By an equivalent of 150 damage in fact (net 131 since the ability adds 19 enmity).
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I thought I would respond to all your points at once, even though others have said some of this, just so the feedback is all in one place.
I actually use this quite a lot. It's a very large range increase. Great for starting a combo on approaching mobs early (as in caravan defense). Also could be useful for precision pulling. My favorite use it coupling with Dark Seal and high m.acc gear for a long-range guaranteed enemy naptime.
It really is a bland skill. I use it when it's up to guarantee Thundara hits on Ifrit or for guaranteed sleeps in other contexts. Might be better if we had low-accuracy spells and it guaranteed a hit rather than just raising m.acc.
I think the short range, by design, requires the BLM to take on some risk to pull off this high-damage spell. The casting time is just a second or two too long though.
There's Blizzara for when you're surrounded and need to run, although without stunning it's not as useful. You can use it as a local AoE by targeting a nearby enemy, but it has use at range too, so why nerf it?
Quelling Strike lives on my primary bar next to Excruciate. It's that important. Chameleon is supposedly very nice, but I don't have it so I just have to manage my enmity. Decoy is useful sometimes: dodges magic or ranged like Featherfoot dodges physical, but costs MP instead of giving it.
It's counterintuitive, but as others have said Sleep is affected by m.acc. Blizzard is very useful in some fights, and you want Blizzara to bind when you have to use it. Enfeebling potency is also hard to gear for, so these traits enable a naturally good proc rate on these effects.
Yes. I could see other good effects rather than reducing recast time. The only time I spam Dark Seal is during Ifrit.
Funny you should mention better ability UI along with the request for more diverse spells, as both of those are planned for 2.0. We do have Class gear now (Vanya set, Astrolabe), even if it is costly. It would be strange to have ability quests for classes at this point, because jobs specifically have progression-by-quest as something that makes them distinct.
In any case, thanks for the discussion.
more useful? yeah, i'd agree with you there, but give pug skills some credit. second wind is great to use right after convert or after a primal's 2hr or whatever the heck you wanna call them. it helps the whm a fair bit seeing as they can keep up with the tank and dont have to worry too much about the blms in the party.