BLM flow and instant Cast logic problems

[TheDarkMagician]

BLM instant casts and instant procs Arent Actually instant And they Should be off the GCD




It makes no sense ... when the BLM has the Cast time of a spell 2.6 seconds and the GCD of my BLM is 2.31 seconds
instant casting of the spell Gives you :::: 2.6 - 2.31 = 0.29 of Time.
that is how fast you cast An "instant" spell Over a normal cast ...only 0.29 Sec Faster.

The instant Cast spells all they actually do is lock your character from casting any spells wasting about 2.5 seconds of your rotation when they are spoused to be Side castes between spells and the BLM is a very time-specific job casting an instant Cast Lightning or fire III is just a waste of time over a Fire IV if it wasn't actually instant.

why in the middle of my rotation should I Lock about 2.31 seconds of my 15 secs Astral Fire to cast Lightning that interrupts my whole cast flow and deals inferior damage and can easily make me drop the astral fire faze... IF NOT to be only a side spell That should Be Actually Instant OR EVEN in umbral Ice Faze it slows the whole casting flow of the job and Just Feels So Clunky.


TLDR: the instant cast isn't actually instant It's only about 0.29 secs faster than a normal Cast For the sole reason that it's Chained to a GCD that renders the "Instant" cast ... Not so instant



the BLM is by far one of the hardest classes to play in high-end raids and be useful I can swear most of the time you are running around spamming umbral soul and trying to keep alive while juggling your 15-sec timer that if run out you need to spend about 10 to 8 seconds starting the rotation again



BLM is a mess in both game design and gameplay flow ... a time-based job that has many spells and mechanics that contradict its gameplay flow and whole idea making it one of
the most annoying painfully clunky classes to play and it needs to be fixed

alongside the instant cast problem, there are many mechanics in the BLM that are clunky and contradicting but this instant cast spells thing is the most annoying one so far

[Mansion]

I'm no BLM pro but from what I read from you I gather that you might be misunderstanding the point of instant casts entirely in BLM's (and perhaps all casters') design.

Now that the stances are 15 seconds long and more comfy, there is no real way you can drop them by refreshing your Thunder DoT as long as you know that you can safely cast Fire 1 (or 3 with a proc) to refresh Astral Fire before it ends. Thundercloud offers some flexibility on when you want to refresh your DoT and offers a GCD where you can move or weave, that's it. It might seem to be a waste compared to a cast of Fire IV, but DoT uptime does compensate for when you cannot DPS much or at all (when moving for a mechanic for instance, and even then you have abilities like triple cast and Swiftcast to avoid "spamming umbral soul", which you should not do in an encounter unless the boss is not targetable)
Instant spells are weaving opportunities and movement tools, and arguably Xenoglossy is a burst opportunity with some flexibility to it. If you lose your AF or UI because of instant casts, you might be doing something wrong with the overall rotation of BLM.

I think BLM is currently at its highest, design wise with Shadowbringers? From what I read and my current experience of it at least. I don't think it's a Time-based job, but rather a job where optimization lies in planning ahead any mechanic / movement. There's nothing in its design preventing BLM to perform, and it actually has efficient tools to do so.

[TheDarkMagician]

you can easily drop the astral fire faze if you cast an instant lightning ... in high-end fights, even the best BLMs cant keep with the boss attacks and mechanics and maintain a real focus on the astral fire faze at the same time
Most of the time that you lose your astral fire faze is after casting an instant spell because of the GCD lock of you other spells ... BLM is a cast based job haveing a GCD on such a class that already spends 2.6 seconds doing the abilities is in itself an error in the design of the class and let me tell you... BLM ISNT one of the best classes to play high end it's even statically the lowest job to complete high-end trails and raids ...the lowest

[KalinOrthos]

Uh. Instant casts aren't meant to be placeholders for hard spellcasting. They're there to give you the ability to either move, snap refresh, or weave (which BLM doesn't really have any weaves apart from buffs). Firestarter and Thundercloud are nice because they allow you SOME ability to move without sacrificing all of your damage. It's why Scathe, as bad as it is, should probably be on your bars somewhere, just to have your GCD continually moving when you are, as a last resort.

If you're willing, I'd say give Red Mage and Summoner a spin to get a better understanding of what instant casts will do to your kit, just how much they add to your mobility and weaving potential.

[TheDarkMagician]

that is adapting to the problem not fixing it ...and its called instant for a reason it INSTANT ... which is both contradicted and ruined by the GCD that is basically the same (time-wise) as casting the spell normally making it basically useless if not just to cast a spell when moving ... once every 60 seconds in a fight that you can't even stand still in for even 8 seconds without and Aoe or a mechanic interrupting your rotation

[KalinOrthos]

Th...then don't use your Firestarter and Thundercloud procs when you don't have to move? Instead continue to cast Fire 4 and Fire 1 to refresh Eno and Astral Fire stacks, as you should be doing, and when you have to move, use that instant Fire 3 or Thunder 3 you have waiting in the wings so you can deal some damage when you move? Or Triplecast to cast Fire 4/1 on the run? Black Mage is the hardest class to optimize just because movement is their arch-nemesis, but it's really not that hard to understand why instant-casts are integral to your kit.

[TheDarkMagician]

am sorry this reply in its own shows that you don't understand the flow of the BLM ... I don't Get to cast whenever I want there is a timer stuck on my forehead to keep the fire or ice faze alive ... ... AND LOCKING my character (which my main issue here) for two seconds for a fake "instant" cast is my problem ... playing a black mage you can barely finish a rotation even a single time in the high-end content AND it's CLEAR that instant spell intent in their design is to be as the name suggests instant ... this is my main argument the GCD makes it not so instant ...

[Lastelli]

Wow...this is wrong on so many levels I don't even know what to say and it just shows that you don't understand the role of procs in the BLM rotation and how to manage your enochian and fire/ice timers...in other words, you have a poor understanding of BLM's general rotation and priorities.

Truly, asking for more oGCD stuff on BLM has to be one of the most absurd things I've read on this forum.

I can swear most of the time you are running around spamming umbral soul and trying to keep alive while juggling your 15-sec timer that if run out you need to spend about 10 to 8 seconds starting the rotation again

Now I see where the problem lies...

[TheDarkMagician]

you see ... this what I mean adapting to a bad clunky mechanic instead of wanting it to be better ... I have easily over 2000 ++ hours playing ONLY BLM AND ONLY THAT ... I don't care to play anything else am a caster player in this game and many many other MMOs
every time I try to speak about the BLM I get flooded by many people who don't even main the class comeing to speak about it ... am sure your lvling experience was good in the BLM but if you ever tried to play it more then just to max lvl you will understand the little things that makes it one of the most underperforming jobs (high end) in this game ... people are easily blinded by the damage thinking this job is doing great ... I LOVE casters I love that style of gameplay ...but in a class that has Cast time having GCD at all makes no sense

Adapting to bad design doesn't make it non-exicitent ... SURE you can sleep on a hard rock like a master ... but it's still a painfully annoying rock you are sleeping on

[Rilifane]

I think you're seriously misunderstanding the basics of BLM and some things in general.
Instant casts and off globals are two completely different things and have a different purpose. Instant casts are casts that are on global cooldown BUT have no casttime - like Xeno, procs and any triple/ swift casts. They offer you a double weaving window and mobility for one gcd.
Off globals are a completely different thing. No skill in this game was ever turned from a regular cast into an off global via buff. Off globals can be weaved during your global cooldown and while the BLM doesn't have many skills that need weaving, without instant casts you'd constantly be clipping. And THAT is the actual "locking your character in animation and preventing them from casting".

Triplecast/ Swiftcast doubles as dps gain when used on casts longer than your gcd and mobility tool. The ~0,3sec you gain by having three instant Fire IV compared to casting it not only is a dps gain, it also gives you almost 1sec of additional breathing room to get more casts done before you have to refresh AF. And the mobility + 3 double weaving windows are fantastic. It's the reason why the opener works as well as it does, because you can pot, throw LL and (if neccessary) use Addle/ MW to help mitigate damage if the boss starts with an aoe.

BLM is the class with the least ogcds and weaving windows (only counting dps classes here), so asking for instant casts (which offer said windows) to be turned into ogcds (which need said windows) is a pretty good way to completely screw BLM gameplay.
The challenge of BLM is to maintain your steady rotation while keeping uptime and handling mechanics and I can assure you, it's quite possible. BLM performs really well. The only boss where I found many mechanics a nuisance was E3s.

I'm not sure what you did with your 2000++ hours of playing only BLM but leaning the basics of the class apparently wasn't part of it. And stating that people who know what they're talking about (just because they haven't tagged their main class as BLM in forums doesn't mean they have no knowledge of the class) makes you seem like a troll.
BLM definitely doesn't need any changes in gameplay. It flows and performs well, escpecially at max level and has enough tools to react to mechanics but not too many which would take away the biggest challenge of playing BLM well. Some classes have more difficult rotations but are easier to handle in practice, with BLM it's simply the opposite.