Black Mage Blizzard II (and other minor suggestions)

[KayliRose]

Recap:
Blizzard II is useless. Pre-5.0 it was useless as well, but it at least had Bind on it that allowed it to be used as an escape if you were being attacked by a group, or a Tank lost control. Post-5.0 it doesn't even have bind. Freeze is a better ice-based AoE - it has targeting (doesn't need to have everything beside you), does double damage of Blizz 2, and can upgrade your Umbral gauge to 3 immediately.

Blizzard II pretty much only gets used by new players who don't understand its uselessness, or by the die-hards who badly wanna find a strategy where it would be useful.

Suggestions:
1. Remove Blizzard II, change Freeze's name to Blizzard II. Freeze is pretty much what Blizzard II needs to be anyway. It's also in perfect level alignment since Freeze is obtained before Blizzard III, so it would still stay in chronological order. This would be the simplest solution, but not necessarily most popular since we would have a small gap for learning a new Blizzard skill. (Maybe tweak the levels to when you learn some skills to make the gap shorter.)

2. Upgrade Blizzard II to Freeze at the level you would get Freeze. A lot of abilities "upgrade" already anyway, like Thunder I changing to Thunder III and Thunder II changing to Thunder IV. This would make more sense for a change to how Blizzard II works since it would "evolve" with your ability to cast Ice-aspected magic.

3. Tweak Blizzard II and Freeze so that both have different uses, but similar effects.
A good example would be to make Blizzard II stronger than Freeze in potency, have the same targeting ability as Freeze and still cost 800 MP, while Freeze would still keep its Umbral 3 buff to be used as a "quick-buff" ability. This would give Freeze the use of being an Umbral buff, and Blizzard II can become the standard AoE Ice spell that maintains the buff. This suggestion is the one I'd like most to see, since it would give both abilities a unique use, and remove nothing from the repertoire of spells that BLM has.


Other thoughts:
I do also think Ley Lines should have a shorter cooldown, like maybe 60 seconds instead of 90. Ley Lines is kind of one of those essential skills that tend to make Black Mage's job a lot easier, but it's also one of those skills that can be easily screwed over and wasted under a number of unforeseeable conditions (such as if the tank decides to keep running when they probably should've stopped, or if a boss casts a long-term AoE pool right in your Ley Lines' space just as you've sat comfy with the spot.) It would be nice to be able to get those casting speed boosts out more frequently, and recover from those bad luck placements faster. This is just a small opinion of mine, but I thought it worth mentioning while I'm making this post.

[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.

[OneTrueMiqote]

Number 1 seems the most ideal to me. Like you mentioned, there is very little use of Blizzard II and simplifying the job has some small benefit.

While many abilities upgrade, as far as I'm aware, the majority of them are merely a potency upgrade and function almost exactly the same. This would make the second approach fundamentally different from a mere upgrade compared to other spell/skill upgrades in the game. And this is also essentially the same as #1, but might cause some confusion as the functions of the spells have changed with the upgrade.

My reasoning against number 3 comes from the completeness of BLM's kit and how the job is in as perfect of a spot as a job can be imo. I don't think the job needs any changes Blizzard II might bring and I'd rather have the devs focus on other aspects of the game.

[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.