BLM - Scathe adjustment suggestion

[Doctor_Minime]

As we all know, scathe has kinda fallen to the wayside. With all the awesome content forcing frequent movements, it's a huge challenge (at least for me) to manage Enochian and not drop astral fire, while still following the ABC rule. While I'm still working on the "git gud" aspect of knowing the fights and pre-positioning, I would also like to submit a suggestion to adjust scathe to help deal with frequent movement.

As a side note, I also think scathe uses way too much MP and needs an adjustment there (maybe 0 mp? )

I think use of scathe should have an additional effect that will grant an instant cast of another ability. I submit that it should proc either a swiftcast-like effect, or have it grant a F3/T3 proc. This obviously would require slight adjustments, but I think that forcing it to involve 2 gcds would make it overall be a dps loss to use it (and hence balancing this). This would be a similar concept to using Ruin 2 on Summoner/Scholar when needing to move.

What are your thoughts?

EDIT: My suggestion is purely for expanding movement options as currently the rule is just to move and eat the partial GCD loss or hope you have procs up.

[HeulGDarian]

im pretty sure scathe is there in case you ever lose enochian, something that you shouldnt ever do. Besides that maybe for prior to enochian levels. idk dude its not like making scathe better will just make it more usable the rotation is already fluid enough and has everything it needs especially now with xenoglossy letting you be even more mobile.
Im of the philosophy that if something performs as intended you dont need to overupgrade it nor remove it. A fridge is nice, do i want it to have tv and internet functions no not really.

[Doctor_Minime]

im pretty sure scathe is there in case you ever lose enochian, something that you shouldnt ever do. Besides that maybe for prior to enochian levels. idk dude its not like making scathe better will just make it more usable the rotation is already fluid enough and has everything it needs especially now with xenoglossy letting you be even more mobile.
Im of the philosophy that if something performs as intended you dont need to overupgrade it nor remove it. A fridge is nice, do i want it to have tv and internet functions no not really.

Right now scathe is completely useless end game. It is a dps loss to even hit it while moving (assuming your movement is minimal). I'm not looking to add scathe to the rotation, but my suggestion is to provide better ways of movement during fights (while maintaining GCD uptime) as currently we're relying on having triple/swiftcast up or procs and it's clunky at best.

[Eliadil]

Right now scathe is completely useless end game. It is a dps loss to even hit it while moving (assuming your movement is minimal). I'm not looking to add scathe to the rotation, but my suggestion is to provide better ways of movement during fights (while maintaining GCD uptime) as currently we're relying on having triple/swiftcast up or procs and it's clunky at best.

I think we're slowly moving towards more proc usage and more ways to reliably get procs. Right now, Sharpcast got a cooldown reduction of 30sec, this doesn't seem like much, but it's basically a free firestarter proc every fire rotation, which is a really good movement tool as well as a fire timer reset.

If anything, Scathe should see a bigger increase in its proc chance for double damage, as right now it's low enough to not warrant any use of it, but you shouldn't touch the spell more. Scathe is basically here for peoples who still learns a fight or the job. It's a mean to not get completely behind. It's bad if you use it, but it's worse if you don't use anything. It's more of a "catch-up" tool than anything, and I like it that way. It's like the small wheels on the side of a kid's bicycle. It's neat for learning, but once you know how to ride, you will not miss them at all.

If anything, for movement purpose I think that allowing for instant F3/B3 when swapping polarity is a way better solution in the long run than Scathe buffs.

[PyurBlue]

I can understand wanting some more use for Scathe, but BLM already has a lot of movement options. Adding more would almost turn it into a physical ranged class that could move freely all the time.

If anything, for movement purpose I think that allowing for instant F3/B3 when swapping polarity is a way better solution in the long run than Scathe buffs.

This actually makes Enochian slightly tighter because the AF/UI timer would begin earlier in the GCD. Not really a huge issue, but I'm fine with the 3 spells having a short cast time.

[Doctor_Minime]

I would like to stress that I wasn't think of this for a DPS gain, but rather of softening the impact of moving. Memoria Miseria & E7S are the harshest examples...not that the fights aren't doable, but constant moving during birdnado phase makes me want to cry.

Of course there's always the git gud method, but that can be really frustrating

[ty_taurus]

If the goal is to have Scathe's DPS loss be softer, you could just receive a Scathe II at level 82 or something come 6.0 that increases the potency. As it stands, it's job is basically to act like a spare tire--something you want to have just in case you really need it, but also something you would prefer to never have to use which is fine.

[Katie_Kitty]

I mean you're basically asking to be given dualcast which is a pretty insane suggestion to make. How much easier and more powerful do BLM mains need to be?

[Doctor_Minime]

Again, not looking for a dps increase. plus if it were just a firestarter proc, that would be 240 + 100 / 2 = 170 potency, hardly game-breaking.

[Katie_Kitty]

You are aware that not every thread involving any of the 3 casters is automatically about RDM, right? Asking to make a currently useless and trappy skill to not be so, on one of the hardest jobs in the game, isn't an attack on Red Mage and won't unseat it from being one of the hardest, most punishing classes available.

BLM has no need for scathe at this point. That's just a fact. They have all the movement tools they need. In fact you can even argue that it's been made too easy over time to justify all the people who still claim erroneously that "BLM is super hard and that's why it needs to do a million damage."

Just saying this is a pointless change.