Question about Ice Paradox

[LilimoLimomo]

I've heard a lot of folks lamenting Dawntrail's changes to BLM, and as a longtime BLM myself I've understood most of them. The only one I haven't really understood is the loss of Ice Paradox. But it was one of the more common critiques, so I'm guessing I'm the one that's missing something. I want to understand what I'm missing.

So, some context on my experience in case that helps: in Dawntrail, I've found the single-target Fire Phase to feel a bit cramped unless there's very little happening in the fight. Because of that, my Ice Phase has become the time when I try to unload Xenoglossies. So those give me movement ability during my Ice Phase, and with little else to do in my Ice Phase I haven't felt the need to elongate the phase further. So right now, there's a part of me that wonders if I'll even be casting Ice Paradox, or if it will generally make sense to keep my Ice Phase shorter so that fully-prepped Fire Phases can have more uptime.

Maybe the benefit is something "non-standard"? I'm not well-versed in that aspect of BLM.

I'm guessing I'm missing some value that Ice Paradox provides, and I'd be appreciative if someone could explain what that is. Especially since we have this tool back now, and I'd like to make the most of it. Thanks to anyone kind enough to spell this out for me!

[dairymoose]

It's just a math problem. To see if ice paradox is worth using, you need to see what your average potency per second is in fire phase for a given action. If ice paradox's potency per second is greater than an average fire action, it's worth using. I didn't math it out but right now the recommended ice phase is blizzard 3, blizzard 4, ice paradox, transpose, fire 3 firestarter proc.
They wouldn't recommend this unless ice paradox has higher average pps versus fire actions.

[LilimoLimomo]

To see if ice paradox is worth using, you need to see what your average potency per second is in fire phase

Ahh, that's where I was going wrong: for some reason I was thinking of potency per action instead of per second. Thanks for helping nudge me past that mistake!

[Poppet]

If it costs you a Flare Star you need to drop Ice Paradox to reach it. Possibly plural.

It's generally a dps gain though. But the ideal usage is just as a finisher before a boss leaves. So ideally you're dropping an ice paradox to use an ice paradox later at a more ideal time.

[Retsu90]

ice paradox is a great opener jic. Fire3 to switch to Fire4 pop Fire paradox Continue the chain until you pop Firestarter and Despair, and hit Ice3. Pop Xenos, Thunders, and Ice4 before using Ice paradox to lead into Fire3. Ultimately, Ice paradox is there because you should really be sitting on Ice phase between encounters.