BLM could use some button consolidation

[Cabalabob]

A lot of BLM buttons seem to have become redundant lately and it feels like a few of them could be combined into one thing.

Blizzard 2 could upgrade to freeze, once you get freeze it completely replaces blizzard 2 in every way so there’s no point in them having separate buttons.

The same could be said for fire 2 and flare, but that might need a little rework.

Fire 4 and blizzard 4 are stance locked to astral fire and umbral ice so they could be consolidated into one button that changes based on your stance.

Blizzard could upgrade into blizzard 3 and like with fire 2, fire could upgrade into fire 3 with a little rework.

It just feels like a lot of BLM buttons are just taking up space right now when we don’t even use them for anything other than being level synced. It would be nice to see them combined or upgraded.

[FrejyaAthenes]

Blizzard I should upgrade into Blizzard III.
Leylines should become Between the Lines while active.

Those are the major two that come to mind.

[Zyneste]

Skills that can be consolidated in 5.0 [Proc/Summon Skills Consolidation]

BLM-

• Scathe becomes Xenoglossy under the effect of Polygot.
  
  
  
  
• Leylines becomes Between the Lines after its used like Geirskogul and Nastrond.
  
  
  
  
  
• Blizzard IV becomes Fire IV while under the effect of Astral Fire (or some varient of the two.)
  
  
  

These suggestions don't outright remove the skills, just replaces them under certain conditions created by lockouts. Scathe isn't restricted by xenoglossy, but I honestly cannot think of a time where you might scathe instead of xenoglossy, outside of saving up for an aoe phase, but for some reason are down to just scathe? lol

[Taranok]

The issue with fire 2 and flare is that, until 68, fire 2 is absolutely part of your aoe rotation. I'm all for Flare replacing it, but the aoe rotation will flat out need to be redesigned. Which I'm also all for because it's a bit of a mess between 50 and 72.

As a note, Enochian can also be rolled into fire/blizzard 4. You can't F4/B4 without Eno-chan, so it just makes sense.

[Acidblood]

BLM already has less buttons than most jobs, though I do agree from a QoL perspective that Ley Lines and Between the Lines really need to be a single button. B4 and F4 I would prefer to keep separate, but that is more personal preference.

The issue with rolling Blizzard into Blizzard III, or Fire into Fire III, is that B3/F3 have vastly longer cast times and higher MP costs (i.e. you don't want to be casting F3 in the middle of your F4 rotation), and honestly they are fine as is from a game play perspective (though I can see why the names may be misleading).

As for Fire II, it desperately needs as rework / upgrade; higher potency, shorter cast time, lower MP cost, all of the above, I don't care because as it is it's simply not worth using (in the general case) and leaves the BLM pre-level 68 AoE rotation feeling super clunky (assuming you don't just spam Freeze + Thundercloud which is basically as good if not better than trying to do a Fire II AoE rotation).

[Orbus]

It would be nice to have obvious counterpart spells like fire4/blizz4 and laylines/between the lines to share a single button since they literally cannot be used outside of their intended context.
I'm not going to lose sleep over it though, I have enough buttons for everything.
I've also had since heavensward to get used to BLM too, not that it's so 2deep4u complex that you need three expansions to learn it.

[Seraphor]

I think I'd rather keep B4 and F4 separate, as it feels right to have fire and ice spells in separate parts of my hotbars.

But:
Leylines and Between the lines
B2 and Freeze
B1 and Umbral Soul
And maybe F2 and Despair.

These would make sense to me.

[Taranok]

I think I'd rather keep B4 and F4 separate, as it feels right to have fire and ice spells in separate parts of my hotbars.

But:
Leylines and Between the lines
B2 and Freeze
B1 and Umbral Soul
And maybe F2 and Despair.

These would make sense to me.

There are legitimate reasons to keep Blizzard 1 in the rotation, since you sometimes might want to extend your blizzard phase and using US instead of B1 would cost you some damage (in a situation that already costs you damage anyways). It's largely, but not entirely, redundant though.

I'd sooner completely redesign scathe and replace Umbral Soul with Scathe than replace Blizzard 1 with it. But as another post suggests, replacing Despair with Umbral Soul in UI would make more sense in general.

Furthermore, I'd also just push for upgrading Blizzard and Fire 1 into Blizzard and Fire 3 and just roll the proc nature for more free casts into it.

And something I'd personally like to see, especially because of the level 74 trait. Just turn Sharpcast into a trait. Make it guarantee that you get 1 free fire 1 proc per AF cycle, and have it increase the proc rate of Thunder spells, and just remove the oGCD from the class. It's almost always used on fire 1s anyways by most black mages who aren't trying to eek out the absolute best damage possible (which proccing firestarter often is better anyways), and gives more thunder procs, all for removing an oGCD that, at this point, I wish would just press itself every time I entered AF, even for aoe rotations.

[Archwizard]

Furthermore, I'd also just push for upgrading Blizzard and Fire 1 into Blizzard and Fire 3 and just roll the proc nature for more free casts into it.

I don't understand how you can simultaneously defend Blizzard 1's niche use in the rotation as a means to refresh UI before US, while also pushing for it to upgrade into a spell with a longer cast time or (even if it's the spell I most often Swiftcast 'cuz I got greedy with Fire IVs, or needed to move and keep AF going) Fire 1 into a more expensive one.

Furthermore, while I'm sure we can agree that BLM is braindead easy before level 60 (and probably even after that) due to never needing to worry about AF and UI upkeep, permanently upgrading Fire 1 into Fire 3 completely removes Firestarter, and even with a "chance to proc itself for free" replacement to FS like Thundercloud, reduces the entire rotation to a mere 3 buttons between levels 34 and 58.

I already hate the MSQ roulette enough as it is without being damned to that.

Instead, as I have previously stated, I would argue for Blizzard 1 to gain a trait at level 15 to make it an instant cast, instead of gaining Scathe -- and possibly (though I would debate this) even an upgrade to this trait to make Fire 1 instant around or after level 60 (so it better fits with Fire IV). Umbral Soul still would retain its niche as a means to refresh UI without a target and to generate Umbral Hearts, but Blizzard 1 would be more applicable than Scathe as a means to keep UI up on-the-go, on top of its greater PPS output.

I'd almost even be willing to argue for a higher spell speed and lower GCD in UI too, just so it doesn't feel like we only have 2 casts before switching.

[Mugear_bahamut]

I second this! BLM has button bloat despite using only about 3/4 of them in your rotation.