Thread: They are gutting Black Mage even more in 7.2

Originally Posted by Basteala

Yeaaaah. It's very healer rotation now.

Given how fights were in Jueno and other content, I can kind of understand the reasoning for some of the changes, but the state BLM is in absolutely does not work. SMN has way more to do than this.

That says a lot, considering the state SMN is in now…

Originally Posted by Illianaro

That says a lot, considering the state SMN is in now…

It does, and I've played SMN. I've played all three pre DT casters to 90. SMN is a glorified Ranged DPS with a rez, but similar to MCH it at least has a fair few things to press in its rotation. BLM doesn't.

Originally Posted by Basteala

Yeaaaah. It's very healer rotation now.

Given how fights were in Jueno and other content, I can kind of understand the reasoning for some of the changes, but the state BLM is in absolutely does not work. SMN has way more to do than this.

The thing that upsets me the most is... this isn't being done as part of some Grand Design for the job's future. Like most things CSIII does, such as the extended patch cycle length with no extra content added, it's only being done because it's convenient for the devs, not the players. Cast timers are interfering too much with their Great Encounter Design Improvement Quest, which is in reality nothing more than just "make fight go faster". Since they can't think of any way to improve combat design other than "make go faster", the inconvenience of cast times needs to be sacrificed on the altar of developer convenience and expedience.

Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

The thing that upsets me the most is... this isn't being done as part of some Grand Design for the job's future. Like most things CSIII does, such as the extended patch cycle length with no extra content added, it's only being done because it's convenient for the devs, not the players. Cast timers are interfering too much with their Great Encounter Design Improvement Quest, which is in reality nothing more than just "make fight go faster". Since they can't think of any way to improve combat design other than "make go faster", the inconvenience of cast times needs to be sacrificed on the altar of developer convenience and expedience.

Honestly having played the content--the shorter cast times to make the fights faster doesn't upset me *too* much. I don't even mind the Thunder buff not having a timer--that was kind of a stupid gimmick to me in the first place when it was introduced in DT.

It's just that BLM is a very 1-2 button rotation and all that kept it viable was Astral/Umbral timers. I feel this change was made to "fix" the complaint of Flare Star falling off during mandatory downtime.

But now BLM went from the most difficult caster to the most braindead.

Honestly next liveletter, every BLM main under the sun should just put SE on blast in the comments and demand something be done. Immediately.

Good lord it feels monotonous now. Like DT blm wasn't exactly rocket science before but its incredible how much duller it feels

Originally Posted by Illianaro

Anybody have an idea what the JP or EU forums are saying about this? I really hope that the entire community is in agreement about this and being LOUD about their disapproval.

Very mixed reactions so far, regarding the dps the job deals and the playstyle, leaning more toward discontent with the changes than anything else, from what I can tell via google translate.

Originally Posted by Basteala

Honestly having played the content--the shorter cast times to make the fights faster doesn't upset me *too* much. I don't even mind the Thunder buff not having a timer--that was kind of a stupid gimmick to me in the first place when it was introduced in DT.

It's just that BLM is a very 1-2 button rotation and all that kept it viable was Astral/Umbral timers. I feel this change was made to "fix" the complaint of Flare Star falling off during mandatory downtime.

But now BLM went from the most difficult caster to the most braindead.

Honestly next liveletter, every BLM main under the sun should just put SE on blast in the comments and demand something be done. Immediately.

But see... you're kinda sorta falling for it. "Improved encounter design" is just "make go faster". And you're kinda ok with them ruining BLM just so they can "make boss go faster", just cause it plays ok in the context of this patch.

I mean, realistically, it's mainly just casting Fire IV, but it was all the other fun little optimizations around that, that made the job interesting and challenging, but also fun. I'd argue even WHM has more to do now. We're literally just "Fireball Mage".

Believe me, I'd love for that to happen, for SE to be FORCED to change it back. But between only a couple of content creators even standing up for us, such as Cole Evyx, and the general attitude of, "oh well it is what it is" or "I like it, screw you", there's little chance of that happening because people just keep accepting slop from CSIII and being ok with it. Also, it's interfering too much with their "future design plans", so don't count on any changes, period.

Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

The thing that upsets me the most is... this isn't being done as part of some Grand Design for the job's future. Like most things CSIII does, such as the extended patch cycle length with no extra content added, it's only being done because it's convenient for the devs, not the players. Cast timers are interfering too much with their Great Encounter Design Improvement Quest, which is in reality nothing more than just "make fight go faster". Since they can't think of any way to improve combat design other than "make go faster", the inconvenience of cast times needs to be sacrificed on the altar of developer convenience and expedience.

This was touched upon in the future of job design thread (because, as I continually beat on my drum, you can’t really talk about job design without talking about encounter design), but the craziest thing to me about the Great Encounter Design Improvement Quest (GEDIQ), is that they don’t even have to go on some dramatic quest for inspiration. They’ve had better encounter design in the past, but they’re too stuck to even look at their own game’s history to see opportunities to mix things up.

Sir, a second plane has hit the caster tower.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy4O76Q9aSA

Originally Posted by Basteala

But now BLM went from the most difficult caster to the most braindead.

It took them almost 3 years, but I suppose it is a reality now.

Originally Posted by Sunhwapark

It won't stop them, and they'll continue their legacy of "Remove2Improve" your DPS kits by reworking them into ones with even less depth than healers offensive options in 2022. If there's an outcry they might make another lodestone post tailored to the affected job but not revert it, of course:

The adjustment to (Job-name here) was never intended to be a “nerf,” but merely the correction of values that were set with respect to the difficulty of playing that particular job and its rotation, as well as its support actions and their effects.