List of rarely used abilities for the benefit of SE

[Shurrikhan]

snip

1. Freeze - Though it was largely just for the BLM's entertainment, I've now seen even T7's 4-stack Renaud done via Freeze, and it still has a decent place in AoE rotations (though its sheer mana cost often clips it short of being as useful as it likely should be there).

2. Thunder - I actually like having all three thunders, and use them depending on the time until mana ticks, remaining enemy health, and expected time until Thundercloud. It's a bit gamble-ish, but I like having those options, especially when keeping track of would-be Umbral tick timings while in Astral.

3. I could go for a slight buff, especially since it seems that it was only reduced in order to balance PvP potential at unintended cost to PvE. That said, I'd like anything further than a slight buff to be made only in mind of BLM's upcoming single-target dps revisions.

4. If you gave Bane an unlimited spread, SMN would be the only class to literally do caster ST dps x # of enemies, which would be outright insane... At present you could still go with DoTing up one enemy, spreading, attack once (probably Miasma II), DoT up another, and spread again for 8 enemies affected. I could possibly go for having no Bane CD though, allowing you to DoT up a whole batch of enemies at once (4/7/10), but those who occasionally double-key instant off-GCD casts might well hate that. I could also go with the refresh chance being increased when the number of spread targets are reduced.

5. Sacred Soil - The mitigation from this is often greater than what Lustrate can provide, and so depending on the boss and its current rotation it will often be highest on my Aetherflow priority unless I suspect I'm going to need 'oh shit' healing. 10% is already a lot for some fights, such as T1, T4, T5, T7 if you can fit both tanks into it during adds, and T8 and T9. I feel like I want it to be more, but... it wouldn't take much to make fights feel either dependent on it (especially in AoE situations) or for the ability to feel otherwise overpowered (worth far more than Lustrate during intensive healing/damage taken phases). To take the other hand, the Succor proc... I'd like to see this guaranteed (procs rarely come when wanted), but the more free mana it can be predictably used for, the more it out-values Energy Drain. Maybe a guaranteed half-cost Succor, maybe with a even longer buff time as not to overly change when the ability is used?

6. PoM - Already a pretty powerful 'oh shit' CD, almost as good as Benediction. It really helps with solo-healing T4 and the like, allowing you to weave Regens in during intensive healing between Cure IIs, or else to use regular Cures and freeheals in place of a Cure II spam. It could probably drop down to a 3-minute CD without being two overpowered, or chip off an extra 10% of casting time, or have another 2-3 seconds' duration, but I don't find it useless.

6. Sword Oath - I like getting Sword Oath first. Since most of my healers around that level didn't know how to dps worth a damn anyways, it kept things from going quite so slow. If you sleep everything you still end up using it more often than Shield Oath during trash in CC and SV. If you're getting aggro issues from the lack of Shield Oath between level 30 and 40, you or your dps are doing something wrong.

[Ryihito]

Is Mantra rarely used?

[Epistane]

BRD PvP Skill "Manasong" (NOT Mage's Ballad)

PLEEEASSSSSEEEEEE give us something else

[LeonBlade]

Are you serious?

I can't speak for black mages here, but lethargy certainly has its uses, think of Dreads in T5.

Bane is completely fine, Summoners are already pretty powerful, having that much DoT AOE is pretty ridiculous, it's balanced just fine.

Sacred Soil, are you kidding me? It doesn't need to be buffed, 10% is fine, you shouldn't ever be using Energy Drain if you're doing any serious content because you should never even need the MP. Mitigation is MITIGATION, that's like saying using Stoneskin is pointless for mountain buster because it's only 18% (for white mage). Honestly, I can think of so many situations where SS is useful, if buffing it to 20% is the only way you find use in it, you might as well not bother playing Scholar.

Presence of Mind, I really don't see the problem here, you even say you don't use white mage so there's no point in even going into it.

Sword/Shield Oath, as someone who's main job is Paladin, I have to disagree with you for your points here. The only complaints I have is that my stances are on the GCD, and I completely understand why they have to be from a programming standpoint. You shouldn't have any problem holding agro with Sword Oath up to level 40 when you get Shield Oath, and nothing hits hard until Stone Vigil anyways. The reason that you get Sword before Shield, is because if they gave you Shield first, Sword would seem useless. The whole point is for its solo and added DPS in single tank situations, so adding it as a secondary property to Paladin just seems like a waste, so of course they would put Sword Oath first, the extra potency is enough for you to keep agro.

As for other things in here, no Swiftsong shouldn't work like that, it's fine how it is, just turn it back on after you zone into another area, it's not that big of a deal.

[Ecks007]

stuff

Liking purely because of Bane.

As a Summoner, Bane should hit all targets in the immediate aoe area. Some people think this would make us broken, I say, it would help us be even better dps. Why does Bane even have a limit of 3 additional mobs? Really makes it difficult to keep up with Blm aoe burst dmg when I bane but still have to target mobs that hadn't received my dots only to have to dot them.

[Kitru]

To take the other hand, the Succor proc...

SCH already has virtually no MP issues so the free Succor off of Sacred Soil basically amounts to nothing. Increasing its proc chance just means you'll get more of a proc with negligible value more often. If you the proc on Sacred soil to be more useful, imo, it should cause your next Succor to either be a guaranteed crit (similar to what Overcure used to do; do this to offset the low SCH AoE heals) or instant cast (so that you can use it immediately/on the run).

[Kitru]

Some people think this would make us broken, I say, it would help us be even better dps.

That's *why* it would make you broken. SMN already has good AoE DPS (Bane + Multi-DoTing + pet), the best utility amongst all DPS, and the best ST DPS as well. SMN doesn't need to get the best AoE DPS as well.

[Arkista]

Is Mantra rarely used?

Only if you don't know how to use it.

Only thing I rarely use is One Ilm Punch for MNK. Only a few buffs that can actually be removed from mobs and only a few bosses that it works on.

[dejavutwo]

Monk:

One Ilm Punch: One Ilm punch is completely useless because any mob that has a buff that is worthwhile to remove is immune. It might have a use in pvp, but otherwise its just clutter on the action bars.

Fists of Wind: Another ability that only has use in pvp. If FoW gave enhanced TP regeneration, it would give monks a reason to switch stances during longer fights, and make skill speed less of a crappy stat.

Haymaker: This ability feels like it exists solely for the purpose of Warrior taking it. Outside of soloing, a monk generally isn't getting attacked so the ability can't be used. When soloing, the slow debuff and extra damage is insignificant because it won't reduce the number of attacks it takes to kill a mob. However, it has the downside of increasing the number of GCDs it takes to stack greased lightning, so the few times the ability does light up, I generally don't use it either because I would rather get to 3 stacks of greased lighting, or don't want to risk greased lightning falling off.

Arm of the Destroyer: This move was only ever useful in Turns 1 and 2 before echo and nerfs made the High voltage ignorable. It was a great skill for monks who knew how to time their stances, however most groups would rather just go safe with 2 bards.

[Kitru]

Haymaker: This ability feels like it exists solely for the purpose of Warrior taking it.

No WAR is ever going to take it though. It's only 170 potency, so it's a DPS loss for anyone but MNK (MNK has a low enough GCD that 170 actually translates into good damage), and the slow suffers from DR (not to mention that most stuff that you'd want to slow ends up being immune to it).

The only possible reason I could see for having it is if the devs plan on giving PGL a tank job at some point. If they did, it would likely be an evasion tank and you'd get a lot of mileage out of Haymaker.