Scathe

[Pyitoechito]

So like... Scathe is just a really bad spell, right? You almost never want to touch Scathe outside of extremely niche circumstances. Now, I'm not advocating to remove Scathe or buff it so much it becomes part of BLM rotation and heavily alters it.

However, it could be given a minor buff so it becomes a viable learning/emergency tool:

Additional Effect: Extends Astral Fire or Umbral Ice duration by 6s to a maximum of 15s

By extending AF/UI a bit, it allows Scathe to be a decent tool to recover for forced movement while progging or learning the job. It also works if learning BLM forget to refresh AF/UI and there's not enough time to do so with a regular GCD. It's still far more effective and less of a loss to preplan movement and cooldown usage, but it could save BLM from dropping their AF/UI completely and having to restart their rotation.

Then again, it might just promote bad BLM who run around spamming Scathe at the drop of a hat to maintain their AF/UI...

[Taranok]

They've needed to increase its potency for a while now as well. It could be a 300 potency spell and it would still be pretty heavy punishment for unplanned movement. Though as I brought up in my own thread, I'd rather just remove AF/UI timers at this point. They're a legacy holdover mechanic from a time long since gone, the class would be better served just flat out removing the timers.

[Seraphor]

I don't think Scathe should be more potency than Fire I, especially if it has the effect of extending AF/UI.
Fire I is 180 potency, while Scathe has an 'effective' potency of 120 (100 +20% of 200).

You could maybe increase the potency to 150 (with a 20% chance of 200 still for an 'effective' potency of 160), or alternatively increase the chance of doubling to 50% or 60%.
That, along with a 3s refresh of AF/UI, would make it functional without disrupting the BLM rotation.

[VictoriaLuv]

alright I try to explain this one.

Sharpcast can trigger from scathe and fire I. but sometimes.,as a black mage you have to move out those dangerzones. when you do. you can sharpcast + scathe while your moving and reply thunder or proc a fire 3. and continue your combo when you go off

a lot black mages forget aether manipulation exists. were they can instantly warp to allie and bring there laylines with them. while also forgetting sharpcast is thing an fire 1 isn't only way to proc it. alot people say scathe is bad dont put it on your hot bar. but there are sitations you will use it over fire 1 specially if the fight requires alot movement

scathe is used just depends on situation.

Scathe doesn't have a cast time. fire 1 does have a casttime

sometimes as a blackmage you dont have time to hardcast

Scathe was only really used for these situations

[Anhra]

I think there is nothing wrong with Scathe, it certainly has its place in the BLM kit. Extending Astral Fire or Umbral Ice with it seems like a pointless change, since Fire1/Ice1 already serve that purpose, and quite well too.

If BLM would need any kind of change, then Aether Manipulation allowing you to jump on objects/non-hostile NPC's outside of Party and maybe even shareable Leylines at increased Cooldown.

[Rongway]

I don't think Scathe should be more potency than Fire I, especially if it has the effect of extending AF/UI.
Fire I is 180 potency, while Scathe has an 'effective' potency of 120 (100 +20% of 200).

Fire I's potency under Astral Fire III is 324.
Fire IV is 540.

[Taranok]

I don't think Scathe should be more potency than Fire I, especially if it has the effect of extending AF/UI.
Fire I is 180 potency, while Scathe has an 'effective' potency of 120 (100 +20% of 200).

You could maybe increase the potency to 150 (with a 20% chance of 200 still for an 'effective' potency of 160), or alternatively increase the chance of doubling to 50% or 60%.
That, along with a 3s refresh of AF/UI, would make it functional without disrupting the BLM rotation.

Considering at level 90, fire 1 is literally being removed from the core rotation, not sure it matters that Scathe would do more damage at that point. Especially since you're usually swapping out a Fire 4 at 540 potency for a scathe, not a fire 1. Also as brought up, fire 1 is still more potency anyways.

Remember, that's the important thing scathe does. It doesn't stop you from casting a fire 1, it stops you from casting a fire 4. And at 90, fire 1 isn't used. You'll still get that paradox off, but the fire 4 is what's dropped from the rotation. Hence even at 300 potency, it's still a 240 potency hit. This is, of course, ignoring maim & mend and enochian's buffs, but it's still relative.

For comparison, Summoner, currently, drops about 40 potency. Scholar drops 90. WHM drops 180 (if they resort to Dia spam for movement). RDM is...I don't actually know, but think it's in the 1-200 range where, currently, the first 3 in any given 2m cycle are 'free' due to manafication timers.

Currently, BLM loses 440 potency for casting scathe. And most of the meme strats revolve around not casting fire 1 specifically because its DPS scales so abysmally. That's probably the entire reason the devs finally made fire 1 worth casting in the AF phase in EW, because they got tired of the meme rotations.

[Archwizard]

Honestly, I've been in the "just make Blizzard 1 instant and replace Scathe with Drain" boat for a while now.

I mean, at least Drain would be useful for soloing and leveling, it would give another use for UI besides just restoring MP and future-proof B1 since we otherwise avoid it.

[Kahnom]

Potency is not the problem.
The problem is when using it in AF phase, it will screw your MP pool and result in less fire 4.
If anything, they should make Scathe costs no mp and has cooldown on its own instead, maybe make it 2 charges.

[Anhra]

Potency is not the problem.
The problem is when using it in AF phase, it will screw your MP pool and result in less fire 4.
If anything, they should make Scathe costs no mp and has cooldown on its own instead, maybe make it 2 charges.

A change like that would render BLM almost completely helpless in a 1vs1 scenario where you're fighting a enemy with alot of HP and serious dmg output (higher Deep Dungeon floors, for example).

BLM relies alot on casting Fire 1/Fire 4 into Scathe for kiting or to finish said enemy off when it is below 1% HP, so that you dont have to cast another 2,5sec Spell just to get the Job done.