Discussion: How To Make BLM More Relevant

Change Meteor. Give it a hit for every BLM that casts it plus an extra hit for every BLM that cast. So 2 BLM's casting Meteor would be two hits plus an extra hit as a bonus. 3 BLM would be 3 + 2, etc...

Stop adding mobs with 12 million HP and 400+ MDB

That'd actually be pretty cool. It'd be like FFXIII and FFXIII-2's system where you have to "Break" the target with Magic before you can really lay into it with Melee. That'd be really cool *BUT* probably a pain to balance an alliance for that because BLM's can't do jack ***to any relevant targets without a generous amount of support.

So for theorycrafting, that'd be pretty cool. But how viable would it really be?... idk.

Black Mage is a magic damage dealing, it's THE original magic dealing job. It's in the jobs definition, it blows things up. Doing anything other the buffing it's damage would be dumb and that's the entire reason you bring it.

Better idea would be to change Cascade to 1TP = 1 Magic Damage and give it a 10s recast. Then increase the TP given from Occult Acumen by 10x. BLM would then drop regular nukes until their at 1K where by they can blast off a powered up nuke that actually competes with weapon skills. It would also give something else to use TP on other then Mykr.

Like people said everyone is gearing cor now. So many people are having success with it

My linkshell still does things blm method and I hate it. Right now I'm gearing cor and dnc more effectively and really can care less about blm atm. I don't want to pump up my blm when other metas seem way better. Especially if im only using it 2 times a week...

Unnerf Death/Languor/Focus, remove the damage reduction when MBing multiple spells per SC

Was it vagary? I recall 2014 was more of Koga all thing era.

2015 and 2016 was more of blm meta era but it's limited to T4/WoC only. People use blm in lower lv content because that's all they have, not because it's the only way to do it.

BLM is in a really good spot. Doesn't need to be more relevant than it is otherwise we go back to 2015/2016 and if you don't have a BLM with a Death set, you aren't doing ***. Just another version of SMN burning.

There's a really good balance in the game right now. Melee, Ranged, Magic all strats are really viable for ~80% of current end-game content. 100% if you're just talking Dyna-D. All our first clears were BLM clears - it was fun and challenging to stretch the upper limits of what BLM can do. When you exit and have 9~11 million damage on the parse, you know you wrecked some ***.

Define easily.

I mean, I'm genuinely interested in information on how to do that easily. Because from what I've been witnessing so far, BLM is some weak *** ***on wave 3 even with 2 SCHs rotating. Not to mention how fragile they are on the way to Wave 3 (Wave 2 bosses kill them regularly, but maybe they don't have proper gear, I'm not sure at all I'm usually busy getting my *** spanked).

So that's why.

I guess it makes sense.

But then you are faced with an issue (or at least, I am): people use BLM setup because it's easier and "safer", but their actual lack of proper gearsets makes it harder to survive (I think I can name one BLM that can survive stuffon my server and he hasn't played in months) and therefore not safer either.

And as long as the average DD is nothing more than a ghetto SMN who got a Trishula/Chango last Saturday, the melee strategy will always remain a far away dream.

So in conclusion, why are people using manaburns in Dyna D?

You can't boost BLM damage past 99,999. Which is what our BLMs do in almost every scenario. There are very few scenarios were there's enough resistance to make that lower. BLM is like every single other job. Gear it to the max possible point, ensure you have the proper buffs, or you'll get mediocre results.

This isn't true. BLM isn't Fragile. Just like every other caster - it can take a hit as long as you build a proper PDT set. If your BLMs aren't hitting capped damage on the wave 3 boss, the circles, and the NMs, your strategy is wrong and you need more buffs. You need at least 3x idris geo, 2x brd, 2x COR, 4x BLM, (RDM Helps but isn't necessary), SMN or BLM with good Impact set, good Burn set, good shattersoul set, stew pots, rayke, gambit, etc.

2x SCH, 2x COR to extend the skillchain is 100% necessary to put out enough damage in succession. You also need to have a good toggle for the AF+3 body.

All right.

So, you already lost most of the people attempting a manaburn with the PDT set alone, they don't have that.
Then your list of buffs (and debuffs) needed makes it look like manaburn needs waaaaaay too many things to perform at all. Much like a PDT set, it won't happen with most people.

I guess a melee setup needs much less preparation, doesn't it?
Or rather, is gearing a melee to the maximum a bigger impact on the job than gearing BLM to the maximum?

This is called laziness. It's very easy and cheap to build a proper PDT, Fast Cast, Magic Burst, MP Burst set. It costs no more than 10mil.


Because it's one of the easiest ways to do Dynamis. Relies a lot less on good white mages (which are very hard to find). And it's extremely effective in Dynamis.

Melee setups need the exact same prep. They have the added disadvantage of needing your melee to have a DT set AND to have good White Mages.

Our BLM kills we took a single WHM. Our Melee kills we take 3 excellent white mages. You can use somewhat half-assed COR and BRD and still get good results, they're less necessary. In both setups you need 3 - 4 Geomancers.

Yes, I'm with you here, no problem.

The problem is that despite the calendar showing 2019 and SE adding a ***ton of gear for every job to have better access to PDT, MDT, MDB and DT, it's still the norm to have people without gear.

So I'm trying to understand how practical is BLM setup at the end of the day and so far, from my experience doing Wave 3 and from what I'm reading here, BLM sounds like the least practical (unless the answer to my previous post is in favor of BLM).

Makes a lot of sense on the WHM part, we only have one competent enough and she's in the tank party so we wouldn't be able to afford it for melees.

I can't dispute the effectiveness I'm sure it's there but from what I've seen so far, it seems rather complicated to pull off. If a second or third WHM is all it takes to have melee setup rise above, it might be the easier route for the "average" groups.

I see.

In this case I guess while WHMs and DDs having proper gear is important, it really sounds like the buffs dictate more than anything else.

Thanks for the info, I'm mainly trying to see what I could do to make things better in my group.

Let me gear blm for 1 event that i do once or twice a week while other methods are faster...

Don't try to interject logic on ffxi. That's how ffxi is played. Get all the best gear possible, and use it for one event. Then change.

Fix Meteor, no 'meteor resistance' no elemental seal to cast, and actually does good damage.
add Magic Defense Down to Dia.
un-nerf malaise.
or turn BLM into a melee job who's physical accuracy check is replaced by a magic accuracy check, and who's physical damage is replaced with its nuke damage with staff DMG: being the V and a level check for the M.

I'm not saying BLM method is superior to melee method or anything, I'm saying it's an easy method to get wave 3 wins. It was even more so before REMA Augments, Dyna D weapon augs, and neck augments were around. I have done both methods and with the right group who knows what they're doing they can both accomplish the same tasks.

The OP asked how to make BLM relevant. It was/is still relevant in the most recently released content and still can be. Still relevant for other recent content as well. If people don't want to put in the effort to BLM they're probably not the ones that care if BLM is relevant or not and would rather play other jobs, more power to them. All I was doing is giving examples for how the job can be used in current endgame. "Easy" is subjective for sure, it's a career job for me on multiple characters and I find use for it multiple times a week sometimes more depending on what my current goals are.

3 things isn't relevant(dyna3 zerde vagary) especially if other jobs do it more efficiently (dyna3)

Blm right now isn't fun

Waiting for sch to mb something for 20mins straight is stupid boring... and insulting when others do it faster and are having more fun


and more stuff done too... let alone the ability to sell clears... try that the blm method

People usually fall short on #2.

Yeah while it is subjective and while I do not play/enjoy BLM, my group in Dyna resorts to BLM for Wave 2/3 so I just found it interesting that it'd be seen as "easy". I mean, it comforts me that if people step up, this set up isn't a bad idea at all, that's positive.

Give BLM warp iii that warp you directly to mog house, making easier to change jobs.

Give BLM Warp III, that warps you to where you were before your last warp.

I'd say the best way to fix blm(and pet DD too) is to do an overhaul to how DD job works....

As an MMO, different DD type in ffxi has such bad synergy between each other. Why can't blm just join a melee alliance, free nuke while other DD engage spam ws, and still come out competitive on parse? The fact that blm needs malaise/tact roll/magic burst to do dmg makes it tough to include them in endgame alliances unless everyone else also plays blm and sch.

This is a bit misleading. Would you say that a melee w/o songs and sam/chaos roll in a BLM party would be competitive? The game is built around buffing the damage dealers you have- the fact that different types of damage demand different buffs is fine in my book. A balance can occur in alliance settings where multiple buff sets can be applied independently, or a party setup focusing on 2 DDs SC'ing followed by a burst still can result in an equal parse (or more comparabile, let's say). The problem is those options are just slower.

Do we really have to explain why buffing 1 type of dmg so 1 job can be useful is a problem?

What nerf are you referring to?

DD SCing follow by a burst is damn suboptimal in relevant endgame because buff splitting. Wouldn't say that's balance in any way.

BLM is only one job, even if you add sch that's only 2. It makes more sense to overhaul battle system so they can fit in melee pt and still dps, not the other way around.

Ya know blm used to fit in just fine in a 6 person party. it's the regoddamndiculous buff stacking that needs to be changed. and also won't ever be changed.

A lot of things need to change.