BLM: Endgame guide and rotations

All Fire spell cast times are reduced if you are in Umbral Ice III, and all Ice spell cast times are reduced if you are in Astral Fire III.

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Originally Posted by Pacifyer

I am aware of this rotation and it is a bit better than one I listed in my post DPS-wise. However this rotation has some flaws:
- It is a direct using of a flaw in game coding which will probably be removed at some point
- Many people will fail timing for the first Flare cast and will end up w/o mana until Transpose goes off CD thus losing DPS and blaming me for it.

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I believed what they fixed was how the spell you cast after switching over would still be under the effect. I.E. you are in UI3 and you cast Fire3 to switch to AF3 but if you immediately cast Fire 3 again, it is fast casted as if you were still under UI3. However, you are right and I'm not sure if that is really a flaw or not but for now it does work wonders.

As for the timing, I agree completely. As for blaming you, thats pretty sad to point the finger at you when they are the ones who mistimed. But you are right, I've had a few times that I mistimed the Flare and I'm left OOM and having to wait a few seconds cause Transpose is on CD. It's a big risk but once you get the rotation going its awesome :)

Yes Fire1 will cast faster while under the effects of Umbral Ice3. BUT you are STILL limited to the GCD, which means you finish early, but cant cast spells till the full 2.5 have passed.

That is why it's not better to wait. (with a 40% chance to go off every spell, its pretty good DPS to use)

Instead of waiting to see the Fire3 proc, i just move (to cancel the spell) and hit Fire3.

Since you would have to cut out that dmg in the wait, might as well preemptive every fire1, as u wait to see.

If you waited or not, the GCD doesnt go off till you hit that Fire3, with the same delay in both cases.

The only real issue, is making sure u dont get too comfortable hitting Fire1, and letting it finish. (As I'm still trained to do, even though I know not to.)

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Originally Posted by Holyhunter

BLM is severely gimped without quelling strikes. No quelling strikes basically means you have to force yourself to not do the full damage possible

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You have some shitty tanks or you start casting Fire III before the tank even pulls. (like so many BLMs do.) Try starting with Blizzard III->thunder II->Fire III , then you can unload on him while getting a free thunder in there. If may be less DPS at first but that beginning is where tanks establish hate. if youre fighting for it in the beginning then its harder for the tank to keep it. I dont have an issue with hate either way, but ive been a PLD since day 1, but there are alot of new tanks, especially WARs. You can help them by starting your BLM rotation with BIII->THII. Unfortunaltely, WAR is the "flavor of the month job" as more ppl are playing them since the patch. That being said they are mostly new ppl to tanking in general...

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Originally Posted by TitanACU

See above

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Did you just say the best way to do "full damage possible" is by lowering your DPS at the start to help a weaker tank keep hate? Can you not see the contradiction?

Why not use quelling strikes and raging strikes from the start? I don't think that will create hate issues for tanks.

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Originally Posted by Peptaru

Did you just say the best way to do "full damage possible" is by lowering your DPS at the start to help a weaker tank keep hate? Can you not see the contradiction?

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So you think that 2 moves in the beginning is less DPS than holding back the entire fight? The method above is actually recommended by some of the best BLMs out there. Unless you know your tank, then its advised to use it or you will be nerfing yourself. Keep in mind that this method is intended for ppl without quelling strikes or for when its on CD. (Which is why i replied to a specific person who said Quelling Strikes was essential.....)

i find this whole "rotation guide" thing very silly.

keep dots up, switch to ice stuff when you run low on mana. spam fire 1.

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Originally Posted by TitanACU

So you think that 2 moves in the beginning is less DPS than holding back the entire fight? The method above is actually recommended by some of the best BLMs out there. Unless you know your tank, then its advised to use it or you will be nerfing yourself. Keep in mind that this method is intended for ppl without quelling strikes or for when its on CD. (Which is why i replied to a specific person who said Quelling Strikes was essential.....)

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BLM without Quelling Strikes is bad imo lol.

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Originally Posted by TitanACU

So you think that 2 moves in the beginning is less DPS than holding back the entire fight? The method above is actually recommended by some of the best BLMs out there. Unless you know your tank, then its advised to use it or you will be nerfing yourself. Keep in mind that this method is intended for ppl without quelling strikes or for when its on CD. (Which is why i replied to a specific person who said Quelling Strikes was essential.....)

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I didn't say it was useless, but you can lose at least 700 damage doing this instead of maximizing damage. The information you posted in response to the quote you posted, was supposed to be correcting what a person said, but you corrected them by supporting what they said.... logic fail.

What the person said is that Quelling strikes is needed to maximize potential DPS; it's true.

Quelling Strike is not needed to maximize DPS. If you're stealing agro you just have a bad tank. For example, I'm i89 and I've ran Turn 4 with PLD's at i80 and they don't lose agro to the Soldier's in the second phase, nor do they lose agro to the bugs yet I've ran with i90 PLD's and WAR's who just aren't very good and lose agro to the Soldier's constantly.

Quelling Strike is only useful when your tank sucks. If they're decent you have no need for it.

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Originally Posted by Akirakogami

i find this whole "rotation guide" thing very silly.

keep dots up, switch to ice stuff when you run low on mana. spam fire 1.

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It's this kind of thing that makes people write guides like this. BLM is not BRD, they don't play the same way. Rotation guides are necessary when a lot of people don't know how to play their class. I've seen plenty of BRD and SMN who don't keep their dots up and they'd do well with a guide for those classes, too.

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Originally Posted by SirGazuntai

Quelling Strike is not needed to maximize DPS. If you're stealing agro you just have a bad tank. For example, I'm i89 and I've ran Turn 4 with PLD's at i80 and they don't lose agro to the Soldier's in the second phase, nor do they lose agro to the bugs yet I've ran with i90 PLD's and WAR's who just aren't very good and lose agro to the Soldier's constantly.

Quelling Strike is only useful when your tank sucks. If they're decent you have no need for it.

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I know for a fact that I can steal hate with a crapton of frontloaded damage on a soldier in T4. It isn't optimal to do it, so we don't do it, but good tank or bad its easy to rip hate early. If you want to hit the ground running at full speed, there is no way around quelling strikes. That's why when we build rotations we usually open slowly so we can unload more consistently and safely as the fights progress. We being.. well.. all of us who aren't silly; me, you, any respectable blm.

QS is a nice skill but the additional 700 dps is not worth leveling a bard just to get quelling strikes, imo. I throw swift t3 (for boss battles) or start with t2 before i fire the enemy up to let the tank build agro. When i'm getting agro, i switch on another target just to cool things down a little. This is what i do for t4 or garuda EM. So there's an alternative if you don't have the skill yet. If you do, use it please. + BLM's DPS is dependent on RNG unlike other dps jobs. 3-5 crit procs can make a huge difference both in dmg and enmity.

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Originally Posted by kenventa

QS is a nice skill but the additional 700 dps is not worth leveling a bard just to get quelling strikes, imo. I throw swift t3 (for boss battles) or start with t2 before i fire the enemy up to let the tank build agro. When i'm getting agro, i switch on another target just to cool things down a little. This is what i do for t4 or garuda EM. So there's an alternative if you don't have the skill yet. If you do, use it please. + BLM's DPS is dependent on RNG unlike other dps jobs. 3-5 crit procs can make a huge difference both in dmg and enmity.

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Not sure if it's just me but quite a lot of people I know view a BLM without QS is being bad.

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Originally Posted by Ooshima

Not sure if it's just me but quite a lot of people I know view a BLM without QS is being bad.

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There are situations where QS can be very useful, I wouldn't call BLM w/o QS bad but they are definitely not as prepared as possible.

For example,
I usually save my QS for the clones at Garuda extreme, so that even if I have a Firestarter proc I don't have to wait for the tank to build initial hate before I fire it off on Chirada as soon as she spawns. Without QS, you won't be able to do so. Same thing for the Egis at Titan extreme.

It is true that a tank should have no problem holding hate against a BLM given the tank is reasonably geared, even if the BLM pop Raging Strike right off the bat and go for the maximum damage rotation. But that is no excuse for a BLM to not better prepare himself by leveling up Archer and give yourself a useful skill even if it's only situational at best, since your alternative would be Ruin and Hawk's Eye.

This may be a dumb question. Im not online at the moment, but if I remember correctly, the flare ability states that it uses remaining mana. So why cant you get down to 1 mp and use flare still? I tried the other day and I think I had 256 mana, and flare was greyed out and couldnt use it. What am I missing.

Also, just to clarify because I got lost in a sea of arguing, for single target rotations: Should I use flare every time? Or just when I have swift cast, flare, and raging strikes? What about if I only have Swiftcast up, would it be worth to use since it would be instant? Or would there be a dps loss of some sort, since flare without convert would require transpose and the slow mana ticking from UI 1.

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Originally Posted by Kimura410

This may be a dumb question. Im not online at the moment, but if I remember correctly, the flare ability states that it uses remaining mana. So why cant you get down to 1 mp and use flare still? I tried the other day and I think I had 256 mana, and flare was greyed out and couldnt use it. What am I missing.

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There's a minimum amount of mp you need to be able to cast it. I don't recall exactly what it is off the top of my head, but it's around 270 or so.

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Originally Posted by Kimura410

Also, just to clarify because I got lost in a sea of arguing, for single target rotations: Should I use flare every time? Or just when I have swift cast, flare, and raging strikes? What about if I only have Swiftcast up, would it be worth to use since it would be instant? Or would there be a dps loss of some sort, since flare without convert would require transpose and the slow mana ticking from UI 1.

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For single target, the only time Flare is effective to use is when you have both Convert and Swiftcast available. Since that's only once every 5 minutes, I usually don't bother. If you don't have both the casting time is too long for the dps and the regeneration phase afterwards is too slow to maintain the slight dps spike that Flare provided.

Hm this is why I love BLM. So many things people do differently than others. :)

Honestly, the only time I use quelling now days is on Titan egis. On turn 4 and 5 AoE sections, I get the PLD to just use cover on me if I tell him I'm going to go nuts. I almost always steal aggro on the soldiers in the beginning: with or without quelling so it doesn't matter. I pop manawall and nuke it down with the SMN. On snakes in T5, I just switch targets between snakes (if I'm using single target) so that the tank isn't overwhelmed. If I'm AoEing, good luck to him. Usually cover works just fine.

I also prefer to not go into the umbral ice phase without using my firestarter proc. I'll move halfway through the cast if FS procs and use it. I find transpose + fire 3 isn't much of a DPS increase. FS AF3 is our highest damaging ability outside of RS + pot + flares. Might as well make use of it.

is it worth resetting my stats to get 251 piety?
i'm roegadyn hellsguard, as of now i get 249 with sch, someone told me i should increase piety stats by 2 and reduce my 30 bonus int to 28

Wow, my AOE rotation was definitely wrong. Thanks for this thread! That's going to make a big difference. :D

This was a very useful read plus the attached reference link. I main SMN and would like to level up BLM after my WHM. I only have an initial starting rotation and then do regular upkeep in between my other abilities, so I was trying to wrap my hear around what a true rotation would look like.

I'll be sure to reference this when levelling.

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Originally Posted by Qvoth

is it worth resetting my stats to get 251 piety?
i'm roegadyn hellsguard, as of now i get 249 with sch, someone told me i should increase piety stats by 2 and reduce my 30 bonus int to 28

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bumpin myself cuz i'd like to know :(

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Originally Posted by Qvoth

is it worth resetting my stats to get 251 piety?
i'm roegadyn hellsguard, as of now i get 249 with sch, someone told me i should increase piety stats by 2 and reduce my 30 bonus int to 28

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I reset mine to 29 Int 1 Piety to hit 251 with Sch and I like it.

As you'll be losing 2 Int, the other option would be to Pentrameld a Astral Ring with: 8 vit - 6 piety - 9 spell speed - 6 crit - 6 crit

The different between using the Astral Ring vs the rest would be:
-2 Int
-7 Spell Speed
-2 Accu

+8 Vit
+8 Det
+12 Crit
+4 Piety

You could then keep 30 points in Int and use full ilvl90 when no Sch in party.


P.S. You could lose the Vit and meld like this for max dps/+3 SS (or add +3 accu):

6 piety - 6 crit - 6 crit - 6 spell speed - 6 spell speed.

Using flare every Swift is a dps gain in single target but the difference is so little it doesn't really matter. Its biggest advantage is burst and aoe damage, the latter can be bad n certain situations. The wait after transpose ranges from 0-3 sec, averaging about 1.5 sec, and you lose a little under 1 sec on bliz 3 by not having astral fire 3, essentially making it a free 2-2.5 sec cast fire 4. Definitely worth it but you lost a swift cast thunder or fire 3.

Why you would Bliz 3 after a convert and not use that extra mp for another fire 1 is beyond me.

There is no reason to start a fight with bliz 3. You should time your thunder 3 so that it hits right as the tank pulls, then hard cast a fire 3 or swift cast it depending on if you're gonna save it for flare or not.

Quelling strikes is definitely useful for aoe fights with a pld tank. War should no excuse but the only thing a pld can do is spam flash until he runs out of MP, and flash is wholly inferior to overpower and can have trouble keeping aggro off a raging strikes > flare > convert > flare blm. If you are not fighting a pld for aggro on aoe fights, then you are simply not doing as much damage as you should. Ideally, the mobs should be dead before the pld runs out of mp but if they're not, then things can get ugly cuz you can pull aggro if the pld has to riot blade combo. Quelling really helps alleviate this.

Psh you don't need Quelling Strikes! Rip that hate and make the tank feel like a baddie and make the other DPS impressed.

If you start with Thunder II then that will usually be enough time for the tank to get enough hate. Unless you totally out gear him... which is becoming a problem now in DF as the gear gap widens between Coil farmers and the rest of the population.

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Originally Posted by Azoryl

Another tip.... ALWAYS use the last firestarter proc you get before going into Bliz III. I heard some people save it to get back into AF3 faster. That is horrible. Why?

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Why? My guess would be laziness...

When I am in UI3 and have a Fire-Proc up (because of that bad timing/luck i usually get) i transpose before i shoot it, giving it at least some damage it deserves...

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Originally Posted by PenutButter

There is no reason to start a fight with bliz 3. You should time your thunder 3 so that it hits right as the tank pulls, then hard cast a fire 3 or swift cast it depending on if you're gonna save it for flare or not.

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Full Mana when beginning your Fireburst would be a acceptable reason for me... **

but that´s a topic they will discuss eons..

In T8 for example, where you do mostly single target
-> I cast Blizz3 as opener (precast, so it hits exact at the pull)
-> T1 just for the proc-chance and the mp refill
-> Fire3 and there we go...

Thus, I am starting with the DoT up, Full MP and fastest way possible in my Firephase...

In Add phases, like when the Dreadnought spawns, I try to time it to be in UI3, and cast 2 times a T1 on both, instead of one T2 -> DoT Damage on both and increased Proc Chance...

** and for the mathematics who adjust piety so you have right enough MP left to Blizz3 -> T2 without being dependant of the Tick...

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Originally Posted by Aanmer

Psh you don't need Quelling Strikes! Rip that hate and make the tank feel like a baddie and make the other DPS impressed.

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Spoken like a true teamplayer ^^

If you really try to impress, do the "Firework rotation" (name to be copyrighted)

Fire3 -> Flare -> Convert -> Flare -> Transpose -> Flare -> Flare -> Transpose -> Flare -> Flare -> Transpose...

this makes funny shiny lights, unfortunately, most mobs don´t survive ´til i am up for my 4th Flare...

for single target: thunder 3 (time it so your spell hit right after the tank pulls) > swiftcast + fire 3 > raging strike + quelling strike > fire spam for firestarter, use firestarter and quickly weave in Convert, fire until low mp then blizzard 3

Could some of you post your avg. DPS on Turn 6 and 7 with your current iLVL? I'm curious to compare.
My iLVL is around 95-97 (have to "downgrade" to hit the acc cap).
On T6 I hit approx 230-270 dps it really varies depending on if I have the bulb mark or not. If we get Bulb in the middle I spike to 300.
On T7 avg is 240-280. If adds spawn next to Melusine I spike to 350-330.

I don´t use a parser myself... only reference were ~250 dps on Levi Ex last time on i97

for my opinion it was not good, the one with the parser said it was ok, because phase skipping wasn´t optimal... so i guess 300 with a variance of 30 is a good average, depending on how much the fight forces you to move/do no damage and how your procs are coming...

unfortunately, our Class is quite random-affected.

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Originally Posted by IrealiTY

Could some of you post your avg. DPS on Turn 6 and 7 with your current iLVL? I'm curious to compare.
My iLVL is around 95-97 (have to "downgrade" to hit the acc cap).
On T6 I hit approx 230-270 dps it really varies depending on if I have the bulb mark or not. If we get Bulb in the middle I spike to 300.
On T7 avg is 240-280. If adds spawn next to Melusine I spike to 350-330.

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Going by what people have told me I parse.

Last time I killed t6/7 on my alt blm (i97) I did 328 on t6 and 308 on T7.

On my main i105 blm I did 350 on T6 (think my best so far) and can't remember what people said for t7/t8.

1 Bard in each party, though Foes usually only on pull. First time doing t6/t7 with that team on my alt.

Realistically I'd say you should be aiming at 250+ on T6 and T7 and 320+ on T8, to be pulling your weight as a dps. Any higher is just a bonus.

Noob BLM here. I'd have to say that I do follow those rotations, but I've had tanks claiming that my DPS is way too slow. I don't really know if this is actually me or just them. The only difference that I do from the posted rotation is that I use Fire 1 until I'm around 7-800 MP and then I cast Blizzard III and use Thunder III as filler as it ticks well with my mana regen. I usually end up with a full bar of MP to rinse and repeat. I don't have Flare yet, so I don't have my full AoE rotation. I was just wondering what else I could be doing that could be considered "slow" DPS. What should I be pumping out in DMG at Lvl 47? A fireball w/o buffs and astral fire III will do around 5-600 to a normal mob atm which burns right through them. I do know I've been putting all of my points into Intelligence. The only issue that I can possibly see is that I am under-geared, but I was told not to worry about gear until Lvl 50 lol I have most of my relic gear cept for the wizard's coat (ilvl 40).

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

Going by what people have told me I parse.

Last time I killed t6/7 on my alt blm (i97) I did 328 on t6 and 308 on T7.

On my main i105 blm I did 350 on T6 (think my best so far) and can't remember what people said for t7/t8.

1 Bard in each party, though Foes usually only on pull. First time doing t6/t7 with that team on my alt.

Realistically I'd say you should be aiming at 250+ on T6 and T7 and 320+ on T8, to be pulling your weight as a dps. Any higher is just a bonus.

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How often do you use Rage Strikes? Whenever up for the full rotation or only for Flares (during the rotation)? - Trying to find the reasoning for my low dps.

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Originally Posted by IrealiTY

How often do you use Rage Strikes? Whenever up for the full rotation or only for Flares (during the rotation)? - Trying to find the reasoning for my low dps.

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On pull and for the super-slug.

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Originally Posted by LanceValiant

Noob BLM here. I'd have to say that I do follow those rotations, but I've had tanks claiming that my DPS is way too slow.

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Perhaps you should play a disciple of the land? The realm needs laborers too, and you will find miners get less crap from tanks than BLMs.
Thats my plan at least.

Raging Strikes is good to use often but use quelling before ;)
Mass pulls would be a situation were you Raging, as you need the every little bit of dps.
Also if thundercloud procs and Firestarter at the same time it is best to use thundercloud first as there be chances that it can proc again.
Does not happen often but i have already have had Firestarter proc and thundercloud 3 times in a row, it was rather nice :P
What do you have for gear scarebear if i may ask, i have a mix of weathered, myth and allagan atm and currently sit @ ilv94. Just Zenith weapon as well

Currently at i105 with a mix of High Allagan and weathered sol gear, i110 weapon from t7/t8/sol, on main.

On alt i97 or 98, using levi i95 weap, weathered sol gears, mog neck and an i90 ring.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

Currently at i105 with a mix of High Allagan and weathered sol gear, i110 weapon from t7/t8/sol, on main.

On alt i97 or 98, using levi i95 weap, weathered sol gears, mog neck and an i90 ring.

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you play BLM on two different characters?

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Originally Posted by NyneAlexander

you play BLM on two different characters?

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I have 2 chars that both main BLM, yeah :p

Same account lol.

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Originally Posted by MogBeatr

Perhaps you should play a disciple of the land? The realm needs laborers too, and you will find miners get less crap from tanks than BLMs.
Thats my plan at least.

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Nah. I've had a chance to observe my DPS with the last few quests of the main scenario. My DPS is fine, the people saying that it was too slow didn't know what they were talking about lol I might have been under-geared a little bit, but my DPS is fine. I'm having a lot of fun with BLM.