While the patch notes for the patch aren't out, the apparent changes coming to Black Mage have clearly surprised a lot of people. And like lots of other people I felt the need to make an account on the forums and leave my feedback!
I was sad when I saw the 7.0 changes to Black Mage, but fundamentally I could understand them. For a game that tries to tune DPS as precisely as FF14, having a job that can have a 5% DPS gain from non-standard gameplay makes it very tricky to balance. It's either too good if you're using those techniques, or too weak if you aren't.
But these upcoming changes really baffle me. Who are these for? Mainly the cast time changes.
Current Black Mage has a lot of movement tools, between instant Fire Paradox, instant Despair, two charges of Triplecast, 40s Swiftcast... Why chop down and homogenize the cast times? A huge part of the fun of the job is learning how to fit all those movement tools around what the fight asks of you. Because if you're caught without those tools and just have to cast it's gonna be rough! And that tension is the point! It's what makes you look back each pull and think how you could make things easier for yourself.
I think giving Black Mage easy, no planning required movement really takes away from a fun core aspect of the job. I really hope these changes don't go through.
Big slow spells that do lots of damage are fun!!
Continue reading...
I was sad when I saw the 7.0 changes to Black Mage, but fundamentally I could understand them. For a game that tries to tune DPS as precisely as FF14, having a job that can have a 5% DPS gain from non-standard gameplay makes it very tricky to balance. It's either too good if you're using those techniques, or too weak if you aren't.
But these upcoming changes really baffle me. Who are these for? Mainly the cast time changes.
Current Black Mage has a lot of movement tools, between instant Fire Paradox, instant Despair, two charges of Triplecast, 40s Swiftcast... Why chop down and homogenize the cast times? A huge part of the fun of the job is learning how to fit all those movement tools around what the fight asks of you. Because if you're caught without those tools and just have to cast it's gonna be rough! And that tension is the point! It's what makes you look back each pull and think how you could make things easier for yourself.
I think giving Black Mage easy, no planning required movement really takes away from a fun core aspect of the job. I really hope these changes don't go through.
Big slow spells that do lots of damage are fun!!
Continue reading...