A retrospective on BLM specific changes in DT.

[1800JILL]

Hey, my name is Jill. For context to this thread, I started playing this game back in ShB during the very beginning of the COVID-19 Lockdowns.

I have only levelled casters, healers and (specifically) Dark Knight because I have an immense love for "MP" spending jobs. So far, I have accumulated 4,000 hours of gameplay as of writing. This isn't an accomplishment, merely a stating of fact.


The main topics covered here will be an assessment of features gained, lost, and retroactively adjusted from prior expansions. A majority of topics covered are either speculatory or mathematical. I will not be mentioning changes to the role such as Addle and Swiftcast.


Black Mage (BLM)
Needless to say, the newest changes for playing BLM are, for lack of a better term, decisive; but let's mull over the facts introduced in DT then we can deconstruct it's rippling effects.

Synopsis:
- The removal of MP being linked to "server ticks" - or 3 second intervals.
- The removal of Sharpcast AND Thundercloud.
- Reworked Thunder, Thunder II, Thunder III, Thunder IV. (Reduced from being a 30s DOT, potency tweaks, loss of burst from old Thundercloud.)
- Addition of High Thunder, High Thunder IV and Thunderhead. (Damage neutral with old Sharpcast Thunder skills IF their DOT timer is not refreshed early, otherwise a DPS loss.)
- The removal of High Fire II's 'Enhanced Flare' bonus, a DPS loss.
- Umbral Soul rework to align with changes made to MP Recouperation.
- Blizzard IV now gives MP equivalent to Umbral Ice #. 1/2/3 = 2500/5000/10000MP.
- The removal of half of Endwalkers Capstone spell 'Paradox' in Ice Phase. A 500 potency loss.
- Retrace, a relocation of Ley Lines.
- Flare Star, a spell on-par with a Foul in terms of damage; it requires the spending of 6 Fire IV's to execute. Causes a DPS loss if unable to execute, being a capstone "Nuke" Spell akin to ARR 'Flare', HW 'Fire IV', StB 'Foul' and ShB 'Xenoglossy' (EW 'Amplifier' granted a Xeno). Loses all "stacks" of Flare Star when leaving Fire to Ice.
- An extra polyglot stack.
- Paradox rework; Paradox in Fire now grants Firestarter at a 100% chance always and is an instant cast (allows the drifting of Astral Fire timer by the GCD due to its instant cast nature and only being accessible in AF) and the removal of Paradox in Ice.
- Enhanced Enochian (Baseline DPS increase)


Analysis:
Given the fact we got told that AST and DRG were the ones receiving a rework this expansion, imagine my surprise seeing these changes.

I will now mention the absolute deconstruction of all features given to Black Mage during Endwalker.

- Firstly, of course with the removal of Sharpcast comes the removal of Enhanced Sharpcast (Two stacks of Sharpcast) and it's primary use of reapplying Thunder. Among other uses however it also allowed the user to get Firestarter when used in conjunction with Fire or Paradox in Fire, to it's much more useless ability to Scathe, forcing its usual 20% chance to 100%, doubling its potency which even the Offical Job Guide for FF14 failed to mention was revised from 100 to 200. (Out of everything that BLM that got this axe this expansion, it somehow wasn't Scathe, which was useless even in ARR.) However, despite this change it is apparent to me that the developers don't understand a major crux of what makes non-standard possible at all isn't Sharpcasting Thunder nor Scathe, but the ability to make Firestarter an instant cast itself. I will not explain the semantics here in this already drawn-out paragraph, but almost all non-standard "technical DPS boosts" involve this method specifically. This ultimately punishes inexperienced Black Mages in prog environments who didn't know to hold all of their Triplecasts for a excessively movement heavy mechanic, of which there is a lot of this expansion with the (in my opinion, much better designed dungeons and trials).

- Secondly, the removal of High Fire II's damage output baseline to 100 potency (20 greater than Fire II) losing 40 potency but also removed up to (3-4 Flares, worth of damage by 40 each, removing a 120-180 potency) due to the removal of 'Enhanced Flare' for a total of 220 potency lost in AOE in Fire alone right off the gate in Dawntrail. Already weaker than its predecessor until it receives Flare Star; 10 levels down the line. Even then Flare Star is only a 180 potency spell increase in comparison to old AOE rotations damage. Ultimately this is a nerf to EW Black Mage, this much I can deduce clearly in terms of dungeons and add phases.

- Finally, the removal of Ice 'Paradox'. This was seemingly due to the fact that with the changes of MP server ticks, only Blizzard IV was deemed a "required spell" to re-enter Fire Phase. A 500 (x0.7 due to UI) potency spell being removed; however, I believe the ramifications of removing an instant cast in Ice wasn't thoroughly thought through. The removal of Paradox in Ice has caused friction in the community because it removed the ability to realign the jobs flow and better control and maintain DOT maintenance. Before in EW we used to have 3, Thunder III with SC entering Ice, Xenoglossy and of course Ice Paradox (technically 4 but Scathe is simply not viable. Ever.) but have instead been reduced to 2, but due to potency changes with Thunder skills is NOT viable to reapply early instead only leaving a Xenoglossy, an excessively valuable resource that takes time or the use of Amplifier to acquire.

Feedback:
TL;DR The recent Black Mage changes have simultaneously nerfed the class in terms of DPS output as a selfish DPS with no utility, no mobility, and no flexibility. It is now more restrictive, harder to play and less rewarding. Simultaneously increased the skill floor while reducing the skill ceiling. It is not worth taking Black Mage into prog because it is easily punished and when punished becomes an active detriment as a selfish DPS class and even in known content lacks the damage through put to compete with classes within its own category, let alone contest a competent melee player.

I have a list of proposed changes that I believe would assist the job in two possible methods; one with a reversion of both Thunder, Sharpcast, Enhanced Flare, and Mana Ticks, a return to the critically acclaimed Endwalker BLM; and a set of changes that would fix the current issues without major reworking or remedy without pure potency tweaks changes, a conversion of the current changes.


Reversion: Return to Endwalker (With Compromise)
- Revert the MP Regen system but change the innate potency increase of MP (MP is regained in potencies too, this is seen on detailed analysis of Lucid Dreaming, which is restores MP per 3 second Server Tick) while in Umbral Ice to the proposed 2500MP, 5000MP and 10,000MP changes. That way one single tick is all it would take to regain all MP when swapping to Umbral Ice III. This way Paradox in Ice can be safely re-added to allow movement and the ability to recover, adding a security net if Server Ticks don't align with the moment, we shift to Ice. Due to the return of Ice Paradox, Paradox in Fire can be returned to a hard cast stand-in for Fire (of course, removing its ability to gain Firestarter. Firestarter can still be gained however, in a later note.)

- Return Sharpcast and revert Thunderhead to Thundercloud, returning mobility options BUT remove the ability for Fire or Paradox in Fire to proc Firestarter through Sharpcast. This won't change the maximum damage a Black Mage can currently do with perfect DOT's but will reduce the minimum amount they currently do for early re-application. Increase the amount of damage that High Thunder spells deal. This should be an UPGRADE.

- A rework to Despair. I believe that granting Despair the ability to give Firestarter, as you exit Fire and enter Ice is a sound idea. This allows for the optimal string that the Devs allowed into current Dawntrail (this is what Black Mage players are doing currently, if you aren't it's such a minimal loss, nobody has noticed yet) where as you leave Ice via Transpose after using an instant cast in Ice (this would be our reintroduced Paradox in Ice or, if you needed to move or need to refresh Thunder you can Sharpcast easily out of in instant Paradox in Ice.) However, I also recommend additional change to further increase the need and want to use Despair while not having to sacrifice Flare Stars and rid pain points in the current design. Also, it is my firm belief that High Thunder should actually deal MORE damage than our old DOT. The fact it's damage neutral under specific circumstance (not clipping the DOT early) is equally reliant on server ticks as MP regeneration is. (Disclaimer, DOT's, HOT's and MP Regen, including Lucid Dreaming are all based off server tick, as is your in game natural HP and MP regen. This isn't some massive game flaw, it's just a byproduct of the game itself being an MMO and how server communication works.)
- A rework to Flare Star (in conjunction, complimenting Despair. Also needing a change to Fire IV) I propose a change to Flare Star that will hopefully make it easier to use, more forgiving and more rewarding. Upon the successful casting of Despair (or simply reaching 0MP, like with Flare.) it should either transform into or unlock the ability to use Astral Flare as an instant cast regardless of the amount of Flare Stars acquired. If Fire IV granted a stacking buff, to a maximum of 6 called "Flare Star" description "Increases potency of Flare Star", then you could have the baseline potency of Flare Star being very low, growing in number until it reaches its current 400 potency. An example being a 100-potency baseline, (+20, +60, +100, +30, +30, +60) per Astral Heart. I choose these numbers specifically because 1 heart is less than a single Fire, two is equal to Fires’ potency, 3 is equal to Fire III's potency, 4 is equal to Fire IV's, 5 is equal to Despairs potency, and the 6th is equal to the current full 400 potency, the full damage of Flare Star. This exact potency amount also makes casting Flare Star early at 3 stars (100 + 180), damage neutral with an Enhanced Flare (280 potency) meaning it can be used as an early finisher even in AOE.


Conversion: Sticking to Dawntrail (No Compromise)

- Keep the MP Regen System as is in the reverted state, allow the return of Paradox in Ice as a (damage neutral to instant re-entrance of Fire via instant cast Fire III) optional movement tool, but not a necessary one. Blizzard IV regains 10,000MP on hit.

- Keep Sharpcast out, increase the potency on Thunderhead (and tweak older Thunder spells to be in line with this) application to be damage neutral in Fire (their most common Fire Spell at the time, LVL1-59 = Fire, LVL60-100 = Fire IV), set a time limit (15s-21s) for the players next time they can receive Thunderhead as to disallow transposing for non-standard "High Thunder Rotations". If this is still a problem, or the change is feared, increase the cooldown of Transpose to something akin to 10 or 15 seconds to completely disallow it.

- I think the Despair/Flare Star change above can be followed here, without the High Fire changes, only needing the first 3 Astral Fires to be reduced to be in line with current Flare potencies. Include the removal of Firestarter on Paradox in Fire, return it to a hard cast, keep the 100% proc on Despair.


CONCLUSION
This summarises my synopsis, analysis, feedback, and proposed changes. I hope this is helpful, easily understood and not entirely illogical to anyone who doesn't deeply understand Black Mage so that even those unconcerned with the job can see its current faults.

If you believe I have made any critical oversights or the issues I see are somehow not actually a flaw, I ask you please inform me in a well-informed manner. If you do agree however, please let yourself be known what you do and don't agree with. If we do not communicate clearly on what we do and do not want, we won't have unique groups with specific tastes, we will get something that nobody wants. Nobody likes bland gruel.

Square Enix, Creative Team. I hope you can infer what I believe to be the better of the two. I hope you can make the right call and make as many of us happy. I'm sorry to have bombarded with so much text but I believe criticism without deep understanding and the ability to bring forward solutions is useless noise. I fear that, somewhere along the wat I have made myself misunderstood or been misrepresented. I don't want the designers head on a pike or something, I just want what I care for, what I fell in love with to be lovingly maintained, improved upon, and respected. This feels like egress, a downgrade, or some kind of misunderstanding.

Yours Truly,
'Archmage' Jillian Stingray.
"Black Mage should be like liquorice, an acquired taste."

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Just wanted to let you know, you can edit posts to circumvent the 3000 character per post limit. Unless the splitting was a design choice, then you do you.

[1800JILL]

It's my first time posting here, suppose I neglected to mention.
My apologies if it caused it be to difficult to read, I just assumed it was by design on the forum.

[ElevatedCosmonaut]

Great write up, my only critique is that, because of the lengthened fire phases, thunder is harder to upkeep, so I would like the duration on the dot increased, and its potency adjusted to compensate. Also, transpose being on CD would feel terrible for add phases or short downtime, imo at least.

[1800JILL]

Great write up, my only critique is that, because of the lengthened fire phases, thunder is harder to upkeep, so I would like the duration on the dot increased, and its potency adjusted to compensate. Also, transpose being on CD would feel terrible for add phases or short downtime, imo at least.

That is quite the reasonable request for High Thunder, If SQEnix doesn't want to re-iterate Sharpcast nor return Thunderclouds' burst damage they could just increase the length to somewhere near 45s, making it an upgrade like I wanted it to be instead of a worse pre-change Thunder III + Sharpcast. Truth be told, I thought, and still believe that Thundercloud had an amazing effect by dealing it's entire duration in burst damage.