BLM: Endgame guide and rotations

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Originally Posted by Azoryl

Thunder III is a much better filler due to the change in the UI ticks. In addition, depending on procs my Thunder III is usually at 4 sec or less when i start to cast Bliz III. So it is perfect in my rotation.

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?

For me Fire III in AF3 can hit for upwards of 1900. In addition, the cast time of a hardcast fire III in UI3 is faster then the GCD. If you save the proc for after a bliz III and thunder.. you will lower your dps because the fire III wont hit near as hard and you still have to wait for the GCD

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People mostly save it because to use it you have to pause after the last cast and wait until your Fire 1 actually lands on target and applies Firestarter on you (or may not) so you will be losing extra ~1 second every Blizzard III just to understand if Firestarter procs. So generally you will just chaincast Blizzard III after the last Fire 1 and you will understand that Firestarter procced in the middle of the cast. So I am not sure if it is worth it to make that pause.

They need to fix that by changing firestarter procs. Make the check earlier, like as soon as you cast fire 1 rather than when fire 1 lands on the enemy.

EDIT: Actually, I suppose the problem with that would be spell interupts.

K, 2 solutions for that.

1. Do the Firestarter calculation at the start of the Fire 1 cast, BUT if the cast is not finished, the buff is removed.

2. Slightly harder to code but more fluid... Have a Firestarter proc modify Fire 3 such that it does not apply or remove any UI/AF stacks, nor is it affected by them. A Firestarter proc creates a "new" Fire 3 that is instant, has a base potency of 396, is unaffected by AF/UI, and does not affect AF/UI.

Using the 2nd option, you are FORCED to use a hardcasted Fire 3 to quickly get into AF3, but you can use ANY Firestarter proc at any time and still deal full damage with it. So you can keep spamming B3 after the end of your Fire Cycle, and if the last Fire 1 gets you a proc, just use it during UI3 and get 396 potency out of it.

@Azoryl: What kind of gear do you have that F3 hits for near or over 1900? Assuming that is a crit, your regular F3's would be hitting for around 1260, which would put your potency value at 3.2... Man I hope that is only with Raging Strikes or something... A full I90 BLM has a potency value of 2.6-2.7... You must be doing something very very right.

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Originally Posted by Pacifyer

So Firestarter makes your Fire III instacast and cost you no mana. This will effectively make it's cast time equal 2.5 seconds (against 3.5 without proc), cost you no mana (which is the main issue during fire phase) and do a ton of a damage as Fire III is the most hard hitting nuke you have (don't count Flare). So by no means there is a reason to hold your Firestarter procs. They are a direct DPS gain and should be used ASAP.

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Exactly. A Firestarter proc is one of your hardest hitting AND most versatile moves. The "slowness" is simply an illusion since the F3 hits at the beginning of the GCD instead of at the end. In addition, since it's an instant cast, you can move right after casting it without losing DPS. Not only that, but it can't be interrupted. The only downside is that it generates a lot of enmity, especially if you get a few of these in a row.

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Originally Posted by Kenji1134

K, 2 solutions for that.

@Azoryl: What kind of gear do you have that F3 hits for near or over 1900? Assuming that is a crit, your regular F3's would be hitting for around 1260, which would put your potency value at 3.2... Man I hope that is only with Raging Strikes or something... A full I90 BLM has a potency value of 2.6-2.7... You must be doing something very very right.

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My Fire III procs usually hit non crit for aprox. 975 - 1075, That 1900 hit was during a raid. I can not recall if Raging was on, or if the bard hard Requiem going. I tend to think it was one of those rare spots, I see more 1550 - 1650 crits then upwards of 1800. Still my point is make sure ot use the fire III procs in AF3. Even if you have to stop a Bliz III cast. The difference between 950 non crit AF3 hit and a 350 non crit UI hit, justifies it.

For AoE rotations, I personally use one from another BLM Rotation thread that I'm having trouble finding but its basically this:

Fire 3 > Fire 2 ... (until around 1000 mp) > Flare > [Transpose > wait 2 seconds after first mp tick > Flare > Fire 2 > Flare >] repeat

I personally love this. It seems weird cause of the wait you have for the 2 seconds, but if you do it right, when you cast Flare you will get an MP tick right after which gives you enough MP to do Fire 2 and another Flare. By the time you finish that second Flare, Transpose is off CD so you repeat the whole thing. Using it real time in places like WP, mobs melt like crazy so just thought I'd share this one.

About the Fire 3 procs, another reason you want to use them right away is because if you don't, you effectively zero out the chance of getting another Fire 3 proc. I don't really have a problem with waiting for Fire to hit before seeing I have the proc, I will just wait until after my next cast of Fire before using it.

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Originally Posted by Pacifyer

- Mana regen filler: Thunder II or Scathe

The most variations for the rotation is within mostly a single point - the mana regen filler. My personal preference is Thunder II but you can replace it with Thunder or Thunder III or Scathe. The problem is that using low cast time spell (Thunder or Scathe) may have a bad timing and you can miss out a mana regen tick. If you are feeling this will currently happen you may just insert an extra Scathe there to make sure you will regen mana. Also if you see that the target will die soon there is no point casting Thunder at all - just use Scathe.

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I actually recommend using Blizzard I instead of Scathe unless you need to move. My priority with their conditions for the one GCD during mana regen phase is:

1. Thunder II - only if your current Thunder DoT on the mob has fallen off or is about to fall off in the next 6 seconds or so. (Effective potency = 250 - 40 for every tick remaining on previous thunder DoT.)
2. Blizzard I - This spell has the same effective casting time as a Scathe b/c of the GCD and does more damage. (Effective potency = 150 + heavy)
3. Scathe - should only be used if you need to move during this GCD. (Effective potency = 120)

As for AoE rotation, I found 'Fire III -->Fire II -->Flare -->Transpose-->repeat' to be the most effective, and as a bonus the simplest to execute. Note that it is not Fire II spam, just a single cast of Fire II to make the cooldown of Transpose line up with the end of your Flare cast. You only need to wait for a single tick of mana after the Transpose, which is usually almost instant and never so long that you can squeeze in a full GCD ability without slowing down the rotation.

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Originally Posted by Pacifyer

Firestarter proc does not slow your next spell by any means.

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Ok. Let me clarify. While spamming fire 1 the cast time is reduced is it not? Just like the cast time of fire3 and bliz3 are reduced while in oposite phase. I've noticed that the spell speed of fire 1 reduces the more you cast. Casting the free proc resets this so your next fire1 is a hard cast. Im aware of the GCD. That being said. I have still started incorporating into my rotation more. So there :p

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Originally Posted by glen7187

For AoE rotations, I personally use one from another BLM Rotation thread that I'm having trouble finding but its basically this:

Fire 3 > Fire 2 ... (until around 1000 mp) > Flare > [Transpose > wait 2 seconds after first mp tick > Flare > Fire 2 > Flare >] repeat .

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Ok. Doesn't flare not only use all your mp but put you into astral fire? So how can you follow up flare with a fire 2? Also. Instead of waiting 2 seconds why not cast a blizzard or something.

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Originally Posted by bardaboo

Ok. Doesn't flare not only use all your mp but put you into astral fire? So how can you follow up flare with a fire 2? Also. Instead of waiting 2 seconds why not cast a blizzard or something.

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What happens is, after you Transpose you are in UI1, after 1 tick of MP, you want to wait 2 seconds then start casting Flare. The reason is because when your Flare casts, you lose all your MP but the MP tick comes in right after (which is why you need to wait 2 seconds after the first MP tick and you don't cast anything while you wait) giving you around 1100 MP after casting Flare. That allows you to follow up with a Fire 2 (leaving you with just under 300 MP) and then another Flare after, then Transpose again.

The 2 second wait is to make your Flare cast line up with the MP ticks, so that Flare you wouldn't want to Swiftcast. The other Flares you can Swiftcast. What I will sometimes do if I have Raging Strikes up is I'll do:

Fire 3 > Fire 2 until around 1000 MP > Raging Strikes > Flare > Convert > Swiftcast > Flare > [Transpose > wait 2 seconds after MP tick > Flare > Fire 2 > Flare >] repeat

absolutely melts mobs...