Blizzard II nerf for BLM too severe

[Kalvin1783]

I stopped using any ice spells in my aoe rotation since the patch. Not because of any nerfs or long cast times/manual aiming, but because there is no good reason to be in Umbral Ice 3 anymore without the double dipping mechanic. I wouldn't use blizzard 2 anymore even if it wasn't nerfed. I use fire 3 > fire 2 > flare > transpose > repeat. Flare is the goal in aoe rotations and if I can't double dip into it then I see no need to have full mana or waste time with ice spells to get into UI3. Those 3 spells take up the majority of the transpose cool down, which this rotation hinges upon.

So for me at least, the blizzard 2 nerf itself and the freeze buff are irrelevant to my aoe rotation. Fixing the double dip bug just gave me no reason to need them.

[Waliel]

The best rotation (pre 2.1) was
Fire III > Flare > Transpose > Blizzard II > Blizzard II

...

Unfortunately that rotation was still also based on the getting a second reduced cast time which they have fixed.

I remember someone calculating that that rotation was still just a tiny bit better than F2 spam -> Flare even if you didn't get the hasted Flare after F3. Like few per cent or so.

[Lunavi]

The only reason from what I have experienced with Blizzard II, is that it may have been nerfed because its spammed constantly in F.A.T.Es and made it difficult for other classes without a decent AoE skill to get any points for participation.

the patch basically was a nerf on ranged single target DPS, a AoE buff for magic jobs, and a Buff on Melee DPS.

Where is this AoE buff you speak of? I as a BLM has seen none. Only nerfs.

[Lemuria]

I can't even see other classes making use of Blizzard 2 any more. It's like celebrating that you got the last sandwich after it's gone mouldy and the person who owned it no longer wanted it. The nerf was not only too heavy, but entirely pointless. Freeze still sucks, so it's never going to see any use from smart players, and the other mages simply don't benefit much from what has been reduced to a player-based bind skill.

White Mage already has Holy if they want a PBAoE attack and Summoner's benefitted more from Thunder in their DPS rotation than they would benefit from Blizzard 2 even in its original 100 potency form. Honestly, it just feels like someone had a temporary lapse of sanity when devising the Black Mage changes.

[O-Deka-K]

I use fire 3 > fire 2 > flare > transpose > repeat.

Well, it looks like you found it. I was doing AoE testing this weekend and I'm pretty much throwing it out the window now. This rotation is heads above any other rotation I can think of. It's almost as good as the old B2-B2-F3-Flare-Transpose combo.

Here's how it works: After Transpose, you wait for a mana tick and start casting F3. Since this takes 3.5s, you'll get another mana tick before it finishes. This gives enough mana to cast F2 and Flare, which are both AoE and are both buffed from AF3. Transpose cooldown of 12s will be up soon after. This rotation is exactly 12s long.

Fire 3 > Fire 2 > Flare > Transpose
Here's the potency formula: (648 x N + 198) / 12 = 54N + 16.5 PPS
where N is the number of targets

Here are some to compare with:
B2-B2-F3-Flare-Transpose (old): (668 x N + 154) / 12 = 55.7N + 12.8 PPS
B2-B2-F3-Flare-Transpose (2.1): (568 x N + 154) / 15 = 37.9N + 10.3 PPS <- nerfed!
B2-B2-F3-F2x4-Flare-Transpose (2.1): (1288 x N + 154) / 27 = 47.7N + 5.7 PPS
Freeze-Freeze-F3-F2x4-Flare-Transpose (2.1): (1388 x N + 154) / 30 = 46.3N + 5.1 <- worse than B2-B2!

Rotation times were tested based on my spell speed of 471. Even if you could be faster by a mana tick for the last 2 rotations, they're still worse:
B2-B2-F3-F2x4-Flare-Transpose (2.1): (1288 x N + 154) / 24 = 53.7N + 6.4 PPS
Freeze-Freeze-F3-F2x4-Flare-Transpose (2.1): (1388 x N + 154) / 27 = 51.4N + 5.7

I've also tried several rotations that either don't use Flare or don't use Transpose, and they're all much worse. Conclusions for AoE:

• Hardcast Flare always increases DPS, even for 2 targets (contrary to popular belief).
• Adding more Fire 2 always increases DPS, even for 2 targets.

[Devaking55]

No, it was almost the highest AoE DPS in a dungeon, if not the highest AoE DPS. Balanced by having to be in melee range in squishy armor.

I agree it needed a slight nerf, but definately not a drastic 50% nerf which renders it completely useless.

Please do not comment on classes you don't know about and claim it's fine.

except both blizzard 2 and fire 2 suck so them nerfing blizzard 2 didnt really make much of a difference.

[Hitome]

Takes twice as long to spam stuff to death in FATEs now, boo hoo.

Blizzard 2 really has very little utility outside of FATEs so it's really not a big blow to BLMs.

I main DRG and my 2nd job is BLM.

Honestly, you should never be using Blizz2 anyway, once you have Fire2. Fire2 spam > Flare is best AOE BY A MILE, and it saves healers from having to heal your spongy ass coz you're in melee range. Those are 2 advantages next to the zero advantages of using Blizz2.

Even if you wanted to use Blizz2 to get more Umbral Ice for MP regen, it's still now a better idea to use Freeze, coz it'll keep you out of melee range, and now do decent damage. It's seriously a better solution for ranged AOE (what you should be doing) every way you look at it.

You must not play BLM.

Not to be mean, but it's very obvious to see who was playing sub-optimally before, and who paid no attention to Theorycrafting. Go look at the 800 'BLM AOE Rotation' threads, and you see that Blizz 2 nerf was a significant reduction to the *optimum* AE rotation. Not the one that used a lot of Fire 2, but the one that did the most damage, and coincidentally, put you closest to harm (F3 > Flare >Transpose >B2>B2>F3). I agree it was nerfed because it was given to all the mage classes...but it was given to all the mage classes for PvP, which is not a good trend (nerfing PvE skills for PvP balance).

Finally, someone who plays BLM.