I can understand how an ice mage is born. They do no research, and just look at their spells/traits in game. They see that the ice spells and fire spells do the same damage, but fire spells burn through mana very quickly while it is physically impossible to run out while spamming ice. And no where in the always available information is there a proper explanation of what Umbral and Astral stacks actually do, so they never see just how much of an ACTUAL boost fire spells get to damage. The spells page and the traits page just say that the spells grant them. You need to cast a spell, and in the 15 seconds that its up read the buff description to get an in-game representation of the info. If they look at the job guide on the website(much less likely) then they need to get ALL the way to the bottem for...
Which is technically true, but still doesnt ACTUALLY explain how important astral stacks are for DPS. The game could teach this so much better. I will, however, never understand how anyone who actually knows what theyre supposed to do could ever be satisfied with doing a ice rotation just to be lazy. BLM feels so good to play when all the pieces fit together, why would you willingly limit yourself like that?The Elemental Gauge indicates whether you are under the effect of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice, and the duration of their effects.
Casting Fire spells grants Astral Fire, which increases the power of Fire spells in exchange for their increased MP cost.
Casting Ice spells grants Umbral Ice, which decreases the MP cost of Ice spells and greatly increases the speed with which MP is recovered.
If maximum stacks are accumulated for either Astral Fire or Umbral Ice, there will be no MP cost for spells of the opposite element.