BLM unneeded skills

[Garotte14]

So as I get a better understanding of this job I find that there are some skills that you hardly ever use. Before I put them on my aux bar for those skills that may be needed seldom if ever I want to check with more experienced BLMs. Of course I am referring to higher level play.
To me these are of no real use: Blizzard, Thunder, Sleep, Aetherial Manipulation.

So, is it safe to assume that if I just set these aside there will be no major loss of any kind? Are there others?

Also, how do I use Blizzard II effectively? or does it belong to the above list?

A lot of what has been said in the thread is incorrect. Some of it is, but a lot of what I read just is not.

1) As most have said, Aetherial Manipulation is a must. No arguments on that one. Learn to use it.

2) Thunder II should not be on your hotbar. There is absolutely no reason to ever use this. Use Thunder for your DoT and Thunder III for procs. Everyone got this right as well.

3) Blizzard should be on your hotbar. As someone said, this is not just for screw ups. This should be used as a filler when you use a Thundercloud proc toward the end of your Astral Fire. You don't want to Thundercloud > Fire IV > Blizzard III > Thunder > Blizzard IV. You just completely negated almost all of the Thundercloud potency by doing that.

4) Lethargy is not the same as Blizzard. Even though they both apply a heavy, Lethargy is off the global cooldown. Therefore Lethargy > Blizzard if you need it for the heavy; which there are plenty of instances where this comes in handy.

5) There is no need to use Blizzard II once you have Freeze. Freeze is far better. Although it is very situational when you use it, choose Freeze over Blizz II.

6) Virus can still be very useful in certain situations. You will have healers who have virus, but if you're running an Astro than you only have 1 other person with Virus. When fighting multiple targets, you can each Virus a mob so the Antivirus argument doesn't apply.

All in all, the skills you shouldn't have on your hotbar are Blizzard II, Thunder II and Sleep. (For PvE) A skilled BLM can make good use of every other skill in our arsenal.

[randysquirrel]

4) Lethargy is not the same as Blizzard. Even though they both apply a heavy, Lethargy is off the global cooldown. Therefore Lethargy > Blizzard if you need it for the heavy; which there are plenty of instances where this comes in handy.

Don't forget tho, the Heavy applied by Blizzard is twice as strong as Lethergy. I can literally only remember one time where I was asked to handle heavying something (a8s, heals were busy doing other things) and lethargy slow wasn't even strong enough to make a difference (slowing the two balls that cant hit middle at same time)

[ZhaneX]

Sleep is pretty useful for soloing FATEs and such.

[Shurrikhan]

None of the skills go completely unneeded in all situations. Based on your rotation, downtime (esp. during UI), attack speed, and max mana, any version of Thunder may see use. Sleep still has uses in PvP, though generally none in endgame PvE. Aetherial Manipulation is amazing. Surecast and a couple other oGCDs take up a proportionately higher amount of uptime as spell speed increases, but have situational use primarily has accelerated hit-scans, usually for triggering Firestarter.

Could all of those abilities' functions be put, still distinctly, into a single bar of spells? Sure. But the intentional limiters put on macros would make that difficult until the system is revised. And I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Lilyth]

Just wanna point out that Blizzard *can* indeed be useful on single targets after level 60.

Sometimes you'll get a Tcloud proc and will only be able to use it during AF (which means it'll tick for the entire UI rotation and a bit more). In this scenario, if you get a slow mana tick, you'll have to use a filler after B4 or you won't be at full MP after F3. Since you just used a Tcloud, thunder is still ticking so your only options is Blizzard (or /mdance).

[AlphaFox]

As for thunder 2, you can remove it from your bar but what I would recommend is using a macro for it with Thunder 3.

/micon "Thunder III"
/ac "Thunder III"
/ac "Thunder II"

Least that way if you get sync'd down you can still use Thunder 2 in the case of a proc but you still save up a slot. Will attempt to cast Thunder 3, if it can't (because of MP or level) will cast 2.

[chocopoko]

As for thunder 2, you can remove it from your bar but what I would recommend is using a macro for it with Thunder 3.

/micon "Thunder III"
/ac "Thunder III"
/ac "Thunder II"

Least that way if you get sync'd down you can still use Thunder 2 in the case of a proc but you still save up a slot. Will attempt to cast Thunder 3, if it can't (because of MP or level) will cast 2.

this is pretty good advice! will do this. thanks!

[AlphaFox]

Not sure what you mean, I'd assume you would just make the Macro then drag it to the spot on your controller you'd want it to be. However I am PC, never touch controller play.

[Cherub]

Do
/ac "Spellname" <t>
You HAVE to do the <t> (attack target) or it won't work. Well, at least it would never for me. Then it will just cast the action on the enemy you are currently targetting.