BLM needs a rework because of new content difficulty

[Tunda]

Picto need utility tax like summoner

[DarkZeroUnit]

so i miss thunder proc really bad please bring it back

also paradox only available to fire is silly

[Ferrinus]

Each use of Manafont lets you cut out a weak B3 and B4 from your rotation. Say that you're at base spell speed and after your normal fire phase you use manafont, that means you'll do 3xF4 PD 3xF4 Desp FS F3P which is 5684 potency (excluding eno) over 28.6 seconds (account for 0.1s caster tax). Say you didn't use manafont, you'd instead use the B3+B4 into standard fire line and then do 6386 potency over 36.2 seconds.

So if you do manafont, you get 36.2 - 28.6 = 7.6 seconds (missing fast F3, B3, and B4 + caster tax) to do cast your normal spells. PPS of the standard line is 176.41 pps, times 7.6 seconds, equals 1340.716 potency. Then 5684 + 1341 - 6386 = 639 potency before eno. So it's more than an entire Despair cast.

I'm not going run down the other comparisons, but DPS wise, Manafont is worth more than TWO uses of Triplecast COMBINED.

Like I said before, you can close your eyes, bleed off all the damage, and play super safe, but given that BLM is a job whose ONLY contribution to the raid is damage and Addle, you should be doing enough DPS to justify your existence.

I don't want SE to be balancing this job around its standard rotation, when the standard rotation is full of all this jank that normal players have to deal with.

I know that Manafont is strong, I'm saying that structurally it's condemned to suffer cooldown drift no matter how strong it is because it's never a right move to cut your astral cycle short to manafont faster. It'd be like deliberately standing in an AoE every 120s in order to wring maximum value out of Manaward. 80s Manafont would be a huge buff to BLM, but it would still drift, because you don't finish an astral cycle every 80s on the dot. Manafont is worth more than two uses of Triplecast combined... but not if you use it every 100s on the dot, because in that case you'd occasionally be bringing yourself up from 4400 MP to 10000 MP, or casting Despair when you still have 8400 MP, or something. You only get the most potency out of Manafont if you let it drift sometimes! So do you want more potency per second, or do you want your HUD to display more simultaneously ticking ability cooldowns?

I think you're right that simply adding a second charge would be the easiest way to preserve the power of DT Manafont while eliminating or at least minimizing cooldown drift. But the cooldown drift is not necessarily a problem in itself because Manafont is not a conventional burst ability.

[Sequora]

Picto need utility tax like summoner

If PCT needs a utility tax, than so do MNK, RPR, NIN, and DRG because they all have party utility. MNK and RPR in particular have similar utility to PCT.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

Picto need utility tax like summoner

No, picto utility is minimal and it belongs up there with the melee. BLM just needs a buff to be back up top and picto perhaps a small nerf to bring below some of the melee.
Summoner has a rez, near constant instant casts and other utlity on top. Picto is not nearly the same.

[Tunda]

If PCT needs a utility tax, than so do MNK, RPR, NIN, and DRG because they all have party utility. MNK and RPR in particular have similar utility to PCT.

they have melee tax

[Lionidas]

I understand this is going to change with the next patch, but in its current state BLM literally has zero reason to exist. It's a selfish DPS class that can't even top the charts if played optimally. How did the developers let this iteration of BLM even make it to live?

Picto meanwhile is grossly overpowered relative to how easy and fun it is to play. When I made the swap from BLM to Picto I was immensely agitated. How the heck could picto just be THAT much better? BLM requires a flat out 20% - 25+% of damage increase across the board. Anyone who disagrees doesn't understand the concept of a selfish dps class with high risk / high reward gameplay.

[Godzillaxpowerrangers]

I have only seen one black mage so far in a dungeon run. I know something is wrong if that's the case. Hopefully Black Mage gets love soon.

[Altera]

I have only seen one black mage so far in a dungeon run. I know something is wrong if that's the case. Hopefully Black Mage gets love soon.

BLM is the only Job I can play or find interesting enough to play....Until Dawntrail changes. I do not like how it plays. Its way too strict that I need to keep so much attention to my timers and such, while the EX trials has so much mechanics that requires a lot of attention as well and fast thinking.
It is so clunky to play compared to how smooth it was in Endwalker.
So BLM needs big potency increases, and tweaks to how it plays. Making Thunder a OGCD would help. And allow the stacks for Flare Star carry over through UI phase. Say you have 5, and you have to go UI, when you go back into AF you still have 5 and just 1 more F4 and can use your shiny new spell as it is so easy to loose atm

So atm, in every Duty roulette, specially EX roulette I say sorry that I play BLM as atm I feel like a drag on the party regardless how well I manage to do things :/ I didnt feel like this ever. And I have played BLM main since they added Job System back in 1.0 aka 13 years now and first time I dislike the Job :/

Devs really falled this job. Which is pretty astounding seeing how well theyve done it since ARR. Every expansion a nice improvement. DT ruined a lot of all that progress :/

[Realfoxy]

I know that Manafont is strong, I'm saying that structurally it's condemned to suffer cooldown drift no matter how strong it is because it's never a right move to cut your astral cycle short to manafont faster. It'd be like deliberately standing in an AoE every 120s in order to wring maximum value out of Manaward. 80s Manafont would be a huge buff to BLM, but it would still drift, because you don't finish an astral cycle every 80s on the dot. Manafont is worth more than two uses of Triplecast combined... but not if you use it every 100s on the dot, because in that case you'd occasionally be bringing yourself up from 4400 MP to 10000 MP, or casting Despair when you still have 8400 MP, or something. You only get the most potency out of Manafont if you let it drift sometimes! So do you want more potency per second, or do you want your HUD to display more simultaneously ticking ability cooldowns?

I think you're right that simply adding a second charge would be the easiest way to preserve the power of DT Manafont while eliminating or at least minimizing cooldown drift. But the cooldown drift is not necessarily a problem in itself because Manafont is not a conventional burst ability.

I'd like to point out that I agree with you that Manafont isn't a burst ability, it's just a damage cooldown, hence you do want to avoid drifting as much as you can since you don't care about aligning it, just maximising the number of uses.

I agree with most of what you've written here, I would just like to state that it's SE that created this problem by massively increasing the power of Manafont, while at the same time removing the tools we could have used to prevent it drifting.