Are Blizzard II, and Freeze useful at all?

[Thatusernameistaken]

Bliz II has its usefulness and if you’ve played BLM long enough you’ll know when to use this skill.

The OP stated they are practicing BLM, meaning they probably don't have much experience with it. Hence why they are asking when to use it...So why don't you actually tell them what those scenarios are?

[Thatusernameistaken]

this is true but I saw a rotation tutorial saying to use the first two umbral hearts on fire 2 then triple cast 3 flares

I don't have much experience with BLM outside of PotD, but I can tell you that rotation is probably wrong. Your main AoE abilities are probably going to be Flare, Thunder IV, and Foul. As for B2 and Freeze, I have no idea when those skills would give you more dps than those three.

[Seraphor]

I don't have much experience with BLM outside of PotD, but I can tell you that rotation is probably wrong. Your main AoE abilities are probably going to be Flare, Thunder IV, and Foul. As for B2 and Freeze, I have no idea when those skills would give you more dps than those three.

I can only think they're extending Umbral Ice with B2, but as was said before, this can be solved by melding spellspeed.

[ManuelBravo]

IF you solo as a BLM and eureka it is extremely helpful. Bind has many benefits specially if tanks over pull or if you need some extra time to recover.

FREEZE for Example;

Covers a designated area in ice, dealing ice damage with a potency of 100.
Additional Effect: Bind
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Grants Umbral Ice or removes Astral Fire
Duration: 13s

15secs with help a lot with eureka potion or sustain.

Bind is a great tool to get some distance and even hold mobs while Tank can move a bit more to avoid physical damage.

Blizzard II is less time just faster

Deals ice damage with a potency of 50 to all nearby enemies.
Additional Effect: Bind
Duration: 8s
Additional Effect: Grants Umbral Ice or removes Astral Fire
Duration: 13s

Just need to practice timing works great with sleep alternation to solo fates.

Throw in some Drain with proper mobs fast recovery.

[Maero]

this is true but I saw a rotation tutorial saying to use the first two umbral hearts on fire 2 then triple cast 3 flares

That would be a very early SB tutorial (that is my guess) and is no longer in use.

I have not been in PVP for ages so not sure if freeze still has it's use, in PVE it does not (well maybe Eureka it does i guess?)
Balance Discord i am sure would have up to date guides or players that would be willing to help you out.
Sadly after around 5 years of being a blm main i quit in early SB in favour of a Red Mage

[Sunako]

What I do myself is use blizzard 1 at first while pulling so you can pop enochian and keep transposing your stacks whole dungeon if you can not keep or maintain it other way. Then try collect hearts while pulling and possible thunder 4 some mobs. Then once mobs are finally at one stack use transpose(in ice stance) -> fire 2 -> fire 2 -> triplecast -> flare -> flare -> convert -> flare -> transpose -> foul -> blizzard 4 -> thunder 4 -> transpose -> repeat. Thunder procs can be used even in fire stance and sharpcast can be used for some extra procs.

[CorbinDallas]

What I do myself is use blizzard 1 at first while pulling so you can pop enochian and keep transposing your stacks whole dungeon if you can not keep or maintain it other way. Then try collect hearts while pulling and possible thunder 4 some mobs. Then once mobs are finally at one stack use transpose(in ice stance) -> fire 2 -> fire 2 -> triplecast -> flare -> flare -> convert -> flare -> transpose -> foul -> blizzard 4 -> thunder 4 -> transpose -> repeat. Thunder procs can be used even in fire stance and sharpcast can be used for some extra procs.

Never use transpose to switch between fire and ice during a standard rotation, only after Flare. You're severely gimping those Fire 2 casts even more than they are already by only having one stack of Fire.

A proper AoE rotation, given enough spellspeed, should be, from starting: B3 > B4 > T4 > F3 > Flare > Flare (> Convert > Flare) > Transpose > repeat from B4, using Foul and Thundercloud as and when they pop.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, but this is what I've been using because Fire 2, Blizzard 2, and Freeze are complete garbage. Could even skip the Thunder 4 if it's less than a specific number of enemies, but I'm not sure on the math of that one.

[Sylvain]

It's something we hope SE will adressee for ShB

A popular request was to mqke freeze an AoE equivalent to Ice3

I don't know what they could do with ice2. Imo they should turn it in a frost nova for pve and soloing

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

As previously stated, blizzard 2 and freeze are useful because of their bind, and in certain low-level dungeons (if you get one for leveling or something) they actually have a use as far as aoe damage goes.

Freeze actually has a secondary derp purpose that I'm not sure people are aware of. If for some reason you are locked out of the boss room--so long as the boss is within targeting range, you can damage it beyond the barrier with freeze. Or at least you could. Last time I used it was when everyone in the party died in Hell's Lid except our tank (this was back when it was one of the new dungeons), and when it became obvious that she was going to try and finish the boss I respawned and just cast freeze over and over. Mostly as a joke until she tanked him close enough that I could hit him. The damage was extremely incidental but she was amazing and got thru it, mostly just using everything she had at her disposal. They may have patched it, but I doubt it. It's... just pure derp. There's no way anyone could abuse it. LOL.

[Kahnom]

/sigh
For Bliz 2,after you finish your AOE rotation and transpose if all mobs got around 5% hp left.You’ll realize its don’t worth using thunder II and spamming Scathe is too ridiculous move.
Even if you try for bliz 4 then hardcast fire III,the mob might die before you finish your cast and risk losing Enochian in the end.
In my case,I’m just go to the middle of the mobs spam bliz II 2 times then fastcast fire 3 for highest hp mob.All the adds should be dead by that time.
But its pretty rare scenario,our AOE rotation can drain mobs HP from 30-40% in one Astral/Umbra cycle so if all mobs’s hp are around 10%,Stick with AoE rotation,its faster that way.
To sum it up, I’ll only use bliz 2 when mobs’s HP are at 5%,not more than that.so its basically rare scenario.