Suggestion: Upcoming BLM skills

[Sehkmet]

Honestly don't like these ideas at all. In fact I think some are verging on completely over powered. The idea of a shroud or "cloak" has been done before and I am not against that as it was in XI. For example Flames & Lightning, so if you got struck in combat you would deal damage back to them. I think the Lightning based one was called "Shock Spikes". I think these would be a good idea to add.

I would also remove the current AoE and go back to the old school XI style and have 'Ga spells. Maybe they could use some of the similar effects of the spells we currently have. Eg the Astral stances and the Thundercloud abilities. But not allowing procs for more AoE but for single target spells. Because being able to cast Thundaga III instantly would be OP.

I hope that wasn't to negative, I like that you are thinking ahead and trying to improve the class, but I don't feel this is the right step. But naturally I would feel my ideas are more the right step. Ha-ha.

Just to put some info on the table, in every Final Fantasy game, except FFXI:
Fire 1 = Fire
Fire 2 = Fira
Fire 3 = Firaga
Fire 4 = Firaja
Ice/Blizzard 1 = Blizzard
Ice/Blizzard 2 = Blizzara
Ice/Blizzard 3 = Blizzaga
Ice/Blizzard 4 = Blizzaja
Thunder/Bolt 1 = Thunder
Thunder/Bolt 2 = Thundara
Thunder/Bolt 3 = Thundaga
Thunder/Bolt 4 = Thundaja

And so on. About the Spikes... Not sure if that is a good suggestion, while they might be good for soloing, that is totally not the case when partying. Ifrit-egi has Radiant Shield, that sux, since he almost never gets hit.
Thaumaturges already got a useless spell in Surecast, I don't really think they need another crap spell.
Black Mage should have access to Death, the tier 4 damage spells, and I guess that is it. It was always a pretty straightforward job from FF1 till today, magic damage, and that's it.

[shinros]

It would be nice to get more dark spells considering we do use dark magic and our powers are connected to the void. I think the dark magic aspect of the class is how we cast our spells. As a thaumaturge we use our inner aetheric energy as a black mage we suck the aether out of the air to cast spells hence why we do more damage. So our magic is not environmentally friendly compared to other classes.

[MartaDemireux]

It would be nice to get more dark spells considering we do use dark magic and our powers are connected to the void. I think the dark magic aspect of the class is how we cast our spells. As a thaumaturge we use our inner aetheric energy as a black mage we suck the aether out of the air to cast spells hence why we do more damage. So our magic is not environmentally friendly compared to other classes.

I could see Time Mage stemming from THM in that case. They could get their gravity/demi/ultima line of spells which are sort of "dark".

[shinros]

I could see Time Mage stemming from THM in that case. They could get their gravity/demi/ultima line of spells which are sort of "dark".

We can't because lore wise ultima is the ulitmate black magic/dark art spell so it would make no sense for a time mage. Plus I highly doubt we will see a time mage because I recall yoshi does not like the class and he hates the haste spell.

Plus black mage would most likely kill all life around them to cast ultima considering how much aether you need to use to cast that spell considering the main story.

I won't say anymore because of main story spoilers.

[Macho]

Instead of buffing our attacks we could just get a passive that allows a reduced mana by whatever percent so we can cast fire longer...

To me that always made more sense as you get stronger as a mage you can cast more efficiently.

[MartaDemireux]

snip for space

True I forgot its use in the story. I don't recall saying Yoshi hates TIM though o.O do you know when/where he said it? TIM wouldn't have to learn haste this time around though, they would get 5 abilities, one could make all spells in the next 10 seconds insta-cast on a 420s timer, one could be gravity to add weight to target, one could be gravity, one could be gravity II (aoe version), and one could be a slow that stacks with other forms of slow. It would be a good way to capitalize on THM's sleepga and make TIM a DPS that took THM's crowd control abilities to the next level.

[shinros]

It was in a producer letter.

Q: Will the "haste" spell be implemented? If not, are there effects similar to haste?

A: As explained earlier, certain abilities/weapon skills activate a haste effect as long as you meet the conditions. Additionally, there is equipment that will decrease the global cooldown. As for Disciples of Magic, thaumaturges have "Swiftcast" which makes the next spell an insta-cast spell, etc.

I searched on google and people also say he does not like the haste spell all that much either. Plus lets not forget that thaumaturge/black mage learns the slow spell. Its just got a different name. Plus we already have meteor as a LB 3, so time mage in my opinion looks kinda redundant.

[Shamirah]

Yeah sure, and maybe you also wanna be able to cast the LB3 instantly 10 times in a row ?

[Lancil_Ryner]

Instead of buffing our attacks we could just get a passive that allows a reduced mana by whatever percent so we can cast fire longer...

To me that always made more sense as you get stronger as a mage you can cast more efficiently.

I've found that casting longer isn't always a buff for Blm. In fact the only time I ever really use convert is right after a flare. I do that so I can keep my astral III and go right into blizzard III. With the way fire III and blizzard III work mp shouldn't be a problem at all. I also find myself using blizzard III before my mp fully drains if thunder is about to wear. Now of course there are exceptions to that, but being able to cast fire for a longer period of time does not matter especially if you're going to ignore thunder.

[Stonie]

probably should give Float to Arcanist and make it so BLM and WHM can use it