The FFXIV Black Mage Dilemma

So a lot of people are worried that black mage, at least as we know it, is completely dead and gone and that the job is going to be dummed down and not nearly as fun or diverse/creative, is any of this true? let's take a minute to discuss before we bring out the pitch forks
I stream sometimes teehee: / snivypootis7
#gaming #mmorpg #ffxiv #ff14 #ffxivdawntrail #ff14dawntrail #dawntrail

[@cattysplat]

I have a friend who is super slow and constantly makes mistakes in rotation yet still enjoys black mage despite it's challenge. The passive MP regen with one umbral ice let them have leeway in moving around whilst regening, now they will have to strictly cast ice spells to get that regen. This might actually put off some casual players too who liked the passive MP regen.

[@snivypootis8959]

Yeah there's clear downsides to these changes and good sides, it's just gonna take a lot of getting used to unfortunately

[@JeremyS.-ug3sp]

I think this is a bigger problem then it at first appears. This reduces black mage mobility...in a class that already has mobility issues. Now you can't even regen mp while moving? OK guess I just won't move and if I die...cool. If you can't play your class either way dying or not doesn't matter.

[@intergalacticspacewizard1966]

Losing ice paradox hurts the most for me, i love that spell and being able to cast in both frost and fire was cool. It also made sense since its both elements in one

[@snivypootis8959]

Kinda weird for them to take it away? Can't really say for sure why they would, but im not a theory crafter

[@shadowguy542]

I'm a casual blm main and I do like the changes but that's because I didn't invest the time in learning nonstandard rotation so not much is changing for me since I mainly stuck to the standard rotation. I am excited for the one time use to move ley lines though!! Haha

[@DevilSeiji]

"drastically different" ...... Not even monk is as drastically different as EW Smn vs ShB Smn.

[@MemoryofFanelia-Esukafurone08]

These are the skill that will be deleted or change in Dawntail 7.0 Dark Knight [Blood Weapon(delete), Delirium(delete), Plunge(delete)] Gunbreaker [Rough Divide(delete)] Dragoon [Dragon Sight(delete), Spineshatter Dive(delete)] Ninja [Huton(effects will change), Huraijin(delete)] Samurai [Kaeshi: Higanbana(delete), Shoha(effects will change), Shoha 2(delete)] Bard [Wanderer's Minuet(effects will change), Mage's Ballad(delete), Army's Paeon(effects will change) Black Mage [Sharpcast(delete)] Astrologian [Minor Arcana and Draw(effects will change), Redraw(delete), Astrodyne(delete)]

[@Enis1198]

you listed mage's ballad as deleted when its getting the same change as the other two songs. i said your changes were wrong but its just that one. either blood weapon or delerium should be listed under effect change because BW now upgrades into delerium that now has its effect changed

[@shadowfox9735]

I'm new to the game and I was gonna play black Mage and I did a little research before I did but that stocks for everybody hopefully it gets better

[@snivypootis8959]

If you're interested in playing black mage, dawntrail definitely seems like the best time to do so

[@javi7636]

Sorry for being off-topic, but how did you get the overhead HP bars to be big like that? I've been trying to figure that out but haven't been able to. I do have Dalamud, if that's required. More on topic, as someone who only plays standard Black Mage I'm looking forward to the changes. My only concern is how they handle out-of-combat mana management at lower levels (when you don't have Umbral Soul). It would suck if your only option is to lose all stacks and wait for passive mana recovery.

[@snivypootis8959]

It's been so long since I've messed with those settings, but it should be character settings and display name, somewhere around there As for the black mage changes, I do agree it would be kinda annoying if they don't adjust umbral soul because recovery on blm always sucks

[@javi7636]

@@snivypootis8959 Ohhh okay yeah I found it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[@ginge2062]

Like don't get me wrong I agree it's a bit of a bummer that your loosing non standard but, I feel like you can't expect square to cater to a play style they never intended to be a thing in the first place, FF players got smart and played around with the server tick system, which yes is advanced stuff but if it wasn't intended to be played that way because of a bad system using mana tick, I don't feel like square should have to deal with the nightmare of re designing the job around a system they didn't intend. But it's nice to see your someone keeping a positive outlook on it too, it's nice to see someone not totally jumping on the shit train

[@snivypootis8959]

Yeah I always choose to see the brighter side of things rather than just go like "OH MY GOD THEY MADE CHANGES IT'S SHIT NOW" because it just kinda puts everyone in a rage for now reason

[@nospoiler]

I mean, the "recover MP when casting GCDs in ice" change would've been plenty to make it not reliant on janky MP ticks if it wasn't just the ice aspected ones

[@ginge2062]

@@nospoiler yeah but unfortunately relying on those mana ticks is what enables you to play non standard, but to do it correctly your required to have a mana ticker plug in and be in control of the countdown to your party to line up the ticks correctly for your pull....and you shouldn't ha e to rely on a plug in to be able to play your job, that's also why monk got changed too, the optimal drift on monk was never really supposed to exist ether

[@nospoiler]

@ginge2062 yes, that's how it is currently. And making any spell cast under ice recover MP would mean that transpose > paradox (2500) > xeno > (7500) high thunder (10000) would have you be at full mana without any reliance on tick tracking

[@Snowinmyears]

@@ginge2062 you don't need a plugin to do optimal drift. Commonly used plugins for monk are for solving ping issues, and solving the weird interaction between your gcd and your fps; both of which are redundant if you have good ping, and use a 1.93 set. The monk changes were mostly just for accessibility to newer players

[@ceol_]

1:57 the amount of MP restored depends on your stacks of umbral ice: 2.5k at UI 1; 5k at UI 2; and 10k at UI 3. so from AF 3, B3 --> UI 3 means one B4 fully restores your MP. (as of media tour info) also sick art uwu

[@snivypootis8959]

Thanks for the clarification!

[@J3dotgg]

I thought the overwhelming consensus from the ppl that went to the media tour was that picto and viper are hella easy...? The combo quite literally guides you through the optimal rotation for those jobs.

[@Snowinmyears]

Don't know about picto, as I'm a melee player, but viper is gonna be pretty easy to pick up and do well on. That being said it seems like there's a bit more nuance to the burst windows and how you manage your resources during a fight (like getting an extra reawaken between 6-8min in full uptime). It probably won't be that much of an issue, but no, it won't just show you the optimal rotation by following the buttons that light up

[@snivypootis8959]

Still unsure on viper and picto myself, conducting my own research about it myself

[@Gofr5]

Picto has the potential for more intricate play as you'll have to balance when to use the draw mechanic and its abilities with the spells using the palette mechanic and when to use those. It almost feels like 2 completely different mechanics from 2 different jobs mashed in to one, both vying for your attention. It'll be interesting to see how to optimize it once people get their hands on it.

[@AwkwardThursdays]

Transpose will still be used very often bc its still ideal to instacast blizzard 3 under ice or use your guaranteed firestarter fire 3 under fire. Casting those in the opposite element makes them do massively reduced damage.

[@snivypootis8959]

I unfortunately wasn't in the media tour so I am just going off what I know, thanks for the clarification!

[@tylercrissman847]

Whereas ice paradox was often used as the instant cast for weaving transpose>F3P, that job will probably have to go to HThunder now, preferably a Xeno if you can spare it and Thunder dot is a little too fresh. It's worth it to transpose> instant B3 if you have the instant (like say a stack of triplecast leftover after Flare Star) but not something you really need to target. It has the same gain as instant F4, so instant B3 is more of an incidental thing if it comes up.

[@tylercrissman847]

Continuing my previous comment after realizing something. With the potency buff to B3, if F4 doesn't change it might be a bigger gain to instant B3 in UI1. If that's the case it might be better to triple, Despair, Flare Star, transpose, B3 as opposed to starting triple with the last F4.

[@youtousim]

I'm but a noob on BLM, but I'm glad Sharpcast is gone. It never really felt right to manage. And the dual purpose of buffing Fire III somewhat like an illusion of choice, or at the best a niche application I'd forget if it ever came up. It somehow felt likethe job was made more complex just for the sake of complexity, basically managing 2 buttons to apply 1 effect.

[@snivypootis8959]

I can definitely understand that yeah, it just will take getting used to it not being a thing anymore, not against it being removed, but it's just gonna be really weird

[@verypurply]

Over 90% of the content in the game is level-synced. It's getting really obvious what they've been trying to do for the last 2 expansions, and now Dawntrail. I wonder how long it will take for people to understand that the goal is to cripple levelling even more. (I guess the boost pots are not selling that well?)

[@Gofr5]

I always played BLM the way they are forcing us to now (ie I never did transpose shenanigans) so for me these changes are a win as its only making the way I was already playing BLM even better. I can see how the BLM players that were playing more nonstandard would be disappointed though, but yeah I personally love it and am looking forward to it.

[@hkoizumi3134]

I've been playing BLM since 2.0 at the start. We had our high and lows for sure. Some claim BLM is one of the hardest jobs to pick up. I tend to agree. I have cleared every savages and extreme with BLM so far and I still love BLM. I like how we are not a reactive job but more of proactive job. Which naturally makes BLM the hardest to proc with. I am to a point where I tend to memorize floor patterns and the timing of my comrade as part of my rotation. That being said, I feel like BLM has to jump thru so much hurdles to make it work. Where as SMN is a braindead job that aren't too far from BLM's average people's capabilities. I feel like BLM gameplay is risky in nature but low on reward. Either make the job more accessible or make it more rewarding to play. BLM already suffers from stigmata.

[@snivypootis8959]

I can't say I'm a super experienced black mage player because I started during shadowbringers, but yeah it definitely feels like it changes so drastically through the levels

[@Dndstories]

I’m so happy that we don’t have to keep up with the thunder dot anymore and just cast it when swapping elements. It makes me wonder if this will make ss blm more viable since we can just cast two ice spells without waiting for server ticks and go back into fire faster. I’m pretty open minded to these new changes honestly.

[@Snowinmyears]

I'm honestly so over being mad about job changes. It's always like buff and dot taken away from monk, monk deadge, non standard blm gone, blm deadge, kaiten removed from samurai, the job is literally unplayable. I get that it means a lot to people, and i don't want to trivialise that, but I'm so done with dooming myself, and just want to focus on the cool shit

[@snivypootis8959]

This ^

[@shizachan8421]

Sometimes its about SE removing what people found fun in the game. I have less fun with Dark Knight now than I had in Stormblood

[@Snowinmyears]

@@shizachan8421 don't get me wrong, SE has made some baaaad decisions with the jobs through the years, and ofc it feels awful when the things you like about a job are taken away (RIP optimal drift, it was fun while it lasted), but I just want to keep a positive mindset for my own wellbeing

[@shizachan8421]

@@Snowinmyears Tbh, I think some job changes are okay, some are just plain bad. DRK is already a mess and now it loses more of the one thing it still had going, which was its busy burst phase and Summoner is basically just dead as a job.

[@iveyyewitt1621]

I finally get comfortable with BLM, now this. It's Shadowbringers Astro all over again.

[@snivypootis8959]

And Astro has a bunch of big changes too haha

[@iveyyewitt1621]

​@snivypootis8959 I'd've been shocked it didn't. Squeenix loves tinkering with my favorite healer class.

[@Rotomoo]

I don't mind BLM skill ceiling being lowered. I've always wanted to main the job since ShB but didn't have the knowledge and skill to play it at savage+ level. I didn't even know non standard existed since I always played standard. They removed the proc rng that I hated about the job. So overall a win for me. I get why some players are frustrated still.

[@snivypootis8959]

It's just mainly people of hating on the fact that they are taking away some creavity, but I know people always find a way to do something niche

[@hawgacrux]

Nonstandard wasn’t needed for savage though and no one bat an eye if players used standard there. I bet even some savage players didn’t know it existed. Just making it so every spell in ice phase gave mana back would have been enough.

[@PSMobs]

but it would raise the skill floor however, since we did lose some of flexibility (like mana regeneration depends on cast, thunder not being able to pre pull cast, more fire dependent, more punishing if you drop either phases - since the few reason you play blm is high dps and kaboom), so early blm player will have a harder time grinding to newer content

[@crimsonshenanigan1854]

only 30 secs in vid to hear about the Blm dilemma is about and no the job isnt dead its just a job that is rarely used outside of endgame content afterall all jobs suck below lvl 60 but Blm suck even harder in potd they call Blm scathe mage

[@snivypootis8959]

Never said the entire job was dead myself, in fact I think this could be a good thing these changes, I'm not the doom and gloom type

[@aphilli97]

Lmao never liked blm so had no idea about this

[@snivypootis8959]

This stuff was only just revealed a couple days ago so it's relatively new

[@chrisanderson6353]

😔smh