I agree with this statement.
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OK... lets take Demon Wall. You know first spot to stand is outside. You get get a Thunder III and Fire III off before you ever have to move. In addition, going from UI3 to a Fire III is faster then hard casting a Fire I. In addtion, if I get a proc of Fire III at less then 1000 mana - I save it .. pop Bliz III .. Thunder III... wait 1 sec and pop Fire III instant.
It all depends on the fight and what i can get away with.
Just watch Mr. Happy's BLM guide... it's seriously all you need to know even tho most of the stuff he says is quite obvious - -;
Start with Fire 3. Starting from Fire I gives you a significant loss in DPS because of the AF multipliers. AF1 = 1.4x, AF2 = 1.6x, AF3 = 1.8x. Moreover, as others have already stated, a Fire III with UI3 on gives you a decreased cast time and MP cost.
Other things:
Transpose is not worthless in the middle of a rotation, particularly when engaged in a long, single-target fight, e.g. a boss. If you happen to proc Firestarter off your last Fire before you run out of MP, you should have already begun to cast Blizzard 3 by the time it procs. After finishing Thunder 2, pop Transpose and then hit Firestarter, for the 1.4x AF1 multiplier on your Firestarter'd Fire 3 (roughly half of a Fire 1, 220 * .4 = 88 potency. Fire 1 is 150 potency).
When fighting trash mobs, it's usually a good idea to alter your standard single-target rotation. It's common among BLMs, myself included, to recast Thunder 2 after Blizzard 3. When fighting trash, however, generally the currently targeted mob will die too fast to make your Thunder worthwhile; it'll die before you get a proc. Instead, switch targets to the last mob in the pack your party intends to kill, Thunder 2 it, and then switch back to your original target for Fires. This will keep Thunder up the entire duration of your fight so you will reap the benefit of all potential Thunderstorms. If you proc Thunderstorm, then you'll now have Thunder also ticking on your target mob. Whether or not Thunder across multiple mobs linearly increases the probability of a Thunderstorm, I don't know, but if it does, this is an additional benefit to doing so.
I don't even understand how you came to all of these conclusions. Using Thunder II as the dot, and using Thunder III for Thundercloud is the tried and true method. Giving yourself a (potential) 10s ramp up time to get back to three stacks just doesn't even make sense. You shouldn't be re-applying Thunder (2) whenever it drops, only cast it after using Blizzard III to get back to full mana. It's proc chance is too low, and its tick damage is too low to prioritize over casting Fire and potentially Fire III. You should never bother to apply Thunder to every target, especially Thunder III. Thunder III cuts at mana better spent on Fire I. And do not spam Blizzard II. If you want to AoE, switch to Fire II after Fire III, and Flare/Blizzard III accordingly.
I also saw someone mention earlier not to cast Blizzard I after Blizzard III, even if Thunder doesn't need to be re-applied. This is also incorrect. Blizzard I does a bit more damage than Scathe (even it it does 20% more damage), not to mention that it will be dip into the haste effect if its being cast right after Blizzard III. The only time you'd substitute Scathe here is if you need to move.
There's just so much misinformation here, it's really strange its being accepted at face value. Did you come up with this stuff just from leveling and doing some dungeons?
I recommend checking this out: http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?foru...182149257&h=50
I just make these guides to try and help! Just trying to improve myself and others :)
Thanks for all the constructive criticizm it has helped!