AoE (Everyone, not just BLMs)

[Edellis]

So I've come to the realization after capping bard, then BLM, and approaching the PLD cap, that the typical 1-2-3- Mark version of dungeons in this game is dreadfully sleep inducing. Ever since I started on Black Mage, I realized the potential for AoE damage in dungeons when there are alot of enemies. And ever since I started tanking, I realized I can control how many enemies my party is fighting at once.


On my Bard i typically ignored Quick Nock (and every other TP wasting AoE ability), but after BLM and PLD I can't help but notice how useful AoE abilities are, especially any one that's spammable with at least 100 potency. When you factor in crit rate, Burning Arrow, River of Blood procs and a 110 Potency AoE skill, Bard is a pretty amazing AoE class when you combine all of their skills into your AoE rotation.


In dungeons where all players cooperate, it just makes for a much smoother, engaging, and dare i say faster dungeon experience, regardless of level. There's nothing more fun than gathering up a huge amount of enemies and having everyone just go crazy with the killing. It takes a bit more team coordination since everyone involved needs to know their class better, but the payoff is worth it imo.


I wish more people (read - tanks) would become privy to this. Even team comps like Dragoon + Pugilist has the capability to abuse the power of AoE damage spreading -- there are no target caps, and every enemy added to the group is a drastic DPS increase overall. I die inside everytime I see a caster starting their rotation with sleep.

[jars]

I heard so much whining about not using sleep on my black mage. can't they seem I'm busy aoeing?

[Edellis]

I try to tell people Sleep is just a panic button if the Tank is about to die or has already died, which should never happen with a typical mob setup. It's completely useless otherwise, Tanks are designed to take damage and we have a dedicated healer...


The only time i'd endorse it is if they sleep the enemies and the healer then switches to DPS to burn 1v1. But even that is pretty dumb because Holy/Shadow Flare+Dots is far stronger than any 1v1 crap they could come up with alone, and i'd rather them use that if anything.

[skaterger]

One thing I've noticed is that sleep is prevalent in lower level dungeons maybe because new players see the skill that they just acquired and they think they need to use it and this mentality carries all the way over to the end game? For my last 3 Qarn runs on my summoner, I tried using bane to spread my dots and in all cases it turned out to be a bad idea. It seems many tanks at lower levels seem to just flash/overpower once and focus on "1" target. So yeah its quite frustrating for me cause my dps as a summoner is severely hampered when I can't spread my dots around.

On a more positive note, one of my proudest moments as a blm was when running WP with my fc and the tank gathered up all the mobs from the start to the first boss and I proceeded to pop RS and mega int pot with triple flare and they died in about 10 secs. Good times :P

[AmyNeudaiz]

I open up nearly every dungeon by telling the DPS "It's ok to AoE"

I don't know why more tanks don't do this.

[Maero]

Well sleep for some groups can be useful up to Brayflox.
* Can be
As you get to higher levels enemies are immune anyhow.
Aoe is great and comes in hand when you want to get dungeons done quickly.
Wipe all enemies i say, lol

[Kirinichibon]

I enjoy CC and focusing one or two mobs at a time***. I feel like a minority these days. When I tank, I tell mages it's ok to sleep things.



***things can be a bit faster ideally in aoe groups but A) at lower levels most classes don't have very good AoE yet and B) most PUGs stink and it's easier for them to focus 1>2>3.

[Frost_Trunks]

AoE is nice, but only if you have a good tank. Otherwise, it could get ugly quick. You would think that at the higher levels, and running AK, WP, ect..., you would see more good tanks but it's not always the case.

Running as PLD I wish I would see more WHMs spam Holy. That spell is Godly and dungeon running is so much smoother. Right now I think I see about half the WHMs using it running WP.

Regardless, I love AoE. I do wish BRD had stronger AoE. BRD has fast AoE but it eats TP quickly. Thank goodness for cross class abilities.

[T1M0N]

True.
Actually doing aoe is depending a lot of the tank.Sometimes i want to cry when i see a warrior loosing the aggro to 2-3 holy.I've got aswell in my FC 2 BLM with allagan weapon.They do some really nasty damage with Flare and it completely destroy packs really quickly.But for i don't know what reason,sometimes the tank is going single target combo instead of aoe .I don't get it o_o

[baopee]

Bard's aoe is not that bad, but you do need to pop some cold down with it.