I had the same problem until I figured out that the only way to dodge Eruptions is to run towards Ifrit (as a ranged class obviously). Any other way and you'll be wasting way too much time and end up getting hit. Also he has a very specific pattern so it's easy to predict when an Eruption is coming and prepare for that.
Why does running towards Ifrit help? Are the cracks rectangular in shape rather than circular, with the narrowest bit towards Ifrit? I'm not convinced the harder versions of Ifrit will be as predictable as the early version; more attacks etc.
Been doing Ifrit in the beta as THM but really you would never do Ifrit as THM in the end-game version. The cast interrupt while moving makes the class suck hardcore. Just think every time you have to run because something appears under you is one action wasted. If I was shooting or whatever I'd get my instant attack in and still run, but as a THM you get nothing in because it was interrupted. They should address this somehow because BLM is going to be useless for a lot of end-game stuff due to this.
I wish them luck on that one.
Yeah but if you're 2 seconds into a 3 second spell you either stand there and finish it and get hit by the eruption/plume or you move and interrupt the spell. Sure you throw a Scathe in when you run but that Scathe has now taken up 4.5 seconds of time whereas other DDs would be getting a second attack in at 5 seconds. Scathe is instant but still has the usual recast. Those wasted seconds add up over the course of the fight.
In 1.0 the eruptions only targeted the person who was second on the hate list, which typically should not be the THM -- no idea if that is still the case. Plumes screw with everyone, I suppose its true that it would hurt mages more, but not sure how significant. Its not like the battle is significantly different from 1.0 where after a point LNC was eschewed in favor of the BLM burst damage, it was just a matter of them learning where to stand to avoid the plumes. If BLM does more damage than X class it will be prefered over it, regardless of whether it requires more skill to play.
Yea all I'm seeing here are potential excuses to exclude certain classes from playing content. Do we really have to deal with this again?
I fucking rocked Ifrit on THM. How you play the job is more important than what job you're playing. If you can't figure out THM at Ifrit it doesn't suddenly mean the job is worthless, it just means you gotta man up and figure out how the hell you're going to play.
I don't see how BLM wouldn't be good for anything that isn't totally immune to magic. Just get better.
As said, no. The storyline converges at ~Lv15 and joining a Company is ~Lv20.
More or less, yes that's the point. In practice it's pretty shitty but doable to lessen DPS loss.
In theory if a melee DPS is in a plume/crack it should move as well, otherwise your point is moot. (The idea that avoiding the damage is a greater benefit than dealing damage, unless Eruption/Plume interrupts casting which I doubt since I believe it'd be magic based damage, which would mean a BLM takes even less damage than a melee should they eat it--that's more conjecture though I digress) What I'm driving at is avoiding AoE is something everyone has to do, moving and interrupting a spell is the same as moving and interrupting a combo/aa swings. I haven't exactly parsed shit or anything but if the game is balanced right missing that one or two casts should be equivalent of fucking a combo.
I'm unaware if we're talking 1.0 Ifrit (Hard) or 2.0's mini-Ifrit. Either way mechanics haven't changed much. ARR Ifrit has 1.0 Ifrit (Extreme) Plume formations so you don't even have to find the special spot as you did in (Hard). As mentioned above (I think) Eruptions work slightly differently (it didn't seem to be whoever was second-highest, but I can't recall if that was the way it worked in truth for 1.0) and seem to target people with the least hate now, I'm also not remembering if ARR Ifrit does the triple Eruption or what: I'm gonna shut up now because a quick google search tells me I'm mixing up Ifrit (Hard) and (Extreme)
Aren't melee skills instant? You aren't going to get your 0 second ability interrupted by moving, because you've already used it before you move. Combos could be an interesting comparison but I have yet to play a class with combos because SE was retarded and took them away from ARC.
What problem? You don't like how BLM plays. How this anything but your problem? You can't figure out that "I gotta move otherwise I get burnt alive" means occasionally you will have to interrupt your casting. I don't get the issue, most spells take like 3 seconds to cast, is that really such a huge commitment that interrupting your cast is terrible? Can't you just dodge and start casting again?
If your only concern is being top of the parser BLM is the best and always the best, then sure, you might not enjoy the interruptions because if you stood still you could top the DPS charts. Is that what you want? Or do you just want to be involved in a fight, be effective at it, and have fun?
It's not a big deal that occasionally you have to move. Everyone has to move, and BLM doesn't have to worry about range and being right in that ass in order to attack, nor do they have to avoid close range attacks. Pretty much everyone loses out on DPS when Eruption, Plume and Cyclone start.
I just don't get the big deal.
Just fucking dodge and cast, not that hard. If you don't like that, stop playing BLM.
I was just talking about 2.0's mini-Ifrit, since for Extreme people mostly used melee DPS, and hard mode people mainly used THM/BLM.
Mini-Ifrit only does a single Eruption, inner circle Plumes, outer circle Plumes and Hellfire (along with Incinerate and Vulcan Blast, but those are shit), most jobs will need to move if they're in the wrong position. Ifrit isn't the kind of fight where DPS matters as much as staying alive long enough to actually kill it. Not sure who it targets now, but it doesn't really matter since the rule of thumb is, you see fire, gtfo.
I wasn't saying your melee skills would be interrupted, but you might run down the combo timer and have to start over in addition to missing a few auto-attack swings.
Bolded is what I meant by "interrupted" if it wasn't clear. Playing MNK at the levels available in Beta (admittedly I haven't done Ifrit on it much) you'd get into a rhythm and having to break that rhythm on long boss fights drives me crazy and can only be hurting my deeps.
Well yeah, you're right that it's fine to do less damage if you are ok with that and having fun but most end-game groups want efficiency and if they can increase that efficiency by say 10% by taking a different DD over a BLM they will. That's just how shit works whether you like it or not. It's about balance not being top of the parser. Not playing a class doesn't fix balance, you just end up with a class that no one plays because it doesn't perform well enough.
We will wait and see how it performs in the 50 fight before drawing conclusions but it is not wrong to have concerns.
Oh I agree MNK certainly has a similar issue but again not every class has combos or at least not to the complexity of a MNK. MNK is probably the hardest DD in the game to play well.