Will BLM ever get a party buff?

[Aztectornado]

I'm leveling Black Mage now since the Summoner changes made me feel like I need a different, more in-depth sorta caster class to play with, and at level 62 now I still feel a little wanting for something extra. I think that mostly stems from the fact I seem to only have GCDs outside of a few personal buffs like Leylines and Sharpcast, and no party buff to grant to others.

Which is odd since I thought BLM was historically always the offensive buff guy in the Final Fantasy series? I mean, I've not played EVERY game in the series, but in FF1, the only time when my party Black Mage didn't have the Boost spell was when I hadn't gotten to a town with it yet, and in FF9 I adored Vivi's elemental combos with Steiner. Both would be valid options for a 15-20s buff like most DPS seem to carry but-...

For some reason BLM is the 'selfish' DPS class that only contributes big damage to the group. Why is that? It has to be an intentional design choice given how long it's been in the game, but I can't imagine why this job, of all things, is the only one that lacks any sort of party utility. Especially given both the other casters get Raise somehow! (Even Blue Mage sorta does, and that's not even a full fledged job!)

When will Square let me catch my Dark Knight's sword on fire, and/or fill the Dragoon with even more bloodlust?

[Mysticunicycle]

I'm leveling Black Mage now since the Summoner changes made me feel like I need a different, more in-depth sorta caster class to play with, and at level 62 now I still feel a little wanting for something extra. I think that mostly stems from the fact I seem to only have GCDs outside of a few personal buffs like Leylines and Sharpcast, and no party buff to grant to others.

Which is odd since I thought BLM was historically always the offensive buff guy in the Final Fantasy series? I mean, I've not played EVERY game in the series, but in FF1, the only time when my party Black Mage didn't have the Boost spell was when I hadn't gotten to a town with it yet, and in FF9 I adored Vivi's elemental combos with Steiner. Both would be valid options for a 15-20s buff like most DPS seem to carry but-...

For some reason BLM is the 'selfish' DPS class that only contributes big damage to the group. Why is that? It has to be an intentional design choice given how long it's been in the game, but I can't imagine why this job, of all things, is the only one that lacks any sort of party utility. Especially given both the other casters get Raise somehow! (Even Blue Mage sorta does, and that's not even a full fledged job!)

When will Square let me catch my Dark Knight's sword on fire, and/or fill the Dragoon with even more bloodlust?

BLM has pretty much always just been the big exploder in the series. I think in the original they had haste and some offensive support magic, but as more jobs grew in following titles it became more of just a nuker while things like Time Mage took on a more support role. It's just the design philosophy of the game. Every dps role has synergy jobs and selfish jobs. Some people like being the big dog, and some people like being a team player. The end result (in a perfect world) is the same, as rDPS is supposed to be competitive among all jobs regardless of if they are a buffer or a selfish job. If BLM had a lot of its rDPS shifted to party buffs, then caster wouldn't really have a selfish job anymore.

[zcrash970]

I mean apoc use to be a thing

[Aztectornado]

BLM has pretty much always just been the big exploder in the series. I think in the original they had haste and some offensive support magic, but as more jobs grew in following titles it became more of just a nuker while things like Time Mage took on a more support role. It's just the design philosophy of the game. Every dps role has synergy jobs and selfish jobs. Some people like being the big dog, and some people like being a team player. The end result (in a perfect world) is the same, as rDPS is supposed to be competitive among all jobs regardless of if they are a buffer or a selfish job. If BLM had a lot of its rDPS shifted to party buffs, then caster wouldn't really have a selfish job anymore.

That's fair, BLM is also the offensive powerhouse so far as magic goes in the series, but whenever I stop and think "who has the offensive buffs?" in relation to FF, I've personally never seen it on anything but Black Mage. Considering how limited my experience is though, I guess that's unsurprising since I've never even heard of a time mage before this moment!

And I'm not even particularly asking for its seat as top dog of explosions to go away, or god forbid it should get raise and go into necromancy, only that it'd be nice if I had even a singular utility Ability to cast for the party, or even a debuff similar to Scholar. There's plenty of classes that lean further into utility than others, but it's odd to me that there's still only one that doesn't have even one party utility.

Or wait, does Ninja not have one too? Machinist, Ninja, Warrior, and Samurai are about the only jobs I haven't spent a whole lot of time looking at or unlocking. It occurs to me I might be completely uneducated in this claim.

[Ferrinus]

If BLM ever got more party utility, I'd like to see it lean more into its "metamagic mastery" identity by getting back Manashift or Apocatastasis, or even a passive trait that improves Addle somehow.

[Anhra]

If anything, BLM should get more Nukes to shoot off. But if we go for Squeenix usual design choices, the best were getting is just filler traits and charges for already existing stuff.

[Mysticunicycle]

That's fair, BLM is also the offensive powerhouse so far as magic goes in the series, but whenever I stop and think "who has the offensive buffs?" in relation to FF, I've personally never seen it on anything but Black Mage. Considering how limited my experience is though, I guess that's unsurprising since I've never even heard of a time mage before this moment!

And I'm not even particularly asking for its seat as top dog of explosions to go away, or god forbid it should get raise and go into necromancy, only that it'd be nice if I had even a singular utility Ability to cast for the party, or even a debuff similar to Scholar. There's plenty of classes that lean further into utility than others, but it's odd to me that there's still only one that doesn't have even one party utility.

Or wait, does Ninja not have one too? Machinist, Ninja, Warrior, and Samurai are about the only jobs I haven't spent a whole lot of time looking at or unlocking. It occurs to me I might be completely uneducated in this claim.

Ninja is a buff job with trick attack. Samurai, Black Mage, and Machinist all have no party buffs apart from their respective role actions. They are the "selfish" jobs that have higher personal damage but don't gain any damage through buffing other party members.

[Flatopia]

I think the idea of pure dps and gradients of support dps is fine, I just think the balance in terms of damage is a bit funky right now. Personally, I like black mage being just about blowing enemies up and would hate to see that philosophy go.

[Gruntler]

Probably not. Addle's already one of the best role actions as it is, so I don't see them feeling a need to give BLM more, especially given it's got a strong fanbase who really just want to throw fire.

[Raikai]

I feel that BLM is very well realized with its party contribution at the expense of having more dps... However, I would welcome a lot more personal utiity. Like another charge from Manaward, or a new 3-minute self cleanse from a stack of vulnerabiity.

It would be cool if Leylines were some sort of beacon that would leave aetherial residue so you could always Between the Lines back to its position until you would set a new one.