Spellcasting in PvP

[Dimitrii]

I think spell casting is just fine as it is. I know several BLMs and SMNs that perform very well and they love it. I actually love playing SMN, but I'm usually WHM. This isn't WoW...you have to think and not just stand there face-rolling til HP goes to 0. Got a melee on you? Surecast > Blizz2, get a some distance, sleep it, rape it. Bard on you? Run behind the neareast wall/rock, Scathe and kite it to death. As you said, these methods don't always work because of CC immunity abilities...but casters have a big advantage because you can Swiftcast every minute, Surecast every 30 seconds while Fetter Ward can only be used every 2 minutes. Tempered Will has an even longer recast.

To be fair while these above tactics might work nice in theory they become extremely difficult to actually carry out and perform in practice. Its nowhere near as simple to kill a melee thats focusing you as blm as is implied above. Blizzard 2 takes years to cast so its only really available when you have surecast up (since its a waste to swiftcast it instead of sleep) and even that's not reliable since u run the huge risk of getting stunned and wasting the surecast. Regardless a melee can easily purify it off then pop fetter ward right after and dismantle said blm in extremely short order if they arent receiving close heal/pld cover support (Drg even gets a free ability to wipe away bind/heavy without needing to blow purify). While its true fetter ward can only be used every 2 minutes believe me when I say any melee can kill a blm in less time than it takes for the effect to wear off. Its also not as easy to utilize the terrain to avoid attacks when you are dealing with all the gap closing abilities melee (especially drg) has along with their ability to remove your sprint + heavy you. I'm not sure where you were going with the kite and scathe tactic against brd since brd can utilize that tactic way better than a blm can with attacks that are much stronger than scathe. And tanks isnt even really worth mentioning as no dps can really take on a tank straight up anyway. A single Blm can be a punching bag alone yes but when multiple blms gather together and cover for each other they are still one of the most lethal dps in pvp. The fact remains however that should they at any point be focused on by anyone in a group encounter they possess almost no offensive threat whatsover and there isnt much you can do to get around that. Its the price you pay for being so lethal when unmolested.