COMPLETE Black Mage Job Breakdown from DAWNTRAIL Media Tour!

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[@Memilish]

That's no Manafont, that's a Murderfont.

[@liftea7304]

I am sad that non-standard is dead, but have you seen the manafont buff? fire phase goes brrrrrrr

[@twylxght]

I mean our opener probably is about 12 Fire IVs long now lol

[@Deep40000]

Opener will probably start with manafont if anything since you'll be able to get flare star with it whereas without I don't think you can cast enough fire IVs to get it

[@twylxght]

@@Deep40000 interesting, I assume you referencing the current opener because of the no umbral hearts. I can see it starting it to get the full 6 in the opener. But that would also mean no double despair

[@vrim819]

@@twylxght Current opener looks like 4 fire4s, despair, then manafont, 2 fire4s, flarestar, then casting as many fire4s and a despair as possible before buff window ends before going into ice to do a standard rotation. It's janky and it seems weird but it looks like the optimal play on paper

[@Ultimusvivi]

Blm.... now with more than double the fire

[@nathanherron3947]

Id argue that blm got more of a rework than dragoon haha

[@TheAzarak]

It definitely did. I dont know why they made such a big deal about reworking Dragoon when they barely did anything. These BLM changes mix up a lot

[@jacobkern2060]

Add it to the list, along with MNK and NIN

[@OldManInternet]

Black Mage is one of the few jobs that really FEELS like a level 100 version, in my opinion. A lot of the other jobs just felt pretty safe and samey. Looking forward to trying this and ninja.

[@King-2077]

Isnt that to be expected? I mean they can only do so much with 20 jobs. If they do too much, they might end up destroying the job. Some jobs are already good as it is that’s why they just added very few stuff.

[@KaedysKor]

@@King-2077 And then there's SMN, where everyone assumed that its relatively sparse design in EW was to leave room for expansion, and instead all they got was an oGCD and AoE heal every 2 minutes, and a goofy-looking Bahamut remodel (that doesn't even _replace_ the prior Bahamut, instead it makes the prior two seen half as often). They definitely could have put more work into developing some of the jobs more in DT. Some of them got solid bona fide updates, or even effective reworks, but most jobs got very VERY safe and basically "more of the same" type additions, and it feels a bit...underwhelming, imo.

[@King-2077]

@@KaedysKor i thought the smn rework was better than the old. It is easier yes but I think they were able to make summoner feel like a real summoner in EW. It can be improved though, I agree and yes the they could have added different summons for dawntrail, they really missed that opportunity. They should have added alexander instead of a zero bahamut because it looks the same and doesnt really highlight a new change.

[@KaedysKor]

@@King-2077 Or make the gem summons after Phoenix turn into Ramuh, Leviathan, and Shiva, which work very similar to the current 3, except with different FX flavor and maybe subtle ability diffs.

[@King-2077]

@@KaedysKor yea i think from what I have seen, the comments said something like that. They definitely missed an opportunity for that one. To me, my complaints about this game is how I have to focus on rotation too much, that tbh, fight encounters become forgettable for me. Im an ultimate raider, cleared all 5, and from what I can say, things i only remember are mechs. I also hated how enemies dont have mass and im like hitting the air, there’s no satisfaction when i land a big damage skill. That’s why smn changes for me was better than the old because it’s simple but gave the job a real identity.

[@BeanDancing]

I'm really sad that BLM is becoming even more of a Fire mage. I wish there were a few more ice and thunder themed spells and abilities to break things up more. Not even mechanically different but just for the visual and flavor it'd be nice

[@SilverDreamweaver]

Same. I enjoyrd fire and ice being their own phases with thunder as a bonus. With each expansion, ice has become more and more just a mechanic to re-enter fire. I fear with these changes, that transformation is complete.

[@ReeceG231]

I agree with emphasis on the VISUAL of it all. The rotation is perfect but what if instead of fucking 12 Fire IVs the button changed to a different element based on conditions and you swap between different elements in succession like Shantotto's chain spells. This could lead up the well known Ancient Magic chain: Flare - Flood - Burst - Quake - Tornado - Freeze - Ultimate. Literally just add some elemental aesthetic onto the fire spam we already have. Hey, maybe you could even work it to focus on the Chain Magic and give different benefits based on the order done. Like if you wanted to Chain Fire (like we already do) vs Chain Ice. Then throw in Meteor or something somewhere and it would be godly.

[@Memyx]

That Manafont change is wild

[@-DeScruff]

I do hope the change to Umbral Ice directly restoring MP helps new players realize more quickly the intention is to be swapping between Fire and Ice... Ive seen way too many sprouts do nothing but Ice attacks, not understanding the intention Ice is meant to be a recharge phase.

[@fishbread9208]

I've seen too many NON sprout using transpose to swap phases

[@alphadzero2159]

@@fishbread9208which is actually fine because transpose is used for non-standard rotation. Which is what makes black mage actually even more fun, because you can use different transpose lines for every possible situation. Making you more mobile and it’s even a dmg gain by 2-3% if done correctly. Well fine is subjective. I don’t know if the players you encountered just used transpose because they were panicking or if they actually utilised non-standard. In my honest opinion, I don’t like the changes at all. Makes blm in movement heavy mechanics completely inflexible and under lvl 76 you are now completely useless. But this is coming from a blm main who loved non-standard and it’s freedom.

[@nixiedreamstar]

@@alphadzero2159 Well time to learn how to play BLM then. Its been like this for the past 10 years, if anything is still way more mobile than back ShB when we had 1 Foul, 1 Triplecast, 1 sharpcast and 1 Swift at 60s. You guys have 2 Xenos, 2 Triplecasts, 1 Swift, Ice Paradox, and 2 Sharpcasts and are still complaining about mobility. And after the changes you will STILL have 3 Xenos, 2 Triplecasts, 1 Swift at 40s, 1 Insta Paradox and 1 Insta F3, and 1 Insta Thunder AND ARE STILL COMPLAINING. At this point maybe you just consider just playing SMN or even better just a Long Range Physical :T

[@matthewwysong644]

@@nixiedreamstar The mobility isn't what attracts people to the job, the mobility from nonstandard is what lets them keep their raid slot when otherwise extremely movement heavy fights like TOP would require them to switch to something they enjoy less.

[@theopeneyes]

I think part of the problem is that the game makes a poor effort to highlight how significant the astral fire buff is for their damage especially at low levels. Infact I don't think it says anywhere ingame how much damage your fire spells gain from astral fire just that it increases fire damage. Sure you can see the damage increase ingame but to a new player "why spend so much mp on fire spells when you can spam blizzard spells without never needing to worry about mp and things die just as fast?"

[@TheSkewedReality]

I'm a BLM main, i'll continue to main blm because i love the playstyle. I'm excited to relearn how umbral ice regen phases will work and feel. But is anyone else kind of sad there wasn't a SFX update with DT? I feel like other classes, especially the melee combos look absolutely insane now lol. But i'll be glad to continue to nuke my enemies from thousands of yalms away. Edit: Flare star obviously looks great but i just mean the general bread and butters for other classes look more flashy than the fire IV rotation.

[@KaedysKor]

I feel like the entire point of the Umbral Ice change is that you just cast one spell in it, Blizzard IV (or Freeze for AoE), and you're done. So Blizzard III to swap, Blizzard IV, Fire III. You're in Umbral Ice for all of 2 GCDs now, or 3 if you decide to use the Thunderhead proc before Fire III. That part is basically the same as it works today, tbh, except without the Paradox instacast, and without having to judge mana ticks to make sure you'll hit cap before Fire III finishes.

[@zensei7685]

Yeah I agree, they could’ve added some sauce to the dish to give it some extra flavor 👌🏻

[@InRealTime769]

With Flare Star being introduced, we now know that the level 110 level cap ability will be a single target version. Square please prove me wrong.

[@isarun]

And a trait to make the new one and the flare star instant ? XD

[@solid3070]

Not sure what you're on about, flare star is around 1000 potency, it IS a single target skill

[@isarun]

@@solid3070 ​We're referring to Foul we get at level 70, which is a skill with multi-target damage falloff similar to Flare Star, and it is upgraded to single-target instant-cast Xenoglossy at level 80. Also flare star is 350 potency, not 1000 even if accounted for astral fire and enochian buff. Are we talking about the same skill?

[@insentia8424]

@@solid3070 819, quite far from 1000

[@ellierivers8053]

​@@isarun The actual potency isn't a thousand like that guy said, but it's around 820 give or take. Multiplied by 1.8 for astral fire then multiplied again by about 1.3 for enochian. Comes out to around 820.

[@Ashecomics]

does umbral ice grant energy because colder areas suck out energy? Also does astral fire cost energy from you because your spending it to burn a space?

[@sergel02]

As someone who likes the animations of ice spells I’m sad the job basically is just a fire mage.

[@cosmosofinfinity]

You'll see more crystals playing red mage now, even though they don't even have any ice spells

[@neobahumuth6]

you are more likely to cast more ice spells now than before lol

[@SilverDreamweaver]

​@@neobahumuth6 Not true. The entire ice phase is 2 GCDs. B3 to swap, then B4 for full mana regen. Shame.

[@neobahumuth6]

@@SilverDreamweaver ye....and nonstandard was all about not using those spells at all

[@DimensionSifter]

did anyone at the live letter check to see if the flare star stacks fall off leaving astral fire?

[@davidstubbs2361]

They do

[@fishbread9208]

I did also notice on some other videos that AoE potency for the non massive hits went down, fire and blizzard 2 are down to 80 potency and high fire and blizzard 2 are down to 100, that's a massive nerf to those moves when astral fire is taken into account, but luckily Flare is still as strong as ever

[@LightSummoner84]

Every jobs aoe are nerfed, so it's only a adjustement.

[@no00ob]

HF2 has been nerfed to 100p before modifiers from 140p. Thus it should no longer be used to spam in AOE, as you described, now you use it just to transition elements in AOE sequences. Flare is not doing so well either since Enhanced Flare as a mechanic was removed from the game. Flare was technically “buffed” from 220p to 240p before modifiers. However because Enhanced Flare no longer exists (which made Flare 280p) it is an overall nerf. Flare still also has the 40% dropoff to additional targets.

[@fishbread9208]

@@no00ob D A M N I didn't notice enhanced flare was removed. But to be fair, black mage was doing some job's single target big hits per enemy with Flare, and it can do it 3 times in a row I'm not sure how to describe what felt off, but I did always feel that black mage's aoe damage output was much higher than most job's, even with the long cast times outside of triplecast

[@nozelxo6514]

I still don’t know why Despair turns into Umbra Soul on the hotbar is not like you can cast Umbra Soul right after a despair

[@Ace-tt5fe]

Ease of access and button bloat, you’re not casting a flare in an ice phase or a soul in a fire phase

[@OfficialDjTalksick]

Unless it does now and we don’t know that yet

[@RBrim08]

Because they're both phase exclusive spells, in the same way Blizzard IV and Fire IV are. So they opted to make them swap with one another to reduce button bloat.

[@nozelxo6514]

@@RBrim08 ahhh got it thanks

[@luntfuzzle]

I am so excited to get to play this!!!

[@jessepopovich1177]

So can i ask what a rotation looks like for ST and AOE, at lvl 80, 90, and finally at 100? I'm only lvl 80 right now.

[@FaintEchoz]

Im confused can someone explain if fire 4 and blizzard 4 share one button how do you choose which one you use?

[@kalebbertelsen7788]

You can only cast Fire IV under Astral Fire, and Blizzard IV only under Umbral Ice. So which phase you are in currently determines which one you are able to cast, there is no choice.

[@royox]

I don't care. The way I have it in my crossbars I have to keep Blizzard 4 where I have it now or my 10 years muscle memory is not going to work lol

[@UltraCasualPenguin]

How? Where? This is big QoL feature!

[@JakeCompton-do4em]

Honestly this is Yoshi P's main job, it's gonna play exactly how he wants it too, but at the same it will never really suck

[@krumdark]

This job def gets the Yoshi p treatment

[@Vulcanfaux]

Does ice phase even exist anymore?

[@hasseo195]

Why is the new gauge ignorinmg Despair? Mhh. When only fire 4 and flare can fill it, will it be than valid, to use: " mana front, triple cast, 2x flare andf than new spell"?

[@MrKalefe]

flare has almost 4 sec. of cast and is weaker than fire 4

[@hasseo195]

@@MrKalefe I sayed triple cast. That make the cast time meaningless. And whe saw that combo in the job trailer. Its probably based on, how fast you needed the attack to be. And maybe, on the potency at the end

[@lashgnash]

Flare is weak af in single target what a waste of amanafont if you do that shit.

[@hasseo195]

@@lashgnash it is the fastes way to fill flare star. So, if you are going for that could it be valid. They even showed that in the job preview. But yeah. I forgot by the idea, that the high fire bonus wouldnt be activ. So, its missing around 100 potency to fire4. Its probably only a option when you know, that you dont have enough time left for a normal rotation.

[@lashgnash]

@@hasseo195 flare star potency doesn't come anywhere close to justifying 2 single target flare casts, you could easily f4x1-2 then despair and you'll do much more damage if you're pressed for time. despair is still a ton of damage

[@TRNFloyd]

tbh I'm hyped for these changes. I main blm and have been doing so since 2.0, these changes are great honestly. 3 polyglots means dungeon running is going to go fast. Timing the polyglot out for 5 foul's and clearing packs is gonna be insane. That might require saving a Paradox at the end of the fire rotation to pull it off, or swap to ice and continue it, but still bonkers to see. My hate goes towards thunder being locked away to procs. I get the idea behind it, but the direct damage thunder 4 applies plus the dots are a big part of the pack-to-pack/wall to wall clearing. Basically it was swiftcast>sharpcast>thunder4>move to next pack>thunder 4 and then go into aoe rotation. Gonna be sad to see that gone, or changed into something else but oh well. Overall the changes look like a positive to me.

[@willb6913]

Does Between the Lines still exist or has it been fully replaced by Retrace?

[@itsspookie]

It was mentioned leylimes.becomes retrace once activated

[@setakh]

It's still on the bar on the vid thankfully (lower right, on the 2nd bar)

[@DarkZeroUnit]

if nothing changes im gonna miss those thunder procs

[@kobrraful]

as someone who was a BLM player since 1.0, I'm overall happy with the changes. EXTREMELY disappointed we still don't have Fire 5, or the fact we're hitting level 100 and no Ultima. :(

[@DavidTheGamer27]

Personally, I don't need, or want, to replace my heart with the Heart of Sabeek just to get Ultima.

[@twylxght]

It probably be changed to High Fire at this point

[@lushdontu4015]

Black mage NEVER gets any cool spells like summoner. It's so annoying. We should have gotten fire 5 in shadowbringers!

[@WaltRBuck]

​@lushdontu4015 Did someone say cool spells like summoner? Have you looked at summoner lately. We literally got nothing. A solar panel bahamut, which I might add, almost no one wanted. Another bahamut... because, you know, the allagans might have had his dragon form wrong. Maybe he was born with disconnected swords for wings. Yeah. You might consider using a different class as your comparison for the foreseeable future.

[@lushdontu4015]

@@WaltRBuck I know but at least summoner gets new things. Black mage BARELY changes every expansion. No cool dark spells, no ultima, NOTHING! 1 new button to press every expansion and I am sick of it. The black mages in the other final fantasy games are cooler

[@raarasunai4896]

I like the black mage changes, but then again, I’m not a super high end non-standard play using black mage. I’m just a mostly casual player who likes making my enemies burn and explode

[@ILockhartI]

Thunderhead? You are gonna BLOW expectations.

[@brianbell8382]

I understood that reference. 😂

[@davidmaclean2734]

Nice job reducing the enchanted aoe combo to 50, also manafication is still doing the same as its endwalker counterpart, only now us RDM mains wont overcap on mana, and more verflare and verholy procs

[@GayLPer]

Wrong video

[@twylxght]

Just for insight the true potency of Flare Star is just over 800 without party buffs for clarification. (Edited for clarity)

[@twylxght]

Due to Astral Fire III

[@insentia8424]

350x1.8(AF3) is 630 and 630x1.3(enochian) is 819, where do you get another ~25% damage increase from?

[@MrKalefe]

Xeno still is the strongest bonk

[@fishbread9208]

​@@insentia8424my guess is they included maim and mend, even though every single job has that trait so it shouldn't be applied here

[@insentia8424]

@@fishbread9208 Ah, yeah, then it does add up. I missed the trait in the BLM window. Also, no, only phys ranged, healers and casters have a trait like that and ranged dps and caster/healer have different values on it too. So including it when comparing with all jobs is necessary.

[@Frankthetank302]

Didnt black mage get mp back from.vastint ice spells back in 2.0 correct me if im wrong i started as a black mage in the beta for 2.0 and then switched to warrior at its launch lol

[@royox]

BLM gets mp back every server "tick" while being in Umbral Ice phase. In the expansion you will get MP back by hitting enemies with ice spells.

[@hasseo195]

The only thing i dislike by the new BLM is the thing, that thunder is bond at your soul mode. I liked it, to use thunder sometimes before the other spells. And it feels unnecressary, to have it that way. Aside of that, looks the new things nice. Maybe, they are focusing to much at the fire phase (ice phase was allready the "unwanted child" from the blm. But it looks like, as if this phase is now even shorter as before.

[@hobbitluck]

Aye, Ice phase sounds like it will be one Blizzard IV, maybe a Thunder, and then swap back... Is that even long enough to be considered a "phase" ? Like the new Manafront is awesome... but it doesnt really skip much either now xD

[@dip4329]

Aw i like scathe

[@MrKalefe]

SCATHE REWORK TO SCATHE II AND BE LIKE XII SCATHE

[@noamonoch]

Sharpcast... I'll miss you...

[@TheSkewedReality]

I'll keep Sharpcast on a seperate bar once it's gone. Just like how I keep eno-chan in the corner of my screen. Good memories.

[@viero4963]

Omg I love it. ❤

[@shooterperson]

At first i was a bit disappointed, but knowing that procs are guaranteed now I’m not as much. The current “standard” rotation I use finishes with Xenoglossy and Paradox in ice phase and these changes just make it more consistent being in the fire phase. I feel though that we’ll be doing the no B4 opener again lol

[@Ypatia717]

I wish I could skip Blizzard IV. I prefer five Fire IVs. I don't care if it's not as good

[@Glennkabob]

Wait so how are BLM below 76 supposed to regenerate mp when there are no enemies?

[@silvertayuun]

Lucid dreaming I guess lol

[@BARogueAssassin]

They don't. Biggest failure of these changes imo

[@xxDEAGORxx]

Out of combat it'll probably have a base regen - the usual 10% per tick, maybe? Also Manafont but that's going to be 180s below sometime in the 80's which isn't going to be viable between multiple mob pulls in a dungeon. I think Manafont is meant to be for Downtime phases in boss battles so presumably they're going to need something for the between pull out of combat sections

[@Toad-yv8ko]

When you do lvl 70 stuff like uwu or ucob you have to use transpose to change your job to Summoner or Red mage now between phases... Surely they have to give out umbral soul at lvl50 now or they somehow managed to make BLM EVEN WORSE for lvl 70 ultimates

[@Toad-yv8ko]

How do you regen mana when the boss stuns you after you "defeat it" lol... Down for the count after you beat a phase... And you start the next phase with 0 mana if it's a short cutscene... Yay?

[@Samus11111]

As someone who just started learning BLM (seriously) in preparation for DT savage, I'm actually really disappointed they removed sharpcast. It felt like one of the last things in FFXIV that required decision making. Do I use sharpcast for a firestarter proc or do I try to get a thunder proc out of it to remove the RNG? Now it seems like BLM is becoming extremely standardized with a fixed rotation like the other classes. Ofc it's not as bad as the others still I don't think, but it's marching down that road to brainless muscle memory town...

[@gramt4685]

You will press the combo actions, you will live in the free company house, and you will NOT press anything outside the scheduled job rotation. And you will (must) like it. 😂

[@TsuchiGamer06]

these are insaneeeeeeee changes. What the fuck im losing my mind as a BLM for the last 10 years. Thundercloud what? Firestarter what? MANAFONT DOES WHAT?

[@rabidsmiles]

The sweet sweet button comboing...gods this is gonna make BLM so much fun.

[@JesseAnderson]

Jesus this job goes hard now

[@jaquanepatterson2537]

Its good but also extremely streamlined which isn't bad in itself but was it all really needed?

[@neobahumuth6]

needed or not, it would've come eventually

[@cyphi474]

Wait, so you generate only 2500mp on early levels? So you have to spam blizzard 4 times to get full mana? Thats stupid. Currently you need just transpose, then one, maybe two blizzards plus thunder to get full mana before transposing back to fire. And when you get two Astral/Umbral, which comes somewhere around level 15 or so, you will still need 2 blizzard 1s every time to get full mana. Like, why? Does it means blizzard potency gets improved, because its kinda dps loss(not like it matter much on those early levels, but it is). Not talking about wrong habbits for new players learning to be "Ice Mages", only to be reduced over time to single ice spell at lvl35(B3 and F3). I havent seen many new thm players having issue with learning how it works. If they do, they need just little nodge to be set in right direction. Ice mages arent really as common to be an issue. I dont really know what to think about BLM changes in Dawntrail. It comes to me like current stage BLM is pretty good and could do fine with just few QoL improvements. It didnt need such overhaul. Whats third polygot even good for? Make it at least scaleable to Xeno/Foul potency...more Polygots, more potency, so we dont have to deal with multiple Xenoglossy use in single rotation.

[@titmit6940]

The new mana regen change is better I'd argue because sometime with a little bit too much spell speed, even at lower level, your rotation will be all over the place because of the mana tick not restoring your mana fast enough, it's especially jarring early on. Beside, umbral soul will regen your mana when you press them anyway so down time wont be a problem. Blm will still gonna be a planning ahead kind of job, especially now if the cutsence is too long and your mana is at 0, it's time to re evaluate your rotation for that fight.

[@sirius_moonlight]

My only complaint is that I think Starflare's casting animation is weird and kind of anticlimactic for level 100. I wish they had thought of some other skill or animation. Like, a new combo for Xenoglossy and Foul.

[@KwehShiro]

I feel BLM will always be safe enough from being ruined. I'm no BLM player, it feels hard for me, it's defo not for me, but this feels more approachable (the thunder rng is my biggest enemy) while remaining very complicated. let's not forget yoshi-p plays BLM, so i'm sure he wouldn't wanna make the class unfun for himself XD

[@therealzeus7650]

feel like flare star potency is a complete joke

[@azero316]

Thanks for the vid Haps. At surface level it looks like the team pumped a lot of damage into the kit. Hopefully the feel of the class remains the same.

[@nlgarmdevil4411]

beyond happy with the black mage changes. going to have a main crisis in dawntrail i think xD

[@nickp11ps5]

WOW they addressing button load for sure but IDK how I feel about umbral soul and despair being the same button, Sharpcast also just a great thing to weave while standing there waiting for a spell to hit. Did you also say blizzard 3 and fire 3 are the same? I guess the open rotation for me at least changes just a little, minus the Sharpcasts and fire paradox being instant makes things a little different but not by much. Ice paradox was always a thing I looked forward to because of the instant cast. I'll just have to play and see.

[@djgangstapimp]

Dont know how people are upset with these changes. These are great! Yeah some Paradox removal in Umbral Ice sucks but we get a additional Astral Fire phase and guaranteed thunder and firestarter?! fucking worth. The MP regeneration shouldn't be a issue as the Blizzard 3 on zero MP after Despair I would assume gives you MP, if not then yeah some thinking required but all in all not bad at all

[@DavidTheGamer27]

I'm with you, I'm very positive about these changes and I can't wait to try them and see how they play.

[@bsc649]

It makes the rotation extremely rigid, so there's way less ability to adjust for fight mechanics or phase lengths or whatever

[@bsc649]

It's honestly just a really strange set of changes in general imo. It lowers the skill ceiling, but it's not like it's doing that to make the job more accessible because it also raises the skill floor. It's more obvious what the intended rotation is, but it also punishes mistakes even more severely so casual players will still really struggle with it I think

[@SquashDog01]

@@bsc649 What? the floor is way lower now, what are you even talking about. Thundercloud is instant and is always given in Ice, 100% Firestarter proc, Instant Fire Paradox. Its going to be very hard to drop Astral Fire now, 3 charges of Poly so you can bank even more movement with that much more easily maintained Fire phase. BLM is substantially more approachable now. It might actually see some damned play from more than just sweaty try-hards.

[@DavidTheGamer27]

@@bsc649 I disagree. I've played Black Mage since I started playing this game. Even so, I refuse to do anything "ultimate" as it just doesn't look fun to me and doesn't have any appeal for me. So I am one of those "casual players" you're talking about. But I found my own way to play this job and I think these changes will make the job even more fun to play. Unlike what seems like most other Black Mage players, I didn't focus on damage, I focused on Spell Speed. I think I'm down to about 2.20 GCD and in Ley Lines I'm well under 2 on my GCDs, I think it's around 1.9 or so. These changes look good to me and look like they will be a lot of fun. But we won't know until we play it.

[@cosmosofinfinity]

Black mage main since ARR. Not a fan of the changes to regaining MP, Thunder/Thundercloud (I prefer Thunder III/IV's animations and icons, even), no umbral ice phase Paradox, the removal of Sharpcast, and the complete change of Manafont (not being a way squeeze a few last drops of astral fire phase, but just a way to skip umbral ice phase entirely with a new astral fire sequence all over again, now creating too much repetition for too long). They want to reduce buttons, but still keep Xenoglossy when Foul was/is/would be fine as the only Polyglot attack. I was sad about the removal of Enochian (the activated ability) in Endwalker, but it was tolerable. This... This is just too much. For the first time, I feel legitimate loss for the job I love. And this is going to butcher the lower levels even worse. This is FFXIV's biggest problem; they can never just let the higher levels graduate away from certain mechanics, they feel the need to remove it across the board, even when the lower levels are starving for mechanics more and more each time they remove something outright. Why not limit the deletion/changes to the new level ranges, and (within reason) leave the old job mechanics the fuck alone for their respective level ranges? The old Enochian and the old Transpose cooldown actually helped me get good and understand black mage's mechanics originally, and it wouldn't be hurting anyone if they still worked like that in those lower level ranges where those nuances mattered more.

[@nozelxo6514]

Ewwwwww ok

[@Kinchansan]

Also a longtime BLM main here from arr, I'm not too hyped about these changes. Thankfully I'm going WAR next raid tier anyways but seeing ley lines move made me reconsider staying as a BLM main. Seeing this much change has made me think that I'll stick with the change. But I'll play both to 100 and run it into extreme content to see how they both play before I make a concrete decision.

[@Tyrbris]

ok

[@gramt4685]

Square insists on keeping the training wheels on all the way to 100!

[@nanakixd]

exploshiooooooooon

[@Zories97]

I LOVE THESE CHANGES ESPECIALLY THE THUNDER ONES

[@anthonydelfino6171]

THUNDERHEAD!!!

[@itsyaboymarcelluswallace]

I will miss being able to spam thunder 4 in aoe. It proly wasnt optimal but it was fun

[@RichterfanReborn89]

Feel compelled to remind people that this class is Yoshi-Ps baby , He wouldn't let them fuck up his baby , and so I feel like the changes will feel fine once experienced in person.

[@auxxillary]

Thank you for this informative video! Im actually kind of sad they're changing and removing some of the fun goofs of the job. I don't really like that Thunder is now an instant cast, and I don't really like how they're effectively removing the concept of Ice Phase. IDK it seems to be losing some of its identity but I do like Flare Star

[@whysoserious9414]

I haven’t played this game but was considering it and this was one of the characters I thought would be cool. Idc about all the info you said and just watched the video to see how the character plays and the animations. Idk if it’s the games fault or the character but the animations don’t feel good when I see you use the spells 😵‍💫

[@breadmaster-lee]

damn huge improvements for black mage, I may actually try to play it now

[@RichyRitencio]

Wait! I wanted to ask if repositioning your Leylines reset its timer?

[@c00lcar5]

Oh man, I'm so ready. This looks so good and I can't wait to try it at all levels. I am worried about mp before umbral soul but that'll have to be seen when dt comes out

[@solid3070]

I picked up BLM when i finished shadowbringers and played it since then, honestly, i love these charges especially the death of sharpcast, also TWELVE FIRE IVS???? im spoiled fr

[@nixiedreamstar]

Amen! It feels like everyone that is complaining is just a new EW players that never played BLM before '-'

[@xkmto]

@@nixiedreamstar i don't play blm but to me it sounds like a lot of the people complaining are mad about losing the non-standard rotation, which to my knowledge has been around long before before EW

[@Cereza64]

Am I the only other person actually happy for a lot of these changes? This is Yoshi P's main after all and I'm certain after YEARS of barely budging with changes he wouldn't let it undergo such a radical change without a reason. A lot of issues I've had as someone with savage raiding experience in the job are getting fixed, or at least made so that learning a fight as a black mage isn't a soul crushing experience of dealing a fraction of the damage you should be doing. The new skills seem great and I'm really happy to see that both standard and non-standard will be having to adjust from 6.X to 7.0. Also, just makes me sad to see all the negativity in here about the job when we still know so little about anything other than how the job functions on a basic level. I'm certain non-standard rotation folks will still have their own unique methods of play, but as for myself I'm happy that the standard rotation will be a lot nicer on folks. Here's to hoping I can introduce more of my friends to this job!

[@itsspookie]

What made BLM a high skill ceiling class has been gutted. That's why. Of course people who weren't able to use blms full kit effectively are going to be happy for these changes

[@MagiusNecros]

If you enjoy the ARR BLM rotation from 2.0 you will be fine with 7.0 BLM. They removed all the nuance from BLM with these changes and that's what players are taking issue with. Black Mage tech with Thunder Procs, dbl Transpose/Paradox for super mobility with very little dmg falloff if any at all, Umbral Ice MP changes are a big deal. Very much limited to Fire 4 > Flare Star Spam. Rotation isn't really going to deviate much from 444144456 and repeat. So it's really just a retread of Spam Fire 1 and then cast one Fire 3 from ARR when you get down to it.

[@Cereza64]

@@MagiusNecros seems like, if anything, current non-standard is what this new standard is going for. The only thing is that it's now the intent of the devs to minimize umbral ice as much as possible rather than having to whip out microsoft excel to figure out how to minimize time in umbral ice. It doesn't seem like the nuance is going away, only that the barrier for entry and the punishment for mistakes are being lowered so that more people can enjoy the job. I took no issue with ARR black mage, and I liked the standard rotation for 3.0 and 4.0 as well. I was a very big raider in 5.0 and early on in 6.0 before i lost my love for the job in its current form. It's felt overly bloated and stuck in a rut for the entire expansion and i've wanted them to do something about the job's many clunky aspects in savage raiding since p1-4 dropped. I understand that some folks arent gonna be as happy as I am with the changes but from studying the balance's non-standard guides, the changes appear to embrace that playstyle more so than shun it or try to "remove" it.

[@MagiusNecros]

@@Cereza64 Perhaps. But at a glance Yoshi P performed the No Kaiten-no-jutsu from my perspective. I'll save final judgment when players get to play the job at lvl cap.

[@Toad-yv8ko]

@@Cereza64 the issue I take is that the DT standard rotation seems much more punishing if you do screw up. Worst case right now you lose a F4 and just do 5xF4 right now. You lose a F4 in DT and you lose the F4 as well as the new spell. Panic transpose into ice because you forgot a mechanic seems much more punishing as well. The AF cycle itself seems more stressful since now since both f3 and Firedox are instant, so you'll have less time in AF to do the same amount of spells. This frankly looks like an attempt to lower the skill ceiling but they didn't understand the implications and it'll inadvertently raise the skillfloor and make standard harder for casual players. Hopefully I'm wrong but this seems like a pretty big nerf to mobility (except for Leylines reposition) and making timings tighter. People are already speculating that people will have to play more sps instead of crit to account for the harder standard rotation. If I was a betting man I'd put money on difference between good and casual players increasing due to how punishing mistakes look to be.

[@bloodalchemy]

4:19 you have the thunder durations backwards. Screen text says aoe lasts longer but the screenshot shows single target lasts 30s and aoe only lasts 24.

[@RainyDvl]

Longer than current, AoE Thunder is like 15s

[@bloodalchemy]

@@RainyDvl good point. I mostly play BLM as a one off so I didn't think of how long it was currently.

[@TheAzarak]

That's not what he was saying. AOE thunder will now have a longer duration than it does currently. Single target duration is the same.

[@Kinslayu]

Love these changes

[@alanaran1575]

I'm just sad we're still spamming Fire IV for the almost the 10th year in a row. It works, I guess. But it gets old.

[@DillonBranford]

Transpose wasn’t for panic swapping this expansion. It is a dps increase.

[@nozelxo6514]

A DPS increase of 1% lol

[@nixiedreamstar]

@@nozelxo6514 And yet ppl are bitching about this. Good riddance.

[@naruto-kun-ub6yz]

@@nozelxo6514 probably much more than 1% if you stack up all the lines used per fight. Some of the lines are several % increases by themselves. So the 1% is just incorrect.

[@naruto-kun-ub6yz]

@@nixiedreamstar they arent bitching about the damage they are bitching about taking away the flexibility of the non standard lines

[@Jseitz81]

Im surprised they changed BLM so much tbh. I am open to the change in server tick. It was always a little annoying. Mana font change is awesome, im really looking forward to it. I don't like the thunder proc change and I enjoyed sharpcast. (which is pointless with the proc changes)

[@LinaaaOfficial]

I love it

[@itsspookie]

Found the blm who has no idea what they were doing up to this point 😂

[@deltagamer6493]

Thunder....Thunder......Thunderhead, OOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!

[@Shizukanexen]

BLM looks fun. Probably still will only level it and then never play it >>;

[@Toad-yv8ko]

Who asked for IceParadox removal? I don't see how this smoothes things out at all... Maybe for level100 content it does but the changes to thunder and iceParadox seem like a massive nerf for mobility in lvl 90 (and 80?) content. They straight up lifted the skill ceiling even higher, making it harder for casuals on the job people complain is too hard to kill the skill ceiling

[@strawberrysundaes]

It lowers the mobility but overall it's better for the job imo. Less time spent in umbral ice is a win in my book.

[@Toad-yv8ko]

@@strawberrysundaes it doesn't decrease time in umbral though? If anything it increases it because you're forced to Blizzard4 now. Remember that iceParadox is non-aspected. This is like a 5-10% DPS nerf for top/DSR if they don't increase potencies for lvl90

[@TheAzarak]

How does making thunder always instant cast reduce mobility? Lol

[@Toad-yv8ko]

@@TheAzarak the new rotation forces it in a place. You now have to use thunder exactly once every 30seconds. the chance of that one thunder spell you have to use exactly at that time overlapping with movement is pretty small and it will mostly be an instant spell you used when you didn't have to move. Currently that's not the case since thunder usage is more flexible. You can use it a little bit early and it's still a DPS gain, which makes it much easier to use it when you have to move. The new thunder covers ~2.4 seconds of movement. The old one covers ~10 to 12 seconds of movement Same for IceParadox and fireParadox. The old IceParadox is an instant spell you can free use in ice as either first, second or third spell, the order doesn't matter. That spell got deleted but we got fireParadox as instant. But fireParadox has to be your 6th GCD in fire. If you do it one later or earlier you lose enochian with the changes. So IceParadox covered 7.2seconds of movement, fireParadox covers 2.3seconds. So much more likely for Paradox to be used because you have to even though you didn't have to move but would need to move in 5 seconds etc ///Edit, also the easiest to understand: they deleted an instant spell and gave us a hard cast spell in return, so you will have to cast more spells and have less instants per 1 rotation///

[@CryoJnik]

So this is where the summoner changes went. Man, not beating the favoritism allegations with this one

[@DukeCyrus]

What

[@CryoJnik]

@DukeCyrus look up the video of the summoner Change(s?). It's anemic.

[@lushdontu4015]

​@CryoJnik stop lying. Black mage looks the same. It didn't get ultima or anything interesting. There is no favoritism. Black mage looks the same for 3 expansions in a row

[@Kidame17]

Im pretty happy with the changes. With the dead of non standard rotation and more strict rotation now, it gives me the vibe of the old sb/hw blm that I liked alot more. I Just like that blm philosophy alot more and it’s more appealing to me. But umbral soul HAVE to be a low level skill. Even one of the first. No way you will have fun playing blm as newbie in a dungeon and can’t restore mp because your last skill was fire 2 or flare. It will make blm just unnecessary unfun not able to restore mp in downtimes. The same in uwu and ucob. What they were thinking putting it in so late? Transpose we get lvl 4 at the moment. In dt we should get umbral soul at the same lvl

[@Poldovico]

Transpose can fill in for Umbral Soul when mana regen is the only need.

[@snowvix8902]

Umbral Ice will still allow mana regen, just not at the amped up levels it currently does, and Lucid Dreaming is still a button that black mages have access to

[@jmoak14]

looks pretty good. Black mage lost lot of flavor for being too mobile these last 2 expansions. this should feel more at home again

[@itsspookie]

This still keeps them incredibly mobile with instant free procs???????

[@jmoak14]

@@itsspookie lack of thundercloud procs and sharpcast and added flare star means your less mobile than before

[@OffensiveWombat]

​@@jmoak14Sharpcast is gone because sharpcast is now permanently active. Every thunder procs thundercloud, every paradox procs firestarter.

[@itsspookie]

@@jmoak14 you instantly get thunder proc as soon as you enter astral fire. An added flare does not effect anything as you still have 2 xenoglossies, paradox, and swift cast for instantly. Along with Aether Manipulation, Ley Lines, and the one instant thunder proc you get. Blm still has a lot of movement for a magical range.

[@TheAzarak]

All thunders are instant. It's like people didn't even watch the video lol so many people thing thunder is a hard cast somehow...

[@anthonydesrochers6257]

Hi, I have played blackmage for a long time and enjoyed it a lot. I have to talk about these changes as its been on my mind. Some of my takes might be wrong, but at least its how I feel. I see a lot of people thinking these changes are bad but also a decent amount thinking these changes are good, and I fail to understand why people think these are good changes. First of all, the paradox changes does not make any sense. The whole idea of paradox as a spell is that it IS a "Paradox", its something you should be using in both fire and ice phase. In Endwalker paradox made sense as a spell, now its just a glorified fire 1. At this point just remove paradox, rename it fire 5 and make fire 1 upgrade into it. At least that way they will make some people happy by finally giving BLM fire 5. Also giving a free fire starter is so useless its almost funny. In endwalker firestarter was used to do non-standard lines optimally, now what are you even going to use it for? More movement when you already have insta cast paradox, up to 3 xenos, thunder, 2 triple cast and a 40 second swiftcast? The other way you could use it would be to transpose from UI3 and then use F3 as a proc which would be a small DPS gain over using F3 from UI3 right away but that would sacrifice a bit of the leeway in fire phase due to early AF3 (since it changes when you cast it). But otherwise I would think using F3 proc inside your Fire phase will simply be a DPS loss as soon as that Fire 3 proc could have been replaced by any other fire spell at a later point of the fight (although I don't have any math to back this up, I'm simply thinking that based on my own experience playing BLM). Secondly, removing sharpcast : why? This was legit the only "gauge" sort of thing blackmage players had to balance out. "Do I use it for thunder 3 reset to gain more movement at the cost of reapplying thunder 3 early?", "Do I save it for Firestarter proc to let me do transpose line that would get me more movement BUT I might not get thunder 3 proc?", etc. This was a FUN mechanic that required knowledge of the fight and knowing WHEN you wanted to reset thunder 3 or when you would need a fire 3 proc. You had to balance out the risk and rewards of using sharpcast at certain times. Now its just always given to you which makes it really boring in my opinion. Thirdly, the mana regen logic being changed. This change will NOT make it any easier for anyone to get full mana. In ice phase you will still need to do probably one xeno to not overcap, reapply thunder and do blizzard 4. Even at super high spell speed doing 3 GCDs is plenty enough to get 10k mana as of now. It also of course completely kills non-standard which a lot of people might just brush off as "Oh its only sweety gamers that only care about optimizing that are mad about this change so this change is good.", to these people, you have to realize that everyone enjoys different thing about the game. Some people enjoy optimizing and challenging themself to "hard" rotations and enjoy getting better at it. Other people enjoy a more casual approach. Both are fine and Endwalker blackmage had the best of both worlds. Now its just ruined. Also, the manafont change does not make any sense to me. How are you suppose to use it? Are you suppose to use it for burst? But then if its the case you could easily manage your rotation such that you enter burst in fire phase. Are you suppose to use it to fit more despair or new fire finisher into burst? But that would not make sense as fire phase is around 30 seconds and burst is only around 20 seconds at max. Its possible you could use it and then Flare->Flare->New finisher, but I do not know if that would be a gain or a loss. So you still can probably only fit at maximum 1 despair and 1 finisher fire move in burst. Endwalker manafont made more sense as a burst oriented action that let you add 1 more despair (and F4) into your burst. Now it does not have an identity and only replaces 3 actions (B3 B4 F3) which out of burst make no difference. Last thing, adding a third polyglot stack is in my opinion also bad design and to me it just showed that they did not know what to do with blackmage. They clearly want to make it harder to overcap (as its also been shown in other jobs with gauge like rdm/rpr), but at some point not enough overcap completely removes the pressure of overcaping which is itself a mechanic of the job. In short, I personally think these changes are bad. From completely killing the identity of paradox to removing some of the simple job management such as sharpcast and polyglot and also completely killing pre dawntrail non-standard (and most likely dawntrail). I have really enjoyed blackmage, but now I feel like I understand the summoner mains when endwalker dropped.

[@Gofr5]

I'm glad to see sharpcast go. I was never really using it to its full potential, so it's nice not to have to think about it anymore.

[@DavidTheGamer27]

I'm really excited for some of these changes. It seems like they have tried to make up for the change to manage Regen with some new powers and abilities. To me, it seems like the job will flow better and be able to put out more damage overall. I also think that a lot of the people complaining are just doing it because they hate change and it's popular to hate on the popular game. In any case, I can't wait to try it out and see how it plays.

[@davidstubbs2361]

I don’t think you know what you’re talking about at all, read some posts above, there’s an articulate explanation on the concerns of the changes here. Passing off legitimate concerns on “fear of change” is petulant at best.

[@DavidTheGamer27]

@@davidstubbs2361 I've played Black Mage since I started playing FFXIV. I'm sorry that you want to pretend like these changes will destroy the job and make it unplayable, but you're wrong. As are the other doom and gloom posters. I have played Black Mage in just about all content but Ultimates, I refuse to play them as they don't look fun or rewarding to me, and there are far too many cheaters with add-ons who play that content that I don't want to associate with. While we won't know for sure how these changes will affect play until the expansion actually releases, I feel sure that these changes won't ruin the job. At worst, it may make people have to reconsider how to play the job.

[@Wyrvenfire]

all the instant cast stuff makes me think they are trying to give blm a bit more casting mobility

[@meiz1795]

It's actually taking it away, loss of ice paradox is huge, instant fire paradox makes fire phase tighter because now you can't really backload 4 F4s after it, meaning it's going to be a lot more difficult to fit any instant casts (thunders, xenoglossies) and not lose damage. Not to mention all of these changes killed non-standard which could make BLM significantly more mobile.

[@jpranindito]

i mean.. it's bad......really bad.. but idm.. ill work around it, love the class since arr, even hw blm was still fun for me.. im done trying hard, i just want to play :(

[@Raansu]

I love how its so obvious that Yoshi-P plays BLM, because these are such wildly in depth changes compared to other jobs.

[@nozelxo6514]

I mean the changes on scholarship goes crazy too, Seraphism is crazy asf, at Seraphism you become the best Pure and Shield Healer

[@lushdontu4015]

Please... Black mage changes are worse. Why couldn't they just leave black mage as it was and add the new animations with it.

[@Raansu]

@@lushdontu4015 I dunno how I feel about the MP change, but everything else is fantastic.

[@lushdontu4015]

@Raansu it was fine endwalker. They could have just added the new thunder animations, a third polyglot charge, ley lines change and flare star, and nobody would have complained.

[@Raansu]

@@lushdontu4015 What exactly is there to complain about? What do you dislike about the overall changes? The MP changes are not even really that bad and I hold judgement on that till I play it. But all the other changes? They are all really good QoL changes.

[@jacobybarra907]

BLM is gonna be fucking WILD in Dawntrail holy shit I'm so in

[@KanetsidohiKanotoush]

After several failed attempts, I've been playing FF14 for over a year now I'm a filthy casual which only plays roulette, do the MSQ, and I'm fine with it, there are some spells everyone talks about which I don't ever have in my hotbars The more I watch videos talking about the changes to Black Mage, the more I dread my time playing in a way which is fun to me, will come to an end which is sad as I've tried other classes, and I don't like them Edit: I should know by now that pre-ordering is a bad move but, for a lot of time I was made to believe that my former mmo was the only one which liked to f**k up gameplay, and standarize classes more, and more which each new expansion

[@ember-evergarden]

Best thing about this media tour was seeing all the sweaty Balance shitcord Blms snorting Doomium 💀 Gonna have a lot of fun with this Blm rework

[@goatmeister8253]

I dunno, I think it’s totally fair for people to upset. I don’t play Blackmage, but it does suck that they seem to have removed a lot of the really cool optimization and nuance

[@nixiedreamstar]

@@goatmeister8253 Is not a big deal, its a 1/2% dps loss ppl are just being stupid about it. And this is true for every single other job in the game. Every job is very straightforward, the non-standard was just a fluke they found that was not intended and it wasn't apparent to anyone that wasn't going math crunch heavy on it. Its better for anyone that just want to grab a job and just play as it is.

[@meiz1795]

@@nixiedreamstar it's not about damage increase, it's about having some more interesting, alternative playstyle, adapting your rotation on the fly or planning it GCD by GCD was fun and BLM was the only job that could do it. Now it's all gone and you must do the standard rotation square enix thinks you should

[@TheRetifox]

You must be a joy to interact with

[@KatCat18]

Lmfao they had to nerf thunder tbh was too strong

[@smolkahboom8552]

RIP skill expression

[@Foddes]

It's somehow worse than what I thought was the worst scenario

[@DiabloTraeluz]

i can't believe they took out nonstandard while also making standard more awkward to play. sasuga, square enix.

[@Exponential_Entropy]

They did you so wrong Black Mage. RIP. Picto levelling upon early access it is.

[@spoinkable2217]

Divisive??? No way. I'm fucking excited, holy shit. It makes it easier for beginners AND there's more big numbers?! Sign me tf up.

[@Guy-9]

Ah yes look at all these people that are pretending that they are top parsing ultra skill black mages that snort non standard and the few extra dps it all gave. The future is now.

[@somnus970]

Guess im not returning in 7.0

[@nixiedreamstar]

I'm glad please go and don't come back.

[@cosmosofinfinity]

I'm feeling a little bit of pre-order regret for the first time in my life

[@chickennugget6684]

why are people happy non-standard rotations are dead *sure,* it makes you feel bad knowing the guy with 300 hours of blm doing wack ass shenanigans is doing a ridiculous, obscene, unimaginable *2 Percent* more damage on average than you, when in reality Doba Ladoba sitting in the corner dropping his 123 combo for the 4th time probably lost more dps than not doing non standard ever would Although if you speedkill and were forced to do non standard and you hate it, understandable. Skill Expression is good though.

[@rndm2655]

its so over

[@kiksuya]

depression

[@OffensiveWombat]

Fuck me, why is SE so afraid of jobs rewarding decision making. Every expansion the skill ceiling comes down further.

[@_dKyzYos]

"BLM players are really big brain" We are, but we are not big brain enough to figure out how to dance like we used to be, or dance in a new style, while we are trapped in a dog cage. (No offence to Mrhappy, thanks for your video!)

[@_dKyzYos]

non standard is dead. i got no reason to play BLM any longer.

[@KazaarTV]

he has simply no idea what we lost. he still thinks its about mana ticks.

[@silvergrove8517]

How about trying to figure a new thing to have more fun with since the current non-standard is gone? Or is the current non-standard the only worthwhile thing about the job?

[@Orphan_of_Kos_or_some_say_Kosm]

@@_dKyzYos Hahaha fire mages thought they were so much better than ice mages, guess you'll have to play BLACK mage now

[@KuroKitsuSan]

:x these changes are...not good

[@jonel3596]

Why?

[@KuroKitsuSan]

​@@jonel3596 Completely and entirely destroys almost any ability to adjust and customize the rotation to fit a fight. Now its just jank and rigid, which a lot of jobs have historically had an issue with and voiced many frustrations about. BLM just fell into the same trap.

[@davidstubbs2361]

Look how they massacred my boy