Is Black Mage Bad? | FFXIV Patch 7.05 Thoughts

[@kosbebot6360]

One issue is that a job with zero utility and less survivability does less damage than a job that buffs, heals and shields the party. Even if they were even in damage, it would still favor PCT for anyone that looks at overall performance.

[@dreadwoe7661]

And is more mobile

[@microwavebagelbites3280]

And feeds buffs harder (ik eksu already mentioned this but yeah)

[@johnway8819]

Not every job should have everything, that's the most boring way of balancing and takes away job uniqueness. BLM should NEVER get utility or survival tools imo. It's a pure big damage job. And it should be top 2 DPS in the game at the very least. Picto should be nerfed to be around Ninja, Dragoon.

[@lawrencelopez9839]

maybe add more dots? I know they've been trying to remove them but I think Burn is one of the most common dot in gaming.

[@Laterose15]

​@@johnway8819 yes, but they never NERF jobs, only buff others, which definitely isn't going to come back and bite them in the ass later

[@Borunks]

37% eno-chan by the end of the expansion

[@sirlenemodesto2665]

Kinda weird how BLM balance is tied to that single trait, is there really nothing to change in the base skills for the better? Was it always like that? I'm mostly familiar with EW and DT BLM

[@Jorgon01]

@@sirlenemodesto2665pretty much. When it was introduced in HW Enochian was an ability you could activate in AF/UI but had a 60 second CD. So if you dropped it early you literally couldn’t get it back for up to a minute. It was the job’s first big damage boost after AF3.

[@silvergrove8517]

​@Jorgon01 not to mention that you could not cast either Fire IV or Blizzard IV without Enochian. Yep. So if you somehow dropped before the 60s CD was up, you were forced back to the ARR rotation lol

[@vigo2669]

40%

[@kyoai]

@@sirlenemodesto2665 The thing is that it's the easiest one to balance. If BLM needs 5% more damage, what is easier : a) To buff one or several active skills, which requires you to carefully analyze common rotations and figure out what the average dps gain would be by doing tons of math, or b) just improve one passive skill that increases overall damage?

[@vipercrb5622]

Purely aesthetic here: High Thunder feels like a ruined orgasm. All that hype, for a small, almost unnoticeable fart of lightning. Nary a sound, but not very deadly. I want a powerful flash, similar to Shock Strike with Blue Mage.

[@ich3730]

its crazy to me that papachin's BLM skill mod is STILL leagues above what square puts out, in both visuals and sound design.

[@iPlayOnSpica]

Nah. Unsatisfying weaksauce upfront damage, unsatisfying audio, it's a perfect fit! Shock Strike on the other hand is all upfront damage with no dot, so it gets a satisfying audio. Joke aside, yeah I'm also bummed.

[@FFXIVMomo]

Short answer? Yes. Long answer? Pictomancer.

[@Dndstories]

Period!

[@GGMenezes]

I think you all should play picto yes!

[@lartisteautravail]

SE is remarkably bad at balance a lot of the time. You would think the more mobility and support a job offers, the less DPS. But no, that’s never how it seems to pan out.

[@nelieltu9730]

I guess Yoshi P switched his main lol

[@The_Yukki]

​@@lartisteautravailunless you're in physical ranged category, where the one that brings the least utility also brings the least damage.

[@Evolutez]

I think Flare Star will become instant before the next tier drops tbh

[@bighatastrea]

That would make it feel a bit more satisfying tbh

[@sylvain5840]

What if its a 100% Direct hit Crit ?

[@icebarrage_iwc]

i don't think it should be instant. i think it should just hit a lot harder and be an even longer cast. it would reward good black mages that can plan their mobility better while still getting instants on flare star off. and the fantasy of black mage is supposed to be long cast times for big spells. making it instant by default would just further homogenize black mage to be the same as other casters.

[@Tog4Real]

​@icebarrage_iwc agree with flarestar not being instant. If you look at the animation the casting animation is pretty unique too, would be a shame to get rid of it. What I would like for flarestar... is probably different than others. I think they could add a 12 second dot of burning on it after it hits. 50 potency dot of burning. Also I think they could make amplifier give you a free flarestar cast without astral souls so you can cast more flarestars. Possibly even let us carry astral soul stacks over to ice, which would let you use 3 flarestars under tinctures (not quite time for 3 in raid buffs)

[@Sammysapphira]

Not every cast in the game needs to be instant.

[@dacienvegas2712]

They should make flare star use 3 stickers instead of 6, and let the stickers stay as a resource when you change to ice, so the job gets its flexibility back.

[@GGMenezes]

“Flexibility”

[@devxved]

Should also be a crit dir hit automatically

[@Okay_mate]

Wouldn't they have to virtually halve it's potency if we got 1 every 3 F4's?

[@lagua5363]

​@@devxvedTHIS

[@simusar]

what if it used a minimum of 3 stickers, up to a max of 6, but the damage scales up with more stickers used? not 100% more than 3 stickers, but maybe 75-80% more.

[@noamonoch]

With the 7.05 changes I'm mostly happy with how things feel (ignoring numbers) I think my only issue is that despair just doesn't feel very good to use, both it and flare star feel a bit like they're occupying the same spot.

[@spatzist]

I really hope BLM doesn't get the RDM treatment where each expac is just more charges on existing abilities and another finisher

[@bighatastrea]

Yeah. It feels super weird and I don't really get why both exist. I wouldn't mind Despair disappearing completely and Flare Star dealing more damage. The rotation with Despair and the 6 fire gauge thingies not going up is so awkward, at first I even thought that you're supposed to cast Flare + Flarestar on single targets instead of Despair. I had to look up a guide to read about the damage differences

[@TomBaito]

Personally, I think they should just remove the Thunderhead TIMER completely. They added this weird timer restriction as if we can't just keep using Transpose to keep the buff up during downtimes in dungeons.

[@Ririten]

My ears will never deceive me, there is Crystal Chronicles music in this video.

[@XemnasTM]

I feel like being able to keep astral soul stacks when switching to UI would be a pretty huge QoL change so that forced down time doesn't screw you out of using your lvl 100 capstone spell.

[@jamvng]

I still like playing the job a lot, but I've played it for so long, that it's hard not to. It's just a unique playstyle. Ice Paradox is great to have back and hopefully they continue improving the gameplay of the job based on feedback like this. I'm not too worried about damage, as that should be balanced over time (as it always is throughout an expansion lifecycle, not the first time BLM has needed buffs).

[@CrimsonSkyes]

I feel an alternative to letting us smuggle Astral Soul stacks through Umral Ice, and since they're so averse to letting us single target Flare, let Despair grant 3 stacks of Astral Soul to give BLMs more flexibility on phase transitions/ending encounters.

[@kyoai]

You'd have to be careful though that this would not result in some weird rotation where NOT doing a full 6 FireIV but only 3 FireIV + Despair would provide better dps.

[@shaunrpmusic]

Yeah they’re not gonna do that because Flare Star is there for the purpose of removing this rotation specifically. It started in ShB when people discovered skipping B4 and F1 in their respective phases was a damage gain (it was like 1% but still lol). So that’s where Paradox came in, and why it has those requirements to use it in AF phase. But then people did weird shit with that too that Yoshi P didn’t like. So now we’re here lol.

[@redgeoblaze3752]

I think the best thing they could do is just let us use Flare Star at lower potency with less than six souls. maybe with a minimum of four or something. Wow, what do ya know. That makes the opener suddenly not feel like hot garbage. We could finally get two flare stars.

[@Voicelet]

Make Flare Star castable at 3 stacks with half potency, consumes all stack to get full potency at 6. And make it instant and crit direct while they're at it.

[@BlackXSunlight]

Oooh hold up, chef, you're cooking's too hot! The ability to cast a weaker Flare Star at 3 stacks vs. a max-powered Flare Star at 6 stacks would improve that downtime issue. 3-stack Flare Star could still be a hard-cast, 6-stack Flare Star could be instant as long as you have Enochian.

[@whitesonicex]

It's not that Black mage is terrible or isn't fun to play. I'm sure that anyone who will agree with this has the same two cents to add. The problem is that Pictomancer is comparatively effortless and more useful to play.

[@shadowcircus8314]

The minimum spell speed one needs to even do your opener is still ridiculously tight and niether the crafted, tomestone, or even Dark Horse sets give spell speed inherently. It really feels like they were just trying to kill the class and make everyone play Pictomancer.

[@cantthinkofone4196]

I have an increasing input delay on my controller and I had to adjust my opener a bit because sometimes the double weaves just don't register. So annoying!

[@knexfan0011]

The lack of Sps in nearly all the iLvl 710 really surprised me. At least overmelding it is comparatively cheap, since most players don’t use Sps materia

[@frosty6845]

@@cantthinkofone4196dude play wired

[@agentheavybear8707]

I feel like the only way to make flarestare not feel bad is to change it so it charges up. Have it be some base potency, but gain potency per astral soul. That way if you need to end fire phase early it doesnt feel bad to loose all those charges.

[@-DeScruff]

Agreed. Something I was thinking about earlier was pretty much: Despair/Flare turn into Flarestar when you have 0 MP, and any Astral Souls. (the more you have the higher the pot) The only reason I think they wouldn't do the Pot per Astral Soul though, is if they are adverse to players using Flare when single targeting, since it might encourage a "Manafont" -> Fire IV -> Fire IV -> Triple cast, Flare -> Despair -> Fire Star, rotation. (Specially if they let Despair give you an Astral Soul)

[@poweruppikawho9007]

Definitely not a bad idea.

[@pizzanile]

The short procs are really noticeable when playing slow blm. There are times where i tranpose to fire and have lost my f3p without realising ruining my rotation.

[@noamonoch]

@@pizzanile yeah, this is one thing getting ice paradox back has made a bit awkward

[@Epicflipflops]

Having leveled picto first and using virtually no spell speed after getting blm to 100 I wasn’t surprised I couldn’t do the opener. What I was surprised about is how far off I was from being able to use the opener and how awful it felt trying to fit everything into my fire phases. I was literally relying on astral fire timer refreshing at 0-2 seconds if everything went perfect if I didn’t have a triple cast or swift cast available. It’s to the point that I’d rather just play picto and avoid blm instead of trying to come up with some bastardized meld priority to play both. Just to feel so much more stressed anytime I play blm. Not only is picto more flexible but outside of making sure your starry muse is placed to where you can get all your hits in there’s almost no way to fuck up your rotation. Picto also has like the lowest CPM and incredible movement options with swift casting muses for movement and there hammer combo.

[@phoenixero8161]

We're talking about making it equal to or competitive with PCT in terms of damage but a job like BLM, balance wise, is still not worth picking over PCT unless it does considerably MORE damage than it.

[@asatowolfe]

The loss of old Thunder and Sharpcast still has me depressed. The new Thunder is basically the same potency as a healer DoT with restrictions. If we could get the old Thunder reapplication where it does full damage when reapplying, I'd be fine with it. But right now, it feels absurd. If they turn it into a Samurai styled buff where it lasts longer, thats fine too. But I would be happy with a simple reapplication buff with a short timer.

[@fredxu99]

Ngl a lot of Dawntrail like the Ice Paradox issue on BLM and the Tsubame-Gaeshi issue on SAM makes me feel they really need player focus group testing for the next expansion. There's other issues too, like MNK's bootkick combo and DRK feeling like an empty shell of a class. I'm no longer trusting Square to design jobs, something has gone awry in their dev pipeline for so many classes to have glaring issues on launch like this.

[@iantaakalla8180]

At this point, FFXIV will start rotting, and it even makes sense. For some reason, there is always a seven-limit rule on ongoing series. When you get past seven games, the series starts to rot save some special circumstances. A few examples: Dawntrail, Star Wars 7, Fates (the seventh English-released game since Fire Emblem 7), Engage (the seventh game in Fire Emblem that is not based off of past games), to particular old gamers FF7 (the popularization of particular tropes), Sticker Star (the seventh Mario RPG after there were two branches of Mario RPGs). In this case, while it technically is after the Ascian arc, the story is mid, the voice acting is mid, the plot interesting only for implications alone and the raid series, and only the Pictomancer has been focused-upon.

[@GG-yy4yx]

Yes. You can barely cast since everything requires a bunch of movement and if your casts are not perfect you lose the astral fire and the big blast. It’s frustrating to watch 3 timers while also trying to maintain casts and avoid aoes/do mechanics. I️ don’t want them to dumb the job down, but it would be nice to have more mobility if the mechanics are mostly mobility based.

[@type_29rd96]

the 7.05 patch definitely made BLM feel a lot better than the 7.0 release. Im kinda sad that they didnt buff Flare Star even by a little. for a Astral Fire finisher, it doesnt feel like a finisher because of how little damage it does. I dont want a huge buff because like you said, they need to be careful to not make it too strong. An instant cast Flare Star does sound really good, maybe have it as an oGCD so we can weave in Xeno or High Thunder.

[@Leap623]

I found it very funny that Flare Star did even *less* AOE damage than Flare, and then they buffed Flare's AOE even more. Like, I'm a certified Flare enjoyer and all, but they could shuffle some of its damage into F2 and Flare Star and fix a lot of the vibe-based problems people have.

[@JetEriksen]

Job design this expansion so far has honestly been mostly atrocious, I have no clue what was up with the job design crew this expansion. (Except you PCT, very cool job) But between everything that has happened to Black Mage, BootDK Monk, the non-changes to most jobs (just add a finisher right?) and the neglect of jobs that really need changes (DRK really is begging to not be the same as WAR). I've been very disappointed in job design. Here's to hoping that BLM gets all these things worked out. And here's to hoping that the promised job shake-ups help all this out.

[@AfroBlackSiren]

I would like if Square Enix added a bit more time to the Astral Fire duration and for Despair to also give gauge for Flare Star. BLM right now feels like it has a lower ceiling compared to EW, but a MUCH higher floor with every mistake feeling WAY worse than before. With how it is right now, Flare Star doesn't feel like a reward for achieving a "perfect" Fire phase, but an expecttion that punishes mistakes and higher latency players

[@Someguy26O7]

I fully expected a 2-second video with a dejected "Yes..."

[@viciousal129]

Possible solution idea: let manafont give 3 stickers?

[@zadayaz]

agree with you on thunderhead, it feels so unintuitive in complete counter to their stated goals of making the class more approachable. Flare star is just cumbersome as is, it doesnt feel as rewarding as it should as the level 100 move, or compared to (at least in my experience) xenoglossy, which i enjoy using because there’s decisions i can make about using it for movement vs saving it for burst, and it has high damage. Flare star can basically only be used in one point of the rotation or you lose entirely, and its potency doesnt adequately reflect the fact that it kind of warps your whole rotation around it. In fights im always thinking “man if i refresh thunder or use xeno in fire phase right now am i even going to be able to get flare star off” which i think just sucks. If you ever have to move a little more than expected for a mechanic and are forced to cast fire i or transpose to keep enochain up, tough shit you dont get your capstone move. I saw several people on 7.0 release mention that although the blm changes felt off while leveling, flare star took those changes and made them even worse, which i feel is pretty damning. To be clear i love the decision making and player expression that black mage had especially in endwalker, and flare star feels like it just stifles all of that with the threat of potentially losing out on its dps, and not in a fun way like keeping up enochain is, because at least with that, you have options to fall back on if you messed up or are in a rougher situation. Obviously doing something like ending fire phase early isnt really desirable, but its better than dropping enochain entirely. If you fuck up and drop enochain entirely, its almost always your fault, and theres something you can do to adjust to the fight and prevent that from happening in the future. Flare star has none of these alternatives, you cant hold it if you switch phases, despair doesnt count towards its meter, its 6 fire ivs or nothing. I think the worst part about it is that i think how stifling it feels is by design, considering how deliberately nonstandard play was removed as an option with 7.0, flare star feels like a way to even further disincentivize playing the class in a way besides what the devs specifically want. I really hope the devs continue to listen to feedback on this class because even though i enjoyed pictomancer, it doesnt give me the same satisfaction playing black mage does, even in its inferior state on 7.0 release. unfortunately starting out with this class has given me permanent brainworms and no other dps feels even close to as rewarding to play for me at high levels

[@icebarrage_iwc]

i wouldve liked to see flare star be an even longer cast that heavily incentivizes you to triple/swiftcast it. like make it something crazy like 550 base potency, which would put it at 990 with AF3, a 3.5 sec cast. still worth to hardcast but waaay better when made instant. flare has that awesome feel and i wouldve liked to see flare star be the same but for single target. it would also further highlight good black mages that can maximize insta casts for damage vs mobility

[@poweruppikawho9007]

Making flare star instant cast would be really nice. A lot of the times I find myself drifting manafont purely because the flare star cast at the end of fire phase. Making thunder proc 40 seconds also sounds like a reasonable change. As far as potency goes, I really feel that flare star shouldn't be so much lower potency than xeno. Not just from a balance perspective, but also because it's literally our lvl 100 capstone skill. It should have the big flashy numbers to represent that on a job that's supposed to be *the* selfish dps. At the very least I wonder if it would be a good thing to make flare star auto crit like Samurai's Midare. Finally, the astral soul stacks need some kind of rework. Maybe add an effect to transpose that locks in the stacks through ice phase? That way you can keep the stacks during downtime or otherwise need to emergency swap to ice phase because you messed up your rotation or something? It gives the system some amount of forgiveness that's sorely needed. Getting punished because the fight itself has 15+ seconds of downtime is just not good design.

[@Scerttle]

I feel like flarestar should have been a replacement for fire 3 where you can use it to transition to fire phase from ice or cast it in fire phase for a damage gain. Keep the fire 4/flare requirements the same, just relax the requirement of it needing to be built and spent in the same astral fire phase, and make it a change-action style button.

[@AzothBLM]

thanks for this! looking forward to your full BLM guide! keep up the good work!

[@mikecy69]

100% agree with flarestar should be instant cast

[@souetrejeremy]

Instant Flare Star would certainly unlock new Transpose lines if not for the MP changes, and i don't mind trivializing Manafont weaves either. I only cleared M1S this tier because of starting pfs this weekend but from what i've seen it's easy to stack and pocket two polyglots for burst phases. I kind of like the job being braindead as a semi-casual, but they could certainly adjust two or more other things to make it deeper.

[@protrainingtips]

If you get the rotation down you feel powerful. If you have a hard time with the rotation, go RDM or Picto.

[@obamaorb7426]

The rotation isnt even hard, its just restrictive and overly punishing coming off of its EW iteration which was the most freeflow, skill expressive job in the game. Now it's complete whiplash because it became easily the most static in what it does

[@threegamma]

nefarious plan: 1. make despair turn into flarestar when you have astral soul stacks, with despair base potency + scaling based on soul stacks 2. make flarestar instant cast this will make it feel good to use as its potency will be the highest (as a finisher's should rightly be) and you won't lose out on soul stacks. also means if you need to emergency move, you finish your fire phase early and can go right into moving might also enable alignment lines and optimisation based on KT - if you are going to lose 2 f4s over the entire phase, which 2 are best to lose? really for dawntrail they should have buffed standard rather than suffocate non-standard, buff the spells that non-standard avoids due to them being weak so that theyre no longer worth avoiding

[@KuroKitsuSan]

All I keep thinking is that they, just like with summoner, worked themselves into a corner with this BLM adjustment. It seems like the only real way to fix it to make it less jank is to just revert it to pre DT style. What is going on with this dev team and their caster choices??

[@zirilan3398]

As a RDM-main since ShB, I can tell you it's gonna take 1-2 Expansions for them to get around and fix it. Enjoy Picto in the meantime

[@iantaakalla8180]

What was wrong with Red Mage in Shadowbringers and how did they fix that?

[@zirilan3398]

@@iantaakalla8180 it was amazing in ShB, but got completly fucked in EW because you got the RDM-tax for swift rezzing in an Expansion where swift rezzing was basically useless because of bodycheck mechs on top of bodycheck mechs. So everyone needed to be alive or you wipe. On top of that you could just SMN who also has a rezz but is easier to play, more mobile and had more damage for the first 2/3 of EW

[@KuroKitsuSan]

@@iantaakalla8180 as of right now people tend to think having an ability to rez should mean doing less dps. This really didnt exist much in ShB but EW came out full swing with it and it inherihently punishes rdm and smn (long story w this one) in the long run

[@h4rdtr]

​@@KuroKitsuSanit's kind of fair though. Having a rez is really strong. Don't see why a job that has support should be as strong as a job that doesnt in terms of dps. Rdm and smn are way better for prog

[@OfficialDjTalksick]

I like thunder being insta cast but let’s make it an ogcd move no cast time so with the tight cast windows I can still cast or change phases any time without losing the proc Also make flare star stacks stay so I don’t lose ‘‘em during phase transition Maybe from 720 to 780/800 potency for flare star so it feels better to cast Also enochian 35 % incoming

[@Darkorb44]

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Pictomancer and Red Mage this expansion. I want to play some Black Mage too, but I’m going to wait and see what else they do to it.

[@jameysotelo540]

Im kind of curious why flare star isnt just given if you do despair. Could make it instant cast or something but if you able to artillery mage you could dump your 6 fires throw a flare despair and throw a 2nd one but idk how well that lines up

[@davidepannone6021]

Two things: the thunder thing needs to go or be increased to 45 seconds, flare star needs to be either an instacast or as quick as f3 is when you cast it to switch from umbral ice to astral fire. As it is it's way too slow of a cast and it feels completely underwhelming given the low potency for a finisher type of cast. I'd be okayish if it would reset 15 seconds the astral fire, but it doesn't.

[@huntsmanfrank1279]

I'm still mad at the MP regen change...

[@asatowolfe]

Same, since I was used to Transpose and Lucid Dreams for just the right amount of MP ticks. It gave the class skill expression. I get that it's a healthier change overall, but I could go either way. BLM got far more egregious changes.

[@devxved]

And yet people still say pictomancer isnt overloaded and too strong. Flare star needs to not be lost going into ice, needs to be an automatic critical direct hit, and needs to be an instant cast spell. Its the lvl 100 spell and is barely stronger than despair with the same cast time.

[@ThisIsntAYoutuber]

Flare Star also needs to be a combo action after Despair.

[@nicky7685]

BLM seems like it's exactly where it should be in terms of damage based on the most recent logs, they just need to slightly nerf picto. Agree that they shouldn't overbuff FS, it would be really unfun if that became the entire focus of the rotation.

[@youtousim]

Was hoping for Ice Paradox to count for mana regeneration. So there'd be the option to shave off Umbral hearts in favour of quick damage & mobility.

[@kennyhuang8465]

One more issue with this patch is the gears. Barring savage raid gears, most of the gears pieces dont have SpS.

[@mrhorrendous2870]

I like some of these changes but flare star is still awkward , flare star cast needs to be persistent or instant or something, bc rn I feel like it just messes up the smoothness of rotations and half the time you lose it bc u have to panic switch to ice, or it's even worse when enochan runs out in the middle of the cast ,and you're left the with 0 mana and pants down.

[@Lordwhizzkid]

I definitely feel like the most telling change was that Hi-Thunder change. You mention quite a bit of wanting the on-hit to be strong, yet in the notes it was made weaker. Likely because people were overcapping on Hi-Thunder procs and getting a little too much damage from that. So I definitely could see a change in the future that brings the higher on hit back, but lowers the frequency of the buff, maybe it only appears when you swap into Ice etc, but they'd couple that with an extended buff to 40 or even 60 seconds. Flare star is honestly pretty rough right now. It absolutely needs to be general stacks, not just within Fire phase because otherwise you end up being punished in damage for not fitting all 6 fire casts in. If you want to try and give a bonus to people who do get all 6 casts in one Fire phase, give them Instant cast on it. That way you can play around an entire new instant cast if you're pushing hard, but you aren't punished in damage for failing. Failing all this, at the bare minimum make it something that can be used at any amount of Fire casts, but increases per cast up to a max of 6 stacks. Right now as a very casual enjoyer of Black Mage, it is so close to being the best version it's ever been, but it falls at every hurdle just a little bit. All it really needs are those small changes to make AOE feel good & Flare Star to feel like an actual button. Hi-Thunder changes aren't even super necessary but would be some absolute lovely cherries on top.

[@Nimoot]

It's so you refresh it in the last 3 seconds, just flipping back and forth getting a Scathe Level 200 potency of damage with a dot? I like the change honestly.

[@PrivateYarrick]

You are very much not suposed to use Hi-Thunder every time you get a Thunderhead proc. Think about it this way, if you let the DoT do its thing for its full duration, your Thunder GCD did 750 potency worth of damage, which is pretty good. If, on the other hand, you keep swapping between fire and ice and using Thunder every time, you are dealing 150 - 210 potency with every Thunder, at which point you are better off just casting Fire IV. That's why its important to not overwrite your DoTs early, as you are just making the previous application deal less damage.

[@javabird4168]

Yep pretty much agree that thunder and flare star improvements would make the job feel much better. The way they are now feels really awkward.

[@d0tsf0rlife]

Class seems fine design wise. Just hits like a wet noodle. Needs another potency buff to even it out.

[@mac9445]

*Make Thunder an instant OGCD. *Flarestar should be an instant OGCD and deal damage as a critical direct hit. And yes, keep the Astral Soul when changing stance.

[@Necrostrike]

Maybe we can start by making Thunder not a garbage spell for once and making Flare Star instant or reduce the cast time. Alternatively compress the duration of ley lines but increase the haste benefit, so half the duration but double the bonus. Halve the cast time of the aoe spells and buff the potency so you don't need to blow all triple casts to not do garbage aoe damage on the rest of the pack pulls.

[@zyrekteague5333]

Manaward should have charges (or reduce the recast timer), and Flare Star should be an instant cast and usable after three charges. It does less damage at three, while getting a full 6 gives it its max potency. Also, Xenoglossy should have at least a 1200 potency. This part is a HUGE stretch and just wishful thinking, but when it comes to bringing utility to the group, maybe bring something similar to Vivi's sword magic that gives an attack bonus to everyone (yeah it is a basic utility abilty, but it is better than nothing). Blm is in a good spot after 7.05, but these are things I think would make it better, personally, and give it a little bit of identity back.

[@TheHellsOutsider]

If they are not willing to keep the Astral Gauge stacks when switching stances, then I would like scaling potency on Flare Star. So it can be used for any number of Astral Gauge but extra potency if full. So Full potency if full; and 15% per stack if not. (equaling about 75% power with 5). This way; you can use it if you know the phase will transition soon, but it won't become optimal to use it early.

[@RockR277]

I like the sound of that idea, but I think it has some problems upon further thought. For one, 75% of a flare star is less potency than a fire IV. There would just straight up be no reason to use flare star over another fire IV. That also means there's no reason to cast it with less pips either. I do have an idea that might fix that issue though. Give flare star the same mana cost as flare and despair, but make it so that a full astral soul gauge removes the mana cost. That way, if you need to cast it early for an untargetable section, you can do so and go straight into ice.

[@TheHellsOutsider]

@RockR277 Sorry, I was assuming an instant cast. It would be weaker than Fire 4 but it'd be an "oh shit, boss is leaving" button. Or this change would allow for more potency on the ability without costing us everything if we don't get it off.

[@noctisheadshot9355]

I believe that there is a few changes that they can do since the job is literally a selfish dps. Buffing flare star mech along making it stronger not by much with the inclusion of making it an indefinite cumulative regardless of changing forms. Or if they intend to go for that perspective originally they should make it auto direct critical hit. Despite all of that I do agree on your points.

[@Duarte_GB]

Umbral paradox being back seems nice. But I still dunno how to feel about the changes. Guess I'll give it a try again.

[@Zera1928]

whoaaaa based mushroom forest soundtrack I only JUST realized

[@Dingus2]

why is the big new fancy capstone spell that you have to build up to have such a low potency?

[@UltimortalMoth]

I really want to come back to the job but thunder and instant fire paradox still feel so bad. I'm going to give it another patch or three.

[@Ace-tt5fe]

Instant fire paradox is fucking awesome idk

[@PicoriElder]

Truely the first person i've seen to complain about instant fire paradox feeling bad. It feels so nice beign able to greed the first part of my fire phase without worrying about potentially dropping it due to cast time on fire I.

[@obamaorb7426]

I also hated fire paradox being instant but tbh I've come to quite like it now, adds a little built in mobility to fire phase and some flexibility where you might need both it and the f3p for movement and to keep your phase timer rolling. Now if only ice phase and short fure phases had any of their flexibility still left intact :/

[@bigtimetimmyjim6486]

The problem with BLM is that PCT has both really high burst damage and a raid buff, two tools that middling players fail to utilize well, so BLM would need an absurdly high nDPS in order to match PCT at the highest percentiles...and doing this is something that SE seems really unwilling to do (just look at MCH for proof of this)

[@Gonglor]

How about something like Flare star being at a base 340 potency, and usable at 3 stacks. With every stack after that giving an extra 20 potency so at 6 it'd still be 400 but it'd feel a lot less bad to use short fire lines.

[@kyoai]

Flare Star should be castable with at least one Astral Soul. Damage should scale with amount of accumulated Astral Souls : 180 + 60 * Astral souls (240 ~ 540 astral potency, or 432~972 real potency) This would allow you to dump your Astral Souls at any time and Flare Star with 3 Astral Souls would always be at least as strong as Despair, but if you fill your Astral Gauge up to the max it'll be stronger than Xenoglossy. Though with these scaling mechanics they would have to be careful to not let some weird strategy like "Flare Star at 5 Astral Souls is best dps, getting 6 Astral Souls would be dps loss" work but always make it worth it to max Astral Souls.

[@PraviousFaboule]

My take as a BLM since ARR: Fire IV doesn't recharge astral fire (could also work with the Fire III proc), then make it put a fire DoT, maybe stackable so it makes you keep up the offensive. Ditch the god damn thunder dot that never made sense in my mind and make it a % proc or a passive that you get with let's say paradox cast? you can get 2 stacks stored and it's a GDC instant nuke alla Xenoglossy but maybe not so potent. It will still give us mobility, it will feel like a real thunder nuke, don't set a crazy potency but make it crit DH if the target is ignited so we get good nice big number which is BLM essence. This would be IMHO my solution, still have a DoT to keep up, still have instant spells to have that extra mobility and the visual damage feels/looks better

[@rndm2655]

It feels like they saw the meme Thunder rotation and did a kneejerk overcorrection kind of like when meme Paradox was a thing

[@yggyboysplaytime]

So I finished the current savage and got lucky to get BLM weapon. I never have tried BLM and has always been a healer person. I wanted to try BLM for the first time. How difficult is it tk learn? If you have an advice aside from going to the Balance. What would it be?

[@anthonyzheng7274]

Full crit gear still does pretty decent damage, or at least it feels that way even though I don't use logs or a parser

[@shadowsage2636]

Yes. everything is more or less Anti-Blm. i've never had to hug swift and triple cast so much before. then i just went to picto and was getting the same results but less movement restriction. so unless they massively buff blm, i don't see my self going back to it.

[@hazardyoutube1121]

I hope before the ultimate it's good to play I want to see explosion's from your clear :)

[@LuxLuciferVT]

this might be a controversial opinion but i don't really think thunder should go back to the old thundercloud version of the DOT. a DOT that functions like a DOT is fine, especially if it's going to effectively not cost any resources like cast time, MP, or a buff that can be used for something separate. thunder should only be directly above umbral soul for movement based phases in terms of usage priority. i do agree with 300 on hit and 450-550 over time, though. the other solution to this is to just bring sharpcast back but i seriously doubt they'll reverse that design decision any time soon. i would like them to remove the thunderhead restriction from the game simply because making the DOT more clunky in service of idiotproofing it so you can't cast the DOT without enochian up simply isn't worth it.

[@Himbro22]

Feels like flarestar needs a total system rework to feel like its satisfying currently. That anr visual updates to it...

[@mizuhashitsunoka]

There was honestly no need to remove sharpcast or thundercloud. Nobody who played the class asked for it. Hoping for the alleged .08 changes to be true.

[@ZeroEscape2074]

I'm all for the flare star instant cast

[@christopherp1318]

I personally dont think its bad at all, but since stormblood its been getting hard to play due to the mechanics and the dances being more elaborate. BLM needs times to cast to do high damage

[@mahfujkadir8973]

I rather have square over buff black mage then under buff. With how versatile picto is with damage, mobility, and utilities, black mage needs more then just matching that damage. It needs go go beyond it and not just debuff picto which is good now. Plus square wants to move in a new direction so it would be good to change up black mage even if at the cost of losing some of its current identity to gain a new one.

[@lucalopez9604]

I'm still very sad about what they did. EW BLM was so perfect and now the most we can say is "its not as bad as on DT release." Flare star and new thunder feel so bad and I'm surprised how much I hate instant fire paradox and guaranteed f3p, it made me change my BLM sets as I can't confortably do 4 spells between fire phases at 90. It's less of an issue in harder content where you plan every gcd anyways but it annoys me so much in normal content that if I want to weave in xeno or thunder I gotta save a swift just because I don't get a choice for the fire refresh to be instant.

[@bamblecwa2017]

Finally I can have an opinion on black mage again!

[@Dantemustdance]

Fell in love with blm doing dsr, now I just feel glad to be playing this tier on healer instead

[@tsbulmer]

Manafont would feel much better to me if it gave us, say, three stacks of a buff that made our next Despair or Flare free direct crits. I like how Black Mage isn't so focused on the two-minute structure, and Manafont's part of that, but a proper burst CD might be for the best, and anything that cuts down on damage variance is a plus in my book.

[@viciousal129]

Or maybe manafont should give 3 astral stickers? Speeds up the second fire Phase and might let us fit 2 flare stars under buffs

[@Brahmsonite]

I loathe that Flare Star gets its own gauge. It should stick red sticks in where the Umbral blue sticks go (then illuminate it ignite them for 4-6). Thunder proc should also live on the BLM children's toy box instead of being a status that can fall off.

[@shakeweller]

I want to play BLM next tier so I am excited to see the direction

[@Elementasic]

Here's hoping they actually get around to buffing Paradox to 520, it's still at 500. Guess they remembered to add Ice Paradox back but forgot to buff its potency.

[@EksuPlosion]

@@Elementasic it's a tooltip error, in game the damage is behaving as expected!

[@RockR277]

I'm not a big numbers guy, I just want thundercloud and sharpcast back. I thought they were fun to use.

[@austinmartin612]

May be not the greatest idea... but make Thunder an oGCD that can be weaved into your rotation, rather than a full GCD? I don't main BLM but having played it to 100 it felt BAD every time I had to renew or even cast Thunder the first time.

[@XMegaJuni]

I was loving BLM before, now it’s so frustrating. How with the budget and now more dev time are they fumbling so bad with job actions. It feels like such a low effort.

[@maurowings]

it would be really cool if they let us use flare star with less than 6 astral soul stacks for a reduced potency, either that or letting us keep the stacks through ice and force us to not overcap them. Job is already pretty fun but it needs a little bit more to be properly satisfying

[@Dae-Dae97]

I kinda want flarestare to be aoe dispair and have a scaling potency based on stacks. Bc another gcd after dispair just feels bad.

[@obamaorb7426]

Would be a lot better like this imo, like bards apex arrow where the damage scales based on how many stacks you have

[@Aiko_0]

Nice black Mage Guide oo❤

[@TomRupert]

Im surprised by your comments. I dont feel Black Mage to be clunky at all. I actually feel it super mobile and smooth

[@euan978]

I think SpS increases dot damage just not sure if it's a fix amount per tick or with an multiplier. So high-thunder might be slightly buffed if it's the later. But man, it is so pointless it's not going to make the playing feel of BLM anywhere better. In fact I feel like BLM is getting boring as SE keep trying to make us stay in a fixed rotation. That really removes the flexibility of BLM from adjusting the rotation and also the great feel of satisfaction doing so.

[@steveh629]

Love the Crystal Chronicles music. Hope they fix your job.

[@DacianGradaMusic]

I'm nowhere near enough expert for high end stuff, but as midcore semi-optimized play I felt the changes were mostly good. Of course the damage didn't reflect the strictness of the rotation to not lose Flare Stars along the way, but the mobility is still awesome and if you don't stress too much about the new lvl 100 skill it still feels good to play. We got ice Despair back and that's awesome, Thunder changes are still inferior to EW IMO. Umbral Soul was a long time coming but finally no more downtime shenanigans! It's already confirmed that current Picto is the point of reference for strength (whatever that ends up meaning for the devs), so if they manage to add a bit of the versatility back (it looks like it after the PLL: 2 LL charges, instant Despair, maybe giga buffs on FS to make the strictness more worth? Who knows...) I'll be happy. As much as I like playing the other casters for comfort or brain-off moments, I'm still loyal to this job because once you learn a fight it's way too boring to play most of the others. I quite like the strictness and stress added to try and keep Flare Star-ing, so I would like if they just made it a huge nuke so people are incentivized to execute the rotation perfectly for those big numbers, but I guess we'll see soon enough!

[@Agent13226]

They can't buff Flare Star too much or we'll end up just casting Flare>Flare>Flare Star even on single target. Insta-cast Flare Star that retain charges is the perfect compromise. Umbral hearts retain on fire phase, so why not the other way around?

[@Alkimi15]

They could just make flare give astral soul stacks for every target hit, up to a maximum of 3.

[@joshk6929]

It may be a good class for the hardcore, but this class is certainly very stressful for me and I'm online just to relax and have funs. IMO, BLM is outdated, its gameplay mechanic is trying real hard to catch up with the evolution of dungeon mechanic in FFXIV.

[@xYuwui]

i think they need they need to bring shrapcast back, yes many forgot it or did not know how it works but at the same time.its way better and easyer then how its now. else play the better blm. called pictomancer it even comes witha raidbuff and mobility with no taxes to do less dmg

[@Serenade-N]

While I do feel that the cast time > gcd time is part of BLM's identity, it's honestly a dated caster limitation that I think will only hold the job back as endgame mechanics continue to become more complex.

[@Varsixli]

60% eno to show that magic will forever be superior to pictures

[@abrittishpanfish6269]

40% enochian is being saved for next expansion

[@iPlayOnSpica]

I'm loving BLM's flexibility at lvl 99, and I'm not looking forward to how it plays at 100... I will probably just drop the job and go back to PCT

[@KnightOfCarim2]

Get rid of the astral/umbral timer or make the job straight up the most powerful dps in the game every single patch with no misses, no reason for that much stress, effort and being punished over a very tight timer and convoluted movement to be just mediocre-DPSing, I think the first option is terrible and it's the whole point of the job, then why this isn't the most dps in the game by far yet? Honestly flare star sucks a massive dick, you lose it when you change it to umbral ice so it's an insane punishment, you lose thunderhead/astral fire with this job on a timer when you get in some cut-scene transitions and gets massively punished, when you need to move and you don't have insta-casts and your timer is around 5 to 4 seconds guess what? get ready to get punished using transpose and lose your fire IVs, despair and flare star and your wife and children and your house now you are homeless good luck And if with all this mind-fuckery and stress during astral fire you dare to die? good luck doing less damage than a mosquito while a dumbfuck with a pencil press 1 to do damage and does 5 holy + 2 dashes and rides a F1 car to move and do more damage than the entire raid.

[@Wanderingplayer227]

they gave ice paradox back which I good but I hate the thunderhead system. I want thundercloud back

[@AnActualRealPotato]

So you are telling me Paradox Mage is back? I guess its back to the Black Mage mines with me lol I transposed into Pictomancer long enough