Why Black Mage is the best designed job and what can be learned from it

[Rongway]

Leveling experience:

• You get the basic rotation and resources right at the start. Fire, Ice, mana.
• Leveling up adds things into the rotation instead of tacking them onto the end of the rotation to extend it. Fire 4 replaces some fire 1 cast but umbral ice still gives you a reason to cast fire 1 (see above). And they all feed into the same cycle of fire to ice back to fire rinse repeat.
• No, I didn't mention the Thunders mostly because I don’t really see a reason for them, they just feel tacked on the side, but I am absolutely against the removal of a DoT just because. I’m slightly confused as to why thundercloud doesn’t proc firestarter instead but whatever its not broken don’t touch it.

This is the absolute worst part of BLM. One spends so much time changing their rotation that they can't develop consistent habits. It's not until one reaches Lv90 and stops doing syncked content that one can develop good BLM habits for Lv90. It's not even just differences between each cap level: there are sometimes spans where things change every two levels even. Playing syncked content means playing a completely different BLM every time one goes into a duty. One simply can't carry habits from lower levels to higher levels on BLM. That is not a good leveling experience.

[LilimoLimomo]

This is the absolute worst part of BLM. One spends so much time changing their rotation that they can't develop consistent habits. It's not until one reaches Lv90 and stops doing syncked content that one can develop good BLM habits for Lv90. It's not even just differences between each cap level: there are sometimes spans where things change every two levels even. Playing syncked content means playing a completely different BLM every time one goes into a duty. One simply can't carry habits from lower levels to higher levels on BLM. That is not a good leveling experience.

I can't objectively say whether this is good or bad, because the truth is that different players will have different reactions to it. But personally, I loved this while leveling, and I still love it while doing synced content. I think it's amazing how just adding or removing a single spell from BLM's kit can significantly change the optimal rotation.

To be clear, your reaction is valid, too! I can definitely understand this not being for everyone. Which is why it would probably be a good idea to not do this same thing with every other class.

[Hasrat]

I can't objectively say whether this is good or bad, because the truth is that different players will have different reactions to it. But personally, I loved this while leveling, and I still love it while doing synced content. I think it's amazing how just adding or removing a single spell from BLM's kit can significantly change the optimal rotation.

One thing I myself loved about this aspect of BLM is actually the social element. Some of my favorite BLM moments happened in synced Stone Vigil, which used to be the exact point when BLM gets some exciting new tools. Running that dungeon with a fresh BLM and seeing them still Transposing, or otherwise just sorta fumbling along, I had the opportunity to guide several players towards the new tools and the opportunities they provide, and it was an absolute delight seeing how the rotation starts to click and they can really feel the flow.

But, that's just me and what I loved most, getting new tools and needing to understand how they fit together more than simply "press the shiny button." The rotation can be a bit of a puzzle while leveling, and more than simply adding to it, a new piece can completely reshape the whole picture.

It's a choice, certainly, and one that may absolutely be gatekeeping many players from picking the job up. But I do think the job and the game would be poorer for simplifying the leveling growth.