Flare Star is stupid

[Yournewstepmom]

Big dumb WHY.

[Aya]

Flare Star is fine, the new thunder is not.

[GeminiEclipse]

New thunder is fine, no ice paradox is not.

[Stormy Dawn]

It is kind of daft.

I hate that as our current capstone ability for Black Mage, it's only the second strongest move behind Xenoglossy. Even with the Astral Fire and Enochian buff it only is around ~950 potency to Xenoglossy being just shy of 1200. It's not a deal breaker or anything, but as the new capstone, and it being such a pain to get to, it really should be the hardest hitting spell in our kit.

Speaking of being a pain to get to, I really wish they'd address the mechanics of the move. Even with all of the movement mechanics afforded to Black Mages, there are times you are going to be forced into switch to Umbral Ice in the middle of your Astral Fire window and having to drop your progress towards Flare Star is just needlessly punishing. Crippling your damage by going into Umbral Ice early is adequate punishment for poor play, also robbing you of Flare Star is too much.

[Катюша]

Ice Paradox has already returned.

Thunder still feels awful, and definitely needs returned to how it previously was, or reworked entirely.

Flare Star is awful in its current iteration. If charges towards it weren't lost when changing to Ice, then it might be better, but still needs Potency buffs.

Overall, I feel like Black Mage, needs an entire rework. It just isn't that fun anymore.

[Lawn Chair Enthusiast]

the real question is where did non-standard blm go?

[Катюша]

They switched to Pictomancer.

[causality]

Originally posted by Катюша:

Ice Paradox has already returned.

Thunder still feels awful, and definitely needs returned to how it previously was, or reworked entirely.

Flare Star is awful in its current iteration. If charges towards it weren't lost when changing to Ice, then it might be better, but still needs Potency buffs.

Overall, I feel like Black Mage, needs an entire rework. It just isn't that fun anymore.

You only emergency transpose to Ice to prevent dropping. The whole point of Flare Star is to reward good play. Also the Thunder changes are objectively better unless you really want to go back to weaving sharpcast or something.

[Yournewstepmom]

What (rewarding) "good play" are we talking about? Flare Star only has a 400 damage drop and 65% for all other npcs in the aoe area and can only be performed when using a single-target spell when the gauge is full. Unless a boss spawns monsters to kill, (which happens a lot in DT dungeons) it's useless to use in any other situation. (Those monsters by the way are incredibly weak and will die before you get the cast or gauge full). If by reward you mean the sound and animation then yes, sure. However it's not optimal at all to use and will probably be patched so that aoe spells activate the gauge instead of single-target spells. That'd be better and far more rewarding.

[causality]

Originally posted by FemboyHooters:

and can only be performed when using a single-target spell when the gauge is full.

Read your tooltips.

[Yournewstepmom]

About to login so I'll check ASAP :)

[Aylon]

Originally posted by causality:

Originally posted by Катюша:

Ice Paradox has already returned.

Thunder still feels awful, and definitely needs returned to how it previously was, or reworked entirely.

Flare Star is awful in its current iteration. If charges towards it weren't lost when changing to Ice, then it might be better, but still needs Potency buffs.

Overall, I feel like Black Mage, needs an entire rework. It just isn't that fun anymore.

You only emergency transpose to Ice to prevent dropping. The whole point of Flare Star is to reward good play. Also the Thunder changes are objectively better unless you really want to go back to weaving sharpcast or something. :lunar2019piginablanket:

Lol what? The thunder change is horrible. It doesn't do it's damage up front anymore if you have a proc so now you get doubly punished if you have to use it for movement and end up clipping your dot. That and Flare Star completely neutered the flexibility of the job, while introducing a mega flexible caster, that has a raid buff and also does more damage.

[Yournewstepmom]

Originally posted by causality:

Originally posted by FemboyHooters:

and can only be performed when using a single-target spell when the gauge is full.

Read your tooltips.

No explanation.

[Yournewstepmom]

Originally posted by FemboyHooters:

Originally posted by causality:

Read your tooltips.

No explanation.

I got it now! Flare activates 3 each so using manafont to get extra mana on a pull will grant a full gauge for a cast :) I'm a hands-on learner so just telling me stuff I just hit a wall

[Stormy Dawn]

Originally posted by FemboyHooters:

What (rewarding) "good play" are we talking about? Flare Star only has a 400 damage drop and 65% for all other npcs in the aoe area and can only be performed when using a single-target spell when the gauge is full. Unless a boss spawns monsters to kill, (which happens a lot in DT dungeons) it's useless to use in any other situation. (Those monsters by the way are incredibly weak and will die before you get the cast or gauge full). If by reward you mean the sound and animation then yes, sure. However it's not optimal at all to use and will probably be patched so that aoe spells activate the gauge instead of single-target spells. That'd be better and far more rewarding.

It's still your second strongest hitting move that is buffed by Enochian IV and Aspect Mastery III. 900+ potency for an AOE is still really strong, so the 65% fall off is warranted. In dungeons, Flare Star is very good. The issue is using it on bosses and general 8/24 man content where it is too easy to lose.

[causality]

Originally posted by Aylon:

Originally posted by causality:

You only emergency transpose to Ice to prevent dropping. The whole point of Flare Star is to reward good play. Also the Thunder changes are objectively better unless you really want to go back to weaving sharpcast or something.

That and Flare Star completely neutered the flexibility of the job, while introducing a mega flexible caster, that has a raid buff and also does more damage.

Except you're wrong. Black Mage damage output is fine, in fact, it has higher personal damage output than Pictomancer by about an average of 700-1,000 dps.