BLM Fire II incredibly lack luster

Hmm, touche. =)
I tried out the B2x2-F3-Flare(Transpose)-Tick rotation in WP today. And yes, I did not quite account for the cast time reduction on Flare if timed right.
More specifically, Ive found that if you cast F3 before you "fully" acquire the UI3 buff from your 2nd B2, then your F3 remains 1.4 gcd's, but you can always (barring server/connection lag) get Flare to go off with the halved cast time.

So same 668 pot. If we somehow get BOTH F3 and Flare to have the UI3 cast time reduction, which I found to be very rare, then our rotation takes (1+1+1+1+1), and pot/gcd = 133.6
If we get F3 to start casting before UI3 is up, then we can always get Flare to cast under the gcd, and we get (1+1+1.4+1+1) gcd's, and pot/gcd = 123.7
And with server lag, we fail miserably... F3 takes 1.4 gcd's, Flare takes 1.6, so we get (1+1+1.4+1.6+1), and pot/gcd = 111.3

And for reference, the F2x3-Flare(Transpose)-Tick-B3-F3 rotation is 1026/8.6 = 119.3 pot/gcd.

So best case scenario, the B2-F3-Flare rotation is 12% better than the fully ranged F2->Flare rotation, but only in the event that you get both F3 and Flare to cast at half speed.
More likely, only one of the 2 will cast at half speed, but that is still ~4% better than F2->Flare.
But if you are laggy, then F2->Flare is typically more reliable... and of course, if melee range isnt safe... you dont have much of a choice anyway. =)

You may not know this but even the fire 2 rotation suffers from the same thing the bliz 2 rotation, if i fire blizzard3 and quickly try to use fire 3 i have high chances on getting the normal casting delay. On both this can easly be taken care of by taking 1 or 2 steps foward after your char casts, then hit the fire 3, by then the values have changed to benifit from the speed n double dipping fire 3, fire 2 or in the other case fire 3, flare.

Now dont get me wrong, while the bliz 2 rotation is good, it requires a good tank as you will aggro the hell out of everything more so when you are geard. in case this occures the fire 2 rotation , while slower , atleast ensures you wont rob aggro quick giving more breathing space for aspiring tanks learning how to speed run. i also switch to fire 2 if by any chance i was seperated by a tomberry n is waiting for it to move out of the way XD.

as for coils, turn 4 the bliz 2 rotation is king and by now tanks know how to hold aggro perfectly well thus allowng you to take advantage of the insane burst you get.

I just use Fira rotation with my other BLM and we do fine.

edit: not sure why it double posted

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Originally Posted by Kenji1134

Hmm, touche. =)
I tried out the B2x2-F3-Flare(Transpose)-Tick rotation in WP today. And yes, I did not quite account for the cast time reduction on Flare if timed right. -snip-

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timing -does- come into play, but it isnt "rare". once you get it down its basically muscle memory. Basically what is important is get UI3. Dont cast Fire 3 until you have UI3. Cast flare right after fire 3. Technically there is another .1 second between the 2nd bliz 2 and the fire 3, but it still ended up higher dps every time for me than any of the other rotations ive tried.

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Originally Posted by Exstal

I just use Fira rotation with my other BLM and we do fine.

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"fine" is relative

ST for 3 or less...
AE for 4 or more

The rule to live by.

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Originally Posted by Kyloki

Actually a competent blizzard II rotation does use flare, gg, learn to play the class and maximize your damage before making yourself sound retarded.

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Someone stole your lunch money today?

So, most of this thread adequately qualifies as the "dumbest thing I've read on the official forums".

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Originally Posted by Kenji1134

So best case scenario, the B2-F3-Flare rotation is 12% better than the fully ranged F2->Flare rotation, but only in the event that you get both F3 and Flare to cast at half speed.
More likely, only one of the 2 will cast at half speed, but that is still ~4% better than F2->Flare.

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I get every single fire aspected spell double dipped from Umbral after F3; I don't even have to try. I play from EU, though, so that might have something to do with it.

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Originally Posted by EasymodeX

So, most of this thread adequately qualifies as the "dumbest thing I've read on the official forums".

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Very likely.

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Originally Posted by Azoryl

ST for 2 or less...
AE for 3 or more

The rule to live by.

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actually this.. and if you're a class that has DoTs (all of them) and the 2 or less things you're fighting will live through the entirety/most of the duration, you're better off hitting both of them with DoTs before using your ST rotation

not sure why people think there needs to be more than 3 targets for aoe to be effective... especially as a black mage, although it's equally (albeit less obvious) true on every single class in the game.

is it so hard to multiply the potency of your aoe skill by 3 and compare that result to your single target stuff?

honestly there are some cases where using an aoe attack that only hits 2 targets is better dps than using ST things on one and then the other.. some of those (very very under utilized) aoe attacks have pretty high potency

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Originally Posted by Starkbeaumont

if it would be even stronger I would have died a lot of times...

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Mr. Stark here is right and Sleigh hit the nail on the head. If Fire II was stronger we would draw way to much hate especially with a lower geared tank. Fire III > Fire II X N > Blizzard III > Blizzard II works just fine on 3 or more enemies.