Apparently I'm distracting (and not the good kind)

[UBERHAXED]

How does this guy play with melee dps?

[Namir]

As a main SMN it is true, even I think that we are a bit too flashy when we get all our aoe moves going. The combination of painflare, shadowflare, miasma II, blizz II and the occasional dragon head and deathflare do make for quite a lightshow concentrated in a very small radius (on top of mobs). I usually try to stand to the side of mobs while still hitting all of them with blizz and miasma and have had no complaints so far even if it is a bit hard for even me to see at times. Regardless, if the tank is paying attention they should not be getting hit by any AOE just as the SMN aoeing isn't. My guess is the tank was tired or just bored (like most people running dungeons for the 100th time) and was not in the mood to put in the extra effort of paying closer attention to the telegraphs. Nice to see more SMNs using all their skills to their maximum potential though, the amount of SMNs that never use either of those two skills is insane.

[FunkyBunch]

How is Blizz2 viable as a SMN? Does a SMN somehow buff it? It's not even viable on BLM.

[LegoTechnic]

How is Blizz2 viable as a SMN? Does a SMN somehow buff it? It's not even viable on BLM.

It's because Ruin and Ruin II are complete and utter trash despite being SMN's primary filler ability. Blizzard is a 50 potency AoE move with 2.5 second cast, and Ruin is an 80 potency single-target spell with a 2.5 second cast (2.5 recast in case of Ruin II). If there are two or more mobs then anytime you would be casting ruin (and are not moving or focusing a target), then Blizzard II will be more damage.

Amusingly it tends to be a bottom barrel option for BLMs, but it can be quite handy for SMNs in large pulls as filler while waiting for cooldowns.

[FunkyBunch]

It's because Ruin and Ruin II are complete and utter trash despite being SMN's primary filler ability. Blizzard is a 50 potency AoE move with 2.5 second cast, and Ruin is an 80 potency single-target spell with a 2.5 second cast (2.5 recast in case of Ruin II). If there are two or more mobs then anytime you would be casting ruin (and are not moving or focusing a target), then Blizzard II will be more damage.

Amusingly it tends to be a bottom barrel option for BLMs, but it can be quite handy for SMNs in large pulls as filler while waiting for cooldowns.

It's not even a bottom barrel option, lol. I don't even have it on my cast bar as Freeze is superior in every way, and it's completely useless. In only play with sometimes to compare DPS to make sure it's still useless.

It's funny that it's viable on Summoner.

[ChaozK]

It's not even a bottom barrel option, lol. I don't even have it on my cast bar as Freeze is superior in every way, and it's completely useless. In only play with sometimes to compare DPS to make sure it's still useless.

It's funny that it's viable on Summoner.

Its because BLM has a spamable AOE with higher potency via fire II. SMN on the other hand only has AOE via dots (through bane or miasma II) or via spending ather for painflare. So if you have all your dots already ticking and lack aether then you can pretty much do no further AOE. In that case doing ice II for 50 pot AOE is better than doing no AOE.

[UBERHAXED]

How is Blizz2 viable as a SMN? Does a SMN somehow buff it? It's not even viable on BLM.

It's not viable on BLM (obviously!!!) because BLM has higher potency GCD AoE. The only GCD AoEs SMN has are Miasma II (which is DoT so not spammable) and Tri-Bind, which is both weaker (30 potency!!!) and cost more MP. Please tell me you were just ignorant and thought SMN could use Fire II and Flare or something...

I hate Ice II with a passion, that's why I'm so glad it sucks so much for BLM that I could literally throw the skill away (from my hotbar)
I never saw it used anywhere since 2013 (because ARR was new and people were still figuring stuff out), but I don't really play SMN so I don't consider myself an expert on this x)
Just saying that I never saw other SMNs in df use it. Which doesn't have to mean anything, we all know randoms often suck.
But yeah, if I was tanking, I'd hate you using Ice II as well. Maybe I'm a bad tank, but I can't see shit when it is used. I have no problem with AoE circles from DRK, NIN, BRD and the like, only slight trouble with gigantic explosions from WHM and BLM, but Ice II makes all of my ground vanish and I hate it

Or maybe they halved the potency so people would use Fire II???

[ChaozK]

Or maybe they halved the potency so people would use Fire II???

Doubt it as the same patch that nerfed it also made it available as a cross class skill, so surely they had SMN and SCH in mind when they nerfed it (WHM has Holy). It was made a cross skill as a they removed lightning because it was too op for SMN at the time.

[UBERHAXED]

Doubt it as the same patch that nerfed it also made it available as a cross class skill, so surely they had SMN and SCH in mind when they nerfed it (WHM has Holy). It was made a cross skill as a they removed lightning because it was too op for SMN at the time.

They couldn't make it obvious that Tri-Disaster (as it was named at the time) was useless. But the reason was to fix the AoE imbalance. Of course, it went without saying that the end result didn't quite go as expected (they simultaneously changed timings for UI and AF) and we ended up using a "rotation" that just consisted of Flare (i.e.):
Fire 3 -> (Fire II filler) -> Flare -> Transpose -> (mana tick + 2 seconds) -> Flare -> Flare -> Transpose -> (mana tick + 2 seconds) -> Flare -> Flare -> Transpose -> (mana tick + 2 seconds) -> Flare -> Flare -> Transpose -> ad infinitum...

[Atoli]

I hate Ice II with a passion, that's why I'm so glad it sucks so much for BLM that I could literally throw the skill away (from my hotbar)
I never saw it used anywhere since 2013 (because ARR was new and people were still figuring stuff out), but I don't really play SMN so I don't consider myself an expert on this x)
Just saying that I never saw other SMNs in df use it. Which doesn't have to mean anything, we all know randoms often suck.
But yeah, if I was tanking, I'd hate you using Ice II as well. Maybe I'm a bad tank, but I can't see shit when it is used. I have no problem with AoE circles from DRK, NIN, BRD and the like, only slight trouble with gigantic explosions from WHM and BLM, but Ice II makes all of my ground vanish and I hate it