Discussion: How To Make BLM More Relevant

The fact a SCH can nuke for as much as we can, and can even create it's own MB.....seems crazy.

Spamming T3 nukes gives on average 5k per spell...that racks up over time along with bigger hits inbetween. Swapping aja spells cumulative effects to T1-2-3 spells would help greatly. The cool down on the aja is far too long to reach the x5.

A notable bonus damage multiplier for aga and aja spells when cast on single targets would be a start along with a reduced recast time.

Ok but has anyone thought of Magic Sword? Maybe FF9 had the BLM ideas, it could be a new skillchain type system where you have to work together to increase overall DPS.

Two things need to happen for casting nukes to be worth it.

First the 3s global lockout needs removed / reduced, this is the primary restriction on BLM's spamming nukes for damage. Second the SDT that monsters get from successive nukes needs removed, it was put in place to prevent alliances of BLMs one shoting certain fights, this is no longer possible.

Once that happens we can look at balancing out the damage scaling values so that nukes are a decent source of damage over time. Magic Bursting isn't a valid thing anymore with melee's and ranged doing 30~60K WS's every few seconds. You could guarantee a 99K MB and it still would be a huge DPS loss for the group.

By that logic, SE can trash the resist wall and people can still SMN/COR/Savage Blade ***. But God forbid BLM gets its one and only use back because Eiryl can't stand people playing the game in a way he disapproves of.

Literally wrong, I mean, god damn, saying the same ***pages later

Are you stupid for sport or just bored.

It's not my opinion or my desire. They can remove all resistance, make every spell do 99k, delete blm, nerf blm. I couldn't care less. It's merely informative. They don't do it, because (this) will happen. Not because (this) is good, or effective, or reasonable. They don't want the possibility to be open.

For game health, objectively, it's better that half the game can use naegling (and does get used for that purpose) than everything reverting to blm onry.

That does not say the game is balanced or that the meta is in a good place. Just that it's the lesser of the two evils. better to have one job / one mechanic unusable undesirable, than be the only option.

How to make black mage relevant makes every spell do 99k dmg and lower cast time to 0.1 seconds.

Eiryl doesnt want corrdinated SC/MB to be a thing, magic damage would be too broken if that happened. Nearly unresistable magic damage that can be casted from a safe distance.

Meanwhile in 2021 Vana'Diel:
COR1 readies Leaden Salute
COR2 readies Leaden Salute
COR3 readies Leaden Salute
COR1 readies Leaden Salute
COR2 readies Leaden Salute
COR3 readies Leaden Salute
COR1 readies Leaden Salute
COR2 readies Leaden Salute
COR3 readies Leaden Salute
COR1 readies Leaden Salute
COR2 readies Leaden Salute
COR3 readies Leaden Salute

So the solution is to allow BLMs to equip Death Penalty.

Case closed.

He is an angry nerd. Dismissing all of his posts is required.

#putblmonnaegling

Seriously though BLM should have high damage, low enmity weaponskills that can be used from range. It's not enough to just spam nukes and burst, but being part of the skillchain too... closer? Seems like more engaging gameplay as well.

If you want a half way measure just halve the severity of the resist wall and call it a day. Maybe make it element-specific too.

All elemental weaponskills should be nerfed, heavily. There should be a distinct advantage to magic over magical damage.

BLM specifically should be able to cap their own macc for elemental magic (so no debuff shenanigans). Enemy meva/int/mnd should be re-evaluated and lowered. reliance on a RUN to get off the floor is simply HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE.

Implement repeated damage source damage reduction across the board, no more conduit period. no more savage blade spam period. no more leaden salute spam. Everyone has to use more than one ws, blm has multiple elements (hence the no relying on RUN)

Then everyone can get pissed and quit cause they can't do the thing that they want to do the way they want to do it. Everyone wins.

I think we would be quite well off with a complete elimination of all Elemental Weaponskills, converting them to Hybrid WS to require at least some respect for the melee/ranged aspects of the weapon those skills emit from. This of course means a nerfing of the way Hybrid WSs work, which I assume you intended by your original statement, anyways.

You're right- there needs to be a real difference between magical damage and pure magic, and all repetitive mechanics should be punished, not just elemental magic. But I will still say our best hope for BLM relevance is content that requires it either through SDT mechanics or some form of proccing mechanism. The math of the game, even with those kind of fixes you mention, will never allow for patience in alliance content for chains/bursting when compared to zerg mechanics.

I don't know about all elemental weaponskills needing a nerf.
Flash Nova, Sanguine Blade, Earth Crusher, Vidohunir, etc probably should be given a buff.

Leaden Salute though ... yeah that ***'s stupid OP.

NIN should be as good as RUN at dropping resist, that's what their elemental wheel's supposed to do isn't it?

Also Ancient Magic should be as potent at lowering resistance as threnodies.

Meteor is the best thing in the game though.
SE: so, you want to cast meteor, fine. Gather a full party of BLM's and blow all their Elemental Seals to deal one big damage cast of meteor.
also SE: so, we don't want people bringing a lot of BLMs to clear content. As such, we're globally nerfing magic burst damage when more than one caster participates.

While some of the other lesser magic ws aren't great now, adjusting them wholesale prevents the need for a second round. They can be adjusted, up, but the formula for magic ws down at the same time.

Ya know ain't no one out there Raiden Thrusting ***for 99k, but let's stop it from even being an option before they add a thunder elemental damage +9000 item.

I personally enjoy when older stuff gets revamped to be useful but I think the magical/hybrid WS and DMG overall has gotten way out of hand. Theres no reason to be constantly hitting capped dmg on everything, just makes us kill stuff way faster and easier and sit in town. They need to tone everything down and take things slower, the combat doesn't need to be so fast, in my opinion at least.

Topic: "How to fix nuking damage to be viable"
Everyone: "Nerf everything else until it is"

In other words, instead of making everyone richer, they are happy if everyone else is poor.

I guess happiness is relative in the end.

It's the only way that square can do it, without bringing back 12 blm alliances.

Balance is healthy. Nerfs are a part of a healthy game.

What I didn't say; "it can't be done"
What I actually said; "they only way the 3 janitors who are claimed as part time devs for XI can do it"

I think crippling the spam of weapon skills might be the way to go. Not only would that be a reasonable way to tune the game for balance purposes, it would help with variety as well. It adds meaningful choice, which is something FFXI is known for: "do I keep using this for the damage even though it's crippled or do I use a different skill that may benefit the party more overall?"

Sometimes nerfing isn't the way to go, but power creep is also a problem. What might sting a little bit now will have a lasting positive impact on the game's future.

The easiest way to "balance" the game would be to make all jobs viable in content. But since they spend more time on log on color changes than actual content. That probably won't happen.

Every single NM could have a elemental weakness dmg type weakness etc. But they can't be bothered to balance 22 jobs. They can barely balance one job. They claim they are going to redo all jobs at once. Which could end pretty badly. I don't see why they have to do it all at once. Other than delaying giving us actual content. That seems more likely. String you along saying content is coming just keep subbed.

I'd argue FFXI is in a pretty OK spot, especially considering the budget they've got right now. Balance comes at a price of homogeny, and FFXI has never been truly balanced because every job operates too differently. But giving every job a distinct identity is the charm of FFXI's gameplay. Even though some jobs will be more optimal than others for a certain event, every job is at least viable.

Black Mage is one of the rare exceptions right now, wherein its identity has been gutted. The only way to make Black Mage feel like the unrivalled master of elemental destruction without harming the rest of the game with power creep is to make other jobs (whose identities aren't all about damage) a little bit weaker by comparison.

Nerf ALL WS. BLM fixed. don't count on SE to fix anything.

blm fixed

There should be zero desire for equal performance in all situations among all 22 jobs- the whole point in my mind of having a game where we can perfect as many of those jobs as desired is to have different jobs for different moments and needs. If a WAR can parse identical in all moments to a SAM or a DRG or a DRK....then why build up different jobs? Just for the visual enjoyment of different gear and weapons?

BLM doesn't need to be equal to the other DDs in the game. It just needs a moment now and then where its the best option. And right now, there might be 3 times where this is the case in the entirety of Vana'Diel.

100% wholeheartedly agree

VW, Abyssea and what else?

actually, I was thinking of at least semi-relevant content^^

-Ongo from Sheol:Gaol (a couple A1s and A2s as well, but same content in my book)
-Vagary elemental zone
-and I was struggling to find a 3rd of relevant gear ;)

Even Vagary is questionable now since BLU can easily hit the one-shot magic kills (without the AOE damage nerf) and SCH can hit the MB non-kill/kill after self SC. In fact, the MB non-kill usually requires a BLM getting naked to keep from one-shotting with T1s, so it'd be easier to have a RDM or SCH do that.

BLM does bring big MBs to kill the NMs faster, but it's not fundamentally necessary and can be frustrating to get SCs setup with DPS who might be more used to WS spam, or can't wait long enough for the MB to go off after SC SCH before WSing.

I am constantly surprised by the number of people who can't/won't skillchain without being coached into it. My experience lately is that the vast majority of people I come across don't have a fundamental understanding of tier 2/3 skillchain properties, associated WS, or the corresponding elements for MBing.

That said, it is a good feeling when a BLM×2 MB salvo on Blightslither drops it to 25%, or frequently hitting 99,999s on Perfidien/Plouton. One of the few areas left for BLMs to easily hit capped damage, even if the content level is only 132 at most.