Honestly, even though I will still probably continue BLM (albeit disgruntledly), I am mad that even with this completely unwanted overhaul of casts and removal of having a failstate (which diminishes the enjoyment of performing it correctly)...

...they somehow couldn't even be consistent with this update and at least fix the other AOE spells. Fire II, High Fire II, Blizzard II and High Blizzard II are all spells that have a cast time of 3s, where they even moved Flare and Freeze down to 2s. Not only that, instead of reverting the potencies like they were back in Endwalker when they FIXED their uselessness for having too little potency, they kept the potencies AND cast time that ultimately made them useless again since Dawntrail's launch. They couldn't even reinstate the Flare-synergy of Fire II/High Fire II.

That and Scathe still exists in this poor state. The 100 potency made sense back in ARR when Fire I was 150 base potency and Fire III was 200(?). The fact it is still this weak AND even costs MP (which severely messes up both Fire and Ice cycles) is mindblowing.

Also that Leyline duration nerf was just uncalled for.