7.0 BLM Changes that wouldn't kill the job

[Hana_Monogatari]

Here is a simple rework to the proposed 7.0 Black Mage changes, without scrapping every single thing the devs have done with new animations and job gauges and stuff:

• Astral Soul: A new effect added to Amplifier. Grants x6 Astral Hearts to the new job gauge, each Heart upgrading Fire IV to Flare Star, a high-potency AOE nuke. Astral Hearts carry over across Ice phases until you use all of them, meaning you have x6 total buffed Fire IV casts every 2 minutes, giving BLM a bit more of a real burst window, while keeping shorter non-standard Fire lines viable. (While "Astral Soul" could be its own cooldown button to press, BLM doesn't have many weave slots as is. Additionally, we rarely drift Amplifier in any fight, especially compared to Ley Lines or Manafont, making this a true 2-minute burst option.)
• Keep Umbral Ice Paradox. Why was this removed. Lol
• Mana is regenerated by any and all GCDs pressed under Umbral Ice, including Xeno, High Thunder, and ice Paradox.
• Revert to the current system of random Thunderhead/Firestarter procs and Sharpcast. However, the proc-less High Thunder cast would also be instant, just without the added potency of the full dot tick added to the initial hit.

This would be the best of both worlds—new, flashy 7.0 skills added and mana regen simplified, without dumbing down the job to the point of tedium due to ill-conceived mana changes. There are other small changes, like fire Paradox not being instacast or making Scathe not useless, but these are the major changes that would significantly improve the game experience, both for new players and veterans.

plz square, i beg

[Raikai]

This way to handle Flare Star charges would be light years better. To me, that's the most egregious part of the bad BLM new stuff, because given how inflexible/static is, Flare Star could've been a follow-up action to Despair and Flare with minimal differences.

That new gauge is mostly cosmetic, if we're only meant to press Flare Star to end the fire phase.

An alternative way would also let us have a very fast cast, but weaker Flare Star at 1 stack, and the cast time + potency goes up as we gain more stacks. Would have a smiliar effect, but a more flexible usage.

[Taranok]

If you want to fix black mage, the first thing that has to happen is fixing the actual problem with blackmage. Its structure is built on a rotten foundation. All other problems with the class stem from this, and these supposed fixes or changes wouldn't actually help anything other than further entrench the class in its bad design.

For example, BLM stopped being a proc class in heavensward. Keeping procs is just bloating the class out on something that was marginalized as soon as sharpcast got a 30s cooldown, and was already marginalized when BLM only cast 2 abilities per cycle that could even proc to begin with. Giving mana from any GCD is basically saying "We don't want to cast blizzard 4." Which is more an indictment of just how bad blizzard 4 is as a button in general that the playerbase is champing at the bit to have the ability to pretend it doesn't exist again. If I were to add anything to amplifier, it would first be to merge it with manafont, and the second thing would be to give it literally any new button that doesn't exist. Not flare star, not despair, not fire 4s. Think ultimas or zettaflares. It also wouldn't care if you were in AF or UI to begin with because your burst shouldn't be slaved to some exact point in your rotation, like it is now (esp for manafont.)

The problem with black mage is that the class is an extremely old design. Looking to the past isn't going to fix any of its problems, and people should be much more forward-thinking with these supposed fixes.

For example. Why not make the umbral ice rotation more meaningful? You only get X mana per blizzard spell cast in UI. You get 3500 mana per blizzard 4, so you need to cast 3 of them. Let's make them do, oh, 450 potency per cast (fire 4 equivalent would be ~500 if cast times were the same.) At full mana, you cast freeze, a reworked despair, and let's say it does 500 potency (despair equivalent would be ~510.) Only castable at full mana, gives 3 umbral hearts when mana is full. If you cast a flare star in astral fire, have full MP and umbral hearts, you can cast a new ice spell, I'll just say ultima again.

Then, let's think of looking a bit further. What if flare star automatically kicked you into umbral ice on casting it, and ultima automatically kicked you into astral fire. No longer using an ARR ability to transition between phases unless you really want to. Hell, with the right balancing, you could go into UI, cast 1 or 2 blizzard 4s, transpose firestarter into AF anyways, and get 3 fire 4s and a despair (with 2 blizzard 4s,) so you can keep that lovely nonstandard option for boss jumps.

BLM needs to let go of the past, it needs a structure rework. Instead of trying to cling to its broken past, it's better to find ways to grow it bereft of this, fix its problems, and actually make the class a black mage.

[Keichi]

Astral soul:
I can see that kind of skill coming for 8.0 or 9.0.
A skill to manual fill it, similary to Umbral soul or the other shard. But, that will very likely not coming for 7.x. Whe had that filler allways in later expansion (with Umbral Ice very late).
The keeping, even in the ice phase would be nice quality of life. But i think that the devs are thinking, that it would take out the "fun" from it (arent the people complaining, that the classes should be more complex and so one? This is what i would understand to that phrase.).

Paradox
Like i stated in other threads, is it probably removed, because it has as good as no purpose. The ice phase is very short now. There isnt much of reason to stay longer there, as maybe 1 thunder spell (to not distribut the time in fire phase). The dmg paradox would do, is probably very good covered with the fire spells (esspecialy Flare star).
The only truly use it had would be in running phase.
To keep it would be nice quality of life. But in terms of usefullness had it a very low priority now (at last, under the standard flow).

Mana regeneration
I simply can not understand this hate boner again ice spells.
Yeah, it would be nice to has the same option with other spells to. But, at last has now ice spells a additional use and fit the theme of Fire and ice more (fire burns the mp, ice recovers it).
You only need 2 ice spells, who even Support fire phase (B3 to go into ice phase and b4 for the shards and Max mp). That can not be to much. Its a nice and acceptable mechanic and idea. There isnt much of a reason, to complain about it.
It Support the way, the Blm should be used.

Sharpcast
Aside of a early Thunderspell do i not see any reason, why the thunder and fire should changed back.
The power looks to be the same or higher by thunder and it prefent missplays. In addition has 1 Button vanished. There is no drawbacks to the change. Because the skill is now permanent included in the spells, who used it (at last i used it only for thunder, rarely for fire).

[Voidmage]

Paradox
Like i stated in other threads, is it probably removed, because it has as good as no purpose. The ice phase is very short now. There isnt much of reason to stay longer there, as maybe 1 thunder spell (to not distribut the time in fire phase). The dmg paradox would do, is probably very good covered with the fire spells (esspecialy Flare star).
The only truly use it had would be in running phase.
To keep it would be nice quality of life. But in terms of usefullness had it a very low priority now (at last, under the standard flow).

They could have just made it so Paradox also gives mana. They completely butchered the meaning of this spell, namely the mastery to cast it in ice and fire phase. There was absolutely no reason to delete it. Short ice phase be damned. There are far mroe useless skills in this game.

Mana regeneration
I simply can not understand this hate boner again ice spells.
Yeah, it would be nice to has the same option with other spells to. But, at last has now ice spells a additional use and fit the theme of Fire and ice more (fire burns the mp, ice recovers it).
You only need 2 ice spells, who even Support fire phase (B3 to go into ice phase and b4 for the shards and Max mp). That can not be to much. Its a nice and acceptable mechanic and idea. There isnt much of a reason, to complain about it.
It Support the way, the Blm should be used.

The "Hateboner" is not against ice spells but against only them regenerating mana.
Is the ice phase short? Sure, but you know what would be even better? Having the choice and freedom we had before and not being on rails.
Also your last sentence:
Its fine if you support it, I don't because I think players should have some kind of freedom in playstyles and not be forced to what some random dev wants.

Sharpcast
Aside of a early Thunderspell do i not see any reason, why the thunder and fire should changed back.
The power looks to be the same or higher by thunder and it prefent missplays. In addition has 1 Button vanished. There is no drawbacks to the change. Because the skill is now permanent included in the spells, who used it (at last i used it only for thunder, rarely for fire).

While sharpcast removal isn't the big end of the world it still was some nice skill expression to keep the flow.
The problem here is that it was removed, all it's stuff was streamlined AND the mana regeneration only with ice spells was added. That is one big swoop of simplification at once on a job we all thought was almost perfect.

I'm really, really tired of the entire game be compressed just so no one has to see failure anywhere.
If you don't do extremes or savage (mind you I do them sometimes) then this all feels like old players are no longer welcomed in this game.

Edit: I apologize if I sound aggresive here. I have just seen too much non blm players commenting (not entirely here) and aggresive dismissive opinions (Mr. Happy) lately.

[Kabooa]

I disagree with some of this.

I think all that needs to happen is:

• Astral Souls carry over between AF phases
  
  Flarestar refreshes AF
  
  Return Ice Paradox
  
  Blizzard 3 restores 2k MP upon entering UI
  
  Non-Fire GCDs restore 3k MP in UI
  
  B4 restores full MP in UI

This supports turret moments, doesn't invalidate short lines, and can create meaningful decisions on how to utilize Flarestar as a 0 MP, high potency, AF refresher.

I honestly don't care about the thunder changes because Endwalker already killed thunder management.

This means your ice phase has a few choices you can make, either casting B4 to plant yourself for a longer AF phase, 2 gcds for 8000 MP, or 3 GCDs for full MP and a long mobility phase. You're guaranteed two instant casts every phase via Thunderhead and Ice paradox, and can consume a polyglot. This cements UI with three clear paths, each with purpose. Flarestar as a 0MP AF refresher adds further possibilities as it can replace FireDox and instead allow another Fire 4.

[Hana_Monogatari]

I disagree with some of this.

I think all that needs to happen is:

• Astral Souls carry over between AF phases
  
  Flarestar refreshes AF
  
  Return Ice Paradox
  
  Blizzard 3 restores 2k MP upon entering UI
  
  Non-Fire GCDs restore 3k MP in UI
  
  B4 restores full MP in UI

This supports turret moments, doesn't invalidate short lines, and can create meaningful decisions on how to utilize Flarestar as a 0 MP, high potency, AF refresher.

If Astral Souls carry over across ice phases until used, then any Fire IV cast after obtaining x6 Astral Souls is a major potency loss. Flare Star would therefore not be as flexible as intended.

I honestly don't care about the thunder changes because Endwalker already killed thunder management.

I disagree. Any system works with the job's toolkit as a whole, not as individual pieces; taken in isolation, Thunder "management" isn't really management at all, true, but with Thunder vs Fire procs making certain non-standard lines possible, it definitely has its place. DoT management could be made *more* complex, sure, and I'm sure BLM mains would love that, but I am describing a set of ideas that would result in minimal changes to how the job currently exists in the devbuild—i.e., feasible changes that could be implemented in time for 7.0.

[Raikai]

If Astral Souls carry over across ice phases until used, then any Fire IV cast after obtaining x6 Astral Souls is a major potency loss. Flare Star would therefore not be as flexible as intended.

What, Flare Star is anything but flexible - it does have an extremely cemented place in the rotation, to the point that I even question the actual usefulness of a whole gauge dedicated to it. If it was a "Despair finisher" action the difference would be pretty small, other than not punishing people who forget to cast all 6 F4's.

[Kabooa]

If Astral Souls carry over across ice phases until used, then any Fire IV cast after obtaining x6 Astral Souls is a major potency loss. Flare Star would therefore not be as flexible as intended.

Because Flarestar requires all Souls and not partial, it's only a loss of DPS if you cast a total of 6 Fire 4s or more that overflow the gauge.

Much like how 30 Heat for the Machinist isn't a DPS loss, because they couldn't do anything with it anyways.

[Hana_Monogatari]

Because Flarestar requires all Souls and not partial, it's only a loss of DPS if you cast a total of 6 Fire 4s or more that overflow the gauge.

Much like how 30 Heat for the Machinist isn't a DPS loss, because they couldn't do anything with it anyways.

True, but if Flare Star is intended to do things like refresh the AF timer, then you would be chewing through several Fire IV casts before this became useful. For example, P11S kills see BLMs casting upwards of 90 Fire IVs, making overcapping Astral Soul stacks, even only once per AF cycle, fairly punishing.

I agree that Flare Star, as is, is limiting and is basically just a very weird forced follow-up to Despair, and so any flexibility would be an improvement. I am just not sure if carrying over Astral Souls would make that large of a difference (compared to the suggestion to make Astral Soul buff x6 Fire IVs total, or having Flare Star gain potency for each Astral Soul stack consumed upon cast).