Black Mage AoE Pre-Blizzard 4: What do?

So I've been playing around trying to make Flare work, and I just can't seem to manage it properly.

The fact it says "ALL" for the MP cost makes it incredibly awkward and finicky to play around for AoE, that I just end up using Thunder/Fire 2 for my AoE damage.

Can BLM mains clue me in here?

Flare consumes all your MP, and it also has a minimum cost. It's something like 266 at Lv50; I don't recall the exact values for other levels. So if you cast too many spells and get below that, Flare is no longer and option. You can see the minimum cost if you drop below it and check the tooltip again--the easiest way to do this is to Flare and then check while you're still in Astral Fire and not refreshing MP.

Prior to getting the Umbral Heart discount for Flare, the AoE rotation looks something like this:

Fire III
Fire II
Fire II
Fire II* (only if you have enough MP to use it and still Flare; you prolly won't)
Flare
Transpose
Thunder II
Repeat from Fire III

Don't bother using a GCD on Blizzard III; you want to get back into Fire ASAP. You also might not be at full MP, and that's okay. Between the cast times of Thunder II and Fire III, you should have enough MP for Fire II, Fire II, Flare.

That is 100% the AoE rotation you should aim for from 50-68. And dont worry, it will still feel awkward and finicky until youve played around with it for awhile. Hard-casting F3 while in UI1 feels like it takes forever. Waiting on a server tick when OOM from flare+transpose can be painful. Not waiting for full mana to switch feels counter-intuitive. But trust us, this is what you want to do. Or dont trust us. But try it anyway. See if you notice enemy packs go down faster. If you or any of your friends have a magic crystal ball, see how your numbers actually change. And keep in mind the rest of your toolkit. For special pulls you can toss off Convert after Flare to get some mana back, then cast Flare all over again(and potentially use a strong enough Ether and go a 3rd time - with insane group coordination a SMN/RDM could shift you and you could hit #4). You can do potentially shocking amounts of damage, even before the UH buff and Foul.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rongway

Flare consumes all your MP, and it also has a minimum cost. It's something like 266 at Lv50; I don't recall the exact values for other levels.

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The minimum for Flare is the same cost as Fire outside AF/UI (half the cost of Fire or Fire IV in AF)

Also worth mentioning if you have some random throwaway X-Ethers (or whatever they're called at that level), you can drop another flare by chugging an ether after a flare. You'll need to make sure your ether of choice gives you more MP than the minimum required for Flare, of course. You won't use those lower-level ethers at 70 (I think at 70 we're using Max-Ethers?), so you may as well throw those junk ethers away doing double-flares of you have some.

Upon second glance Frizzie does mention this briefly, but it's easy to miss. They did also mention that Convert will definitely get you another Flare as well.

You can also use Convert to double flare. Personally, I really liked:
Fire 3
Fire 2
Fire 2
Fire 2* if enough mp
Flare
ether
Flare
Swiftcast+convert
Flare
Transpose.

But this is only if you don't intend to use convert in the boss fight, which is negligible at that level iirc.