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.

[Mugear_bahamut]

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

[Archwizard]

• Combine Enochian, Fire IV and Blizzard IV into one button. You'll never Enochian if it's already up and each IV spell is phase-exclusive and Enochian-dependent anyway.
• Combine Umbral Soul and Despair into one button. A weirder choice sure, but again, each is phase-exclusive so there is never a scenario where you'll want access to both simultaneously. I would argue fully for even giving us the ability to just swap our bars completely based on which phase we're in, which we could theoretically do with a good macro.
• Fire II should upgrade into Flare. Current math shows you'll get more PPS out of spamming Freeze than alternating with Fire II to an empty MP bar. There is zero reason to even touch Fire II before we even get Flare. Just swap already.
• Upgrade Blizzard II to Freeze as well. Same reasons, plus Blizzard II's point-blank range is counter to literally every other spell in our kit.
• Have Between the Lines replace Ley Lines while it's active, until Ley Lines fades.
• Remove Scathe and just have Blizzard I become instant at that level. Blizzard I already serves no practical purpose after we get Blizzard III, at least this way we get an instant that will continue cycling UI, which we can semi-do with Umbral Soul so clearly it's not a concern at max level. We already avoid Scathe during AF phase so this is the natural conclusion.

[AlphaFox]

I agree with leylines and between the lines. Though F4 and B4, if that change got made I'd still have 2 of them as it feels better to have my ice spells on shift modifier