BLM Post-Patch, and where to go from here.

[Sylvain]

I feel like I might have misrepresented my point. The point is that because your fire phase refreshers are all instant now, you either take the 2-3 second loss on your fire phase with your refresh, or you use both to pad out the loss, and likely have to refresh your thunder earlier, further lengthening your phase.

No I got that, but hence my answer, sure, because they're both instant the timer are tighter. 100% agree with that. However, specifically because we always have fire3 proc, I do not believe this to be an issue. If you know that the next firephase will be tight due to movement, you can decide to keep FireIII to ease the movement.

Also, maybe it's just me but, specifically because Paradox is instant I now do 4 fireIV and use Paradox right when there's basically 1s left on AF. I see no problem with that if anything I find myself more mobile than before. But clearly I must be doing something wrong because everyone complains about the oposite.

And if I may clarify on my movement point, we had a lot freer movement in EW than in DT, and while getting used to that is a personal gripe, from the BLM's I've spoken too, they bemoan that loss too. And furthermore, our free movement now (Fire Paradox and F3P) are both more restrictive on when they can be used (Fire Phase), and feel less good (Refresh recast timing issue).

I suppose you and those players were playing the alternative rotation. Obviously this being gone the end result is stricter. I can't deny that.

I personally never enjoyed the alternative rotation and played the "regular" one most of the time. For me, the rework overall has made everything simplier tbh.
It took some time to get used to the changes but I personally like some of the changes.

I still have my grip about a few points tho, Thunder being 90% DoT, Xeno-pile-up, and I hate having to use my triple cast for a dps gain. And FlareStar... oh boy that spell... it took me 30s into the trailer to realise "oh boy.... this looks like a really bad addition... i hope I'm wrong". Tooltip reveal weeks later confirmed I(everyone?) wasn't wrong.

I thank you though for digesting the thread and giving such well thought out feedback..

<3
Tbh I really hope we get the SCH treatment from EW and get Ice Paradox back at the very least. This is litterally the easiest change they could make without breaking the rest.

I have no hope for any form of Astral Flare rework and I'm *very* skeptical on a thunder rework.

Mao still believes mistake was made by havings Flare Star come from Fire IVs. Is means that Flare Star COMPETES with Xenoglossy for spot in rotation. Flare Star should be step up in chain that begins with maintainings Astral and Umbral, produces Polyglots and the Polyglots should be whats used to make Flare Stars (two for Flare Star equal to 250% of single Polyglots or three for Flare Star equal to 400% of single Polyglots). This way BLMs keep EW flexibility AND gets shiny new boom whats not competings with Xenoglossy.

Tbh this would just further promote Polystacking for burst. Is that what you want? "No Xeno gameplay" and turn xeno into a much worse Reprise fom RDM?
Like "... did this BLM just cast a xenoglossy? what a noob... you never do that. You always go for a 3PFS, (3 polyglot Flare Star)"

Started playing FF14 partway through Endwalker with BLM as my main

Welcome Comrade ! Excellent choice ! Boss are always tastier when properly toasted and crispy.

It just doesn't feel good right now.

Yup this seems to be the general feeling. And indeed, as much as people complain about DPS, DPS can be fixed, feeling is different and requires more work.

So regarding longer cast, I actually really wanted one big ass cast... Like my dream spell was to actually have a 5s cast only usable during Leyline :3 I really wanted that Omega boom worht of 2000 potency :3
But let say Flare Star missed the mark... For every reason everyone keep pointing.
Yeah Thunderhead... I think everyone went from "OMG YES EASY THUNDERHEAD PROC" to "wth is that crap" once we saw the new damage...
And rip Ice Paradox... (maybe you'll be back in 2 weeks ... maybe?)

What really blows my mind is the MP regen problem. The fact that this wasn't caught in testing makes all of the BLM changes feel as if they were untested and rushed. I work pretty closely with QA folks on a daily basis, and I love them to death. It feels like these changes weren't given a proper QA pass at all. Obviously, we don't know if that's the case--but it sure feels that way.

I do believe the "low level experience" was indeed not noticed....

Regarding the changes, I feel that it musn't be easy to add a new skill to everyjob, especially one like BLM because, sparing the whole alternative rotation and such, BLM was considered a very well designed job... What can you add that won't break that delicate balance?
Ideally something that doesn't change the rotation too much... Them settling for a spell only castable at the end of the fire cycle kind of make sens... like, in the grand scheme of things, doing an extra cast after despair doesn't change much. However, as you said "it does feel bad" and that's clearly something that must have sliped through.

I mean every expansion will have this problem and it will always be more apparent and probably even harder to manage.

HW brought "rankIV" mechanic which entirely changed the gameplay.
SB brought Foul which didn't change much but basically served as a delay during the Icephase.
ShB brought despair and xeno which rounded up the rotation with a finisher and a mobility skill. Being unable to stack xeno also made the "xeno stack for burst" not a problem.
EW brought Paradox which solidified ice phase...

So what do you add seriously? Ngl, it's getting hard to add stuff without messing up with everything. Had many conversation with friends and everytime someone brought up a new spell idea, everyone was quick to point all the gameplay issue this would introduce.