Black Mage Change thoughts

[Reksanden]

Someone would start a thread eventually, may as well start here.

It seems like we still have the majority of the old toolkit, and the IcyHot spell is very neat, and seems to replace F1 and probably B1 too. Freeze didn't reset UI's timer, though, so that's probably the new ice spell's job.

... And that same spell had to be what triggered the new fire, which they also swapped to AF3 with - but it's distinct from F3? I wished they'd shown a little of the new mechanics around it, because it's not easy to tell what's going on there.

What do you guys think?

[Rongway]

IcyHot spell is very neat, and seems to replace F1 and probably B1 too.

The antipodal spell looks like you get a single charge of it every time you successfully switch directly between Umbral Ice III and Astral Fire III in either direction. It also refreshes the timer on the element gauge when you use it, in either element.

Freeze didn't reset UI's timer, though,

But it granted three hearts.

so that's probably the new ice spell's job.

Blizzard V did switch to Umbral Ice III.

... And that same spell had to be what triggered the new fire, which they also swapped to AF3 with - but it's distinct from F3? I wished they'd shown a little of the new mechanics around it, because it's not easy to tell what's going on there.

Interestingly, Fire V switches to Astral Fire III and becomes the firespammer, eliminating the burden of maintaining Astral Fire during firespam. I'd bet it has an increased MP cost to compensate, so that it can only be cast, say, four times before Despair, even with hearts.

With the change to Enochian, Blizzard IV and Fire IV are "always" available. My best prediction regarding Blizzard V and Fire V are that you most certainly have to have successfully performed a proper element swap (three stacks to three stacks) in order to use them. That is, the first time you cast Blizzard III and Fire III in combat, they are Blizzard III and Fire III; but if you do a full rotation without dropping your element, you get Blizzard V and Fire V. Additionally, I would not be surprised if you also need to use Antipodes before your element drops. If you allow your element to drop, use Transpose, or fail to use Antipodes before switching, you're back to Blizzard III and Fire III+IV.


So basically:

Blizzard III (UI3)
Blizzard IV (hearts)
Fire III (AF3, Antipodes charge)
Fire IV spam
Antipodes somewhere in the fire spam (enable Blizzard V)
Despair

LoopStart:
Blizzard V (UI3, Antipodes charge)
Blizzard IV (hearts)
Antipodes (enable Fire V)
Fire V (AF3, Antipodes charge)
Fire V spam
Antipodes (enable Blizzard V)
Despair
goto LoopStart;



with Thunder and Polyglot spells when appropriate.

Additionally, I would not be surprised if you also need to use Antipodes before your element drops. If you allow your element to drop, use Transpose, or fail to use Antipodes before switching, you're back to Blizzard III and Fire III+IV.

This I think brings up an interesting question. What would stop us from taking advantage of the mechanic and just opening with Fire III > Blizzard III to gain immediate access to Antipodes and Fire V? Might they have included some other condition as well, such as a minimum time spent in an element?

[Orbus]

We could also call enochian being permanent and thus allowing permanent access to fire/ice4 as the blm completely mastering it, allowing them to go to the next step since they no longer have to juggle enochian.
You'll notice there's no more skill quests and the current WoL has probably fought more big bads than any other in history, so I'm pretty sure they're inventing their own new skills/spells for each class at this point.
Even Ystola can only do fire4 because she's a hella talented and badass mage and literally swam around in the aether sea for a month during HW, and even she can't chain cast them like the WoL.

[Ferrinus]

I'm really happy with everything we've been show for BLM - "cold flares" and the general uselessness of F2 and B2 were my least favorite part of the existing design, and Endwalker looks like it's going to give us the AoE rotation that Stormblood implies but failed to deliver, i.e. one in which we spend our first two umbral hearts normally and use the last for Flare.

My main worries/possible quibbles are these:

* Will Fire 1 and Blizzard 1 do anything at high levels? (Maybe they just get replaced by the new antipode?)

* Will Fire 2 and Blizzard 2 get numbers tweaks that make them useful at low or mid levels? F2 at the very least should have F1's cost and cast time.

[DBriggs304]

Enochian removal management is a bad move.

[Kabooa]

I'm really happy with everything we've been show for BLM - "cold flares" and the general uselessness of F2 and B2 were my least favorite part of the existing design, and Endwalker looks like it's going to give us the AoE rotation that Stormblood implies but failed to deliver, i.e. one in which we spend our first two umbral hearts normally and use the last for Flare.

My main worries/possible quibbles are these:

* Will Fire 1 and Blizzard 1 do anything at high levels? (Maybe they just get replaced by the new antipode?)

* Will Fire 2 and Blizzard 2 get numbers tweaks that make them useful at low or mid levels? F2 at the very least should have F1's cost and cast time.

It wouldn't surprise me if F1/B1 become the same button and change based on your AF/UI status. Baseline Blizzard when neutral / UI, changes to Fire when AF. Probably have to give Transpose on the same level as Fire, but that's a 30 second gap in play time so not an issue. F1 and B1 then become Antipode when the condition aligns for it.

Not sure what they'll do for AoE and as it tends to not matter I'm not going to speculate.

Thus far it seems like this enforces the standard 3/1/3/1 set up, where Frostfire takes the place of Fire 1. Without specifics, can't say how it can potentially be altered the way standard currently is, or what sort phase shortening altered rotations might look like, but that's a little exciting to think about, given we can also use it in UI. Will it replace thunder or B4? Will it have an additional effect that encourages longer ice phases?

Enochian removal management is a bad move.

You're 4 years late to bring this up.

[Ferrinus]

Fire and Blizzard on the same button would be very cool but I strongly doubt we'll see it (and if they were doing that consolidation I'd first like to see F4 and B4 on the same button, since those are actually aspect-locked. Heck, do it for Despair and Umbral Soul, too).

Another technical possibility would be tweaking Scathe's MP/Potency and making whichever of F1 and B1 your aspect doesn't match become Scathe instead. I'd be shocked if they actually did this but it could be cool.

[Tint]

Enochian removal management is a bad move.

What Enochian management? Enochian is already tied to the AF / UI timer and you will want to keep it running all the time for the Polyglot timer.

The only thing that changes is that we don't have to press the button at the start of the fight to activate the buff anymore. The buff management doesn't change at all.

[Ferrinus]

Technically they've not only saved us a ~0.7s animation delay but also prevented us from ever again suffering the ultimate disaster, which is typoing a spell of the wrong element right after activating Enochian and then spending the next 27.5 seconds playing a level 50 character in a level 80 trial. But good riddance, I say.

[raelgun]

What Enochian management? Enochian is already tied to the AF / UI timer and you will want to keep it running all the time for the Polyglot timer.

The only thing that changes is that we don't have to press the button at the start of the fight to activate the buff anymore. The buff management doesn't change at all.

They changed it for the sake of Skill disparity which is a poor reason, it in my eyes has lowered the skill ceiling to what we know of of the tool kit right now, but whom is this actually aimed for, the skill disparity is not coming from enochain management.

This is poor showing that SE tried to cater to rubbish players and those skilled players basically got a shot in the foot for no reason.