Dispensers of fiery explosions, light me up... with your ideas for BLM in 5.0

[Llugen]

Hmm, when you said "rapid fire icicles" I imagined it not being a dot applied as a debuff to a target but rather a pulsing damage to anything within range. But I see what you mean now.

The difficulty with any ice spell is that unless they have extra special desirable effects (Blizzard IV) you really don't want to spend GCDs using them when you could just get back to muh 'splosions. I might also be on board with it if it cost no MP or the like so you could use it during a bad MP tick window after transpose

[Archwizard]

Remember that siege on Ala Mhigo? I think I'll take the giant orb that machineguns out smaller explosive orbs please.

Wasn't that one a spell that took fifteen Thaumaturges channeling together to cast?
Kinda sounds LB-level to me.

Unless... they introduce a system that lets players combine skills. Like Twincast from FF4, Sword Magic from FF9, or classic RPG cross-techs.
But I doubt that'd happen in an MMO.

[Jandor]

Wasn't that one a spell that took fifteen Thaumaturges channeling together to cast?
Kinda sounds LB-level to me.

Thaumaturges don't have the power of the Black Mage! One Warrior of Light/Darkness Black Mage is easily the equal of fifteen thaumaturges!!

[Kabooa]

Wasn't that one a spell that took fifteen Thaumaturges channeling together to cast?
Kinda sounds LB-level to me.

Unless... they introduce a system that lets players combine skills. Like Twincast from FF4, Sword Magic from FF9, or classic RPG cross-techs.
But I doubt that'd happen in an MMO.

Remember that the one black mage introduced in the ARR storyline effectively mindwiped the -entire city of Ul'dah- to rewrite their memory of an event to imprison himself as penance for his crime against his friends?

I think that eclipses what fifteen thaumaturges can do -and we're stronger than that guy-.

[Lauront]

Can we get an ice version as an upgrade to Freeze?

Freeze II: Place a sweet looking floating ice crystal that rapid fires icicles at enemies within it's area of effect.
Additional effect: Bind.

--

Fire version would be cool as maybe a self buff? After triggering some condition you can place a big fireball above your head that spams mini fireballs at the nearest enemy, have it carry on firing even if you have to run around for a bit.

For the benefit of those not familiar with the Ala Mhigo spell, here it is. I have to agree, it's a great visual.

You could even combine it so that after a phase of Astral and Umbral (each one alternating in turn) you get a collision effect like this.

Thaumaturges don't have the power of the Black Mage! One Warrior of Light/Darkness Black Mage is easily the equal of fifteen thaumaturges!!

Especially those thaumaturges.

[Archwizard]

Remember that the one black mage introduced in the ARR storyline effectively mindwiped the -entire city of Ul'dah- to rewrite their memory of an event to imprison himself as penance for his crime against his friends?

I think that eclipses what fifteen thaumaturges can do -and we're stronger than that guy-.

According to the quest, he only manipulated a few members of the Thaumaturge Guild into imprisoning him, not the entire city.
(Which... is an ability we don't have either, making it kind of a weird example. I guess arguably Sleep has the same principle, but any THM can do that.)

Also, is it ever established that we are stronger than him? We never fought him, and he spent all of his energy solo-summoning the demon for us to kill.
... Which we four-manned.

[Kabooa]

According to the quest, he only manipulated a few members of the Thaumaturge Guild into imprisoning him, not the entire city.
(Which... is an ability we don't have either, making it kind of a weird example. I guess arguably Sleep has the same principle, but any THM can do that.)

Also, is it ever established that we are stronger than him? We never fought him, and he spent all of his energy solo-summoning the demon for us to kill.
... Which we four-manned.

He sealed it away because he couldn't beat it, and those other three are just back up dancers.

[Archwizard]

He sealed it away because he couldn't beat it,

He was also alone, having just fed his fellow disciples to it at the time and instantly regretted that decision.
Backup dancers or no, we'd just revived the order of Black Mages.

And again, we never actually saw him fight, so it's impossible for us to measure how strong he was by comparison to ourselves, other than that you're overhyping his ability to mind-alter "the entire city" (which in reality was probably no more than a dozen Lalafells), nor what he can do by comparison to over a dozen Thaumaturges.

Shatotto could, but she also casually cast what we consider our limit break, and makes it very clear we pale in comparison to her in her prime.

But more importantly, aesthetics aside, considering we're still arguing over whether we can fit Thundercloud into Astral Fire or do more in Umbral Ice than cast Foul, where exactly would such attacks fit into our kit? We already have a DoT that we already don't do enough with.

[Kabooa]

But more importantly, aesthetics aside, considering we're still arguing over whether we can fit Thundercloud into Astral Fire or do more in Umbral Ice than cast Foul, where exactly would such attacks fit into our kit? We already have a DoT that we already don't do enough with.

You can easily fit TC into AF, so I don't think that's relevant.

Just spitballing here, have Flare and Freeze change while Polyglot is active. Would need a leveling trait as well.

Neo-Flare
Instant Cast
Effect: Consumes Polyglot. Summons an Orb of Flame over the target Enemy. Striking this orb with a Fire Spell deals the Spell's damage to all targets within a 8y range, dealing 120% to the first target, 90% to the second target, 60% to the third target, and 30% to all subsequent targets. The orb lasts for 15 seconds.

Neo-Freeze
Instant Cast
Effect: Consumes Polyglot. Places the caster into Umbral Ice 3. Summons an Orb of Frost over yourself for 9 seconds. At the end of this duration, Neo Freeze strikes the closest enemy for 700 potency ice damage. Each Ice, Thunder, or Non-Elemental spell cast during the Orb of Frost's duration increases potency by 10%.

"But what about foul"

Dunno. I'm sure 4 other level up break points could have room to make foul better.

[Shurrikhan]

You can easily fit TC into AF, so I don't think that's relevant.

Just spitballing here, have Flare and Freeze change while Polyglot is active. Would need a leveling trait as well.

Neo-Flare
Instant Cast
Effect: Consumes Polyglot. Summons an Orb of Flame over the target Enemy. Striking this orb with a Fire Spell deals the Spell's damage to all targets within a 8y range, dealing 120% to the first target, 90% to the second target, 60% to the third target, and 30% to all subsequent targets. The orb lasts for 15 seconds.

Neo-Freeze
Instant Cast
Effect: Consumes Polyglot. Places the caster into Umbral Ice 3. Summons an Orb of Frost over yourself for 9 seconds. At the end of this duration, Neo Freeze strikes the closest enemy for 700 potency ice damage. Each Ice, Thunder, or Non-Elemental spell cast during the Orb of Frost's duration increases potency by 10%.

"But what about foul"

Dunno. I'm sure 4 other level up break points could have room to make foul better.

Sounds fun, so long as I can reposition the orb once it's summoned, ideally with the same key.

Though I'd also be fine with this being a mechanic attached to all Fire spells, as that'd accomplish the same diversification of ability choices in AoE, but with more nuance in place of macrorotation alone.