Black Mage is terrible... here's how we fix it!

[Tith]

I waited until 100 before I worried to much about black mage. I've played it on and off since before the game relaunched with a realm reborn it's been my main for MOST of the game with me trading off onto other jobs some expansions when I needed a break or just got tired of juggling the Enochian timer...

BLM had some changes that are a bit controversial with dawntrail but I wanted to wait until level 100 before i formed any hard opinions on them well...im 100 BLM and I honestly HATE it.

Most of the problem have been discussed already some people are upset about the state of thunder procs some are understandably upset over the way paradox works now. Personally I think these are more or less ok? maybe there better maybe there worse but there not GAME breaking.

I want to talk about Flare Star!

Flare Star is INCREDABLY Disappointing It requires 6 fire 4 casts, if you change states to Umbral you lose the charges so it's gotta be done in one rotation, you have to do this while juggling Enochian and movement. Then if you manage to pull it off, you pop off of Despair to end your rotation and your Reworded with a REALLY cool looking spell FLARE STAR!


...and it's damage is crap!

Xenoglossy hits harder is easy to use costs nothing but a little time to charge up, can get a on CD instant charge with an ability... Flare Star hits slightly better then despair it is a every so VERY SLIGHTLY stronger Fire 4 with some AOE and low damage aside the worst part is it's clunky and unfun to use!


SO how do we fix this?


well I have a couple of ideas! I think it's important to not just complain. I love Black Mage and I love FF14 so here's my ideas for making this problem NOT a problem!

First and Foremost, Consider allowing us to KEEP Flare Souls during a Astral/Umbral Phase Transition, this safe guards against bad timing a bad movement phase being forced out of lay lines or not haveing triple cast ect. We still lose DPS for being forced to start the Astral fire phase over again but at LEAST we get to see Flare Star a little more often.

Second Allow Despair to Grant a Flare soul!

Despair is BASICLY a Single Target Flare...it should grant a Flare Soul...not only is this thematically appropriate but it allows us just a TINY bit fi leeway if we are forced to cast Fire I at some point to maintain Enochian!

Lastly, I know the devs intent is to buff BLM potencies. Well while your buffing the potency of our normal spells how about you SPIKE the potency of Flare Star! it should be our BIGIST spell, it should not be playing second fiddle to a Spell that's much easier to cast can be done of GCD and is intent cast...and we can cast three of those...


Blm needs a LOT of love right now... Especially Flare Star we already have to many balls to keep in the air our reword for a perfect rotation should not be a lack lust damage spell on a 3 second cast.


Thank you for you time and consideration.

[Turtledeluxe]

I agree. Flare Star needs...something. Outside looking and sounding cool, it's completely pointless.

[Ferrinus]

The usage condition I favor right now is something like:

1. Astral Hearts only stack up to 3, max, and they just go in the same part of the gauge that Umbral Hearts do
2. Once you have 3 Astral Hearts, Flare Star becomes castable as soon as your MP drops to 0 and remains castable until you leave fire phase. Casting it consumes the charged-up hearts.

They could massage the numbers to make sure that, against a training dummy, casting six F4s before your Flare Star is still better than casting only three, but this would give us a little more leeway while keeping Flare Star in its apparently intended place as a second/superpowered finisher spell.

[Sylvain]

Flare Star hits slightly better then despair it is a every so VERY SLIGHTLY stronger Fire 4 with some AOE.

Not disagreeing with the whole premise, but FlareStar hits 29% harder than FireIV.
I'd hardly call this "very slightly".

Despair hits 9% harder than FireIV, this would be more in line with "slightly".

Everyone has their solution to what is best but something everyone currently agrees on is that Flare Star, when it comes to the single target rotation at the very least, is not a great addition.

It feels clunky, damage doesn't seem good enough for the requirement and many feel we do it too often/redundant with Despair which on the contrario was a very welcomed addition.

Let's hope that the daily "BLM SUCKS HERE'S THE SOLUTION" daily thread will intice them do some serious changes.

[Tith]

OK you got me there But it still doesn't FEEL like it hits very hard t all for what you get out of it or how picky it is to pull off or the fact you have to blow 3 whole seconds to cast it...

I will admit it's not nearly as horrible for the AOE rotation since your gonna flare twice anyway... Honestly we just desperately need a way to get more flare souls without a perfect single target rotation if you have to cast fire I even ONCE you are NOT casting flare star. It feels terrible to use in addition to haveing damage thats horrible...Should at LEAST hit as hard as Xenoglossy. wich would encourage us to Keep a Zeno or two for movement phases.

[Altera]

Yeah I cant tell how many times Ive lost out on Flarestar due to heavy movement mechanic fights. Raid boss 2 in Normal is already a NIGHTMARE with dropping AOEs and moving objects floating across the arena that you have to dodge. During that phase not even double Triple Cast gives enough movement to last the entire mechanic :/

I have loved BLM since 1.0. Dawntrail BLM i absolutly hate. Its harder to play and way less rewarding. I would prefer 1.0 BLM back over Dawntrail

As I only play BLM, I might end up quitting XIV if everything I do will just be this frustrating to experience. The Expansion, mechanics and such are all very good. Just as a BLM those good parts becomes atrociously bad :/

EW BLM 9/10
1.0 BLM 4/10
DT BLM 2/10

[dairymoose]

Not disagreeing with the whole premise, but FlareStar hits 29% harder than FireIV.
I'd hardly call this "very slightly".

Despair hits 9% harder than FireIV, this would be more in line with "slightly".

Everyone has their solution to what is best but something everyone currently agrees on is that Flare Star, when it comes to the single target rotation at the very least, is not a great addition.

It feels clunky, damage doesn't seem good enough for the requirement and many feel we do it too often/redundant with Despair which on the contrario was a very welcomed addition.

Let's hope that the daily "BLM SUCKS HERE'S THE SOLUTION" daily thread will intice them do some serious changes.

For what is supposed to be an ultimate spell, a finishing move, being comparable to the ability we cast 6 times feels underwhelming. It makes up a lot of damage over the course of a fight, sure, but imagine if they decided to give us Ultima instead? Exact same damage, exact same mechanics, slightly different graphics. Ultima is supposed to be the pinnacle BLM spell, one that is used in cutscenes and story beats in various FF games, and we come to find it's a bit stronger than a single fire IV. Or if they renamed it Meteor, the spell that basically defines Tellah in FF4. The ultimate BLM spell that is so overwhelming powerful it kills Tellah to cast it. And we find it's actually not all that strong, a bit stronger than 1 fire IV. They should go back and revise FF4 and have him cast 2 Fire IVs instead, doing way more damage, and not dying in the process.

[LilimoLimomo]

I will continue to advocate for the Astral Gauge persisting through Umbral Ice; it's silly that if players ever want to cast Flare Star that they have to have a near-perfect Fire Phase. Make that change and I think BLM will feel so much less cramped, especially for lower-skilled players.

[Ferrinus]

I'm guessing they don't want astral soul stacks to persist through ice because it would mean Flare Star basically always gets cast somewhere randomly in the middle of your astral cycle rather than as a dramatic finishing move. It's why I'd probably make reaching 0mp one of the triggers for it becoming castable.

[GartredZW]

Here's my idea for the spell:
Astral Souls are gained by casting Fire 4 when you have no Umbral Hearts. Meaning during your opener, when you'd get four before the Despair, you'd have enough for a full power Flare Star. The Astral Soul would show up on the same place as the Umbral Hearts, just colored red.
The spell would replace Despair's button, and act as a direct upgrade to it. Dealing about 50 potency higher than Despair for each Astral Soul. Meaning a total of 490 Potency at max power. If you somehow don't have any Astral Hearts, It would just remain as Despair.

If they're really intent on it being a new button, then it could still have the effect of using up whatever Astral Souls you have.