Say's the one that's likely using a sub-optimal rotation.
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No, it was derived from casting Fire3 followed by 5 fires from a dead stop.
Fire3 costs 133 under any UI.
Fire costs 638 under any AF.
Blizzard3 costs 79 under any AF.
Scathe/Thunder costs 212 any time.
So starting from UI3, Fire3 > 5x Fire > Blizzard3 > Scathe/Thunder costs 3614. That's 238 Piety, not 251.
Each Piety is also 8.25 mp, not 8.
Assuming you're in UI3 as a Hyur with full MP and only a base of
243 piety which = 3662MP:
Beginning with Fire 3 costs 133 MP from UI3 but the cost of that Fire 3 will often be reduced depending on a late UI3 MP tick before you actually switch in to AF3. If this happens, then you are left with enough MP for 5 Fire1 followed by a Blizz3 and Thunder2. If you have to pay the full 133 MP cost of the Fire3 because of tick timing, then after 5 Fire1 you are often left with 339 MP. After a Blizz3 you are now left with 260 MP; not enough for a Thunder2.
You can either scathe or cast Thunder1 but scathe is a dps loss and the shorter cast time of Thunder1 can still create problems with finishing too early and waiting before full MP all for a shorter duration dot that consequently does less dps especially when including the initial thunder damage too.
3662MP - 133MP Fire3 = 3529MP
3529MP - 5x Fire1 @ 638MP each = 339MP
339MP - 79MP Blizz3 = ***260MP***
***This is where the extra piety gives you enough MP to roll right into Thunder2 which will often finish casting just as your MP has finished its full refresh. This situation happens very often and it is why people add enough piety to make the MP pool large enough to support constant Thunder2.
You need 319MP for a Thunder2 which means in the above example you would have to add 59MP. 1 added point of piety gives exactly 8.25MP. 7 points of piety gives 57.75MP while 8 points of piety gives an extra 66MP; the amount of MP needed to sustain constant Thunder2s. The 8 points added to the base of 243 piety equals the 251 piety people are talking about.
There are also many other examples where the extra piety offers more flexibility at the end of fire rotations or beginnings of UI3 phases depending on the encounter and which abilities have been used.
He is talking about Thunder 2 that's why.
Thunder II does fit the piety, the only reason I could find for 251 Piety in the big BLM thread was "so you can cast a 5th Fire"
If the UI timing isn't there for me, I end up casting a Thunder and a Scathe before going back into fire3. If I have the MP, I cast Thunder III. My thunders are in a macro that casts the highest one I have enough MP for.
Before Novus and since around 2.1, the only way to get that 6-12 Piety was either trading INT for PIE, or trading good food for mediocre food. Doing the first will cost more damage than you would gain, and the 2nd would sometimes give you a marginal gain.
That said I'm probably going to dump 19 Piety on my Novus to hit 264, but only because it's a 1:1 trade-off. 260 is the plateau for a 4th fire2 before flare (starting with UI > Fire3) and 264 is the point in single target where you can use Thunder III in the rotation.
Im interested in the piety cap for novus. I made a thread in general discussion about a 6fire rotation and 289 piety. 6 fire rotation was proving to be a decent chunk more dps.
Hopefully this question is somewhat on-topic... what's the progression weapon-wise for Blm at level 50? I've done ATMA and a couple of books on PLD, and was wondering if it has to be done all over again for BLM, or if there are other weapons that are better than the ATMA BLM weapon?