

I'd rather see use of Enochian after it is applied like extending AF / UI timers when used or something else.

[Kurando]

I would like to see a permanent Astral or Umbral status where one of them is always up (unless you died or clicked it off) but you can easily switch between them using Transpose or the relevant Fire/Blizz magic. As you switch between the statuses successfully Enochain (which is now trait) provides stacks which unlocks Foul (so to avoid any BLM just standing still and getting Foul after 30secs for not doing anything). Tier 1 of Fire/Blizz will seem dated come 5.0, so losing them from having constant Tier 4 shouldn't be too broken.

The pros are BLMs aren't punished as much if they don't switch statuses in time or when we have fat fingers and press the wrong action and we end up having to build up Eno/Hearts etc again, plus any long moving mechanics where you feel every single thing is targeting you. The cons it could make the job a bit too easy, and some other things might need a little rebalancing.

[Zerathor]

I would like to see a permanent Astral or Umbral status where one of them is always up (unless you died or clicked it off) but you can easily switch between them using Transpose or the relevant Fire/Blizz magic. As you switch between the statuses successfully Enochain (which is now trait) provides stacks which unlocks Foul (so to avoid any BLM just standing still and getting Foul after 30secs for not doing anything). Tier 1 of Fire/Blizz will seem dated come 5.0, so losing them from having constant Tier 4 shouldn't be too broken.

The pros are BLMs aren't punished as much if they don't switch statuses in time or when we have fat fingers and press the wrong action and we end up having to build up Eno/Hearts etc again, plus any long moving mechanics where you feel every single thing is targeting you. The cons it could make the job a bit too easy, and some other things might need a little rebalancing.

Pretty much every job has to deal with some kind of buff ballance mini game. Blm's is pretty easy to deal with. The only challenge you have as blm is knowing how to move in fights, but aside from that, it's the most straight forward rotation in the game.