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

[GartredZW]

I just tested this out in game with basically zero spell speed (2.48GCD because I'm not un-melding my weapon just for this)
In the first half of your fire phase before Paradox, you can fit in 4 FireIVs and nothing else. If you want to slip in a xenoglossy or thunder, you'll need to use a maximum of 3 FIVs. in which case you can actually use 2 instants. So I really hope you didn't need to move in the first half, because that means you have to use all your remaining time just casting FireIVs and Despair. No room for adaptation. Trying to do four FIVs, then an instant before Paradox always fails with that low spell speed. With all my gear on (2.39GCD) you can manage it. But this isn't something that happened in old Black Mage.
in endwalker (yeah, I seriously thought to test this back then) you could consistently get 4 Fire IVs, and still get Paradox off, and you could do the same after paradox and just barely finish the despair cast. It was nice and balanced. it made sense. It felt like someone designed the class to actually work a certain way instead of just throwing stuff at the wall, and telling us to deal with it or go to Pictomancer.

Nevermind the fact that using the Fire 3 instant as it's intended just makes the problem worse because you'll only get four GCDs. Which was certainly the case in Endwalker, but we only got those 35% of the time as opposed to every time.
That just brings forth the biggest question in my mind. How do they actually want us to play this class now? Is the instant Fire3 supposed to be used in fire phase? because it's potency is lower than average, so we're better off just not using it. Well if we don't use it there, then maybe it's supposed to be used in Ice phase to swap back. But as I already showed, that significantly reduces your casting leeway. it takes away half of your available non-fire4 GCDs. Not to mention that if you want to actually optimize damage, you'll need to weave Transpose before using the Fire3, giving it AF1 potency. But to do that we'd need a consistent weave. So either waste a Xenoglossy for every ice phase, get lucky on thunder timings, clip your GCD, or continue to wonder what the point of removing Ice Paradox was. Again I ask, What's the point of the instant Fire 3 proc being a guaranteed thing? And furthermore, why only at level 90+? having that be a fixture of Fire1 from level 35 onward might actually help the boring low damage rotation of early Black Mage.

"It's for movement and extending your fire phase, ya doofus."

Well now it just sounds like they're fixing problems that they created instead of just leaving the class alone. We did just fine before with the way it was. Better than fine even. I was farming P12S by the end of Endwalker, and by that time, I was so proficient that I never dropped or clipped any GCDs. The art of optimizing your casting uptime while dodging mechanics is most of the fun in Black Mage. It's known as the hardest class in the game, and I think that's why they felt the need to change it. Forgetting that that little fact is a hindrance for some, but a challenge for others.