Chad Mages What else would you want right now for our class

[Shurrikhan]

Sounds like a plan. It just seems like the only kind of semi-utility tool BLM would realistically be "allowed", since it wouldn't directly impact output.

Damn this really makes me want to see Gravity revised accordingly... Pull them in and up, and then throw and squash them down...

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery! I do like the idea of Aspect Mastery being replaced by the ability to charge up Freeze or B3... though that also seems to fly in the face of your removal of Aspect Mastery, no?

Yes and no? The idea is that 80-90% of the time Flare is still Flare in that it's a distinct choice, rather than an obligatory Fire IV+ used as your last GCD in AF. In the remaining 10-20%, that "screw choices and just give me more damage!!!" feel of Aspect Mastery is now instead paired to the "Give me more damage!!!" CD. And it feels like a pretty good fit, imo. It also offers a greater feeling of synergy between Fire IV and the other Fire spells, given the change to Firestarter.

Put simply, I'm fine with losing options for a brief time in a sort of cackling mad mage moment; I'm just not okay with losing them as a basis of "new" gameplay. And, for me, an obligatory swap is not a rotational "choice", even if it may better vary which abilities see use over time.

Also, to clarify:

• As you suspected, Astral Hearts can't be spent by skills that generate them. I should have made that more clear, but I was typing hurriedly between shifts.
  
  
• As per description, it can serve either beneficial function of AF, making Ice spells cost increasingly less (to negative 50% cost, which would synergize well with the now far more expensive Freeze) or increasing Fire damage by a further 75% (given the initial effects of Enochian).
  
  
• You'd really want to avoid using up the +75% damage on an F1 if you could avoid it. But, the revised Firestarter should make that possible. You can Fire IV x4 to ensure the proc, given the added relative potency; or Fire IVx3 to max Astral Hearts, Fire III to nuke, repeat; or you can Sharp-Fire, Fire IVx3, spend the auto-Firestarter but not the progress towards your next, Fire IVx3 again, use the normally built Firestarter; or even Fire IVx3 to ensure a Fire's worth of Firestarter which will, given the added relative potency from Astral Hearts, guarantee a Fire III's worth of Firestarter, then Fire IVx3, spend on Fire III this time, etc. Plenty of timing options.
  
  Tbf, I'm not dead set on the generation, only that I want to see a way to make some disgustingly strong nukes from things we don't normally see.