Can we just take a moment to talk about Black Mage?

[Colt47]

The actual rotation feels good on Black Mage and I like the idea they have with the big powerful spell at the end of the chain, but does anyone else feel like they need to have the ley line buff a built in speed boost just like monk and greased lightning? Their casts are just so slow that it turns everything into trying to do a mini-management game with the triple cast and it would be way better to just have a passive 15% speed boost to spell casting and have something more useful in the triple cast slot.

It's like they wanted to do everything to keep it this clunky slow and painful caster in a game that is completely not built for that.

[xAFROx]

The actual rotation feels good on Black Mage and I like the idea they have with the big powerful spell at the end of the chain, but does anyone else feel like they need to have the ley line buff a built in speed boost just like monk and greased lightning? Their casts are just so slow that it turns everything into trying to do a mini-management game with the triple cast and it would be way better to just have a passive 15% speed boost to spell casting and have something more useful in the triple cast slot.

It's like they wanted to do everything to keep it this clunky slow and painful caster in a game that is completely not built for that.

That's kind of the whole point of it though to be a turret/cannon. A good BLM knows to move if they need to, but a great BLM almost never needs to move. Though that type of specific has always been reliant on what fight they're in.

Asking for the cannon to be faster would probably require lowering their damage by a significant amount to make up for how quickly they cast, I think.

Mind you, I'm no BLM player, but I have several friends that play it often enough to have an idea what they're doing.

[Reese_Clairdale]

The very last thing this game needs is even more removal of job identity. Choose a job that suits your preferred playstyle, and advocate for the addition of new jobs with unique playstyles. Don't ask for a job that already works for people that enjoy it to be made more like jobs that already exist.

[KurenXIV]

I was working on getting all jobs to level 90 and black mage was, by far, the absolute most awful and unfun job to level and play even at max level.

And you know what? I'm ok with that.

The job doesn't need to change because I hate it, because not every job needs to appeal to everyone. I know there are hardcore BLM players out there that love the playstyle and I wouldn't dream of having that robbed from them.

If it doesn't appeal to you, thats OK too, just find a job that suits you.

[CelestiCer]

As much as I meme on BLM being the lovechild of Square, there's no positive to voicing out a possibly negative change to the game through ruining a job that is perfectly fine. I haven't played BLM, but we don't need a PHD in anything to be able to tell that we just shouldn't change BLM's unique playstyle. FFXIV just wouldn't be the same for me without me needing to adjust to some optimized BLM raiding friend who I can meme on, sometimes even have nice teamwork moments. It's fun.

TLDR? Keep BLM unique, do not touch BLM, don't change BLM, don't ruin BLM, just don't. Next.

[ThorneDynasty]

it turns everything into trying to do a mini-management game

A job has depth? Not in my FF14!

[Colt47]

It doesn't kill job depth if they gave it a haste buff. BLM is about having big powerful key spells that take a long time to cast, but it makes no sense that they'd rapid fire off said big spells constantly in a rotation. You would expect the long spells to be at the end of the rotation, similar to how communio works with reaper, albeit reaper has theirs as a fast cast since they are a melee job.

Resisting change is one thing but getting lost in the whole idea that slow and clunky is a mechanical identity in a game that isn't built for it is a self defeating in an argument. So lets just push their "identity" even further and increase their cast times to 6 seconds on their fire spells and see how that works out for you blackmage lovers. I'm betting it would completely cripple and render the job unplayable because suddenly you'd have to always use every single quick cast move, and then you'd just counter argue that they could just buff the attack damage and somehow the whole thing works.

What causes all the frustration with them is the leyline skill and the time limit someone has to complete a combo thanks to ecolochian, which is to say the two core mechanics that make the job what it is right now. At the very least they should make it so that someone doesn't drop casting despair / flare if the timing is off since that's probably the biggest pain point.

Maybe making leylines something that isn't a zoned buff would fix the problem since they already got so much stacked against them with the longer cast times that they don't really need to have to deal with a position locked haste buff.

[LeonKeyh]

I was working on getting all jobs to level 90 and black mage was, by far, the absolute most awful and unfun job to level and play even at max level.

And you know what? I'm ok with that.

The job doesn't need to change because I hate it, because not every job needs to appeal to everyone. I know there are hardcore BLM players out there that love the playstyle and I wouldn't dream of having that robbed from them.

If it doesn't appeal to you, thats OK too, just fine a job that suits you.

Agreed. I normally level all of a certain equipment type together, so BLM, SMN, and RDM I was leveling together and everytime I had to switch back to BLM I sighed and just bit the bullet. It's a really cool meta-game managing all of that stuff and it seems like people truly love it. Definitely not for me though, especially since SMN and RDM are so simple it was jarring changing to BLM. No need to change it though, there are plenty of other jobs.

It doesn't kill job depth if they gave it a haste buff. BLM is about having big powerful key spells that take a long time to cast, but it makes no sense that they'd rapid fire off said big spells constantly in a rotation. You would expect the long spells to be at the end of the rotation, similar to how communio works with reaper, albeit reaper has theirs as a fast cast since they are a melee job.

Resisting change is one thing but getting lost in the whole idea that slow and clunky is a mechanical identity in a game that isn't built for it is a self defeating in an argument. So lets just push their "identity" even further and increase their cast times to 6 seconds on their fire spells and see how that works out for you blackmage lovers. I'm betting it would completely cripple and render the job unplayable because suddenly you'd have to always use every single quick cast move, and then you'd just counter argue that they could just buff the attack damage and somehow the whole thing works.

Except it does. BLM is the last DPS with cast time left and the idea is to bring that closer to the other casters. The entire gameplay surrounding BLM is about positioning and timing. Making sure you're in the "right spot" so you don't need to move, making sure you drop your ley lines at the right time, taking advantage of Triple Cast and Swift cast when you do need to move. The efficiency is all about knowing when to use all of those abilities. You are asking for a casting buff to make all of that stuff matter less and...for what?

There already exists casters that "cast" quickly if that's what they're looking for. Don't make BLM like jobs that already exist, that's just ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as your extreme example.

[VentVanitas]

If I had a nickel for every "I don't like BLM but please change it specifically for me" thread I've seen, I would have two- but it's strange that it's happened twice.

[Ransu]

Want haste? Stay in your ley lines. It doesn't need some greased lighting style buff.

BLM design is to be a turret and it does that very well. If they moved away from that design they'd have to reduce BLM dps output. Its all about risk/reward and knowing how to pre-plan and position yourself correctly to do mechanics while DPSing.