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]

[Ianmaru]

Many Black Mage players both smarter and better at the job than me have extensively voiced these concerns

yea because the 'depth' of the current BLM is mostly enjoyed by the smarter & better than average players only, which is the minority. the average players dont really care about minmaxing thru nonstandard play. and the existence of nonstandard play is what makes BLM the special snowflake it is now. it makes BLM the only job with so much depths compared to the other jobs, and the purpose of removing the nonstandard play is to make BLM not sticking out like a sore thumb in terms of its depth when compared to the other job. A fair change, I must say. as a person who plays every single jobs decently, and minmaxes & optimizes everything as well, I agree that BLM needs to fall in line.

[Cyth_]

yea because the 'depth' of the current BLM is mostly enjoyed by the smarter & better than average players only, which is the minority. the average players dont really care about minmaxing thru nonstandard play. and the existence of nonstandard play is what makes BLM the special snowflake it is now. it makes BLM the only job with so much depths compared to the other jobs, and the purpose of removing the nonstandard play is to make BLM not sticking out like a sore thumb in terms of its depth when compared to the other job. A fair change, I must say. as a person who plays every single jobs decently, and minmaxes & optimizes everything as well, I agree that BLM needs to fall in line.

Why though? By your own admission, non-standard play is entirely optional and you can optimise BLM's damage output to a large extent without it? It's a 2% gain at absolute best, and getting that 2% requires such significant skill and planning that at that point it doesn't really matter what job that person is playing because they will crush anything the game throws at it.

After all these replies from people with a similar position, I am still left wondering why an option is a bad thing? Making all spells restore MP under Umbral Ice preserves this option for those who still want it, whilst giving other players who don't want to deal with MP ticks.

[Ianmaru]

Why though?...
After all these replies from people with a similar position, I am still left wondering why an option is a bad thing?

to answer simply, its not fair that BLM has the 'option', while every other jobs dont. it makes BLM too 'special' as a job. its either make BLM fall in line with the other jobs, or make all the other (currently) 18 jobs have the option for their own kind of nonstandard play. and the former is the easier one to do.

[Cyth_]

to answer simply, its not fair that BLM has the 'option', while every other jobs dont. it makes BLM too 'special' as a job. its either make BLM fall in line with the other jobs, or make all the other (currently) 18 jobs have the option for their own kind of nonstandard play. and the former is the easier one to do.

Other jobs did have options! It is because of feedback like this that they no longer do, BLM just happens to be one of the last holdouts. They are still clearly capable of designing jobs in such a way, such as the EW MNK rework (which they are now bizarrely gutting too). Even Reaper has a lot of niche, "non-standard" optimisation techniques. Nobody is forcing you to play non-standard Black Mage, so if you don't want to then you don't have to. Please do not spoil the one remaining job that has that level of satisfaction for those who do though.

[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.