Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
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.