what about the rest of the black mages in earlier expansions? :(

[shymage]

Bluh, this has possessed me to sign up for the forums.

I understand people in DT doing the new fights saying new black mage feels appropriate for new fight design. Ok fine.

...but did they have to break the job for every level below 100 the accomplish this?

the job demanding finesse from the player was a huge part of the draw for me (and it seems many others), and the game could become so exhilarating because of, not in spite of, the resource management and the existence of failure states. we already had summoner and red mage for more approachable and beginner friendly playstyles for magical dps (or heck even healers are good for this), I don't understand why everything needs to be this approachable and beginner friendly.

[Azebra]

Bluh, this has possessed me to sign up for the forums.

I understand people in DT doing the new fights saying new black mage feels appropriate for new fight design. Ok fine.

...but did they have to break the job for every level below 100 the accomplish this?

this is part of what frustrates me so much about the changes, not only do many experienced black mage players feel like the current normal raids didn't warrant these changes at all, but even if the upcoming savage and eventually ultimate somehow do need black mage to be reworked (which i strongly doubt, considering players still found a way to play blm well in TOP), okay cool, but now the class is made significantly less interesting in literally 99% of the game's content.

People have pointed out that now fire 1 is literally just a dead button after you get fire iv and until you get paradox. that's like 30 levels of just mashing fire iv until you run out of mp while you level through content thats much slower and simpler than endgame. I can't imagine that's the kind of gameplay to get someone to stick with the class after they get it to max level (if they even do that, can't count how many times i've given up leveling a class for months because i got tired of hitting only 3-5 buttons for hours).

Also, if you wanted to enjoy playing older hard content synced, or just unreal trials, the challenge of doing those on black mage is gone. I only ever messed around in UCOB with friends for a bit, but I loved doing phase 1 with dodging twisters and puddles while ensuring my timer didn't drop. Now that aspect I enjoyed is just gone at all levels.

[Jeeqbit]

The changes are not liked by many veteran players or Black Mage mains.

But I do not think the changes will be a problem for new players at lower levels. In fact, I think it will cause far more new players to stick with Black Mage.

I always see plenty of THM and BLM sprouts at level 50 but I oddly stop seeing them much after level 60. I think the difficulty hits sprouts so they try something else, well now it won't be as difficult anymore so they will probably stick with it.

Just being honest.