Chad Mages What else would you want right now for our class

[Ferrinus]

I hardly know where to begin unraveling this.

First of all, who uses Blizzard 2 as a filler during UI phase post-Freeze? At UI3 our MP recovers quickly enough we can get effectively one cast out before capping -- kind of a big problem with Blizzard IV's place in single-target, there's hardly time for it -- and that's largely going to be Thunder 2/4 until you learn Foul. Hell, thanks to Flare scaling its cost to our current MP, we don't even need to wait to be capped on MP before swapping back in AF, which actually increases our burst.

As I have shown, before 68, simply swapping directly back to Flare is worse than using an (actually good) F2 and then finishing with Flare.

The reason we follow Freeze with hypothetically-actually-good B2 (before level 70) is that ice spells cost 0 MP in UI3 and we are starting with 0 MP. As you know, MP regen ticks are 3 seconds long, and it’s effectively random whether our GCD lines up with them. Best case, we get one immediately and can skip B2. But, worst case, one hits right before Flare resolves, and we sit there hammering our T2 button for 3 full seconds while our mana bar remains resolutely empty.

Good news, though - all our ice spells are free! So we can cast (long range, 80 potency) B2 and get some damage in. 240 potency over 2.5s beats 0 potency over 1.5s on average - you can plug it in to my numbers and see. And, in the real world, that average 1.5s of dead time is going to be even worse for us in relative terms because our GCD is probably shorter than 2.5s.

The idea of Blizzard 2 otherwise retaining a place for "rapidly recovering MP post-death" is unfathomably niche, not to mention redundant within the kit. We already rez with enough MP to cast B3, heaven forbid we need even less reason to use LD.

Yeah, but B3 has a 3.0s cast time. Right now, Freeze is our recovery move, and frankly 2.5s B2 is going to be worse than 2.5s Freeze was because it deals less damage and doesn’t generate any hearts so I’m not super crazy about it, but it IS a way to give B2 a (niche) use and the F2 thing is definitely a buff.

If Flare was meant to be purely a "costly finishing move", why oh why does it give you AF3 long before you get Aspect Mastery? Refreshing AF is one thing, capping it in a scenario when you can't possibly gain any benefit at cap (especially since you're forced into Transposing for about 18 more levels) is quite another. Sure there's always Manafont, but that's still a 3 minute cooldown versus an ability you're otherwise going to use every 20-30 sec.
And let's be honest here, I would rather have a one-stop shop for swapping and dropping than add an even more niche Fire 3 clone (I mean hey, Fire 3 at least has Firestarter) to the job. Adding another button for a task we already can do doesn't create more nuance or complexity, it's just another button. If the idea is "symmetry" between phases, then I invite you to consider that within our AoE rotation, Freeze as a combo of Blizzard 3 and 4 (swaps and generates Umbral Hearts) is opposed to Flare as a combo of Fire 3 and 4 (swaps and filler).

Flare was always a costly and cumbersome finishing move and its swapping you to AF is a drawback. It takes away all your MP and traps you in a stance that locks out MP regen. Back when Transpose had a 10 or 12 second cooldown this could leave you in serious trouble if you fumbled or sequenced abilities incorrectly. Flare’s ability to swap you into fire mode but leave you with mana is new, and it’s also clearly marginal and unintended - the percentile difference between hot flare and cold flare is verrrry small on five targets, for instance, and there’s no simple or intuitive way to determine that breakpoint.

Ultimately, it’s lame to have to cast a mixture of weak, crappy flares and powerful, explosive flares. All your flares should be devastating haymakers. And, even if we’re okay with watering down such an iconic spell’s identity, we still have the problem of a totally extraneous F2 on our bars because...

"Can't"? Unless and until the devs get around to buffing F2 so it has a contemporary position, Flare is strictly better because it gives more PPS. If it wasn't "better" we wouldn't be ignoring F2 now, would we?

At present, there is nothing keeping F2 and B2 from upgrading to Flare and Freeze -- as Kabooa said, they're just superior AoE options.

Can’t, because it’s not STRICTLY better. It’s just... better. But if you need to deal AoE damage in excess of 100 potency in only 3 seconds, and want to stay in fire mode to be able to follow up immediately with a Flare or F4 or Despair on a different target or something, you can only do that with F2, not Flare.

This is like how Bio (40 potency for 18s) used to “Upgrade” to Bio II (30 potency for 30s). Better? Yes. Strictly better? No. All numbers need to stay steady or improve if you’re going to literally lose a button and gain a replacement.

Yes, congratulations, you've managed to make your idea sound comparatively attractive by throwing mud on what we already have, we're talking in circles at this point.

There’s really no need to be hostile.