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

[Realfoxy]

It's certainly fair to say that DT BLM is harder than EW BLM in some sense, given that the job became less flexible.

Personally I find it amusing reading all the comments here saying that they enjoy the job being harder when SE stated in the patch notes they wanted to make the job easier to approach.

I also think that the rigidity of the job is going to present a future balance problem, I can't see DT BLM handling the upcoming Eden ultimate well if there's any phase that's like TOP P6 - which is going to necessitate changes to the job given the competition it has in the non-res caster slot - i.e. a job that is much more flexible, easier to execute, and gains much more from downtime.

[ElevatedCosmonaut]

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The sad thing about it, is that the difficulty isn't really rewarding? You just get a long cast like despair without its benefits, pointlessly shorter fire phases, a needlessly strict dot timer, and a neutered ice phase! How they thought this would make the job approachable is baffling to me.

[Galvuu]

The sad thing about it, is that the difficulty isn't really rewarding? You just get a long cast like despair without its benefits, pointlessly shorter fire phases, a needlessly strict dot timer, and a neutered ice phase! How they thought this would make the job approachable is baffling to me.

I basically feel punished rather than rewarded- that's exactly it. You're also hyper-sensitive to, well, anything. BLM always somewhat had this issue, but your team getting in the way (accidentally or because they just don't care) and unfortunate mechanical rng feel awful now.
I'm primarily a df/pf player, so it's painful. And people keep saying "it's so rewarding to play BLM in the new raids", and maybe you really did feel that way, but... currently, SE is deliberately designing fights where 2-minute windows land on heavy movement mechanics. There's a 2min during Honey Bee's "Honey B. live", there's a 2 min during Spikecycle on Valigarmanda's ice phase, there's a 2 min during the fire/wind swords during Vollok on Zoral Ja, there's a 2 minute during double Lariat into emerald weapon mechanic... In EW, you can kinda setup a burst phase made of Thundercloud/Paradox/Xenoglossies/Triple'd Despairs, but now you can't do this because you have no control over the length of your fire phases. So those 2 minute windows when you need to run around feel horrible. Can you make it work with an understanding static and a bit of lucky rng where the aoes land? Yea, you can. In the df it makes me want me want to alt+f4 though.
Like, maybe you enjoy running around the whole arena dancing away from heart aoe vomit while your Ley Lines are planted across the boss, but I didn't find that particularly palatable.

Let me make an extreme analogy here. If you forced me to play a job with my keyboard unplugged- that is, mouse only- it would certainly feel more challenging. But I wouldn't have fun. This is how I feel about DT BLM. I need to rely on everyone, good luck and swallow my frustration to get past some obstacles, whereas before it was 95% in my hands.

[ElevatedCosmonaut]

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Precisely! While I do love team based mechanics and gameplay, (which is something they wanted to work towards), it feels like BLM with its limits is especially reliant on the team, and I think, personally, all content should be PF-able, since I think, while a static helps, the only difference is voice communication.

While I got off the point, yes, it feels like BLM's flexibility is built around worse tools (af paradox and thunderhead), which makes it feel more rigid as while you feel smart for using it in a creative way, it isnt as rewarding as it was in EW, since there's all these unintended side effects.

[rainichan]

Adding my voice into the pile because for as much as I've tried to like new BLM and get used to it, it doesn't feel great. I can do movement as I learn fights, I'm not really worried about that, but with gear not giving me SpS, and an incredibly tight rotation to make sure you can get a FS off with perhaps a follow up Despair, it makes it very unfun to try to do anything with.

Either a couple of things need to happen, or the adjustments need to be more than potencies when adjustments happen:

Either we get a few extra seconds on Enochian to compensate, or FS's cast time needs to be reduced/made instant. With a drop in SpS to try to get anything off while moving or before you have to move, I feel one of these would make it feel better (I don't think it needs to be a mixture, but I wouldn't complain with a couple more seconds on Enochian and a reduced cast time for FS).

This is the first time since I started playing BLM that I can say I wish I didn't main it.

[LilyPendragon]

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They've ironically made the old meme of 'BLM relative' strats more likely now because BLM isn't flexible enough to deal with a fair bit of the stuff it used to be able to.

What a dumpster fire.