The (Possible) Shape of Black Mage to Come

[Ferrinus]

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I think the removal of "enhanced flare" was an aesthetic decision first and foremost: since Flare is a big flashy important spell, it's weird for it to be weak by default and require another spell to charge it up first.

That said, I miss EW's AoE rotation, so I definitely want them to do SOMETHING to ensure that it's worth it to cast HF2 for damage (which would automatically make it worth casting HB2 to stance swap, because you'd want Freeze to fully, not just partially, restore your MP). Maybe if there was an inherent reward to spending umbral hearts one by one, rather than three at once? Or it might be possible to just play with potencies until it's worth it.

Off the cuff idea for the first suggestion:

* You get 1 astral soul, to a maximum of 3, whenever a fire spell consumes one or more umbral hearts,
* Flare Star unlocks when your MP drops to 0 as long as you have 3/3 astral souls.

Put together, this lets us delete the astral gauge, earn a flare star as long as we were able to cast B4 and a minimum of three fire spells, and use HF2 to earn a flare star during AoE. They'd still probably want to make F2, B2, and Freeze hit harder, though.