The destruction of BLM

[Bekuta]

I still enjoy playing Warrior, so this has not been the final nail in the coffin for me, but it's getting very very close. Black Mage was fun because of the planning that went into each fight, but that's basically been removed. CBU3's decision to further push fights into a manic game of DDR with delay means that BLM's class design is no longer viable, which I think speaks to the greater issues with the current state of FFXIV as a whole. The supposed class rework coming in 8.0 will reveal what direction the devs plan to take the game from here-on-out, but I am not optimistic that it won't just be more of the same.

[TheInsomniac13]

Every class rework 8.0 would suposebly bring still has to comform to the current game design.
So I do not think there is any need to pretend 8.0 will magicly fix a game which is heading into the wrong direction for years now.
The only question is when they will aknowledge that they are loosing players.

[Brignadalee]

Probably many people talked about this already but i gotta ask why did they do this, enochian wasn't an issue for people who knew how to play the job decently, BLM mains don't like speed mage at all.

SpS BLM is literally one of my go-to jobs for DPS, viability be damned it feels better to me.
Your backside doesn't speak for me, and these changes make the job more approachable for everyone. If part of your job's identity was an arbitrary timer to make it harder while you plan, that just sounds like pain for pain's sake. No thank you, it's bad enough we still deal with server tick issues in boss mechanics.

[ForsakenRoe]

If part of your job's identity was an arbitrary timer to make it harder while you plan, that just sounds like pain for pain's sake. No thank you, it's bad enough we still deal with server tick issues in boss mechanics.

Okay, sure, lets accept that the timer was a pain in the ass and wasn't really adding anything to the job. That's subjective, and others might disagree, but let's just say it was universally accepted that 'the timer has to go'.

But the other aspect of why people are complaining about the changes: Why did Fire4's cast time need to be reduced? The massive increase in mobility, on a Job that was already able to string together up to like 27s of constant mobility if it planned ahead, is the main 'destroyed identity' change, not the timer. BLM was always about long cast times, big damage, and working around that restriction, to plan ahead and know when/where it is safe to plop down and turret, with the payoff being 'damage so high you compete with (and sometimes beat) the melees'. Now the job is two shades away from having a Healer rotation, but without the added engagement that healing brings. Fire4 is Glare3, Xenoglossy is Glare4, LeyLines is Presence of Mind with a 'you must stand still' footnote, Thunder is Dia. It's like Carcinization, but instead of things evolving into crabs, it seems like Jobs here evolve (or devolve, more accurately) into Healer rotations

The whole 'timer gone, BLM is ruined' angle is muddying the waters, if the timer was extended/removed, and that was the only change, then I heavily doubt that we'd be in the conversations we're in

[Daralii]

Okay, sure, lets accept that the timer was a pain in the ass and wasn't really adding anything to the job. That's subjective, and others might disagree, but let's just say it was universally accepted that 'the timer has to go'.

But the other aspect of why people are complaining about the changes: Why did Fire4's cast time need to be reduced? The massive increase in mobility, on a Job that was already able to string together up to like 27s of constant mobility if it planned ahead, is the main 'destroyed identity' change, not the timer. BLM was always about long cast times, big damage, and working around that restriction, to plan ahead and know when/where it is safe to plop down and turret, with the payoff being 'damage so high you compete with (and sometimes beat) the melees'. Now the job is two shades away from having a Healer rotation, but without the added engagement that healing brings. Fire4 is Glare3, Xenoglossy is Glare4, LeyLines is Presence of Mind with a 'you must stand still' footnote, Thunder is Dia. It's like Carcinization, but instead of things evolving into crabs, it seems like Jobs here evolve (or devolve, more accurately) into Healer rotations

The whole 'timer gone, BLM is ruined' angle is muddying the waters, if the timer was extended/removed, and that was the only change, then I heavily doubt that we'd be in the conversations we're in

Learning an encounter and planning cooldown use accordingly to maximize uptime through skill instead of just pressing the button that lights up is artificial difficulty and gatekeeping elitism.

[ForsakenRoe]

Oh also of note, is that the change is so shortsighted that it creates new problems. Fire1 is a dead button from 60 to 90, because its purpose of refreshing the timer is gone. FlareStar having its potency bumped up to 500 (from 400) means a lot of powerbudget is in that one move, which reduces the power budget available in other actions. Essentially, this runs the risk of any pre-FlareStar DPS checks being harder for BLM, because at the lower levels it is now less powerful (due to FlareStar being all-encompassing).

And the best part is, High Fire/High Blizzard are STILL worse damage than simply Transpose-AF1Flare-AF3Flare. In fact, with the cast time of Flare now being lower than the GCD, HFHB might be even worse!

[Soldier76]

It's a really damning indictment of the state of the game when the prevailing opinion I see nowadays is that Bard is the hardest/most engaging job left

Jesus BRD is already so lobotomized lmfao. Are we going to reach a point where we praise SMN and MCH for being complex jobs in 9.0? LOL

[Soldier76]

bla bla bla

Statistics concerning BLM % in the new savage tier heavily increased compared to the previous tier. I call that a win. I get some people like complexity and to struggle, but it is what it is.. BLM shouldn't be the cool kid's club.

Why are you talking when you haven't cleared a single Savage tier

[Maltothoris]

Problem with that is, the playerbase doesn't really tend to react well to messages of 'you are not good enough' from the game. With JP apparently locking out NIN, MCH, SMN and WHM from their PFs for M6S (which is dumb AF, my clear had a NIN, and me on WHM),

I would like to to know where to find this cause that is interesting to hear.

[Supersnow845]

I can understand peoples dislike of job locking in M6S because the devs simply didn’t put any thought into how AOE “flavour” differences play out when prioritisation and CC actually matter

Like the healers (as usual) are the worst example as SCH’s AOE is really really bad compared to the other 3 and then it’s partial compensation mechanism is an AOE DOT attached to a single target debuff. And it’s only AOE spammable option is self targeted…….during a mechanic where an add binds you in a corner. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that SCH is going to be uniquely horrible here through no fault of its own

And then NIN is basically in the “7.1 BLM in FRU” situation. Why would you bring NIN who’s always had a below average AOE and it’s directly competing with the job that’s carrying adds harder than PCT carried FRU. Like what is the playerbase supposed to do

If you remove all else besides damage then yeah people are going to scrutinise damage contributions and AOE damage inequalities are a mess in this game