Regarding the newest Blackmage changes

[Sjol]

It was written on one of the powerpoint slides so less likely to be a victim of bad phrasing. It said mana will be recovered by ice spells INSTEAD of over time.

I figure it can be done one of a few ways:

1) BLM gets a trait that says you no longer regenerate mana normally and then ice spells have a Regenerate Mana effect on them.
2) BLM gets a trait that says you no longer regenerate mana while in Astral or Umbral phases and ice spells have regenerate mana on them.
3) BLM loses accelerated mana in Ice phase but keeps normal regeneration and ice spells have regenerate mana on them.

[OgruMogru]

I figure it can be done one of a few ways:

1) BLM gets a trait that says you no longer regenerate mana normally and then ice spells have a Regenerate Mana effect on them.
2) BLM gets a trait that says you no longer regenerate mana while in Astral or Umbral phases and ice spells have regenerate mana on them.
3) BLM loses accelerated mana in Ice phase but keeps normal regeneration and ice spells have regenerate mana on them.

Of those 3 possibilities, number 3 is the least annoying, but I still don't like it much heh. Personally I think it would be better if the accelerated mana was kept and supplemented by extra mana regen from ice spells. It would mean downtime isn't annoying for all levels of play, Spellspeed variations and mana ticks are not so troublesome and also doesn't scupper non-standard as we know it currently. I hope they lower the level we get Umbral Soul and also adjust the way it works so it freezes at full stacks. Personal gripe for me but I have it macro'd to R3 which also adjusts window size so when I'm doing any content with loot drops I sometimes get myself trapped rapidly rescaling the loot window or the readycheck instead of refreshing US lmao

[Sjol]

Of those 3 possibilities, number 3 is the least annoying, but I still don't like it much heh. Personally I think it would be better if the accelerated mana was kept and supplemented by extra mana regen from ice spells. It would mean downtime isn't annoying for all levels of play, Spellspeed variations and mana ticks are not so troublesome and also doesn't scupper non-standard as we know it currently. I hope they lower the level we get Umbral Soul and also adjust the way it works so it freezes at full stacks. Personal gripe for me but I have it macro'd to R3 which also adjusts window size so when I'm doing any content with loot drops I sometimes get myself trapped rapidly rescaling the loot window or the readycheck instead of refreshing US lmao

I have a feeling it's #3, though #2 is also viable. And while you didn't get frustrated by mana ticks, I did all the time. I always seemed to be half a tick off, and it was annoying. It's actually why I'm all for this, though I acknowledge I don't play non-standard and for the players who do, it's a loss. That said, for any given job non-standard play is going to be at risk since by definition you're outside the designed usage of the job. Even standard job usage isn't safe from expansion to expansion, nor would I want it to be because it would introduce a lot of constraints on the job design and prevent them from moving the game forward.

[OgruMogru]

I have a feeling it's #3, though #2 is also viable. And while you didn't get frustrated by mana ticks, I did all the time. I always seemed to be half a tick off, and it was annoying. It's actually why I'm all for this, though I acknowledge I don't play non-standard and for the players who do, it's a loss. That said, for any given job non-standard play is going to be at risk since by definition you're outside the designed usage of the job. Even standard job usage isn't safe from expansion to expansion, nor would I want it to be because it would introduce a lot of constraints on the job design and prevent them from moving the game forward.

Sorry if I wasn't clear I do actually think mana ticks are a problem which is why my proposed solution [ a combination of the mana regen we have now AND the regen from ice spells so that a combination of manatick and ice spells could refill mana instead of just ice spells as the proposed changes outline] is the best of both worlds for a wider range of player skill.

[Valence]

To be honest they could also have made it work with a timed dot ala embolden: swap to Umbral Ice, you get an umbral buff that starts with for example 10 stacks and consumes one every X seconds, regening 2500 MP each time, and swapping to fire deletes the buff. As for UI 1 and 2, they could continue regening less per tick: 1750 per stack on UI2 and 1000 per stack for UI1. Numbers totally arbitrary, but you get my drift. Unreliable shitty server tick design removed, but Umbral ice still regening on its own.

[HikariKurosawa]

How would you all feel if blizzard 4 and high blizzard 2 just ended up giving 100% mana pool in one cast? The devs know that ice phase is supposed to feel fast and snappy. Why wouldn't they make it that way? There's a lot of bad faith and a lot of attachment to annoying mechanics in this community.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

If Blizzard IV gave full MP it would kind of defeat the point of Umbral Paradox as a filler spell. it would make more sense to me if it did half each or about 6000mp each to cover for additional MP spending (primarily Thunder) or put the Lion' share on Umbral Paradox/Blizzard I.

(High) Blizzard II is the AOE version of Blizzard III, I assume you meant Freeze (Umbral Heart generator)?

That said, two extra comments:

1.) Players are attached to mechanics like Transpose and non-standard play as they break monotony in their gameplay without being mandatory, as pulling it off correctly requires more experience with the job. I'm sure we both will find things annoying about this game, but generally I don't wish for things to be homgenized and sterilized when others enjoy it.

2.) Agreeing with everything the devs do and never criticizing them is 100% optional to play this game.

[HikariKurosawa]

If Blizzard IV gave full MP it would kind of defeat the point of Umbral Paradox as a filler spell. it would make more sense to me if it did half each or about 6000mp each to cover for additional MP spending (primarily Thunder) or put the Lion' share on Umbral Paradox/Blizzard I.

(High) Blizzard II is the AOE version of Blizzard III, I assume you meant Freeze (Umbral Heart generator)?

That said, two extra comments:

1.) Players are attached to mechanics like Transpose and non-standard play as they break monotony in their gameplay without being mandatory, as pulling it off correctly requires more experience with the job. I'm sure we both will find things annoying about this game, but generally I don't wish for things to be homgenized and sterilized when others enjoy it.

2.) Agreeing with everything the devs do and never criticizing them is 100% optional to play this game.

Yeah freeze, got the two mixed up. How do you view paradox as a filler spell lol, it is a huge potency instant cast. It makes sense to use it every umbral ice cycle. There is no defeating the purpose of it.

1) So the devs should pander to people who find their game monotonous instead of those who are enthusiastic about playing it the way they intended it to be played? Sounds like a strange sense of entitlement. You want to be rewarded for being disassatisfied with the experience as it is intended to be played? Can we just stop using the word homogenized and to a lesser extent sterilized? These are buzz words that have no basis in reality. It's like people are incapable of actually criticizing so they just throw out random words like "monotony" "homogeny" "sterilized" without actually backing it up.

2) Yep?

[KageTokage]

Room for skill expression is important in any gameplay environment and BLM has been good about that in that it has basic rotations that are easy to follow and fancier ones that abuse transpose and Paradox procs to squeeze out higher numbers.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Yeah freeze, got the two mixed up. How do you view paradox as a filler spell lol, it is a huge potency instant cast. It makes sense to use it every umbral ice cycle. There is no defeating the purpose of it.

1) So the devs should pander to people who find their game monotonous instead of those who are enthusiastic about playing it the way they intended it to be played? Sounds like a strange sense of entitlement. You want to be rewarded for being disassatisfied with the experience as it is intended to be played? Can we just stop using the word homogenized and to a lesser extent sterilized? These are buzz words that have no basis in reality. It's like people are incapable of actually criticizing so they just throw out random words like "monotony" "homogeny" "sterilized" without actually backing it up.

2) Yep?

Sorry when I meant to call Paradox a filler spell, I meant it as one of the spells currently used to use while the MP ticks are running. That' why I thought it would be better if Paradox generated MP over Blizzard IV, also because it overlays over Blizzard I essentially.

As for your other response, I'm going to keep it as simple as I can.

For a start, I think you are overusing "the way it is meant to be played" argument a bit there, because this isn't a zero-sum game we are playing and both standard and non-standard are both perfectly viable, or simply put: it is okay to have more than one way that is correct to be played, just like it is right now. Standard is correct, non-standard is correct, no player will give you crap for not doing non-standard if you play standard just fine.

Second, I rather have people be listened to that have a genuine understanding of current and possibly past iterations of their job and seek to keep the jobs interesting by expanding viability, not narrow it down to the one correct way.

Lastly, about the choice in "buzzwords" - you have been actively positioning yourself against people criticizing specific changes the past few days and keep preaching how great it is and would be that they take down the last few jobs with unique alternative gameplay. Homogenization is exactly that, to make everything the same and honestly if you can't stand "buzzwords" being used to describe in shorthand what we see things as, learn to cope with it. There should be more, diverse ways to play a job, not less.

Also, are you honestly not one bit surprised that people you argue with seem to actively disagree with you since the Dawntrail Job Action liveletter? Sure, a few here and there may agree with you and you make good points on occasion, but your post history is public and I see you rarely in agreeance with other players.