I am a very average Black Mage player that picked up the class mid-Endwalker casually for fun! Eventually I dropped everything and became a BLM main. I am not great at the class but it was very fun.
The Dawntrail changes to Black Mage don't feel like buffs or improvements - they feel like direct downgrades that make the class very strict in an expansion that was announced to be focused on fight design (so far has been great in that matter!) and requires quick thinking and movement. It now feels like a clunky Summoner. Changes implemented in Dawntrail look like things given in apology for removing non-standard play, and it feels much worse at all levels of play
- Flare Star is a flashy spell that seems like it was only added to force you to do 6 Fire IV's - counter resets to zero if you drop enochian or go back to Umbral Ice - seems purely to stop non-standard
- You can't double dot targets efficiently anymore
- Instant cast thunder is more or less the worst movement option you can use thanks to potency changes - less on-hit damage and higher per-tick damage meaning it's bad to refresh your thunder effect early because you needed to move)
- Ice Paradox removed purely to kill non-standard? I don't see another reason
- Mana regeneration changes feel very bad in all content, let alone content with phase changes and downtime ('down for the count' moments especially)
I do not feel like these changes make Black Mage more approachable to new players - the learning curve for the class was not ever in the way mana regenerates, nor high level spells like ice paradox. (I feel like it is in the way that it is unclear what fire and ice spells you should be using e.g. Fire 3 must be better than Fire 1 right? Perhaps if Blizzard/Fire III glowed when you should press it to swap from fire>ice or vice versa it would help)
If I had to give a wish-list it would look something like
- letting you keep stacks of Astral Gauge for Flare Star regardless of if you swap to umbral ice (losing all if you drop enochian is fair probably)
- revert mana regeneration changes
- revert thunder changes? it wouldn't be the worst if they stayed as they are in DT but double dotting needs to be possible
- bring back ice paradox
- retrace and 3 xenoglossy is great and no changes needed. same with enhanced swift cast, enochian etc
I have been looking everywhere for black mage discussion and maybe some light in the dark but it feels like no-one enjoys these changes :( People in the community who don't play the job feel less inclined to play it as well seemingly - it's no longer that job that rewards you for playing well or planning things out well. I am very very sad about it and feel like there is no other job that I'll ever enjoy as much as I did with Endwalker Black Mage. Please consider reverting these changes :(