THM Rotation Help Plz....

Got my first 'you guys suck' running the Copper Bells instance last night even though our group had no issue with the content. I felt bad though because I know I can probably be doing things better. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice for a LVL 23 THM DPS rotation? I mostly stick with Fire II for mobs and Fire I for single targets (until the MP gets low and I switch to Blizzard to build MP back up) and find I don't have much use for Sleep, Thunder, or Thunder II (I do like Scathe for a quick hit every now and then). I also have Physick on my hot-bar just in case. Should I be starting with a Thunder DOT and then stacking Astral Flares? Another question I have is about Transpose - I know it sort of 'wipes' your Astral Flare and reduces the cost to use your Fire or Blizzard attacks, but when/why is this more useful than simply spamming Fire I and then re-setting it with Blizzard?

Thanks again for the help!

Don't really worry too much until you hit 50. But in general 1-2 mobs you will use a single target rotation (thunder fire 3{not sure when you get that} fire 1 until your almost out of mp then blizzard 3 or transpose of you don't have that yet). 3+ targets fire 3 to max stacks fire 2until your almost out of mp then blizzard 3 or transpose of you don't have that yet

On phone it is a bit more than that

The reason why you want to use transpose instead of just switching from Fire 1 to Bliz 1 is that you will drop your stack and loose out on bonus damage/MP regen until the next stack begins.

It's more efficient to use Fire1 until you can't cast anymore, transpose, and start Bliz 1 while building up MP faster since you'll be in Umbral before even casting Bliz 1. Once your MP is maxed you transpose from Umbral to Astral so your first Fire1 has bonus damage. As a THM/BLM you want to maximize the time spent in Astral and minimize your time in Umbral

Once you get Fire and Bliz 3, they will give you maxed out Astral/Umbral stacks when cast, letting you finally drop your transpose.

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Originally Posted by Delta041

The reason why you want to use transpose instead of just switching from Fire 1 to Bliz 1 is that you will drop your stack and loose out on bonus damage/MP regen until the next stack begins.

It's more efficient to use Fire1 until you can't cast anymore, transpose, and start Bliz 1 while building up MP faster since you'll be in Umbral before even casting Bliz 1. Once your MP is maxed you transpose from Umbral to Astral so your first Fire1 has bonus damage. As a THM/BLM you want to maximize the time spent in Astral and minimize your time in Umbral

Once you get Fire and Bliz 3, they will give you maxed out Astral/Umbral stacks when cast, letting you finally drop your transpose.

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^^ is pretty much it. My fiancee has been trying to teach me BLM (mine's at 30, he just hit 50) so this may not be 100% accurate but:
Thunder/Thunder II first, keep it up multi-doting another mob is ok; more then two you're wasting damage. Always reapply when it procs.
Fire I for single target rotation, until you get Fire III. By that time you should have a good feel of which one you should be using.
Blizzard I for single target rotation, until you get Blizzard III.
Transpose whenever you're out of mana then start Blizzard I; Transpose again when full to switch back to fire. I like to transpose when battle ends as well, this means you're rarely low mana between pulls (unless they're pulling quick, then probably not needed)
Single Target Rotations is for 1-2 targets, usually.
For everything before 50, you'll use Fire II during Astral and Blizzard I/III during Umbral as blizzard II is melee range and is rarely safe for your health.
At 50, you get Flare. This is your true AOE spell.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/112288-The-Black-Mage-Rotations was the defacto BLM forum, idk if it still is. Hope some of this helped/clarified things.

Thanks both for the help!

BLM/ THM feels a bit weird before you have fire 3 and blizzard 3. You'll see when you get there, but it sort of streamlines the whole process. For now though, on 3+ targets use fire 2 (unless your tank can't handle it, then just do one at a time) until you can't cast any more. Use transpose and cast either blizzard or blizzard 2 if there are enough mobs (I usually only bother with 4+) as well as thunder on a target that won't die in the next 18 seconds. When mp is full either transpose back to astral fire, or just start casting fire. I forget how the timing works out, but if you'd have to sit there with full mp waiting for transpose to come back up then you shouldn't -- just start casting fire/ fire 2.

Once you get astral fire 3/ umbral ice 3 you can skip transpose most of the time and just use it when combat ends and you're still in astral fire. This works because fire 3 will always give you 3 stacks of astral fire, regardless of what buffs you had before and blizzard 3 will always give you 3 stacks of umbral ice. The tier 3 version of both buffs also give greatly enhanced casting speed to the opposite element and umbral ice 3 refreshes your entire mp pool in 2 ticks (between 3.1 and 5.9 seconds essentially). It has a pretty significant effect on how BLM plays.

When you use thunder you also will have a chance for a thundercloud proc that will let you cast an instant thunder 1 ,2, or 3 for free. You will also get a proc called firestarter (at lvl 44 I believe) that you might get a chance to cast a instant fire 3 for free. If you want a further suggestion I would work on your archer for the cross class ability raging strike this will increase your damage for a short period of time