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Freeze is a Black Mage Black Mage spell from Final Fantasy XIV that deals damage area of effect (AoE) damage and grants Umbral Ice III.

Mechanics[]

PvE version
Freeze from Final Fantasy XIV icon Freeze
Black Mage Black Mage 35
Spell
Job action
Effects
  • Deals magic ice damage to target and nearby enemies
  • Grants up to three stacks of Umbral Ice for 15 seconds and removes all stacks of Astral Fire, represented on the Elemental Gauge
  • Umbral Ice initially allows only two stacks when Freeze is learned; this is not indicated in Freeze's tooltip
  • Activates the global cooldown
Interactions
  • Astral Fire and Umbral Ice variably affect the MP costs, potencies, and cast times of Fire- and Ice-elemental spells; see below for more information
  • Enochian Enochian increased damage by 15%; can only be used under the effect of Umbral Ice or Astral Fire, and ends if neither effect is active
  • Blizzard IV Blizzard IV and Umbral Soul Umbral Soul can only be used under the effect of both Umbral Ice and Enochian
  • Triplecast Triplecast reduces the cast time of the next three spells to instant for 15 seconds
  • Swiftcast Swiftcast reduces the next spell's cast time to instant for 10 seconds
  • Surecast Surecast allows spells to be cast without interruption for 6 seconds
Traits
Base direct damage formula:

Where Trait can be 1.1 with Maim and Mend or 1.3 with Maim and Mend II.
Cast time formula:

Where Astral Fire Mod is 0.5 during Astral Fire III or 1 otherwise.
Recast time formula:
PvP version
Freeze PvP from Final Fantasy XIV icon Freeze
PvPBlack Mage Black Mage 30
Spell
Job action
Effects
Interactions
  • Umbral Ice reduces the cast and recast time of all spells by 20%
  • Enochian Enochian activates automatically when under the effect of Umbral Ice or Astral Fire, and ends if neither effect is active
  • Enochian becomes Blizzard IV Blizzard IV under the effect of Umbral Ice
  • Swiftcast Swiftcast reduces the next spell's cast time to instant for 5 seconds
  • Phantom Dart Phantom Dart causes target to take 20% increased damage from all sources for 6 seconds
Umbral Ice and Astral Fire effects
Effect MP regen Ice spells Fire spells All spells
MP cost Potency Cast time MP cost Potency Cast time Cast/recast time
Umbral Ice x16 x0.75 x0.5 x0.9
Umbral Ice II x23.5 x0.75 x0.25 x0.8
Umbral Ice III x31 x0 x0.25
(Aspect Mastery x0)
x0.7 x0.5
PvP Umbral Ice x0.8
Astral Fire x0 x0.5 x0.9 x2 x1.4
Astral Fire II x0 x0.25 x0.8 x2 x1.6
Astral Fire III x0 x0.25
(Aspect Mastery x0)
x0.7 x0.5 x2 x1.8
PvP Astral Fire x1.2

Use[]

Freeze deals light damage to the target and nearby enemies while instantly putting the Black Mage at full stacks of Umbral Ice. In addition, it removes Astral Fire in the same cast. This eliminates the need to ramp up Umbral Ice with Blizzard II Blizzard II and Transpose Transpose, immediately maximizing the Black Mage's MP regeneration.

When initially unlocked, Freeze provides the Black Mage's strongest burst AoE damage output at four or more targets for essentially no cost, as Umbral Ice III's MP regeneration greatly outstrips the MP cost. Even at three targets it is only marginally worse than cycling through Astral Fire phases. Until level 50 it and Thunder II Thunder II should be the only spells Black Mages use for AoE situations, with no need to switch back into Astral Fire. Once Black Mages unlock Flare Flare, they will want to start cycling into Astral Fire rotations again in order to end them with Flare.

PvP[]

Umbral Ice functions differently in PvP as it now lowers cast and recast times by 20% and no longer regenerates MP. To compensate, Freeze itself has no MP cost and now grants 2000 MP for each enemy hit, potentially allowing a well-placed Freeze to completely refill the user's MP in a single cast.

Patch history[]

Version Changes
A Realm Reborn Added at 20 potency, 3.5s cast time, and 20% base MP cost.
Dealt damage in a targeted area, rather than around a targeted enemy.
Inflicted Bind Bind for 15s, preventing movement.
Granted the Umbral Ice Umbral Ice status for 10s, or removed the Astral Fire Astral Fire status.
Patch 2.1 Potency increased to 100.
Cast time reduced to 3s.
Patch 2.35 Bind duration lowered to 12s in PvP.
Patch 3.2 Umbral Ice duration increased to 12s.
Patch 3.4 Bind duration lowered to 8s in PvP.
Stormblood Umbral Ice and Astral Fire are now part of the Elemental Gauge and are no longer represented by status effects.
Umbral Ice duration increased to 13s.
No longer available in PvP. New PvP exclusive version added. See below for its patch history.
Shadowbringers MP cost set at 1000 with MP system overhaul.
Cast time reduced to 2.5s.
Now deals damage around a targeted enemy.
No longer inflicts Bind.
Now grants Umbral Ice III and removes Astral Fire in the same cast.
Umbral Ice III duration increased to 15s.
Level 68 trait Enhanced Freeze Enhanced Freeze added, granting an Umbral Heart upon casting Freeze.
PvP version
Version Changes
Stormblood Added with 2000 potency, 2.8s cast time, and 2.3s recast.
Had 25% reduced potency for the second enemy hit, 50% for the third, and 75% for all remaining enemies.
Inflicted Bind for 4s.
Umbral Ice reduced cast and recast times by 10%.
Could only be cast while under the effect of Umbral Ice and Polyglot, replacing Foul Foul. Polyglot ended upon use.
Patch 4.3 Potency reduced to 1500.
Bind duration lowered to 2s.
Shadowbringers Potency increased to 1600.
Potency dropoff removed.
Cast time reduced to 2s.
Recast time increased to 30s.
Now grants 2000 MP for each enemy hit.
No longer requires Polyglot.
Shared a recast timer with Flare Flare.
Patch 5.1 Potency reduced to 800.
Recast time lowered to 2.4s.
No longer inflicts Bind.
No longer requires Umbral Ice.
No longer tied to Foul.
No longer shares a recast timer with Flare.
Patch 5.2 Potency increased to 1200.
Patch 5.3 Umbral Ice cast and recast time reduction increased to 20%.

Behind the scenes[]

Original 1.0 version[]

Freeze icon (Legacy).

Freeze appeared as an ability in the legacy version. At the initial release, Freeze was a spell learned by Conjurers at rank 44. The spell cost 4 action points to set and 100 MP to use. When used, the ability dealt massive ice damage to all enemies within an area of effect.

Freeze hotkey used after patch 1.21 (Legacy).

After patch 1.20, the Conjurer class lost the ability to use Freeze and the spell was transferred to the Black Mage job. The ability remained a high level ice-elemental spell, however the ability only attacked a single target and reduced enmity. In addition, the ability received a new spell animation.

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