Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

I was able to do 4.8k on o1 sss yesterday, no food, potions or buffs and no full 6 materia slots in gear. I don't think there's any damage difference between these.
And blm is still not in competetive slot, because current meta is physical and rdm synergies with it much better there.

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Originally Posted by Gwaeron89

I was able to do 4.8k on o1 sss yesterday, no food, potions or buffs and no full 6 materia slots in gear. I don't think there's any damage difference between these.
And blm is still not in competetive slot, because current meta is physical and rdm synergies with it much better there.

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That's pretty snazzy, but with embolden only accounting for ~1% RDPS, I can't help but feel this meta is overemphasizing the contribution.

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Originally Posted by RuneSevalle

That's a nice number, until you factor in that it's a Level 1 striking dummy. Still, if BLMs get similar results in SSS, then we'll definitely be in a competitive slot.

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The level of the striking dummy doesn't matter.

After these minor buffs, blm feels good. But since the majority of dps buffs go "physical", still hard to see blm in metas.... Although can see for "some fights" (not all, but some) actually being better to have a Blm than a Rdm or maybe even better than other melee.

Eitherway, those 4.05 buffs felt better than expected, at least first impression,.. hope they don't decide to nerf it a patch later.

So after spell speed are we prioritizing direct hit or does crit remain as the 2nd priortized stat?

DH for the time being.

Once the next gear set becomes available that may change.

i know this thread goes way back, can we get a definition for this 3.0 5xF4 rotation? Much thanks.

How bad is it to not have much spell speed? I mean other than dealing with mechanics etc is it a big loss? I'm raiding as RDM currently and want to know if the gear I have for it (DH>DET>CRIT) will be at least somewhat okay for BLM stat weight wise.

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Originally Posted by Waryax

How bad is it to not have much spell speed? I mean other than dealing with mechanics etc is it a big loss? I'm raiding as RDM currently and want to know if the gear I have for it (DH>DET>CRIT) will be at least somewhat okay for BLM stat weight wise.

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In terms of damage, that should be fine... But, your rotations are going to be slower than molasses.

Not 70 yet, I read and watch alot, why does foul in the same video hit for like 14k , then other times for like 30k
That's a huge difference, meanwhile two cast later I'll see a f4 do like 14k by itself, is foul affected by ui or af?

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Originally Posted by Genoreaper

is foul affected by ui or af?

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No it's not. 30k foul is crit directhit.

Ah, I just supposed it was gonna have a bigger bang for its potency. No biggy

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Originally Posted by Genoreaper

Ah, I just supposed it was gonna have a bigger bang for its potency. No biggy

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Well, fire4 almost 500 potency too.

True, I just looked idk why i thought foul had a potency around 700 750 my mistake lol.

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Originally Posted by Waryax

How bad is it to not have much spell speed? I mean other than dealing with mechanics etc is it a big loss? I'm raiding as RDM currently and want to know if the gear I have for it (DH>DET>CRIT) will be at least somewhat okay for BLM stat weight wise.

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Red mage is very much different stat wise ( still have a are you serious SE moment with the new blm weapon and Susano weapons as stats are reversed)
Blm is still by far SS for first stat, followed perhaps by DH> Crit> Det. I am still not sure if determination has higher value like it did in 2.0

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Originally Posted by Rakhabit

The level of the striking dummy doesn't matter.

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If you somehow could get a level 80 dummy, you'd be missing a lot, but yeah, enemies don't have any armor or resistances in this game which levels would affect.

Now that F1 costs as much as F4, it's possible to do a Sharp opener without Flare and you can also weave everything without FS proc. This puts it at 185 PPS without FS and 186,48 with FS.

Well at least it seems I can get a decent set if I take exactly opposite i340 pieces for my BLM when looking at my planned RDM i340 set.

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Originally Posted by Maero

still have a are you serious SE moment with the new blm weapon and Susano weapons as stats are reversed)

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Yes, I don't get why they keep doing that. Yoshi himself said to stack SS on Blm and then we get weapons like this? Like wtf??
At least the rest of the gear is pretty decent if you mix Omega and tomestone pieces.

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Originally Posted by Lelila38

Yes, I don't get why they keep doing that. Yoshi himself said to stack SS on Blm and then we get weapons like this? Like wtf??
At least the rest of the gear is pretty decent if you mix Omega and tomestone pieces.

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If you know a crafter... the 320 crafted weapon is God tier until we can get the Tome weapon.

The crafted chest seems also very good but this expansion i told myself no more paying millions for gear that will be obsolete in a few months, lol
(and really want a house, finally...)

Every stream is RDM/BRD. I haven't seen one SMN (poor guys) and not even a BLM... I wonder if square somehow thinks this is ok?

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Originally Posted by IllyriaKnotfred

Every stream is RDM/BRD. I haven't seen one SMN (poor guys) and not even a BLM... I wonder if square somehow thinks this is ok?

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You can't judge it on streams because there are a lot of groups that don't stream.

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Originally Posted by IllyriaKnotfred

If you know a crafter... the 320 crafted weapon is God tier until we can get the Tome weapon.

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Yes, but it's 320 while max this tier seems to be 340 (345 on Omega staff). It's probably not worth the lost Int, might need to do the math.

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Originally Posted by Lelila38

Yes, but it's 320 while max this tier seems to be 340 (345 on Omega staff). It's probably not worth the lost Int, might need to do the math.

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I meant its best until you can get the 330 weapon. I'm third in line for my token so It will be awhile.

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Originally Posted by Ferrasper

You can't judge it on streams because there are a lot of groups that don't stream.

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True enough. I guess logs will speak for themselves soon enough though.

Btw does anyone have the Spell Speed threshold on Sb yet?
It used to be 16/17 on Hw, but I couldn't find any stat weights for 4.0 til now.

Would it be possible for Freeze to also give Umbral Hearts so it becomes finally a useful action for AoEing?

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Originally Posted by AlphaSonic

Would it be possible for Freeze to also give Umbral Hearts so it becomes finally a useful action for AoEing?

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With double/Triple flares and ThunderIV(cloud procs) I dont think its really needed tbh.

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Originally Posted by Lelila38

Btw does anyone have the Spell Speed threshold on Sb yet?
It used to be 16/17 on Hw, but I couldn't find any stat weights for 4.0 til now.

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What do you mean, "threshold"?
If you're asking how much spellspeed shortens the gcd by a centisecond, it's around 66 atm.
This value was either 22 or 26 in HW, I think. Or do you mean something else?

I do want to clarify something though. So you only use B4 with opener, when triplecast is off CD, and no foul up correct? If foul is up, you use the 3.0 with 5 F4s?

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Originally Posted by Ferrasper

I do want to clarify something though. So you only use B4 with opener, when triplecast is off CD, and no foul up correct? If foul is up, you use the 3.0 with 5 F4s?

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That's what I understand.
Basically, if there's nothing else to do, use it.
It's the ultimate filler.

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

That's what I understand.
Basically, if there's nothing else to do, use it.
It's the ultimate filler.

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Basically only opener and triple cast then because foul is almost always up at the end of your AF cycle. lolz

Sorry to pick this up late

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Originally Posted by Lilyth

However, in all the calculations done to get the result 4.0 is better than 3.0, we assumed a perfect server tic

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This is wrong. Prior to patch 4.05, assuming T3 is literally the only spell we ever have to cast out of astral for any reason, using B4 does worse PPS than not using B4. Before procs of any kind, it's 137 on 4xF4 and 136 on 6xF4. Plus, 6xF4 is way more fragile.

Furthermore, assuming that you always get perfect mana ticks is obviously fraught, because you do not get perfect mana ticks and usually need two pieces of filler, not one. Even if Fire 1 hadn't gotten any cheaper and B4 gave you two bonus F4s rather than one, B4 would still be a bad spell to use on single targets.

It's true that it is impossible to increase Foul's dps, such that the damage output OF FOUL ITSELF is constant... but the point is that A) Blizzard 4 decreases our dps and B) Foul can be used to increase the rest of our dps by replacing crappy spells, totally irrespective of the 650 potency Foul itself delivers.

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Originally Posted by Galvuu

What do you mean, "threshold"?
If you're asking how much spellspeed shortens the gcd by a centisecond, it's around 66 atm.
This value was either 22 or 26 in HW, I think. Or do you mean something else?

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In Hw the number you had to increase Ss to get an effect used to alternate between 16 and 17. You needed to increase it by 16 to gain something, next time you needed to add 17 then 16 again...
It makes no sense to just stack Ss if you don't get anything from it, so you could rather be adding something else if your added Ss doesn't give you an increase.

On don't even use B4 in my opener, I go full precast F3, tripple cast 3xF4 etc.., just need diversion and sometimes Ld early too

don't like using tripple'cast under LL, even if it seems good there too

I haven't experimented with non-B4 openers but I really should.

I think triplecast is best used up immediately before leylines, so like I'll do triplecast, F4 F4 F4 leylines F4 F4 etc etc rest of rotation. That way triplecast buys you the most possible time and you can even use the space between each instant cast to use the ogcd.

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Originally Posted by Ferrinus

I haven't experimented with non-B4 openers but I really should.

I think triplecast is best used up immediately before leylines, so like I'll do triplecast, F4 F4 F4 leylines F4 F4 etc etc rest of rotation. That way triplecast buys you the most possible time and you can even use the space between each instant cast to use the ogcd.

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This is what I've been using after 4.05: Precast Sharp Ley F1 - FS - Eno Triple F4 - pot - F4 - F4 - Swift F4 - Convert F1 - F4 - F4 (FS) - B3 - B4 - T3. It lets you use all oGCD without clipping and at worst gets 185 PPS compared to 176.86 PPS of B3 opener. Unless there's some secret B3 opener I don't know about.

The thing about umbral opener is that you conserve sharp cast for going into astral phase. So it goes like 3xf4 - sharpcasted f1 - 3xf4 - f3 proc - convert mana - 2xf4 - b3 and at this point you immediately gain foul to easily avoid server manatic problem. It may be not optimal but i like this opener more.

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Originally Posted by Ferrinus

Sorry to pick this up late

This is wrong. Prior to patch 4.05, assuming T3 is literally the only spell we ever have to cast out of astral for any reason, using B4 does worse PPS than not using B4. Before procs of any kind, it's 137 on 4xF4 and 136 on 6xF4. Plus, 6xF4 is way more fragile.

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No problem. And I was referring to 4.05 cast times, not 4.0. With a 3 seconds cast, 4x FIV's beat 6x FIV's by less than 1 PPS. You can check this chart that has been circling around for some time: http://i.imgur.com/3oUflnR.png

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Originally Posted by Ferrinus

Furthermore, assuming that you always get perfect mana ticks is obviously fraught, because you do not get perfect mana ticks and usually need two pieces of filler, not one. Even if Fire 1 hadn't gotten any cheaper and B4 gave you two bonus F4s rather than one, B4 would still be a bad spell to use on single targets.

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It's not a fraught because we might have removed Foul's pontecy from the calculations since it's a constant to every rotation, but its benefit of always giving the rotation a server tic if used on ice must remain to make the calculations accurate, and it did. We are not merely assuming there was a perfect mana tic, we were assuming people will use Foul on UI and, therefore, always have full mana upon going to AF by only casting Thunder.

Also, after the cast time buff to FIV/BIV, 6x FIV's now beat 4x FIV's: http://i.imgur.com/I1tfrL1.png

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Originally Posted by Ferrinus

point is that A) Blizzard 4 decreases our dps and B) Foul can be used to increase the rest of our dps by replacing crappy spells, totally irrespective of the 650 potency Foul itself delivers.

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That's why when you look at the chart, you can see that Foul's "ability" to replace crappy spells has been accounted for when calculating the 3.0 rotation output, because the only spell you see on every UI cycle for 3.0 rotation is Thunder III. And it still loses to 4.0 after the cast time buff. Therefore the conclusion is Blizzard IV is not bad in 4.05 if you can get 2 FIV's from it.