An opinion about the need to upgrade BLM.
BLM does not need an upgrade.
They are the most powerful DD class that requires the least amount of support in just about every event in the game. In dynamis/einherjar, all they need is a source of refresh/ballad. In pre-TAU HNMs and NMs, all they need is a sourse of refresh/ballad. You can manaburn just about every KS99 BCNM. You can manaburn just about every COP mission (2-5, 4-2, 5-3 Mithra and Bomb, 6-4, 7-4). You can manaburn pretty much everything. You even have BLMs like Kaeko soloing Apollyon NW. No melee job can do that.
When TAU came out, SE specifically designed the HNMs and in someways xp mobs to combat this mentality of manaburning. There are quite alot of mobs that have very little HP (no more than 5000). Coupled with the fact that some mobs are annoying (Imp silence, Colibri reflect, Puk knockback), it cemented a growing paradigm shift in how to build XP PTs. If you recall, melee burning in sky weapons as well as in KRT bones was just getting popular right before TAU came out. The quick repops and relative "no-brainer" action of meleeing and hitting WS macro made TP burn pretty popular. Even the HNMs have a fairly high MDB. Khimeira, Cerberus, Hydra are all pretty resistant to magic damage when you compare them to the NQ/HQ King's HNMs.
As a comparison, to melee burn anything HNM... you need support (BRDs/CORs), you need healers (RDMs/WHMs), and you need well geared melee. Just the addition of the healers requires some sort of refresh. And finally, you also need a backup plan in case you fail. I think its alot easier to fail melee burn then failing manaburn only because when a manaburn fails, the tank and support group is left relatively intact. While in melee burn, everything goes under. In XP situations, melee burns are much easier to set up only because of the multiple camps that are available.
So... BLMs DO NOT NEED AN UPGRADE. In my opinion the root of all this disgruntled resentment is the lack of high xp/hr that BLMs can get. No amount of job "adjustments" will be able to change the viewpoints of an entire gaming community. What needs to change is the dynamics of the XP PT and only SE can do that.
What SE needs to do though is to create a zone preferably a new zone not yet introduced to people like... Xarcabad [S].
In this new zone there are:
1) multiple safe camps and easy to get to.
2) monsters in this new zone must also have a high base xp (500+ for a mob that is only VT+/IT-) and also have a 5 min repop timer with *MANY* respawn points.
3) monsters should not link with each other (but can aggro players).
4) monsters should be weak to SC damage. Creating Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 SC will affect the damage taken by the monster.
5) monsters should also be weak to MB damage. Creating SC will incur some form of bonus damage to the MB.
6) monsters should ideally be resistant to normal melee damage. This prevents the zone from being over run with melee burn PTs.
7) monsters should have XP bonus as well.
8) these camps should *ONLY* be for 71-75 PTs.
The goal is to:
a) create a new attitude shift back towards the traditional 1 tank, 2 melee DD, 2 support healers, and 1 magic DD party.
b) allow the total xp received in 1 hour of going fighting the monsters and getting chain up to 5 or 6 each time to be equivalent if not better than an average TAU melee burn of 15k/hr.
c) allow magic DD (BLMs/SCHs/BLUs/SMNs?) to join in on the high xp/hr rate.
Yes there are some melee PTs that can push 20k/hr. But the average I usually get from just seeking tends to fall around 15k/hr. I don't remember how long it takes to go chain 5/6 but let us assume it takes 10-15 min (including resting time) to get chain 5/6. I propose that each chain 5/6 should get 5000 xp in order to make it worthwhile to use such traditional PT setup.
They are the most powerful DD class that requires the least amount of support in just about every event in the game. In dynamis/einherjar, all they need is a source of refresh/ballad. In pre-TAU HNMs and NMs, all they need is a sourse of refresh/ballad. You can manaburn just about every KS99 BCNM. You can manaburn just about every COP mission (2-5, 4-2, 5-3 Mithra and Bomb, 6-4, 7-4). You can manaburn pretty much everything. You even have BLMs like Kaeko soloing Apollyon NW. No melee job can do that.
When TAU came out, SE specifically designed the HNMs and in someways xp mobs to combat this mentality of manaburning. There are quite alot of mobs that have very little HP (no more than 5000). Coupled with the fact that some mobs are annoying (Imp silence, Colibri reflect, Puk knockback), it cemented a growing paradigm shift in how to build XP PTs. If you recall, melee burning in sky weapons as well as in KRT bones was just getting popular right before TAU came out. The quick repops and relative "no-brainer" action of meleeing and hitting WS macro made TP burn pretty popular. Even the HNMs have a fairly high MDB. Khimeira, Cerberus, Hydra are all pretty resistant to magic damage when you compare them to the NQ/HQ King's HNMs.
As a comparison, to melee burn anything HNM... you need support (BRDs/CORs), you need healers (RDMs/WHMs), and you need well geared melee. Just the addition of the healers requires some sort of refresh. And finally, you also need a backup plan in case you fail. I think its alot easier to fail melee burn then failing manaburn only because when a manaburn fails, the tank and support group is left relatively intact. While in melee burn, everything goes under. In XP situations, melee burns are much easier to set up only because of the multiple camps that are available.
So... BLMs DO NOT NEED AN UPGRADE. In my opinion the root of all this disgruntled resentment is the lack of high xp/hr that BLMs can get. No amount of job "adjustments" will be able to change the viewpoints of an entire gaming community. What needs to change is the dynamics of the XP PT and only SE can do that.
What SE needs to do though is to create a zone preferably a new zone not yet introduced to people like... Xarcabad [S].
In this new zone there are:
1) multiple safe camps and easy to get to.
2) monsters in this new zone must also have a high base xp (500+ for a mob that is only VT+/IT-) and also have a 5 min repop timer with *MANY* respawn points.
3) monsters should not link with each other (but can aggro players).
4) monsters should be weak to SC damage. Creating Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 SC will affect the damage taken by the monster.
5) monsters should also be weak to MB damage. Creating SC will incur some form of bonus damage to the MB.
6) monsters should ideally be resistant to normal melee damage. This prevents the zone from being over run with melee burn PTs.
7) monsters should have XP bonus as well.
8) these camps should *ONLY* be for 71-75 PTs.
The goal is to:
a) create a new attitude shift back towards the traditional 1 tank, 2 melee DD, 2 support healers, and 1 magic DD party.
b) allow the total xp received in 1 hour of going fighting the monsters and getting chain up to 5 or 6 each time to be equivalent if not better than an average TAU melee burn of 15k/hr.
c) allow magic DD (BLMs/SCHs/BLUs/SMNs?) to join in on the high xp/hr rate.
Yes there are some melee PTs that can push 20k/hr. But the average I usually get from just seeking tends to fall around 15k/hr. I don't remember how long it takes to go chain 5/6 but let us assume it takes 10-15 min (including resting time) to get chain 5/6. I propose that each chain 5/6 should get 5000 xp in order to make it worthwhile to use such traditional PT setup.