Don't change Black Mage too much

[SieyaM]

BLM has a very strong chance of only improving if it does undergo any changes since it is the director's main when he plays.

[Rithy255]

BLM has a very strong chance of only improving if it does undergo any changes since it is the director's main when he plays.

you can't improve perfection!

I mean quite honestly I don't see how current BLM could be improved (maybe 90s leylines again? but that would have to come with bursts changing)

[OgruMogru]

We just need consolidated f4/b4 and LL and BtL

As a special treat maybe insta AF paradox for a reliable weaving opportunity in AF [whilst also providing an easier to maintain timer for those less confident]
Something needs to be done about how inconsistent our mana ticks can be in UI but I don't want those changes to be disruptive to non-standard play. So no mana regen tied to how many spells you cast in UI or anything like that.

my unreasonable wants are stronger autoattacks and for a return of the HW Enochian timer but maybe not tied to accessing your F4 and B4 skills and instead just a dmg buff you have to juggle by keeping your rotation going. I also want all my utility back; manashift and apocatastasis back and even aggro management.

[mallleable]

Not a BLM player, but I think it would be neat if BLM got like an Astral Lightning phase added to the Elemental Gauge. Like Lightning spells could be like the go-to for mobility, and do more damage than ice spells, but they consume MP at the same rate as fire spells. It would probably simplify the job a little, but it could provide a new foundation to build off of.

[HikariKurosawa]

Changes I want: Ley lines + BTL merge. Make umbral soul turn into transpose when in AF(but keep transpose available as a separate button too for those who want to optimize). Make umbral soul a level 30 ability. Make umbral soul freeze AI at 15 seconds when you cap out 3 AI and 3 UH.

Most of these have already been said, but now that I've got to 90 on my BLM I really want them.

Flare needs a new animation, freeze needs a new animation, fire III needs a new animation. Everything else is visually great.

[Shurrikhan]

I guess if I had a bit of a wish-list for (very subtle / merely polish-oriented) changes...

• Gamewide Change: Casts are now fully snapshotted. If Astral Fire falls off during a F4 cast, it will still go off. If Verstone Ready falls off during a Verstone cast, it will still go off.
• Gamewide Change: Action Stacks have been added to the game. These act as a more user-friendly form of and seamless alternative to macros, allowing players to trickle down through different actions as those above fail to be applicable. For instance, a stack of Ley Lines, Between the Lines would fall to Between the Lines as soon as Ley Lines is placed on CD (since Ley Lines cannot be used but Between the Lines can be), and cycle back to Ley Lines as soon as Between the Lines, too, cannot be used.
  
  Polyglot progress now merely pauses while out of Astral Fire / Umbral Ice (instead of the BLM losing all progress towards Polyglot) but can no longer be progressed outside of combat. In exchange for the dungeon burst thereby lost, Manafont gets a second charge.
  
  Gameplay result: More uses of Convert in dungeons, but fewer free Flare/Xenoglossy casts born of Umbral Ice spam; Umbral Ice or Transpose spam no longer required.
  
  
• Astral Fire has been made a bit more intuitive in how it affects spell-casts. It now increases Fire damage by 50|75|100% while increasing Fire MP costs and decreasing Ice MP costs by the same. Now decreases Ice cast times by 25|37.5|50%. It no longer reduces the damage of Ice spells.
• Umbral Ice now reduces MP costs by 50|75|100% while restoring 25|37.5|50% MP per GCD's time and decreasing Fire casts times by 25|37.5|50%. It no longer decreases the damage of Fire spells. (The increased opportunity cost of not being in Astral Fire when casting them already covers the difference.)
  
  
• Instead of awkwardly needing to multiply BLM potencies per the multiplicative buffs of the Caster/Healer wide trait Maim and Mend II (+30% damage), Astral Fire (up to +80% Fire damage), and Enochian (+23% damage), Enochian has been replaced by Elemental Depths, which just upgrades spell potencies by roughly the same amounts.
  
  As such, to compare BLM potencies to other Casters or Healers, one need only double the potency of consecutive Fire casts. To get equivalent Melee/Tank potencies, though, they'd still have to also multiple by 1.3, of course. (For Ranged, with their awkward +20% modifiers, you'd have to multiple by 1.08333. I truly hope we just get rid of all of those traits soon so that Healer potency is Tank potency is Ranged potency is... just potency.)
  
• Among the above potency buffs in compensation for removing Enochian's 3rd layer of multiplicative damage buffs, Fire III becomes Fire V, Flare becomes Flare II, and Freeze becomes Freeze II. Fire V is now worth using for more than just mobility (no longer a faint DPS loss per AF cycle), tending to end one's Fire phase if no opportunity is granted to use it in any other way, giving a bit more offensive value to Sharpcast. Yes, they come with newer, cooler animations.
  
  
• New recommended Action Stacks have been added to Black Mage, including...

• [Instant] Paradox > [Firestarter] Fire III -> Paradox -> [Astral Fire III] Fire -> [No Astral Fire] Fire III
• Fire IV -> Blizzard IV
• Freeze -> Flare
• Ley Lines -> Between the Lines
• Umbral Heart -> Transpose

[Ayden]

BLM is now too hard right compared to other casters? What do you guys think of the following:

1. Remove Astral Fire timer and Umbral Ice timer
2. Foul and Xenoglossy - Polygot still accumulates every 30 seconds while under the effect of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice.

Fire spells that currently grant astral fire will grant it permanently until an ice spell is cast. Same thing applies to ice spells. The entire gameplay will now be just MP and the rotation will be mostly unchanged. We will still use paradox once in between Fire IVs or anytime under astral fire due to its higher potency . We swap to ice to restore MP. There is no concern of losing AF and we carry on with our rotation after any downtime.

[Zairava]

BLM is now too hard right compared to other casters? What do you guys think of the following:

1. Remove Astral Fire timer and Umbral Ice timer
2. Foul and Xenoglossy - Polygot still accumulates every 30 seconds while under the effect of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice.

Fire spells that currently grant astral fire will grant it permanently until an ice spell is cast. Same thing applies to ice spells. The entire gameplay will now be just MP and the rotation will be mostly unchanged. We will still use paradox once in between Fire IVs or anytime under astral fire due to its higher potency . We swap to ice to restore MP. There is no concern of losing AF and we carry on with our rotation after any downtime.

Big No. Astral Fire/Umbral Ice (with timer) is the core of nearly every job mechanic Black Mage has. If that gets removed to tremendously dumb down the job it'll be the next one that sits on the bench after leveling for me

[Rithy255]

BLM is now too hard right compared to other casters? What do you guys think of the following:

1. Remove Astral Fire timer and Umbral Ice timer
2. Foul and Xenoglossy - Polygot still accumulates every 30 seconds while under the effect of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice.

Fire spells that currently grant astral fire will grant it permanently until an ice spell is cast. Same thing applies to ice spells. The entire gameplay will now be just MP and the rotation will be mostly unchanged. We will still use paradox once in between Fire IVs or anytime under astral fire due to its higher potency . We swap to ice to restore MP. There is no concern of losing AF and we carry on with our rotation after any downtime.

Some jobs should be harder then others, I'm glad BLM is one of the few jobs that keeps the high skill celling low skill floor, most people can pick up it and do pretty ok with it.
Just because something is hard doesn't mean it needs changes.

[OgruMogru]

No removal of timers!!