Blizzard II, Scathe, Freeze, and Sleep, do they have a purpose anymore

[Cynfael]

Freeze would be perfectly salvageable with some kind of tweak to give it a legitimate place in a BLM AoE Rotation. Even if it simply gave Umbral Hearts under Enochian and effectively replaced B4 in AoE, that would give it some purpose.

Sleep is going to remain useless for virtually all content unless SE reworks hard CC, so...yeah, it's going to stay useless except in some solo leveling, which is probably a fraction of an average player's experience in the game.

Scathe wouldn't be such a disappointment if it had a bit of potency to it, but I would prefer to see it reworked in a way that made it a legitimate tool rather than an absolute last resort "literally-better-than-nothing" option for extended movement. As others have suggested, it could be as simple as extending UI/AF timers by a few seconds so that stacks aren't lost as with Transpose (not a fix that would be likely to improve things much at the highest levels of play, but almost any change to Scathe would be an improvement of some kind).

[StouterTaru]

Freeze has its use in trash mobs. The last time I remember Sleep being useful in PvE was for doing the Alexandrite Maps solo.

Pack of trash mobs is all below 20%, you've just used Flare > Transpose. You can cast F3 > F2, but there's a decent chance your target will die before the spell finishes. Pop a couple Freezes instead and do more damage, without interruption worry.

[Cynfael]

Freeze has its use in trash mobs. The last time I remember Sleep being useful in PvE was for doing the Alexandrite Maps solo.

Pack of trash mobs is all below 20%, you've just used Flare > Transpose. You can cast F3 > F2, but there's a decent chance your target will die before the spell finishes. Pop a couple Freezes instead and do more damage, without interruption worry.

True, but it still feels like a shame that that’s about the nicest thing to be said for it. Would rather that Freeze be a more useful skill in its own right and not just very niche filler.

[Eloah]

CC wouldn't be an issue so much if the CC effects stayed. With Freeze for instance, and Blizzard II, but mainly Freeze, it grants a binding effect, that disappears the second you hit them. If the bind lasted, then it would allow for my recuperation between the party. Plus as Someone said, maybe make Freeze grant something. Or maybe they can make it similar to the new swap skill thing they are doing, Freeze and Flare share the same slot, and swap depending on which mode you are in. Truthfully I don't wanna see the skill removed I wanna see it reworked, And I want Burst, T.T, anyone else upset Foul isn't Burst.

[EllieShadeflare]

Freeze is probably the only way to have your AoE continue during Umbral Ice, but they'd probably need to buff it and make it easier to target.

[zuzu-bq]

Freeze is probably the only way to have your AoE continue during Umbral Ice, but they'd probably need to buff it and make it easier to target.

Thunder II or IV is the best way. Freeze should only be used if you need a refresh on UI timer, which realistically only happens on dungeons when you're preparing stacks and hearts mid pull before the whole big pack is brought together.

Blizzard II is really bad and a victim of power creep, it used to be 100 potency but it was better than spamming Fire II, so I doubt it will get any buff. As long Freeze doesn't provide Hearts or more sacks of Umbral it won't be ever useful on an actual rotation. Scathe suffers more on BLM's MP issues than being an actual underpowered Spell, outside of that it's pretty good and useful for boss jumps. Sleep still has uses for MSQ if you're doing solo so no reason changing it really.

[Waliel]

Blizzard II is really bad and a victim of power creep, it used to be 100 potency but it was better than spamming Fire II, so I doubt it will get any buff.

B2 was never better than spamming F2 and the only reason it was ever used was to do the B2 B2 Flare Flare rotation, which was fixed in 2.1 that also made B2 a cross class skill. The potency nerf was very much only to prevent healers and Summoner having a too strong spammable AoE. Don't think it even had a root in 2.0.

[zuzu-bq]

Sorry, I didn't complete my sentence. It was better to spam B2 by early levels and it was really strong on early dungeons, just like scatter spam is. They probably also nerfed because of SMN and SCH's access to the spell. Right now it has no reason to be so weak.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Sleep was so OP in PvP they had to nerf it twice. . . and that still wasn't enough. Before 4.0 Repose made WHMs huge threat, and the favored healer in the Feast (along with a now-gone skill that was basically a regen pool and 40% damage mitigation in one).

A lot of skills deemed "useless" in PvE were some of the best in PvP. Rather than get rid of them, they should've just moved them right over and made them PvP-only.

[MagiusNecros]

Freeze should inflict Deep Freeze status. AoE stun oh wow. But that'll never happen. So meh.

Most of the skills find great use in PvP.