Quote Originally Posted by Ferrinus View Post
The problem is, you can't really have B2 become Freeze and F2 become Flare because the former's a strict upgrade while the latter isn't - F2 doesn't cost all your mana and take 4 seconds to cast.
That hardly matters if it's still an upgrade to PPS and overall PPM. You might have had a point if there was ever a time where you would have both and use both -- spamming F2 in AoE and ending in Flare for instance -- but as it stands Fire 2 is completely phased out before you even get Flare, so the effective upgrade is still viable.

Also, that leaves the quirk in our AoE rotation where using F3 to swap to astral on 5+ targets is actually a dps loss.
Define "actually a DPS loss", since a loss means there is something to compare to. Compared to just spamming Freeze and never getting Flare out? Compared to hitting Transpose and rebuilding before Flare?
Are we saying hitting Flare in ice phase and getting one more Flare in AF is more PPM than a quick Fire 3 and two Flares in AF thanks to IUH? Because if that's the case -- and ignoring that Transpose is still presently an option -- my suggestion to have Flare interact with Aspect Mastery to not consume IUH is still available, considering that that seems like an oversight that they don't already.

B2 ends up much more marginal (as does B1, which is like... a way to keep UI going if you have a single GCD left and want to add a teeny bit more damage? This is where making F1 and B1 both instant casts and getting rid of Scathe all together really appeals) but I'd prefer that to it vanishing all together.

If it was feasible, I'd love for Freeze to also do 260 potency to one target and 40% less to the rest, except it would end up replacing B3!
One other thing I failed to point out as a flaw with your design: We don't just go straight into using half-cast Freezes to transition until we get Aspect Mastery. Before that point we have to Transpose after Flare, which goes back to "you just gave Freeze a 4-second cast time in UI phase".