Digesting the Update (BLM)

So my other main job in the game is BLM and at some point I'm bound to get it leveled to 80 (full disclosure, I was level 76 for about 18 hours, then Dynamis happened and I have done nothing but go backwards since).


Subjobs

Unlike NIN the subjobs for BLM haven't really changed, all three remain situational.

• BLM/WHM: I would suspect most people are still subbing this as it still meets the status quo. Virtually nothing has changed; you get the Altep and Yhoat teleports at 76, Stona at 78 and Haste at 80. There's nothing gamebreaking here, especially since the Afflatus Job Abilities remain WHM main only. At 80, a BLM would be using /WHM because they are a support job, if they nuking only, then one of the other two would be better options.

• BLM/RDM: There are two major changes to using RDM sub now, Raise and Convert. Raise isn't that big of a deal (personally I'd much rather have Reraise), but Convert is a big deal to a job like BLM. Before the update the big reason for subbing this was for soloing (though people would still sub it to events for the defensive additions it adds), however, Convert changes that. You essentially trade Blink for Phalanx, but you also gain another MP bar worth of nukes which is especially useful on bosses like Dynamis Lord where you do nothing but straight nuke the shit out of the mob. Coupled with Manafont a BLM can go through their entire AMII tier in one volley.

• BLM/SCH: Gamebreaker with Resist Silence II Job Trait! Kidding, like WHM, nothing has really changed here, if you were using /SCH before the update, there is no reason to change. At level 80 you get access to Accession and Manifestation, and as BLM you're probably going to get a lot more mileage out of the later. Sleep and Sleep II become AoE spells without the hate of their -ga equivalents and you can also AoE Blind, Bind and Dispel. The drawbacks here are recast times getting tripled and you can only use it once a minute, which makes Manifestation something great for those oh shit moments, but not overly helpful on a consistent basis. I know a lot of people seem hyped up about being able to sub /SCH now, but realistically it still doesn't beat out /WHM or /RDM...yet.

With the subjobs there is nothing gamebreaking about them, you have a few more options and reasons to sub all three, but at the end of the day, BLM is still the job it is because of it's native spells, traits and abilities, the other stuff is just fluff.


Abilities, Spells and Job Traits

• Stone V and Water V: The first of the Tier V spells are really only for people who insist on completing things (like me). Because of merit limitations most BLMs have put their focus on the higher elementals of Thunder and Ice, which actually allows some folks to outnuke these two spells. Obviously no one should be surprised here, what we are really waiting on probably won't be in the game until December (Ice V and Thunder V), I just wish they weren't so damned expensive to get from NPCs. People have been finding them in the Walk of Echoes and Abyssea, but that hasn't eased the prices any, though I'm sure the prices are affected equally by the newness of the spells and the (still) relative scarcity of obtaining them. They'll probably be worth 20k at best by the end of the year.

• Mana Wall: This Ability seems to be a fairly polarizing addition, some BLMs think it's the best addition in years, others are furious SE is messing with their MP pool. For me I only had a brief chance to use it in Dynamis and it did save my life once, but it put me on the sideline briefly while I got my MP back. Regardless of how you look at that, it's better than sidelining me for five minutes from Death weakness. I think for events like Dynamis, this is something I will want up all the time, but for other stuff like Einherjar, it won't be that useful (since most mobs there require light sleep, BLMs either stun or nuke).

• Magic Burst Bonus: This would be great about five years ago when the game was centered around Skillchaining and Magic Bursting, but in the post Two-Hand Update world, Zerg is King. There are times when MBing is still used, in Obsidian we try to MB on Sky Gods, though with the additional levels we should be able to spank the shit out of those mobs anyway, so it's not like MBing is going to give us much of an edge. I'm not sure if the early testing has been confirmed but the increase here was only marginal going from a 33% increase to a 50% increase. To make that an example, say you land a nuke that does 1,000 base damage on a mob, before you would get an MB in the neighborhood of 1,333, now that MB is 1,500 damage. It's a nice increase, but nothing that blows one's mind either.

At the end of the day, BLM didn't get anything amazing, there are some nice side additions to what the job could already do, but if they were taken away tomorrow, I doubt many people would care.

I think my next update will focus on the Magian Trials as that's been my primary interest in game since the update.