BLM QoL suggestion

[Saerireth]

This is something that I am kind of surprised hasn't been implemented so far, but would it be possible to have fire IV and blizzard IV be tied into the same action (similar to how Verflare/verholy were tied to verthunder/veraero respectively), depending on which aspect you were currently attuned to?

Eg if I had any astral fire, button would show Fire IV, but if I had umbral ice, then button would show Blizzard IV.

My action bar is already a mess and I'm ending up having to make up new keybinds I generally don't use, and even though this would only free up 1 more button, this would help (and tbh, make sense as well).

Thoughts?

[Numenor1379]

Combining Enochian, F4 and B4 would work. But honestly you shouldn't have an issue with BLMs hotbar setup.

I've got 2x F3s and 2x Enochians on my crossbars and still only use 36 spots.

In case you didn't know, but B2 and Lucid Dreaming are 100% useless and can be deleted to free up two spots.

[Warlyx]

Combining Enochian, F4 and B4 would work. But honestly you shouldn't have an issue with BLMs hotbar setup.

I've got 2x F3s and 2x Enochians on my crossbars and still only use 36 spots.

In case you didn't know, but B2 and Lucid Dreaming are 100% useless and can be deleted to free up two spots.

Lucid can be used out of combat , and when rezzed to speed up mp regen i guess? :S

[JowyAtreides]

Lucid can be used out of combat , and when rezzed to speed up mp regen i guess? :S

Transposing or casting into umbral ice does the job infinitely better in both these situations.

The only (possible) benefit I can think of, is an extra cast of Fire 4, Despair or Flare. I suspect the latter 2 would result in a dps loss though in waiting for the mana regen tick to occur.

[Acidblood]

The only (possible) benefit I can think of, is an extra cast of Fire 4, Despair or Flare. I suspect the latter 2 would result in a dps loss though in waiting for the mana regen tick to occur.

MP doesn't regen in AF, even with Lucid... the only use I can think of is if you are in combat, on 0 MP, and without stacks; having Lucid in this case would reduce the wait before being able to cast B1/3.

NB: Lucid used to be quite useful as an enmity drop, but since that's no longer a thing...

[Shurrikhan]

Combining Enochian, F4 and B4 would work. But honestly you shouldn't have an issue with BLMs hotbar setup.

I could never understand this argument. Not having it won't kill us, so we shouldn't bother having a significant increase to convenience that would cost us literally nothing?


Not to say that's what's being argued, precisely, above, but I see this all the time over BLM threads and I just can't make sense of it.

[Taranok]

While you're at it, you can also consider merging F4/B4 with Enochian as well, so Enochian removes itself from the bar when it's up. And I'd consider removing Sharpcast as an oGCD and changing it into a trait that increases the proc rate of fire 1 to 100% once every 30 seconds or just flat out 100%, but require level 60 instead of 52, and then a second trait that increases the proc chance of Thunder to, say, 12-15% per tic and 4-5% per tic for aoe. Sharpcast feels really redundant on a 30s cooldown, existing to insist upon itself, and its nature of working on 3 separate abilities is confusing to less experienced BLMs, muddying the class a tiny amount. Giving the guarantee to Fire 1 frees up mobility during the AF phase, makes it vastly more consistent, and obviously removes needing to press an oGCD every cycle on a class that has relative difficulty pressing oGCDs.

Blizzard 2 can also be upgraded to be, oh, 70-80 potency and instead of a point blank aoe, a targeted aoe like freeze, and then automatically upgrade into freeze as well, and that's a useless ability fixed and another button removed.

I'm not sure what else I'd tweak at this point. Those are the major offenders. I'd consider collapsing the ST-exclusive and AoE-exclusive abilities like flare/despair and foul/xenoglossy back into one, but that may not be necessary with bar space secured again, and the only other QoL improvements I'd consider would involve dropping things like Aspect Mastery, Blizzard 4/Fire 4/Enochian down to level 30 so that players can use the "true" BLM rotation earlier. And, you know, aspect mastery is just really nice and why is it level 72 devs?

[Acidblood]

To Add:
- Merge Lay Lines and Between the Lines into the same button.
- Do something with Fire II (e.g. halve the MP cost, reduce the cast time to 2s, and add a damage buff around level 50); pre-level 68 (Enhanced Umbral Heart) AoE feels completely awful.
- Allow Thundercloud Procs to accumulate in a stack, or double the duration (to 30s or more)... 30s Sharpcast is nice, but Thundercloud Procs still feel too random; i.e. most go to waste, but you still never seem to have one when you need it.
- Make Aetherial Manipulation a short forward dash when no target is selected / specified (with a target it stays the same as it is now); i.e. make it useful outside of group content and / or without a macro.

[Seraphor]

To Add:
- Merge Lay Lines and Between the Lines into the same button.
- Do something with Fire II (e.g. halve the MP cost, reduce the cast time to 2s, and add a damage buff around level 50); pre-level 68 (Enhanced Umbral Heart) AoE feels completely awful.
- Allow Thundercloud Procs to accumulate in a stack, or double the duration (to 30s or more)... 30s Sharpcast is nice, but Thundercloud Procs still feel too random; i.e. most go to waste, but you still never seem to have one when you need it.
- Make Aetherial Manipulation a short forward dash when no target is selected / specified (with a target it stays the same as it is now); i.e. make it useful outside of group content and / or without a macro.

Agreed with AoE, Fire II feels really clunky, just a somewhat pointless filler to use your first two umbral hearts on before you can Flare.

As for Thundercloud procs, it's always a DPS gain to just use it as soon as it pops up, even if you're in AF. Well, presuming using it won't cause you to drop Enochian.

[Acidblood]

As for Thundercloud procs, it's always a DPS gain to just use it as soon as it pops up, even if you're in AF. Well, presuming using it won't cause you to drop Enochian.

Off Topic:
Based on what math?

Please correct me if I have gotten something wrong, however; from the math I've run:
Thundercloud (TC) = 70 + (40 * 8) = 390 Potency / 2.5s = 156 PPS
Fire I (F1) = 180 * 1.8 (in AF3) = 324 Potency / 2.5s = 129.6 PPS
Fire IV (F4) = 300 * 1.8 (in AF3) = 540 Potency / 2.8s = 192.8 PPS
Despair = 380 * 1.8 (in AF) = 684 Potency / 3.0s = 228 PPS

You have MP (with UHx3) for 7 Fire spells in AF; so ideally 7xF4 (average 192.8 PPS) ...
However, timing dictates that one of those needs to be a F1 (to refresh AF); thus we have the standard 3xF4 + F1 + 3xF4 (average 183.7 PPS) ...
There is extra room in AF now though, which allows for a TC proc (ideally somewhere in the middle for 100% Thunder up time) plus a Despair at the end, so 3xF4 + F1 + TC + 3xF4 + Despair (average 185.6 PPS) ...
Now you could fit in some more TC procs (either side of Despair), however; with Thundercloud being lower PPS than the average for the AF phase is this really worth it?

One thing is for sure though, sacrificing F4's to fit in extra TC procs is a definite DPS loss.

On Topic:
Thus my suggestion that Thundercloud procs be able to be stored, either for longer or in a stack, until the point that they are actually beneficial.