BLM macros

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

"just half a second longer" for many on here would be a big negative on it's own.

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But like I said, that only occurs when I need to hardcast flare when swiftcast is cooling. Those same people that care so much about "half a second" would most likely be the same people who would never hardcast flare. And as I mentioned, I rarely hardcast it; the only time I hardcast flare is when I'm halfassing it on trash mobs

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

You need to run with better healers. That's a period at the end of that sentence.

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That's like saying "tanks don't need to use their damage mitigation cooldowns; they just need to run with better healers." Better hope you never get me as your healer, because I won't heal you when you have such an asinine attitude.

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

You need to run with better healers. That's a period at the end of that sentence.

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It has nothing to do with healers lol...it's about utility and maximizing DPS.

You use them to minimize or completely negate high damage, one-shot, or knockback attacks so that you can simply stand in place and continue DPSing.

The only macro I use on BLM is /ac "Aetherial Manipulation <4> (healer), keybound to one of my mouse buttons, so I don't have to mouse over anyone, I don't have to click anything, I just push the button, and it zooms be back into the stack on t8 after mines or tower activations, makes you immune to leviathan slam/deck slide so you can keep DPSing, pretty much anything and everything.

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Originally Posted by xEscaflownex

It has nothing to do with healers lol...it's about utility and maximizing DPS.

You use them to minimize or completely negate high damage, one-shot, or knockback attacks so that you can simply stand in place and continue DPSing.

The only macro I use on BLM is /ac "Aetherial Manipulation <4> (healer), keybound to one of my mouse buttons, so I don't have to mouse over anyone, I don't have to click anything, I just push the button, and it zooms be back into the stack on t8 after mines or tower activations, makes you immune to leviathan slam/deck slide so you can keep DPSing, pretty much anything and everything.

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Might actually cut out on maximizing your DPS by taking the extra half second to cast those actions LOL LOL LOL

On a more serious note, thanks for the AM explanation and example, I appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

That's like saying "tanks don't need to use their damage mitigation cooldowns; they just need to run with better healers."

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That's your affirmation, not mine ;)

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Better hope you never get me as your healer, because I won't heal you when you have such an asinine attitude.

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Nice attitude! :)

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

That's your affirmation, not mine ;)

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No, actually, it's yours. It's the exact logic you stated. In fact, it's pretty much exactly what you stated.

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Nice attitude! :)

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Learn not to waste your healer's time and mana and we'll be more willing to heal you. Simple as that.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

No, actually, it's yours. It's the exact logic you stated. In fact, it's pretty much exactly what you stated.

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In fact, it's not.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Learn not to waste your healer's time and mana and we'll be more willing to heal you. Simple as that.

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My main is a healer. If I see someone's hp is low, I heal them, simple as that. Whether it be the person's mistake, the game's doing, or something absolutely unavoidable, I heal them. I. Heal. Them.

Sounds like you're a lackadaisical healer. Shame.

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

Which is ridiculous, because "half seconds" go out the window the moment you have to interrupt casting mid-rotation in order to dodge something, which AM can't handle, when it's on cooldown, or otherwise can't be avoided.

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Reasoning like this is why there are so many hopeless blm's xD

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

Reasoning like this is why there are so many hopeless blm's xD

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It's not theorycrafting, it's truth in reality. What, you never got stuck in the middle of something that was unavoidable in that current moment or are you just impervious to all instances of such? You're not as good as you think you are. Also, mistakes happen. You're not going to be perfect every time you play.

Guess you came out of the womb a perfect BLM too. Tell me, how did they get you out of there with that goofy witch hat?

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

In fact, it's not.

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Read your original statement again. It really is.

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My main is a healer. If I see someone's hp is low, I heal them, simple as that. Whether it be the person's mistake, the game's doing, or something absolutely unavoidable, I heal them. I. Heal. Them.

Sounds like you're a lackadaisical healer. Shame.

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Keep being incompetent. It'll get you far.

Also, I don't think you know what lackadaisical means.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Read your original statement again. It really is.

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No, it really isn't.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Also, I don't think you know what lackadaisical means.

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I do. I don't use words that I don't know the meanings of.

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

It's not theorycrafting, it's truth in reality. What, you never got stuck in the middle of something that was unavoidable in that current moment or are you just impervious to all instances of such? You're not as good as you think you are. Also, mistakes happen. You're not going to be perfect every time you play.

Guess you came out of the womb a perfect BLM too. Tell me, how did they get you out of there with that goofy witch hat?

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Adding delays by using macro's is not unavoidable wasted time.

You don't personally know how good or bad I am at playing BLM.

You came to this forum asking for help, then once advice is given by multiple people you act all "I know best" / "know it all".

It's a poor attitude to have.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

Adding delays by using macro's is not unavoidable wasted time.

You don't personally know how good or bad I am at playing BLM.

You came to this forum asking for help, then once advice is given by multiple people you act all "I know best" / "know it all".

It's a poor attitude to have.

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You're right. Thanks for putting it into perspective.

While I feel like OP is arguing just to argue, there still might be some questions unanswered for newer players.

My two cents:

1) Macroing Swiftcast
Pretty much useless. Along with being slightly slower than manually casting, you will usually be running into 1 of the following situations:
- Large pulls of AOE (think brayflox HM speedruns). If you're doing a double / triple flare at the end, you want swiftcast for the last flare. Thus, the macro isn't going to save any keybind / help.
- Single target prolonged fight without much movement. In this case it's fine
- Single target fight that requires movement (EX primals, new coil, etc). That macro again just uses up keybind as you will need to use swiftcast separately.


2) Macroing Defensive CDs (Manawall, Manaward, Aposcatastasis, Eye for an Eye, Virus)
As a BLM, it depends on if you're doing progression content (relative to each person) or not. If it's farm content or if the group is overgeared, do whatever you want with cooldowns.
However if it's a new fight, every one of these -ARE- useful and needs to be used separately (i.e. not macroed). Many wipes will happen when there's unexpected burst going onto your tank or huge AOE that hits DPS because the fight is unfamiliar.
Helping out as much as you can with these CDs (virus on adds, eye for an eye for incoming burst phases, manawall and manaward so the healer doesn't need to heal you at all) so that your group can progress should be expected from everyone.


3) Macroing Aetherial Manipulation
You want to use this most whenever there's forced movement and stacking (think Ifrit/Titan EX, Turn 6, 8, 9, etc).
However this spell is quite hard to use in time without macros (finding a player to jump to, switching target to them, use, and then switching back to boss). Find a macro that works for you, such as the mouseover and get used to it.

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

I do. I don't use words that I don't know the meanings of.

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Except you did. Having no tolerance for idiots is not the same as "being lazy" nor is anything I said remotely close to "being lazy."

Anyway, you're clearly not here to learn how to be better at Black Mage. All you're hear to do is say "I'm right and you're wrong" and ignore the multitude of Black Mages telling you how wrong you are.

In fact, with your "all 4 defensive abilities shoved into one macro to just be thrown up all at once because 'why not? i don't need to use them at specific times to reduce damage taken and reduce the load on the healers'" is a very "lackadaisical" attitude on your own part, with you being the only one exhibiting such an attitude in this thread. :)

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Except you did.

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Except I didn't.

LOL @ all of everything you wrote.

I'm not taking a "I'm right, you're wrong attitude", only with you. I'm here to learn and have learned a lot so far and still have more to learn. My playstyle may be different and one day I may change it after playing the job enough.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Having no tolerance for idiots is not the same as "being lazy" nor is anything I said remotely close to "being lazy."

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A tank should use cooldowns so he can take in more damage, that's what tanks do.
A healer should heal someone's hp, because that's what they do and that's what the party relies on.
A DPS should deal damage lol. I don't expect them to be using cooldowns to prevent damage. The only thing I expect, is to know the fight and dodge when necessary. Sure I suppose it's nice if a BLM would mitigate damage when applicable from a healer's perspective, but not every class has access to cooldowns like that and I really don't find it necessary. I just heal. If a BLM took a hit, because Manawall wasn't up, I don't yell at them and insist they use cooldowns, nor do I blame defeat on such a thing. I. Heal. Them.

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Originally Posted by blackermage

3) Macroing Aetherial Manipulation
You want to use this most whenever there's forced movement and stacking (think Ifrit/Titan EX, Turn 6, 8, 9, etc).
However this spell is quite hard to use in time without macros (finding a player to jump to, switching target to them, use, and then switching back to boss). Find a macro that works for you, such as the mouseover and get used to it.

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The most helpful, honest, and humble advice-giver so far. Thank you for that. Sorry I couldn't quote the rest of your post, too many characters, but I beleive you are on par with everything you said even though it didn't fit my original playstyle when I first came here and wrote the original post I really like your AM advice, currently I am trying a macro using a focus target and practicing using AM on focus targets since I'm a console player and can't mouseover.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

Reasoning like this is why there are so many hopeless blm's xD

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Here's a scenario for you. MP is at 80% (lets say 700 MP away from full) and you have umbral 3. What do you do? go

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

A DPS should deal damage lol. I don't expect them to be using cooldowns to prevent damage. The only thing I expect, is to know the fight and dodge when necessary.

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Why expect them to dodge but not expect them to use cooldowns to prevent damage from unavoidable damage? Dodging is done so they take less damage, just like using Manawall or Manaward.

The purpose of a DPS reducing their damage taken (whether through dodging or using cooldowns) is so the healer can focus their resources on keeping the tank alive. A dps who refuses to do this is hindering the entire party by being a bigger drain on the healer's resources than they need to be. And while there's a good amount of content where dps can pretty much let -everything- hit them unmitigated and the healer can keep up and not run out of mana, there's plenty of content out there where this isn't even close to possible, and I'd rather teach them this (even if it requires making it a "hard-learned lesson" through them dying repeatedly) in the weaker content than let them go through to the harder content and fuck things up for everyone.

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Sure I suppose it's nice if a BLM would mitigate damage when applicable from a healer's perspective, but not every class has access to cooldowns like that and I really don't find it necessary. I just heal. If a BLM took a hit, because Manawall wasn't up, I don't yell at them and insist they use cooldowns, nor do I blame defeat on such a thing. I. Heal. Them.

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I don't yell at anyone. Nor do I refuse to heal someone who simply made a mistake and took more damage than they should have. It's people like you who intentionally refuse to use all the tools at their disposal. A black mage who refuses to use Manawall and Manaward is no different than one who refuses to dodge abilities. They're intentionally being a larger drain on my resources, so I will quite happily let that person die and keep the important people (like the tank) alive instead.


And to clarify, the healer's primary job is "Keep the tank alive." Keeping other party members alive is secondary, because without the tank, you're probably not going to win the fight. The other party members staying alive, in most fights, is largely their own responsibility, through dodging and using their own cooldowns (ranging from damage mitigation abilities to ways of restoring their own health with things like Second Wind), with the healer augmenting that as they can to help deal with unavoidable damage.

As for DPSing, defensive cooldowns actually assist in DPSing. You've already been told how Aetherial Manipulation can improve your DPS by letting you stay in place casting spells longer. The same is true for Manawall and Manaward, as they let you negate damage so that you don't necessarily have to actually dodge everything, or give you a needed buffer so you can safely Convert (example: manaward + convert during enrage method of Turn 2 so you don't have to forego that part of your rotation, or manaward + convert if your rotation happens to put that part during stomps from Titan). I haven't actually tried it yet (so I can't confirm this example works) as playing a lot of other classes has in-grained in my head "dodge Landslide always," but I've been told that Manawall will actually negate the knockback of Landslide in addition to the damage, meaning whenever Manawall's available, you can just keep nuking Titan instead of stopping to move out of the way of Landslide.

So yeah, you can either continue with your narrow, incompetent thinking, or you can actually realize how wrong you are and improve and maybe become actually competent.

oh, and

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only with you

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I'm not even the only one who's been repeatedly telling you the value of manawall and manaward and not to macro them together, but keep being oblivious if you want to remain incompetent.


One more note: "I don't expect dps to use defensive cooldowns." That's a very lackadaisical attitude.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

One more note: "I don't expect dps to use defensive cooldowns." That's a very lackadaisical attitude.

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Are you mad?

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

Are you mad?

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Nah, not mad. Just disappointed with how lacking in intelligence and reason you are.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Nah, not mad. Just disappointed with how lacking in intelligence and reason you are.

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But you sound mad, furious even.

Evian, I don't recommend getting used to focus-target AM as blm, only because you will benefit from focus-target on boss mobs. Try using a specific # set for a healer in the group.

And using your personal defensive abilities actually translates to more dps, like during snakes/divebombs in t5, you pop Manawall and you can stand there and continue attacking big snake rather than dodging. Same with landslides

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Originally Posted by Halloween

Evian, I don't recommend getting used to focus-target AM as blm, only because you will benefit from focus-target on boss mobs. Try using a specific # set for a healer in the group.

And using your personal defensive abilities actually translates to more dps, like during snakes/divebombs in t5, you pop Manawall and you can stand there and continue attacking big snake rather than dodging. Same with landslides

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Sounds good thanks! I was going to try what you had suggested, but was worried the numbers wouldn't match up, between light parties and full parties. I suppose I wouldn't need such cooldowns as bad in light parties though, so maybe I can work this out.

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

But you sound mad, furious even.

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Would you like me to link you a dictionary? You seem to be using words without understanding what they mean again. :)

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Would you like me to link you a dictionary? You seem to be using words without understanding what they mean again. :)

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I'm sorry for making you so mad. Although, I do have a question for you if you're not too upset at me to answer. When do you PERSONALLY use Manawall and/or Manaward, since the only scenarios you have listed were hearsay?

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

When do you PERSONALLY use Manawall and/or Manaward, since the only scenarios you have listed were hearsay?

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Only one scenario I listed was hearsay. I always use Manaward if I'm going to be converting during an unavoidable aoe, such as Titan stomps or Turn 2 enrage method. I also will generally use manaward during things like Titan/Garuda/Ifrit's signature move, airship drops in Ultima HM, or any other time I'm going to be taking a big magic damage hit.

Manawall is a little more situational because it's used against physical damage, though one thing that helps is learning which abilities are physical damage. There's a number of abilities that you might expect to be magic but are actually physical. A general rule of thumb I found from playing Dragoon is if it can be parried, it's physical.

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Originally Posted by YanderePrincess

Only one scenario I listed was hearsay. I always use Manaward if I'm going to be converting during an unavoidable aoe, such as Titan stomps or Turn 2 enrage method. I also will generally use manaward during things like Titan/Garuda/Ifrit's signature move, airship drops in Ultima HM, or any other time I'm going to be taking a big magic damage hit.

Manawall is a little more situational because it's used against physical damage, though one thing that helps is learning which abilities are physical damage. There's a number of abilities that you might expect to be magic but are actually physical. A general rule of thumb I found from playing Dragoon is if it can be parried, it's physical.

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Yeah sometimes I can't tell which is which, that's why I would put them both in the same macro until I can learn. What is Titan's signature move for example and how exactly is that magic-based?

please feel free to add to these. this is what immediately came to mind from my experiences with these abilities

realworld uses for Manawall:
~Titan's landslide: negates damage and push (you can continue dps without worrying about permadeath)
~Titan's Mountain Buster: negates damage (stand there and take one just to scare the tank/healers)
~Leviathan's Dash: negates damage, you still get pushed (this is good if you're just learning the battle and haven't quite gotten the dodging down)
~Twintania's Divebombs: negates damage and push (use on 2nd set of divebombs to continue attacking big snake)
~t1 snake tailslaps: negates damage (if you want to intentionally provoke tail slaps and continue dps)
~t7 lamia tailslaps: negates severe dmg (if you are in the way of OT moving lamias to position and you want to continue dps)
~if MT dies and you happen to be 2nd on hate list

realworld uses for Manaward:
~ifrit explosion things, stand there and take 'em like a taru - if stun failed
~titan stomps, if your hp is not topped off
~t5 fireball, if you're about to eat one and your healers haven't topped you off
~t7 fireball, if you're about to eat one and your healers haven't topped you off
~anytime you're expecting magic damage and you're not at a safe hp range

etc...

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

Yeah sometimes I can't tell which is which, that's why I would put them both in the same macro until I can learn. What is Titan's signature move for example and how exactly is that magic-based?

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The signature move of a primal is the one that auto-kills unless certain requirements are met. For Titan, it's the move he does immediately after Heart phase ends. For Garuda, it's the one that's not blocked by the pillars. For Ifrit, it's what he uses after the nails.

As far as it being magic-based, the damage gets absorbed by Manaward and can't be parried, so it must be magic damage.

Also, if you want to test whether an ability is magic damage or physical damage, activating both Manaward and Manawall isn't the way to do it, because you see it reduced to 0 damage and don't necessarily know which ability negated it.

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Originally Posted by kujowaltz

Here's a scenario for you. MP is at 80% (lets say 700 MP away from full) and you have umbral 3. What do you do? go

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So much missing info for a "scenario" ;)

Assuming general run of the mill rotation (thunder II already cast), during single target, with no cd's and no proc's up.

Depending when the last tick was, with my current SS I would either hardcast Fire III (so it ticks to full mp while casting) or cast Bliz I (Scathe if need to move) then Fire III, some occasions when I know a tick is very near, but maybe wont quite happen during Fire III cast, I will delay a small fraction of a second before starting the Fire III cast, to ensure it does, so i dont need to wait 1 GCD (Bliz I / Scathe) before returning to astral fire.

So I guess your going to tell me I'm doing it all wrong? go xD

Do any of you use any type of intelligence potions in any of your rotations?

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

Do any of you use any type of intelligence potions in any of your rotations?

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Depends on the fight, but if needed, yes, usually after the first Fire I on single target.

What is the best to do? After I spam Fire I, of course my MP will run out. However, I press the Fire III button after the last Fire I to get the full damage. After that I cast my Blizzard and you know the drill.
I have seen people cast their last fire, get a Fire III proc and do the following: Fire I - Blizzard III - Thunder 2 (Blizzard I or scathe in case of slow mana regen) - Transpose - Fire III proc. Which one is the most effective to you think?
On one hand if you don't have a fire proc in what I do, you lose a little time and that can add up. On the other hand, the second method gives you a less powerful Fire III (850 DMG instead of 1100), but it does seem faster. Although after using your fire proc the global cooldown is triggered ...

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Originally Posted by ViviAnimus

What is the best to do? After I spam Fire I, of course my MP will run out. However, I press the Fire III button after the last Fire I to get the full damage. After that I cast my Blizzard and you know the drill.
I have seen people cast their last fire, get a Fire III proc and do the following: Fire I - Blizzard III - Thunder 2 (Blizzard I or scathe in case of slow mana regen) - Transpose - Fire III proc. Which one is the most effective to you think?
On one hand if you don't have a fire proc in what I do, you lose a little time and that can add up. On the other hand, the second method gives you a less powerful Fire III (850 DMG instead of 1100), but it does seem faster. Although after using your fire proc the global cooldown is triggered ...

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I do the latter, the GCD after the proc is an ideal time to use something that is off the GCD anyway and it is a lot more fluid overall. Feels like more dps to me, but I have no real figures to prove this.

@Vivi Odin ftw ;D

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

I do the latter, the GCD after the proc is an ideal time to use something that is off the GCD anyway and it is a lot more fluid overall. Feels like more dps to me, but I have no real figures to prove this.

@Vivi Odin ftw ;D

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It increases DPS to weave off GCD consumables and abilities during Firestarter/thundercloud procs or the small extra time you get casting a hastened fire III or bliz III when changing stances. It's not much, almost not even enough to notice, but for the number crunches, its correct to do it that way. The only exception is popping a int potion to increase the damage of all your next fires. So yea, you're correct.

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Originally Posted by Halloween

please feel free to add to these. this is what immediately came to mind from my experiences with these abilities

realworld uses for Manawall:
Negates Arrow Rain in Moogle EX. This move is often a 1 shot if the archer has stacks or the player is weakened

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added one in for manawall that I feel is very important

Also, during the nails phase on ifrit ex, manawall will negate that AoE pushback move, and manaward will reduce the damage you take during the nail explosions. Thats the only time I ever use them at the same time really.

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Originally Posted by EvianEverdeen

Do any of you use any type of intelligence potions in any of your rotations?

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You have to consider a few things. Typically an HQ X-pot of int is going to add roughly 100-120 damage onto your fire 1. You will most likely get 5 fires off in a chain with your int pot active. Thats an additional 500-600 dps during that time.

Alternatively, if you use a mega ether (hq has a recast of something like 3:40), thats an additional flare. So it depends on your gear and what your fighting. For T8, I was using int pots, but have recently switched to ethers for an extra flare on the dreadknights/boss every 4 min or so, and have found my overall DPS to be higher.

And sorry if I came off as snarky or elitest 4 pages ago about Aetherial Manip. Its a pet peeve of mine when blms don't use it because it really is an amazing ability. Glad that you understand it now and hopefully are using it regularly :)

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Originally Posted by NyneAlexander

added one in for manawall that I feel is very important

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I use that, saves so much damage :)