DPS AOE tactics

I know that once I get the answer I'm going to feel stupid for asking the question, but I feel I must ask it anyway.

When you need to to AOE damage to an area what is your most effective skill? I should clarify both when you have a target to AOE and when you do not.


I main a BLM. I ran into an issue last night running Brayflox (Hard). I think the main issue was I was the highest geared at ilvl78.

Possible spoiler for the fight:

During the final boss where the bombs drop and you need to knock them back to avoid the damage when the go boom.

I've always sort of felt that I wasn't very effective at it by using Blizzard II, but none of the other aoe spells available to me seemed better.

AOE spells for a BLM:

Code:

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Blizzard 2 --- 2.5 cast  center on caster
Fire 2    --- 3.0 cast  center on a target mob
Freeze    --- 3.0 cast  center on a ground target
Flare      --- 4.0 cast  center on a target mob

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What do you use during that phase of the fight to clear an area? (That is open to all jobs, not just BLM)

typically i bliz2 dead-center then look for a nice group to fire2 then look for a stray to hit with my wand

gear doesn't matter, 1damage will knock them away

Yep, I start casting BlizzII a sec after he stops, by the time the bombs hit my spell has gone off and they are away, then I use insta casts on any close bombs, scathe over and over. I haven't tried it but what do we think about virus? I doesn't do initial dmg, so it might not work. If it does, scathe > virus > scathe would be a nice quick way to get stuff away. Just a thought.

But for the most part, Blizz II, if there is a close group: swiftcast > FireII, in no close group just close singles: scathe.

Syn