Freeze - Why Isn't It More Complimentary To Flare?

Hey there! So... any chance of buffing BLM's Freeze spell?

What it is currently:

Freeze
Cast Time: 2.85s
MP: 1760 (at Lv60)
"Covers area in ice, dealing ice damage with a potency of 100"
Additional Effect: Bind Duration: 15s (PVP 12s)
Additional Effect: Grants Umbral Ice or Removes Astral Fire


What I would like it to be:

Freeze
Cast Time: 3.80s
MP: 1760 (at Lv60)
"Deals ice damage with a potency of 120 to a target and enemies near it."
Additional Effect: Bind Duration: 15s (PVP 12s)
Additional Effect: Grants Umbral Ice III and removes Astral Fire Duration: 10s
Additional Effect: Costs 0 MP if used after Flare.

What that would do:

1.) It would change Freeze from an AoE that has to be aimed (which slows down BLM considerably by itself) into a target-based AoE like Fire II.

2.) Increase Freeze's cast time to match Flare's for balance, then buff damage by a potency of 20.

3.) Grant an option for what to do after Flare rather than Transpose.

I wouldn't say no. I am only level 54 on BLM and I admit after my Flare > Convert > Flare Transpose...I kinda just sit there waiting for a MP tic. Maybe I am doing something wrong? lol

I'd certainly like that; it'd be quite a bit faster getting your mp back without having to Transpose. And then on top of it, you'd get an extra little bit of damage for your aoe rotation where there'd normally be like four seconds of waiting.

I'd be a bit sad to lose some of its utility in PVP (which is virtually the only time I even use Freeze) with that longer cast time. Not against your overall line of thought, however; it would be nice to get more use out of the spell and I'm not a huge fan of template spells on a controller.

Ground Targetting skills on this game are so awkward anyway, and making freeze worth something would be great.

Obviously needs some balance, as it would just be a straight buff to BLM in PVE situations.

I miss the original freeze from version 1, it was target not ground based, it didn't do much in dmg but it lowered your enmity significantly which was helpful in a pinch.

Should cause Frozen status effect. Bind effect but attacks won't negate it until the duration is over. It's supposed to be a powerful Ice spell. Make it one.

Or hell even make it work like Salted Earth. Anyone that walks in the Circle gets binded and causes DoT damage for like 15-20 seconds.

Otherwise it will always remain a flavor of the day PvP skill.

You know what I end up doing in PvP? It's either Freeze for the bind or Sleep. And half the time that's all I can do.

This is probably one of the best skill suggestions I've seen on this forum. Having to transpose after flare and wait for a mana tick feels quite clunky.

Freeze's best effect is telling you who the bad black mages are. (pvp notwithstanding)

While I do feel that Freeze could use some adjustment to make it actually useful...

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Additional Effect: Grants Umbral Ice III and removes Astral Fire Duration: 10s
Additional Effect: Costs 0 MP if used after Flare.

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...that pretty much nullifies Flare's primary drawback.

Probably won't happen based on that.

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Originally Posted by Fynlar

While I do feel that Freeze could use some adjustment to make it actually useful...



...that pretty much nullifies Flare's primary drawback.

Probably won't happen based on that.

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Psssst. Make the additional effect only happen under Enochian.

I always liked Freeze's animation ... too bad there's no need to use it in battle.

Maybe while under enochian and w/3 umbral ice stacks Freeze can be an aoe damage? Maybe even deal DoTs similar to aero 3?

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Psssst. Make the additional effect only happen under Enochian.

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Now there's an idea. I do feel that Enochian needs to give BLM's AoE aspect some more love.

Too many BLMs I see throwing up Enochian and then just continuing to Fire/Blizzard 4 away, even when there's 5+ mobs.

Belive it or not blm had acess to Ancient Magic in version 1.0 We had Flare,Freeze,and Burst. But it was to overpowerfull so they droped Burst. The spell caused about 12-13k damage on cast but drained all of your MP with a long cast time and a cooldown of 15 min. Was a lot of fun using that spell.

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Originally Posted by Melondra

Belive it or not blm had acess to Ancient Magic in version 1.0 We had Flare,Freeze,and Burst. But it was to overpowerfull so they droped Burst. The spell caused about 12-13k damage on cast but drained all of your MP with a long cast time and a cooldown of 15 min. Was a lot of fun using that spell.

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With all the bloat enemies have with their HP it would seem like a really weak spell in current content. I would like to see a very powerful spell you can only cast sparingly. And pack the much needed on demand power. Gives more options to use convert in new ways.

If only cast time and potency are the same as blizzard2,i would use it more.

Cast time would be 1.9s under AF3, more with spell speed.
Negates flare penalty with similar cast time as blizz 3 :|

I was just throwing out what I would like to see. The fact of the matter is that Freeze sucks and needs improvement.

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

I miss the original freeze from version 1, it was target not ground based, it didn't do much in dmg but it lowered your enmity significantly which was helpful in a pinch.

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I agree with this. There are definitely some things that 1.x did better, this being one of them.

Just reduce the cast time to 2.5, and it's just fine as a AoE filler during Umbral Ice.

Reviving this... Now that we don't need to suffer with ground positionals anymore, is Freeze worth using at UI phase after Triple Flare while you wait for MP?

I only use Freeze in PvP because it is basically useless everywhere else.

Blizzard 3 - 240 Pot and 3 stacks of UI

Freeze - Bind against bind immune junk, 100 Pot, Grants a stack of UI if it hits something

If it gave the Frozen status effect or became a AoE DoT I would have a use for it but as it stands our "Ancient" Ice spell is pretty pathetic in comparison to Flare.

I never feel the need to triple flare either.

Pretty much, seems the only use Freeze has is to gear up the PvP Limitbreak

I think you could easily buff Freeze to 200 or even 250 potency without anyone caring.

Sadly you'd also have to buff Flare hugely just to give it a reason to be used in single-target again.

Both of these abilities seem like they were left behind, in a dark, dark corner.

Flare still has great use in AoE, it's just the likes of Blizzard 2 and Freeze have long sailed from most people's action bars.

It's great for bind locking groups of enemies in fates though!

Is it really better to cast Blizzard 3 (3.5 second of cast, 240 potency on one enemy) on an AoE situation with, say, 4 or more mobs, when you can use Freeze (3 seconds cast time, 100 potency total for each mob)?

I feel like the difference in potency can be great on really big pulls, but I haven't tested myself.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

I think you could easily buff Freeze to 200 or even 250 potency without anyone caring.

Sadly you'd also have to buff Flare hugely just to give it a reason to be used in single-target again.

Both of these abilities seem like they were left behind, in a dark, dark corner.

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Flare has it's place in on of the the openers.

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Originally Posted by Fevelle

Is it really better to cast Blizzard 3 (3.5 second of cast, 240 potency on one enemy) on an AoE situation with, say, 4 or more mobs, when you can use Freeze (3 seconds cast time, 100 potency total for each mob)?

I feel like the difference in potency can be great on really big pulls, but I haven't tested myself.

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It's not worth it to cast any ice spells in AoE situation. Transpose - F3 - F2 - F2 - Flare - Transpose - F3 - etc. is the way to go. Doing that falls perfectly in sync with mana ticks and you never have to wait for them after the first Transpose, if you know what you're doing.

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Originally Posted by Waliel

It's not worth it to cast any ice spells in AoE situation. Transpose - F3 - F2 - F2 - Flare - Transpose - F3 - etc. is the way to go. Doing that falls perfectly in sync with mana ticks and you never have to wait for them after the first Transpose, if you know what you're doing.

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One tic from Umbral Ice 1 after Transpose will never fill the MP, not even enough for one Fire II, not even 2 tics...

freeze should have been a PBAOE instant with 30s cd at least it could be usefull for solo , pvp situations.

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I think you could easily buff Freeze to 200 or even 250 potency without anyone caring.

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Dude 200 potency is already higher than Fire II

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One tic from Umbral Ice 1 after Transpose will never fill the MP, not even enough for one Fire II, not even 2 tics...

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After 1 tick, you start casting Fire III, by the time Fire III finishes casting, you earn another tick. This is enough for 2 Fire II's and a Flare.

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Originally Posted by Fevelle

One tic from Umbral Ice 1 after Transpose will never fill the MP, not even enough for one Fire II, not even 2 tics...

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You get two tics worth of UI1 with that and it's enough to do F3 F2 F2 Flare. That has been the case and the AoE rotation since the start of 2.0, not counting the "Flare only" one. RIP.

Try it out sometime.

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Originally Posted by Waliel

You get two tics worth of UI1 with that and it's enough to do F3 F2 F2 Flare. That has been the case and the AoE rotation since the start of 2.0, not counting the "Flare only" one. RIP.

Try it out sometime.

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Yep, you're right. It's been months since I last played BLM so I didn't remember the MP costs very well.

Last thing I'll ever comment on Freeze is it should be inflicting Deep Freeze under Enochian. At the very least it would inflict a short DoT and potentially be an awesome way to stun an enemy. But I know that'll never happen. I just think inflicting bind and it goes away with one bop at this point in the BLM's life for this game is quite simply absurd.

Yeah I would like to see my BLM spell be more useable in all content.

BLM has quite a few spells that I rarely use and sometimes just never use.
Scathe is ok for quick repositioning dps.
Freeze is rarely ever used and Surecast, Lethargy is never used as it is way to situational and weak. And Lethargy cannot be used on most boss fights etc. It would be a nice ability as support spell.

I miss how Freeze worked in 1.0, it did nice damage and it was our Threat reducing spell. And also, I want Burst to come back.