Please reconsider 7.0 BLM changes

[Cyth_]

Hi all,

I am certainly not the first to make a post regarding upcoming changes to Black Mage discussed in the 81st Live Letter, but I very strongly feel that their implementation will significantly diminish the enjoyability of the job. I am making my first ever forum post specifically for this feedback.

Much of my issues with the proposed changes stem from them removing choices and flexibility from the player in favour of enforcing a strict skill rotation. Many Black Mage players are drawn to the job due to its immense depth and flexibility, including an incredibly fun playstyle known in the community as "non-standard". Black Mage is also one of few jobs that can approach secondary stats such as Spell Speed in a way that allows for personal preference without significant differences in damage output - some players may enjoy a fast paced version of the job with more leeway to maintain Enochian, whilst others prefer a more strategic, harder-hitting and more risk-reward style of play that comes with lower Spell Speed.

My overarching point is that Black Mage shines because it eschews the rigidity that many current jobs have come to embody. A Black Mage player is able to make many meaningful choices on how to approach a combat encounter, and when they are able to make good use of all of the abilities that they have at their disposal, they are rewarded with an incredibly fun and powerful job to such a degree that no others reach.

[Part 1 of 3]

[Cyth_]

To this effect, here are the changes I believe have a very high liklihood of damaging the job:

1. MP recovery now requiring casting Ice spells - This single almost entirely kills Non-Standard play. It removes many options on how a player can approach their Umbral Ice phase, such as cleverly utilising Transpose and unaspected instant cast spells such as Paradox, Xenoglossy and Thunder III. MP recovery occuring arbitrarily based on server "ticks" can be unintuitive, but the proposed solution is extremely heavy-handed. Alternatives would be to keep MP recovery unchanged from it's current behaviour, allowing current tick behaviour to continue in addition to the proposed change, or ideally having *any* non-fire spell cast during Umbral Ice to grant MP. Either of my latter suggested changes retain the "ease-of-use" desired without closing down an entire playstyle.
   
2. Paradox becoming instant cast during Astral Fire - This change is based solely on speculation from the job action trailer, but if this is the case, it forces lower Spell Speed players to follow a strict sequence in the first half of Astral Fire so that they do not drop Enochian. Currently a low-SPS BLM can fit 4 casts of Fire IV/any other spell before Paradox without Enochian falling off, and then 4 more before casting Despair. This allows flexibility in the Astral Fire phase that allows more control on when to move for encounter mechanics, refresh Thunder III's effect, or simply to spend Polyglots for damage or use of Abilities such as Addle. If this is a change being made, it will heavily limit how a BLM can approach their Astral Fire phase.
   
3. New Job Gauge - The new Job Gauge appears to grant one of six stacks upon the execution of Fire IV, or three stacks upon executing Flare. Admittedly we need more information on how this gameplay mechanic functions, but there is the possibility that it further restricts Astral Fire and makes an immensely punishing job even more punishing. In an ideal circumstance, Astral Fire Paradox and Despair will also contribute stacks to this Gauge, and the new Spell will be usable regardless of stacks (for lower potency such as a Bard's Apex Arrow or a Machinist's Automaton Queen). If the new spell requires all 6 stacks and they only come from Fire IV, then BLM is forced into a very specific sequence of spells during Astral Fire. This removes opportunities, and also potentially creates very punishing scenarios when a player makes a mistake or has to condense their Astral Fire phase due to encounter mechanics (such as a boss becoming untargetable).
   
4. Thunder upgrade becoming instant - another speculated change, but if this is the case, then proper planning and usage of Sharpcast would become less relevant and reduce the reward of playing the job well.

[Part 2 of 3]

[Cyth_]

Many Black Mage players both smarter and better at the job than me have extensively voiced these concerns, and I am sure that I have missed some other potential implications of these changes. I still wanted to share my opinion in the hope that the Job Design team revisits or reconsiders many of these changes. Black Mage is an incredibly deep and rewarding job and it makes me very disheartened to see it lose so much of its charm and identity in the name of "streamlining".

Thank you very much for reading, and please keep your responses respectful.

[Part 3 of 3, END]

[Nibb]

No thank you

[Taranok]

I am glad BLM is finally not going to be a special snowflake. The class has been in a quasi-unique state for so long living in a double standard that the players forgot that the devs don't like nonstandard play, and nonstandard has been a serious blight on the game in general. Be it a 2% increase, or 40% (as with SMN in HW.) I also am happy the devs are finally removing server tics. That is literally an ARR mechanic and has needed to be fixed for a decade.

The last thing BLM needs to finish its transition into modern play is to remove the AF/UI timers and, bloat removal, as timers are a relic dating back to, literally, ARR. Bring the paradox mechanic down to level 60 and timers can straight up be removed. Bloat can be dealt with by just streamlining bad aspects of the design.

Good riddance to nonstandard, I won't miss you.

[Darkpaw]

I am glad BLM is finally not going to be a special snowflake. The class has been in a quasi-unique state for so long living in a double standard that the players forgot that the devs don't like nonstandard play, and nonstandard has been a serious blight on the game in general. Be it a 2% increase, or 40% (as with SMN in HW.) I also am happy the devs are finally removing server tics. That is literally an ARR mechanic and has needed to be fixed for a decade.

The last thing BLM needs to finish its transition into modern play is to remove the AF/UI timers and, bloat removal, as timers are a relic dating back to, literally, ARR. Bring the paradox mechanic down to level 60 and timers can straight up be removed. Bloat can be dealt with by just streamlining bad aspects of the design.

Good riddance to nonstandard, I won't miss you.

Honestly, yeah.. you hit the nail on the head. Black mages have run around as the untouchables since it's inception because it's the producer's main job. It's kinda nice to see them fall in line with the more rigid rotations everyone else is forced to deal with, and truth be told, it will still be a popular job regardless.

Finally this point goes to a recurring thing in several job related posts since Live Letter, all of this is based on speculation. The Job Action Trailer and Live Letter gives us such minimal information that very few jobs can really infer anything from. Also the calls for jobs to "revert these changes before expansion launch" is a hilariously bad take. (Not saying OP said to do it before expac launch just a recurring thing lately.)

You all do understand that the expansion was... balanced around these job changes right? It's not just go in press button and revert to last save state right? Like fights were designed with these actions in mind. They're already working on next expansions job reworks.. so like minor things may be adjusted but chances for a full reversion of job changes.. is just.. a flight of fancy.

Anywho, media tour info will be here soon enough and that will answer a lot of questions and still leave more.

[Keichi]

I dont understand anything of what you say.
1) What depth, flexibility and choices to make?

All what the blm is doing, is spamming fire2/4, until the timer or the mp is to low, to use than paradox/fire1/fire3 or one of the 2 flare spells.
Than switching to ice, use 2-3 ice spells to refresh the marker, set up thunder, maybe use the void spells and than switch back to fire with fire 2/3 to let the enemy burn, again.

I dont see much of flexibility or choices by that. Except, that its possible to make the rotation shorter by switching to the other phase earlier.
This non-standard thing is something, i never understand and who looked to questionable for me. Because it doesnt use the full mechanic of the blm. By ignoring the ice buffs (why should SE care so much about a playstile, who is not intended or used so much?).

2) I sayed it allready in other Post, that whe will probably keep or normal mp reg, like every other class has it. What is changed is, that the ice phase doesnt improve the power of that Regeneration.
Instant, will ice spells probably have the same kind of reg, like the paladin or some other classes have (recover x% of your mp).
The Trailer failed to show us a ice phase (i thinked the whole time, whe had one, but the blm was the whole time in fire phase), but i can not image it, that it is longer as before.

3) What is bad at instant Paradox? How can that be bad for slower blms?
The optimal number of fire4 are 4 shots, before you use paradox. But, that was allways very dangerous with the timer. Because paradox needed a cast time to. It ended up very often, that it missed 1-2 seconds, to be casted. And the time was lost. At last by me and a other person i knowed. I even readed sometimes, that 3x fire4 and than paradox is better, to not come dangerous near with the timer (is at last the variation, im using).

Now is it instant spell. That make it much better with the 4 times fire 4 shooting.
Look in the Clip. It was literally used at the last second.
I can not understand and see, how a instant spell is bad for it. You even keep your Dual casting and triple castings for fire4, and than later, double flare+explosion Ball.
Even the first void spell is a casting spell at lvl 70, and become instant spell in shb, what make it better (yesterday noticed again, that i can not uptain a rotation in the 70er area, that one casting spell is pushing me out of the rotation of all other lvl areas, that i dislike the blm the most than).

Edit:
Its even possible, that Paradox is not instantly. Switch cast has now a shorter CD. Its possible, that it was used for paradox. What gives the image of a instantly spell. And was later used for Despair to (i think).

4) Gauge:
Whe dont know anything about the gauge. So, whe should simply waiting, instant of drawing the devil on the wall (that is the job for pictomancer^^).
Even if the marker are filled only with fire4/flare, should there be not a big problem. Because it is allready mostly what whe use. But, it should be very likely, that it will be even filled with fire2 (for aoe rotation, and if not, is flare there to fill that role) and maybe with fire4.
I only hope, that they will use later this gauge for more stuff (some spells, who need lesser numbers of the shards). The same with 3 void spell slots (i wanted the option, that the filler spell is blocked, if you have allready 2 of them, a third is a compromise, but feels like to many of them now).

5) with Thunder did whe need to see, how it it. In the benchmark saw whe a casting time. Its possible, that it was allready procced with sharpshoot for this Show. Otherwise have whe that now open for fire1/paradox (i allways keeped it for thunder, and doesnt know, how to use the second stack of the skill^^).
Maybe it is even the case, that it is Instant spell. But, keep its procc mechanic, that it has a stronger form to. Than will there be practicly no change at all.

[ThorneDynasty]

So basically homogenize BLM to hell because you are bitter there's a single job that has been somewhat saved from that so far? OK, I'm sure following this attitude is great for the entire game's health, but it looks like you're getting your wish of making everything as bland as possible because the neighbor job might get jealous otherwise.

[Cyth_]

I am glad BLM is finally not going to be a special snowflake. The class has been in a quasi-unique state for so long living in a double standard that the players forgot that the devs don't like nonstandard play, and nonstandard has been a serious blight on the game in general. Be it a 2% increase, or 40% (as with SMN in HW.) I also am happy the devs are finally removing server tics. That is literally an ARR mechanic and has needed to be fixed for a decade.

The last thing BLM needs to finish its transition into modern play is to remove the AF/UI timers and, bloat removal, as timers are a relic dating back to, literally, ARR. Bring the paradox mechanic down to level 60 and timers can straight up be removed. Bloat can be dealt with by just streamlining bad aspects of the design.

Good riddance to nonstandard, I won't miss you.

Could you explain why you believe non-standard play is an issue? The main reasons people adopt non-standard play are for mobility and better contribution to raid buffs (which the entire game is built around, and should be seen as a positive!). The damage increase of non-standard play is quite insignificant, and a majority of the damage gain comes from very simple optimisations that hardly deviate from standard play and can be implemented by most players (namely transposing into Astral Fire before consuming a Firestarter-buffed Fire III).

Endwalker has seen a move to increasingly movement heavy encounter design, and it is simply impossible for Black Mages to maintain casting uptime in some of these scenarios, such as the final phase of The Omega Protocol. Resourceful Black Mages have been able to use the tools available to them to alleviate this, otherwise they would be stuck casting Scathe.

This isn't even to mention that full-standard Black Mage is not significantly worse - it is still amongst the most powerful jobs in the game, and by far the most powerful Caster. Standard players can and do perform extremely close to the best non-standard players at all levels of the game.

[Cyth_]

So basically homogenize BLM to hell because you are bitter there's a single job that has been somewhat saved from that so far? OK, I'm sure following this attitude is great for the entire game's health, but it looks like you're getting your wish of making everything as bland as possible because the neighbor job might get jealous otherwise.

Just want to confirm who you are responding to here?