Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

When my Enochian timer gets tight and I'm forced to follow my Blizzard 3 with an immediate Blizzard 4, I sometimes find myself sitting in Umbral Ice with about 60% mana and 20 seconds on my Enochian timer. I'm tempted to go straight into Fire 3, but more often than not I find myself shifting into Astral Fire before the mana tick. I'm trying to figure out what to do with this time, and I have a two options:

Fire 4 > Blizzard 3 > Blizzard 4 > Thunder 1 > Fire 3

This might be the next best choice, but the problem with this option is that usually because of a Thundercloud proc that I had to rush Blizzard 4 in the first place, so the Thunder DoT is still up and ticking.

Fire 4 > Blizzard 3 > Blizzard 4 > Blizzard 1 > Fire 3

As far as I can tell, I should either cast Blizzard 1 or Thunder 1, and the answer about which is better to cast has to do with how many ticks I there are left on my Thunder DoT. Can anyone give me advice on what to do in this situation? 40 potency x 5 tics (15 seconds for 1 tic every 3 seconds) = 200 potency > Blizzard 1 at 180 potency?

Im guessing the essential question here is: 'How many ticks of Thundercloud/Thunder 3 = Blizzard,' because otherwise Thunder 1 would be better than Blizzard 1. Is the answer 40 potency x 5 tics (15 seconds for 1 tic every 3 seconds) = 200 potency > Blizzard 1 at 180 potency? The tooltip for Umbral Ice 3 doesn't say that it decreases the damage / potency of ice spells so that should be correct, right?

The pure cut-off where Thunder is better than B1 is 6s left on any Thunder or less, in terms of potency.

30 initial + 40 per tick, 4 ticks = 160 + 30 = 190.

However, pure potency isn't all there is, it's also about getting that chance for Thundercloud, and my personal cut-off is 9s, or basically one more tick of clipping.

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

The pure cut-off where Thunder is better than B1 is 6s left on any Thunder or less, in terms of potency.

30 initial + 40 per tick, 4 ticks = 160 + 30 = 190.

However, pure potency isn't all there is, it's also about getting that chance for Thundercloud, and my personal cut-off is 9s, or basically one more tick of clipping.

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That's actually the mathematically correct one:

Quick and dirty study on thunder

The rotation I've been sticking with lately is:

Leylines+B3 -> RS+F3 -> F4x2 -> Sharp+F1 -> F3(fs) -> F4x2(or if timing permits 3). I weave Thunder spells in when I have the time or if enochian falls off for some reason. I realize this might not be the most dps optimal, but I've been able to refresh enochian in as little as 5s if the fight permits. I currently have my f3's with a swiftcast, but I'm considering removing it in favor of having it for emergency B4's or double flares if enochian falls off. I'd also point out that I don't play with a static or a parser, so this is from raw content running experience. When my cd's aren't up I use the same rotation. If there's heavy movement I won't refresh enochian just to have it fall off.


(I wasn't aware that the rotation had been updated since I last looked at it. I'll make changes to my opener.)

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Originally Posted by Kerii

I currently have my f3's with a swiftcast

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Every single one? Swift F3 if you drop AF is the only thing I can think of that could maybe be useful. Save your swifts for something better.

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Originally Posted by NOC_NA

The following issues have been addressed:

An issue wherein casting the black mage action “Fire III” immediately after receiving the “Firestarter” effect would result in an uninterruptable cast instead of an instant cast.

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Was this a new issue I didn't run into, or are they talking about the issue that has been around since 2.0? Because if that's the case, I'm going to jump up and do the happy dance IRL right now.

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Originally Posted by nugglets

Was this a new issue I didn't run into, or are they talking about the issue that has been around since 2.0? Because if that's the case, I'm going to jump up and do the happy dance IRL right now.

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If you mash Fire III after casting fire I you'll still hardcast fire III and get the proc midcast.
It's most likely an issues you (and i) didnt run into

I ran into that damn bug about 20 times in my ARR career, including during my best 570+ T11 run pre-echo. It was like a F1 > Firestarter really quick on reaction while moving but it turned into a hardcast F3 during my AF period. Really freakin' annoying, good riddance.

Carreer BLM here with 10-20 ping and that bug never ever happened to me, you couldn't interrupt the cast by moving? O_o

No, it'd be a 3s cast, unstoppable, full MP costing F3. You just happened to be able to move during it.