The (Possible) Shape of Black Mage to Come

[ElevatedCosmonaut]

Greetings. I've written a few threads on the current state of Black Mage, and with 7.08 right around the corner, I've realized that a large amount of discussion, on both the NA and JP side, is the idea of a Black Mage rework.

While I am not intrinsically opposed to the idea of a rework, I am very cautious about this, because for a large portion of the job, it works fine. Even more so, some of the ideas proposed are rather poor.

1. Reworking to a burst style DPS

One of the parts that Black Mages enjoy about their job is their relatively flat damage profile. While it leads to below average buff feed, it also allows them to not have to cram a bunch of their spells into a short window along with everyone else, and it makes the class more unique, it's part of their identity to have this type of damage.

While the same thing happened to Paladin, I feel it's a lot less applicable, as they've shown they can balance classes with flatter profiles, like BLM back in Endwalker, or even VPR now.

2. Healer GCD's

If you've played Pictomancer, you should have noticed by now that a large chunk of their mobility comes from their shorter GCD's and longer recast timers in a lot of their moves.

To be frank, I am unequivocally against the idea of giving Black Mage healer GCD's. It's the class identity to have these long commitments, in exchange for the damage it puts out. It's very satisfying to just get into a flow of casting Fire 4 after Fire 4, and finishing it off with a despair? Amazing. Shortening our GCD's to such a degree can really kneecap that feeling, making us into a lesser copy of Picto.

3. Removing UI and AF.

The idea of removing UI and AF has been floated around before, and once again, I am very much against this idea. This has been a part of the class since ARR, and every single part of our job is focused around this, the careful balance of refreshing AF, putting out as much as you can within that, then going back into UI to do it all again. By removing it, you're nixing one of the most satisfying things to pull off, and something that intuitively teaches players how to efficiently play the job.

That's all the ideas I could remember being brought up, but the bottom line is that we don't need a rework. There's just a handful of changes that need to be made for us to coast on by pretty comfortably. 7.05 was a great step in the right direction! To sully all of that with an uneeded rework, is a spit in the face to us, and all the devs who made Black Mage what it is.

[Ramiee]

Pretty much agree with everything but I doubt anyone who mains BLM and mained it EW want a rework, what's wanted is EW BLM. The reason it's being brought up is pattern recognition, this has happened before with SMN with MNK with DRK and even with all the Healers bar Sage. Jobs developed against the Battle Content teams intentions so they got reworked to fit into their intentions, I believe that the developers don't actually take feedback from these forums 99% of the time.

I truly believe the only reason they mention feedback is because they look for feedback that agrees with changes they predetermined, the recent Viper rework had people more interested in positionals going away for example but the Devs removed the dot which like a handful of people asked and then claimed that was the feedback. It takes the forums on all sides aggressively pushing something to return for it even to get a chance, like how we got ice Paradox, but even then it's not guaranteed. (Kaiten)

[ElevatedCosmonaut]

It takes the forums on all sides aggressively pushing something to return for it even to get a chance, like how we got ice Paradox, but even then it's not guaranteed.

Precisely. If nothing else, I hope my words push all people here to be loud and demanding with what they want.

[LilimoLimomo]

All I can say is that I hope Black Mage doesn't get anything close to a meaningful rework. Black Mage is the only job where I can get an experience that stimulates my brain the way Black Mage does; nothing else is like it. I would be devastated if the core of what makes Black Mage gameplay so compelling was removed.

I'm hoping that any reworks in 8.0 increase the diversity of experiences jobs can provide, rather than reducing them. Take the jobs that are already similar and breathe some additional flavor so they can be meaningfully differentiated; don't take one of the few unique jobs and homogenize it!

[Eraden]

Mao agrees with whats everyones been saying here. EW BLMs was peak BLMs. Sadly, Mao thinkings Ramie right. Writings already on the wall. BLMs probably gonna get reworked into Picto "adjacents".

[Altera]

All I can say is that I hope Black Mage doesn't get anything close to a meaningful rework. Black Mage is the only job where I can get an experience that stimulates my brain the way Black Mage does; nothing else is like it. I would be devastated if the core of what makes Black Mage gameplay so compelling was removed.

I'm hoping that any reworks in 8.0 increase the diversity of experiences jobs can provide, rather than reducing them. Take the jobs that are already similar and breathe some additional flavor so they can be meaningfully differentiated; don't take one of the few unique jobs and homogenize it!

Yeah I have played BLM since 1.0 and I do not want a massive rework, just small improvements.
What I would love to see for future in Dawntrail though is
FlareStar consolidated into Fire4. So when all 6stacks of Astral Souls is met, Fire4 button turns into Flarestar. Also make it instant cast. Or make Despair instant.
Thunder turned into an Ogcd spell to ease with weaving
High Fire/Blizzard 2 damage increase to make them worth using

[LilimoLimomo]

What I would love to see for future in Dawntrail though is
FlareStar consolidated into Fire4. So when all 6stacks of Astral Souls is met, Fire4 button turns into Flarestar. Also make it instant cast. Or make Despair instant.
Thunder turned into an Ogcd spell to ease with weaving
High Fire/Blizzard 2 damage increase to make them worth using

I love the idea for less button bloat, but beyond that I personally don't want more instant-casts or oGCD's. For me, a part of BLM that I love is that the time it takes to cast GCD's is a resource you have to manage alongside Astral Fire and Umbral Ice.

Personally, I think we need more long cast times, as long casts result in risk/reward scenarios, which result in more improvisational gameplay. And while I know they'll never do it, I'd love if they got rid of Triplecast so that we really had to be selective about which cast times we cheated.

[Atmaweapon510]

Fire I and Blizzard I should have healer gcds so that BLM isn't completely painful to play before getting Paradox.
Thunder should stack up to 45 seconds like Bard's DoT. A proc with the same timer as the debuff doesn't feel right, even if it refreshes more often than that. This also lets Thunder be used as a movement tool without losing dps when planned appropriately.
Flarestar should be able to cast while moving (Kuja in Dissidia NT has a short movement period before he fires it off.) Several Dissidia spells have the caster able to freely float around while charging.

[Ramiee]

Flare star becoming instant cast just means it's yet another movement tool and with swiftcast and fire paradox we already got 2 more movement tools, hell you could say 3 with the extra xeno slot.
I really dont know exactly what could be done with flare star to be more fun to use. Maybe instead of having to have it fall off when you go into ice you can cast it whenever you have 1 astral soul but it's damage gets higher if you have more astral souls up to it's max. I would prefer if to remain a long cast but want it to be something more interesting then something that forces you to be a fire mage.

[Mecia]

2 and 3 would accomplish what they probably thought 7.0 would. Theres just no way BLM will ever become a popular job without axing its cast times.

I dont want a rework and i can put up with the mana/thunder changes but i hate being forced to cast 6F