BLM could use some button consolidation

[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.