New Black Mage changes take away the spirit of the job

[CabeBedlam]

Frankly, I don't want to post here. But it's one of the only ways I have to give feedback, so here we are. The changes we saw to black mage in the last live letter are saddening to me and many other black mage players I've talked to. The job had a unique identity and optimization that was enjoyable and unlike any other job in the game. Removing the timer on enochian means that there is no incentive to plan out skills, there is no limit to how many times you can use xenoglossy in a fire phase, there is no reason to make an effort to minimize movement when downtime will never result in losing a fire spell. Even worse, the reduced cast times on spells means that there is no feeling of mastery from learning when to best use swiftcast or triplecast. There is a difference between using those abilities in ice where the cast times do not go longer than the recast, or in fire where you could gain time and thus damage from making your fire spells instant. Now those tools have no meaning besides movement, and the job has nothing to make it unique.

I do not understand who these changes are meant to target, because there are many other jobs already for players who did not like black mage, but only one job like black mage left in the game. I only state this to be perfectly clear--these changes will make me leave the game and unsubscribe. It is the other way I can give my feedback, and so that is what I will do. If the changes shown in the live letter gameplay are reverted, I will likely return, but until that point it is up to the game designers to understand that their recent decisions are the reason that people are fleeing from the job. I encourage other people who feel the same way to add their voice or better yet make additional threads to ensure that this gets visibility in a place where there is a chance that the developers see it.

[nuuhku]

Also want to add my disappointment if the changes to black mage's playstyle go through. It feels like a full rework at this point, since the long cast times and keeping up enochian are core mechanics of the job, and I don't really know what's left of black mage if those are removed.

Personally I mostly liked the changes to mana and quality of life changes to abilities like umbral soul that have come with Dawntrail, and I thought they were going in the right direction. Currently black mage has a ton of instant casts and choice to use e.g. triplecast, and those are more than enough to get full uptime during any mechanics. It requires planning your next move and it's rewarding to execute successfully, and is what makes playing black mage fun. But these new changes sound like all the friction and decision making is taken away, with no fail state at all.

Maybe the most shocking to me is that this has been the core gameplay of black mage for so long, and there wasn't even a mention of a rework for 7.2. (In comparison, when black mage in pvp was reworked, it was at least mentioned before the changes happened...) I really hope these changes will reconsidered.

[reflettage]

Someone please tell me which other job has a rigid yet fair rotation that largely can't do damage while moving in a game where your ability to put out consistent damage whilst dancing around the arena and solving puzzles without dying or killing others is the whole idea

edit: I say this as a positive thing that I adore about the job. Like a puzzle to solve. Sometimes you gotta adapt on the fly and it's a thrilling feeling for me.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Someone please tell me which other job has a rigid yet fair rotation that largely can't do damage while moving in a game where your ability to put out consistent damage whilst dancing around the arena and solving puzzles without dying or killing others is the whole idea

I was gonna say Summoner but then I woke up and realized it isn't Stormblood / early Shadowbringers anymore and hardcasting Ruin III more than 1-2x/min hasn't exactly been a thing for a hot minute in a while. Job back then actually had a reasonable rotation cycle and wasn't Simon-says at all.

I miss Ruin & Poison mage.

[Carighan]

I don't, as while old Summoner (my first main <3) was fun to play, it wasn't at all a "Summoner". It's also where a lot of my leeway in accepting the new job comes from, at least it properly feels like I'm doing FF style summons now, and consistently. Even if the most important one is We-Ordered-Bahamut-On-Wish, sadly.

The job definitely needs to do more with the concept, but being a job based on summoning primals and then doing large attacks on summon feels much much more "summoner" than what was previous more like a bad affliction warlock from WoW knockoff, tbh.

Since the thread is about "spirit of the job", new SMN is in the spirit of what the job suggests, even if the mechanics don't elicit much gameplay (but then, no damage job, not current black mage or anything, does that).

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Since the thread is about "spirit of the job", new SMN is in the spirit of what the job suggests, even if the mechanics don't elicit much gameplay (but then, no damage job, not current black mage or anything, does that).

Well, let's be real - they could've just reskinned the poisons to be Trance-esque like the egis and primals SMN employs. Egi Assault was a good way to go as well to make Egi interaction much more direct. Enkindle could have been what the Demi Primals (Summon Ifrit/Titan/Garuda II) would become. Make Gemshine(s) be something you get with Enkindle, make more gated by swapping around Egis (and make Egi summons oGCD here for fluid swapping).

TL;DR: If the issue was the feel and fanservice of what a "true summoner" would be, then reskinning is the main thing that would've needed to happen, with a few changes to summons to make them more fluid (and all of them useful) and less static. I.e. a mix between current summoner and old summoner.

[Carighan]

Oh of course. The underlying gameplay design goal was to rip out ~all DoTs (due to issues with how the game tracks debuffs) and neuter all pets (don't quite know why, but all MMORPGs do this as they age).

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

A shame honestly, given WoW somehow is able to keep DoTs and keep them relevant too. And whatever they did with Endwalker SMN is an affront to job design for me, I'd have expected such simple cycling at the start of an MMORPG's lifecycle, not 10 years in.