Stone IV looks underwhelming, and Fluid Spit name is bad...

[SenorKanga]

Actually you know what, I take back my opinion a few posts ago - watching the Stone4 cast again the whm's exaggerated arm gestures make up for nothing flying directly out from your hand. Maybe I'll learn to love it

[Angel_Corlux]

Haha Yesssss. How amazing would it have been to summon an asteroid from a portal to space? lol I know they wouldn't do that because it would probably conflict with the Astrologian lore/design, but would've been amazing and an interesting new way to summon asteroids apart from the series tradition of the Black Mage huge fire ball of death.

[Gemina]

Yeah ok you took a screenshot in the exact split second where the stones explode, making it look cooler than it is. Nice job. And I don't know obviously, but that absolutely does not look like an AOE spell. And as for your question...YES. This is Final Freaking Fantasy, master of the game world for beautiful and awe-inspiring magic. Maybe not a mountain, but they should be making it so powerful that they themselves have to take a look at it again and go "ok you guys, we need to tone it down...a bit".

This is Stone FOUR. It should be an amazing looking spell. Let me earn my lvl 70 White Mage and have amazing power to show for it, just like any other class in the game.

Would it have been better if I posted a gif slowed down to 50%? Would it have made any difference? I'm guessing no based off of your response.

Yes, this is a final fantasy game. Yes, magic has always been a big part of the franchise. And yes, that is stone IV. We don't need to put the animation of it on the same level as an LB3 for it to qualify as such. Don't worry, once you get 50+ and start acquiring your heavensward abilities, you will indeed feel very powerful.

[zXr]

My only complaint is that stone 4 looks just like a brick wall exploding.

It would be good if it actually was a ton of giant rocks exploding.

Not really fussed tbh just an observation

As a WHM main I approve of being able to make a Brick Wall Explode! -- as a BLM dual main I feel saddened that Ley Lines is still a stationary grounded buff.

[BroodingFicus]

I've always felt a bit underwhelmed by WHM spell aesthetics overall to be honest. Especially since Astro came into the picture but even Scholar has a much more defined aesthetic. We're supposed to be hugely connected to nature so I keep expecting to see our heals with falling leaves, flowers, etc or for our kit overall to just be more elemental but instead its just run of the mill magic effects 90% of the time. Stone has always sorta been the exception to that but I feel like we've also seen so many versions of it that its no longer thrilling to just give us arguably more impressive rocks. You can do that more easily with things like BLM fire spells because...fire is naturally impressive. Rocks? That takes more effort and I don't feel the spells I'm seeing for WHM are near as spectacular looking as the other healers/casters. I mean did you see the new AST move where they summon some kind of a sky plane with constellations? It makes WHM look like a magician at a five year old's birthday in comparison. XD

People have been talking about lack luster WHM effects since...forever. Unfortunately, at least to me, it's always felt like they were sorta forced into their bland look to make sure the other two healers could be different/special in comparison.

[Kethic]

...I want this.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Stone IV looks like a coffin.
SCH has ballistic missiles.
AST has some kind of mega holy thing that's more than likely AOE Combust.

So. Coffin vs missiles vs holy on crack. Yeeeeeah.

[Nestama]

Haha Yesssss. How amazing would it have been to summon an asteroid from a portal to space? lol I know they wouldn't do that because it would probably conflict with the Astrologian lore/design, but would've been amazing and an interesting new way to summon asteroids apart from the series tradition of the Black Mage huge fire ball of death.

It would also conflict with CNJ and BLM lore. Stone is manipulating the earth itself (or something along those lines. I'll need to look into CNJ lore again) and the spell Meteor is how the Black Mage Job was founded. Also, the pose in that gif is kinda similar to the Meteor casting animation...

[Shougun]

Reminds me of some of the older stuff, could have a few fancy bits added to it though so its less like a square punching a hole through the ground in a perfect way lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwQfEkDXE80
https://youtu.be/nU5erJB3-To?t=26s

The FF7 one where it just has a tad bit more might be enough (well, its much larger lol, and has a sphere base)? But the very polygon like rock thing is in quite a few other FF games too, maybe just too perfectly square here?

Less square like one: https://youtu.be/KRnneZSZqBA?t=5s (Stone VI)

[kattzkitti]

Reminds me of some of the older stuff, could have a few fancy bits added to it though so its less like a square punching a hole through the ground in a perfect way lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwQfEkDXE80
https://youtu.be/nU5erJB3-To?t=26s

The FF7 one where it just has a tad bit more might be enough (well, its much larger lol, and has a sphere base)? But the very polygon like rock thing is in quite a few other FF games too, maybe just too perfectly square here?

Less square like one: https://youtu.be/KRnneZSZqBA?t=5s (Stone VI)

Quake III in the first linked vid looks exactly like how Stone IV should have been here. It looks like an improved and refined version of Stone II, which would fit better with the progression of the Stone spells. Stone III is basically an improved and refined version of Stone (although again, in my personal opinion Stone has the best animation of all four of them).