Big Bang, an useless skill?

I saw most of the builds max Big Bang at late 18x.

It is still that useless cause of its charged time even though it is buffed in Ascension?

People only use Big Bang whenever he jump down the platform or climb ladder.

So it is not SP-wise to max Big Bang 1st, or even the last skill to max, since we spend most of the times spamming CL/Para/AR at early 4th job, right?

It's very situational. Like you said it's only useful whenever you can precast it like jumping down or while you're waiting for pap to wake up.

It's a 35% buff to Mist Explosion. Otherwise it's pretty meh.

I could be wrong, since all of my knowledge on fourth job mages comes from other people, rather than first-hand experience, but Big Bang is pretty crappy unless fully charged. It might serve as a decent beginning to any spell combination the player wants to let off, but since mages can't teleport while they're charging skills, Big Bang's usefulness is rather limited.

Well, the other skills benefit us more, and personally I would like a skill that boost my overall damage than ANOTHER attacking skill, but it's a nice skill to have.

Fire/Poison mages benefit from the Damage Over Time it gives.

Bishops without AR benefit too.

Ice/Lightings just lol with it.

I don't find it useless at all. Before Ascension it was a way for me to break the 999,999 damage cap. Not sure if I'll still use it as much after Ascension though.

I saw most of the builds max Big Bang at late 18x.

It is still that useless cause of its charged time even though it is buffed in Ascension?

People only use Big Bang whenever he jump down the platform or climb ladder.

So it is not SP-wise to max Big Bang 1st, or it is the last skill to max, since we spend most of the times spamming CL/Para/AR at early 4th job, right?

Actually I/L won't even max their big bang and F/P would probably do the same.

1 SP isn't that bad for 120/121 but its more optional than it was for big bang/chaos.

I think one of the only useful means for big bang was F/P at lhc when they were fire weak.

Off the top of my head, big bang for bishops is pretty useful during times where the spawn exceeds angel ray's capacity, when the ground is uneven (especially in Ascension), or even for mob control. I maxed big bang right after angel ray. Now that advanced blessing is here, big bang will have to be maxed a bit later than before.

It's very situational. Like you said it's only useful whenever you can precast it like jumping down or while you're waiting for pap to wake up.

So, i think add 1 point in it is more than enough for this situation.

Ice/Lightings just lol with it.

Kinda agree with you. Being a 4th I/L, i found out i use CL more frequently than all other skills, although i had some point in my BB here.

Sometimes i will face a bunch of mobs at the bottom, but i rather choose ice strike instead of BB to kill em.

I still think Big Bang is worth maxing. Instead I left Meteor at 19 since I still hit the damage cap with it there.

I still think Big Bang is worth maxing. Instead I left Meteor at 19 since I still hit the damage cap with it there.

But definitely not until late 16x, right?

There are bunch of useful skills to add before BB, like buff mastery, para, ME, Arcane Aim and Infinity.

Being able to cast it while on the air makes it quite useful to hit places you were unable to with other skills.

But definitely not until late 16x, right?

There are bunch of useful skills to add before BB, like buff mastery, para, ME, Arcane Aim and Infinity.

Yeah. Probably later into 17x or 18x actually.

Speaking as an I/L, I find Big Bang to be fairly useless. It's only decent when jumping down from a platform.

I know BB is primarily used by F/P AMs as an additional source of DoT:
1) Is there a difference in the DoT when casting it uncharged vs. fully charged?
2) Is it better in terms of DPS to cast it uncharged or fully charged? (i.e., When bossing, should we just tap the key so that the DoT is applied, or is it worth the time to charge it up all the way since we have to cast it anyway?)