The ties.. that don't bind.

[GilbertLapine]

For anyone that plays a THM or ARC job, you've experienced this: binding skills are virtually useless.

Why? Bind is removed upon taking damage.

So... as it stands bind is a gimped version of sleep that allows enemies to keep attacking, but prevents movement. Furthermore, at least in the case of BLM, the cast time for Freeze is incredibly long for a ground-targeting ability. This would be understandable if there was some incredible reward for a successful cast -- I mean, flare is pretty awesome and fits well into a fire aoe chain as your last cast (Fire II until low on mp -> (swiftcast if available ->) flare -> transpose -> blizz II, etc., etc.), but there simply isn't a place for Freeze in it's current form.

The question then is: why is it this way? Is this a design flaw? Is it "working as intended"? I know there's a lot going on right now with development, but this is something that needs to be addressed eventually -- as of now, at least for BLM, it's making one of the supposedly awesome, ancient magic job-quest skills totally useless.

Bind is meat to give you a chance to get some range on the mob. Breathing room to get off a long casted damage ability or a heal.

If that's the only purpose, it's totally redundant with sleep. It definitely doesn't justify the cast time or targeting method. BLM sleep is aoe on a target, meaning if they move you're still going to hit it. Freeze is ground-based, meaning if the mob is mobile you're hosed.

In garuda your bind makes the plumes die without going to the rocks~

Care to explain? I'm pretty skeptical, as I've only ever seen it delay movement, as soon as an AOE hits the plumes they carry on...

I generally get far better results from hitting the plumes with a fire II when they're grouped than trying to bind them for half a sec before the next party member gets off an AOE on them. As i mentioned above, I've seen it work once or twice in Garuda normal when the party dps is low and they decide to focus the plumes one by one, but even that's rare. Definitely not used in Garuda HM that I've ever seen.

[Lucroarna]

In garuda your bind makes the plumes die without going to the rocks~

[Tareel]

Bind is meat to give you a chance to get some range on the mob. Breathing room to get off a long casted damage ability or a heal.

[GilbertLapine]

moved comments to OP