Thread: They are gutting Black Mage even more in 7.2

Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

I see that the Trashologification has also reached BLM.

A shame that it was such a blessing when it was implemented for AST specifically, and now they are throwing that change around to everything like it's some all problem solving electrope.

Originally Posted by Kisshu

Might just be me needing new classes, or Yoshi having cheat. but isn't the fire/ice phase countdown missing?


https://imgur.com/a/qn1gDmu

Left is from the liveletter, while right is from random youtube video.

The normal countdown in the upper right corner is missing.

They're eliminating Astral Fire/Umbral Ice timers.

Mao so glad that Mao already cancelled subscription. Changes whats coming makes Mao cry. Mao sad....

Can I request a general break on making BLM easier? I feel like it's been happening with every single patch in DT and we could use one without these changes. Keeping perfect fire uptime and casting every gcd is already not even required to beat Savage, let alone the sorts of content where people who are confused about where to place their movement abilities are pressing buttons.

As someone who plays BLM for fun, my main concern with this change is, what is the point of Paradox and by extension Firestarter? Just those 2 being insta cast already offered a lot of wiggle room in terms of movement and keeping AF ticking. Not to mention pairing this with what seems like weave windows after each F4, which makes it even easier to weave in Triple/Swiftcast. Makes no sense.

"How do we fix BLM now that PCT is running the show? Easy, we just turn BLM INTO PCT, problem solved."

As a BLM main, and not even a bleeding-edge raidbrained one, I'm beyond disappointed at this. It's enough to make me want to unsub, tbh. I've always joked that BLM was always good because it's Yoshida's main job, and ever since the beginning of DT that Yoshida couldn't have possibly even played BLM, because these changes just keep making BLM worse and worse. It's just another bad job change on the pile of questionable decisions they've made, and it's unfortunately making me no longer want to even play the game.

I unironically think their entire job design team should be fired.

I never liked timers and would rather have procs and buffs that I can spend with agency and tactically whenever I like, but if BLM mains loved their timers, then who I am to tell them they were wrong?
The cast time reduction though, that's literally a job identity genocidal attempt...

Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

I see that the Trashologification has also reached BLM.

well if it takes hitting dps with it to make them actually realize what healers have been talking about for the past 5 years

I can only say that l play blm in pvp... So This doesn't affect me

I started playing BLM in the end of EW hopeful that the job would improve on its already stellar but admittedly complex design that made it stand out so much from the rest of the cast. 7.0 came and with it a punch to the gut, while there were some good changes that made the job feel better to play it also came with the gross oversimplification and downright removal of non-standard rotations that were so characteristic to the job. Hell the job had even lost umbral ice paradox(a change later reverted).

All for what? The people that played the job got reduced (partly because of a problematic brethren that I am sure people have already extensively talked about) but also because the job felt off. Patch 7.1 restored some hope in the job giving us more options to play around with and actually was the first time that we saw certain fights actually favoring BLM even with the absurd state of PCT.

Going through the clear rates that the community has gotten the job isn't more popular despite the simplification. By a significant margin as well. Taking first the latest ultimate the tally is 480 clears for BLM *cough* 6000 clears for PCT, 750 for RDM and finally 264 for SMN. Going through savage the story is significantly worse with BLM having the least clears of the casters at 5453, PCT at 15747, RDM at 9310 and SMN at 10447.
If we take Anabyssos we will also see that BLM comparatively has a significantly higher representation BLM at 5176, Red Mage at 6930, Summoner at 13059.

What can we extrapolate from this data? First of all that PCT is at least extremely popular (though admittedly extremely over tuned). Secondly, BLM lost popularity amongst caster players in a more severe manner than the rest. This all poses the question, if the DT BLM changes were this bad for the job why is SE doubling down on simplifying it? One could make the argument that since PCT and BLM are competing for the same "role" (no-res caster) that it is only normal for it to lose so much in popularity. However the threads of people abandoning BLM because of the design decisions are almost too numerous to count with people expressing their frustrations in every way they know.

In summary, I am baffled to see SE completely neglect the people that invested their time into the job, when community sentiment shows that people heavily criticize the direction it has taken. Personally I have seen 3 of my favorite jobs get progressively dumber to play in GNB, DRK and BLM, which is souring my experience significantly. If this is the preview of changes we are going to see for 8.0 I want out. I don't feel like my time is respected and I do not see myself continuing to cope. Please SE, don't die on this hill.