Black Mage Blizzard II (and other minor suggestions)

[Iscah]

Blizzard II does have some applications in low-level dungeons at least, where individual enemies might die in the time it takes you to charge a Fire II so it's more reliable to cast Blizzard because it doesn't need a target.



...hmm, it's just occurred to me that it's also possibly a more efficient way of keeping you in Umbral Ice phase between battles or when the boss is invulnerable, instead of transposing and losing stacks. Does that work? Or does it need to hit something to reset the timer? Am I just playing BLM entirely wrong? (Probably yes.)

[KayliRose]

Blizzard II does have some applications in low-level dungeons at least, where individual enemies might die in the time it takes you to charge a Fire II so it's more reliable to cast Blizzard because it doesn't need a target.

The application there doesn't even work as efficiently. BLM shouldn't even be close enough to need to use Blizzard II to finish off enemies. Plus Cycling to the nearest target and casting Fire II isn't that hard. They have the same cast speeds, and if you're playing BLM from a distance like you should, you'd have to run up to the enemies to do Blizz II. Easier to just cast Fire II.

...hmm, it's just occurred to me that it's also possibly a more efficient way of keeping you in Umbral Ice phase between battles or when the boss is invulnerable, instead of transposing and losing stacks. Does that work? Or does it need to hit something to reset the timer? Am I just playing BLM entirely wrong? (Probably yes.)

Yea, you can't do that. Any cast spell, even Blizz II, needs to hit something to add/maintain the stacks. Only Transpose circumvents the timer.

[Iscah]

if you're playing BLM from a distance like you should, you'd have to run up to the enemies to do Blizz II.

There's no need to "play at distance" in low level dungeons. As long as the tank has control of all the enemies, you can stand right up close and only need to dodge the occasional short-range AOE.

[KayliRose]

There's no need to "play at distance" in low level dungeons. As long as the tank has control of all the enemies, you can stand right up close and only need to dodge the occasional short-range AOE.

.. The point of a ranged/magic DPS is to stay away from monsters to begin with. The only Magic DPS that should be anywhere near the monsters is Red Mage, and only when using the Melee-combo after getting their gauge up. The only time a ranged or magic DPS should be close to the action is if the mechanics of bosses or monsters demands it. Otherwise, even in low level dungeons there should always be some distance between yourself and the monster group. It's worth noting, that Blizz II is literally the only spell in Black Mage's repertoire that demands you to be within 5 yalms of your enemy, everything else having the 25 yalm standard you come to expect for all other spells. IF Blizz II actually did some sort of crowd control, like Stun or even Heavy, that might make it slightly more useful... But there's never a need for a Black Mage to be anywhere close to the action if the mechanics don't call for it.

[Iscah]

But there's never a need for a Black Mage to be anywhere close to the action if the mechanics don't call for it.

There's never a need to be far away either, "if mechanics don't call for it" - it doesn't affect your spell potency, and potentially inconveniences your healer as they try to position themselves so everyone is within their AOE circle.

Stand far away enough to be out of the enemy's attack range. That's all that matters. Extra distance adds nothing.

[KayliRose]

There's never a need to be far away either, "if mechanics don't call for it" - it doesn't affect your spell potency, and potentially inconveniences your healer as they try to position themselves so everyone is within their AOE circle.

Stand far away enough to be out of the enemy's attack range. That's all that matters. Extra distance adds nothing.

I'm not saying stand so far that it inconveniences the healer, but you definitely shouldn't be close enough to be doing a spell like Blizzard II. Believe me when I say I know the grievances of a Healer's job when it comes to positioning. I main Healers, not just here but in any MMO I ever play. It doesn't change the issue with Blizzard II though. As you said, out of the attack range of the enemy is where a BLM should be. If you're close enough to do such a short-distance spell, then you are indeed too close to the action for what the Job was actually built to do. I mean even the first several quests of Thaumaturge teach you to keep your distance. lols. To each their own though, if you want to be close enough to have to stop your casting every few seconds to dodge AoEs.
Pre-5.0 though, Blizzard II had a Bind, and the use was meant to be a means of escaping, not damaging. Since in dungeons you'd have no need to escape a group of monsters, however, unless the tank lost control or missed a few monsters, it was only really useful in field-work to keep monsters at bay. Without the bind though, its low potency makes it pretty well useless, and the close-range makes it too risky to use.

[PyurBlue]

To each their own though, if you want to be close enough to have to stop your casting every few seconds to dodge AoEs.

If you have to stop casting that's probably your fault, especially at the low levels where you use B2. There are barely any AoE's to look out for. B2 also has a fast-ish cast time, so it's very easy to slidecast and keep 100% uptime.

As far as tweaking the skill goes, I'd say give it a slight potency buff so you don't need to wait for 5ish enemies before it's worth it and then give it a slow/heavy/bind debuff again.

[Rilifane]

I'm not saying stand so far that it inconveniences the healer, but you definitely shouldn't be close enough to be doing a spell like Blizzard II. Believe me when I say I know the grievances of a Healer's job when it comes to positioning. I main Healers, not just here but in any MMO I ever play. It doesn't change the issue with Blizzard II though. As you said, out of the attack range of the enemy is where a BLM should be. If you're close enough to do such a short-distance spell, then you are indeed too close to the action for what the Job was actually built to do. I mean even the first several quests of Thaumaturge teach you to keep your distance. lols. To each their own though, if you want to be close enough to have to stop your casting every few seconds to dodge AoEs.

You keep saying that a BLM (or any caster/ phys. ranged for that matter) should stay at range when there is absolutely nothing to gain from it.
As long as you don't stand in aoes you can stand whereever you want and standing closer to the boss/ mobs is in most cases preferable because many aoes are cone-shaped and easier to dodge if you stand closer plus there's usually a "sweet spot" for most mechanics at max melee range where you can safely place your Leylines and dodge both melee and ranged mechanics while staying within them.

The point of casters and physical ranged being able to attack from range isn't that they should stay at range but instead that they can, if a mechanic calls for it.
Can. If, and only if, a mechanic calls for it. Everything past that is unneccessary and generally leads to more problems than staying closer.

If you have to stop casting every few sec, you simply positioned yourself poorly and that has nothing to with standing close or farther away. If you have to frequently stop casting in close range, you're doing something wrong and need to position yourself differently. Escpecially at lower levels, where Blizzard II still has its uses, there next to nothing going on in melee range.
From experience I can tell you that most mechanics are easier to play close to melee range. Only very few, like automatically centered meteors, force you to the outer ring.
Just because it doesn't fit your idea or preference for a caster doesn't mean it's wrong to get closer to the action.

The only thing I'd change about Blizzard II is a slight potency increase so THM/ BLM has a decent AoE rotation at low levels starting at 3+ for both AF and UI.

Leylines... nah, don't touch them. Learning to place your Leylines correctly to get the most out of them is one of the key challenges of BLM and making it easier to use would take that away. The basic rotation is simply while it's more difficult to get the most out of it and your Leylines and that's part of BLM's concept. It's supposed to be easy to learn while hard to optimize.
You get the occasional bad eggs in DF runs that make it harder but that is something all jobs struggle with. Just ask Monks how much fun they have with a tank who enjoys taking the boss for a spin or two. Or Dancers when the started pre-dancing because the tank ran towards the boss only to stop last second and not pull for who knows how long after all.

[Shurrikhan]

.. The point of a ranged/magic DPS is to stay away from monsters to begin with.

Maybe if we were playing in a game without excessively high-enmity tanks, our positioning would matter enough to differentiate between Ranged and Melee that way, but honestly it just comes down to Melee having their first pick of spots for spread AoE / tower positions while priority thereafter goes to whoever has the least mobility.

With tanks being so powerful and CC so lacking, there's no point at which you're going to lean on a Ranged's range "advantage" outside of soloing, and then only as convenient. In this game, XIV positioning near or far from mobs means almost nothing without simultaneously necessary arena positioning.

[KayliRose]

Maybe if we were playing in a game without excessively high-enmity tanks, our positioning would matter enough to differentiate between Ranged and Melee that way, but honestly it just comes down to Melee having their first pick of spots for spread AoE / tower positions while priority thereafter goes to whoever has the least mobility.

With tanks being so powerful and CC so lacking, there's no point at which you're going to lean on a Ranged's range "advantage" outside of soloing, and then only as convenient. In this game, XIV positioning near or far from mobs means almost nothing without simultaneously necessary arena positioning.

The benefit of being at a distance is to be away from melee range AoE's that would otherwise be a burden on casters who would need to move to stop casting. The enmity means nothing if you're close enough to take an AoE to the face. At which point, the argument I've been making all along should be clear: If you're close enough to use B2, you're close enough to be interrupted by close-range AoE's.
It's just common sense, which would you rather do, avoid the risk of interrupts for close-range attacks, or just stay at a distance where your only risks are the targeted AoEs that you can THEN focus your energy moving away from? There's literally no need to use B2 when you have more powerful spells that have less risk, even at low levels. Most monster groups at the levels where you would use B2 don't have targeted AoEs, and few bosses have them at all up until Haukke Manor or Brayflox. So why not just stay distanced so that you can move around less? BLM's whole shtick is by being a caster with significantly long cast times, they need to stay stationary as much as possible. Why burden yourself by needing to move every so often from a melee range cast or just to get in close enough to cast such a spell when it's just plain easier to cast from a distance?