7.0 BLM Changes will kill the job

[Hana_Monogatari]

As mentioned in the most recent Live Letter's proposed changes for Black Mage, Mana regeneration will be tied to ice spells in Umbral Ice, rather than passive regeneration. This is a catastrophically bad decision.

The issue is that Black Mage is in a unique position where high-end play does not replace standard rotations, but rather complements it by adding interesting and deep routes for rotations and skill expression through using Transpose to skip casting low-potency Ice spells, maximizing time spent casting Fire or high-potency spells. What this change would do is erase this kind of playstyle completely from the game, leaving BLMs with nothing but standard rotations for all content.

There are two possible fixes, and I sincerely hope the devs implement for 7.0 one of these if they are going down this route:

• Paradox in Umbral Ice gives 10k MP.

• Change the MP regeneration to any *GCD* in Umbral Ice restores MP.

Either one of these would still allow a full Ice phase of Xeno/Thunder/Paradox filler, while still regenerating MP for going back into Fire phase. While not ideal, it would still be something to give happy BLM players something to strive for when looking to play the job at a higher level.

This change also makes some content virtually unplayable. For example, TOP P6 has so much movement for BLM that mapping out nonstandard lines is basically mandatory unless you want to be casting Scathe like a goober 100 times and losing thousands of potency. Have the devs cleared high-end content on BLM? Do they know how much this change would impact?

This change does not help new players either (most will not even notice the change at all!), and will obliterate any and all interest experienced players have in the singular remaining job with actual complexity and depth. Who is this change for? Who benefits from removing fun, interesting rotations that aren't obligatory for newer players?

Please, for the love of life, do not implement this change. :(

[Eksu]

Amen

This change is absolutely terrible and short-sighted.

[Hana_Monogatari]

Thank you based Eksu Plosion

[PyurBlue]

Removing passive MP would not only kill off non standard lines, it sounds miserable for unsync or forced downtime.

[MrMordio]

Why ice spells only for mp ticks? I agree, any GCD in ice phase should hook us up with mp, not just ice spells.
And what's this gauge in the job trailer that we have to fill up, is it cast 6x Fire IV or fail at life?

[Hana_Monogatari]

Removing passive MP would not only kill off non standard lines, it sounds miserable for unsync or forced downtime.

I imagine Umbral Soul would count as one of the spells that restores MP. Surely. Hopefully.

[Ramiee]

I have mixed feelings, this could either add a unique new strategy to the class or ruin it. Suppose we will have to wait and see.

[Valence]

Do people really manage to play non standard that well? Beyond the basic lines?

Either way, removing intricacies that people like isn't good...

[Dysvalence]

100%. Even throwing opti completely out the window, the flexibility that nonstandard offers is incredibly comfy and for a substantial minority of BLM players it is easier than standard. The SAM changes are horrific for the exact same reasons so the worst part is that this doesn't seem to be an accident.

[Hana_Monogatari]

Do people really manage to play non standard that well? Beyond the basic lines?

Either way, removing intricacies that people like isn't good...

Lots of people do use the nonstandard lines, yes! You don't need to be a high-end raider or speedkiller to use them, and even in dungeons or casual content you can use them to move around during mechanics more easily. The last few MSQ dungeons have had a lot of mechanics which require you to move around (Breathstroke or Lightning Leap in Aetherfont, everything the Antlion does in Lunar Subterrane), and using nonstandard lines here lets you instacast a lot more while keeping uptime. It's very fun, and a total shame it's being removed for no actual benefit to anyone.