BLM in 4.0

[Sylvain]

This would effectively be a nerf unless the cooldown on the combined skill were exceptionally short.

This is true but as a BLM, the only one that currently truly matters in the spell one in a raid environnement. Unless there's been several case of physical unavoidable aoe, every aoe from bosses are spells. I don't think that the physical absorbing shield will help me survive a boss smashing me.
But yes they could also reduce the cooldown to compensate.

I personally find cooldown to be too long in FF14.
Imo it makes the player less incline to use the cooldown as they can only be used one or twice in a fight.
Also, making the shield a 30sec cooldown would greatly help the BLM problem of being a turret as he could tank the aoe instead of moving to avoid it more often. (I'm obviously not refering to OS mechanic or weakening one)

I wouldn't be too surprised if they busted out ra-ga-ja for the bigger spells in the future, though. You do see it in-game already, but only for boss-level spells like Ancient Quaga.

Please... the whole I II III IV is so lame and boring
Even other job have the system, like combust I II being コンバス　コンバラ　konbasu, konbara