Quote Originally Posted by Renius View Post
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.