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Did a quick search and didnt see much discussion of it. I would love to know what you black mages are using!
This is what I've grown fond of
Thunder II
Swiftcast
Blizzard III
Fire III
Fire III
Fire
...
Fire
Scathe
Blizzard III
Repeat
i dont have quelling strikes, or virus yet, but they would go probably go around the same time as thunder II
isn't it better to start off with Blizzard III due to the MP regen?
after that Thunder II
Fire III after that as you should have full MP again once Fire III finishes casting;
Fire III should be castable a couple of times,
hit Blizzard III again to get your regen up
Thunder II after that.
(Thunder II should land the second it runs out for maximum uptime)
my idea's as of now
P.S. Scathe; not using it much personally (probably due to my level atm), but is a nice instant.
P.P.S. here is some discussion as well about the matter: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/63653-BLM
I would generally do:
Thunder, (II is prob best but I had just been doing III, It will depend on how long your rotation really is if you don't get a thunder proc to get the most dps)
Fire III
Fire 1 spam, Instant Fire III and thunder III when proc
Blizzard III
repeat
Blizzard III and Fire III are just utility skills mainly to get mana back and setup for fire spam. The thunder is to get the second tick of mana regen so with 3x Umbral Ice you will get full mana. Having 3x astral/Umbral is needed to speed up your fire/Blizzard III casts.
The potency for the cast time on Fire III is pretty much the same as Fire so you want to spam fire to get the fire III procs. Also you want lower cast times so you can dodge more.
I don't know which thunder is best to cast I was reading people like thunder II
Use convert with raging strikes for more fire spam.
Here's what i have seen as I've leveled:
Blizzard III grants umbral 3 and makes your next Fire III cast much faster (I'm not sure of the %) and cost much less, giving you more mana casts of fire before having to cast Blizzard III again. Also Blizzard 3 at the start will normally replace the mana used by Thunder 3 before you get the Fire 3 cast.
My Rotation looks like this:
1) Blizzard III
2) Thunder III
3) Fire III
3a) Raging strikes after Astral 3 buff
4) Fire (repeat until low on mana)
4a)Fire III and Thunder III on proc
5) Repeat from 1
Raging strikes on cooldown unless saving it when we're closer to a boss fight
I use transpose and consume incase i mess up my rotation in order to recover mana.
Scathe is only situation for mobile fights where i cant do the full rotation, and i make sure i have umbral buff if i do have to move around
The BLM discussion thread is filled with this discussion. It's still going on 18 pages in.
i should mention you can do 2 fire III's in a row at 50% ruduced casting time after a blizz III
My rotation thus far:
Open Blizzard III
Thunder II
Fire III
Fire Until Dry on Mana or not enough mana for next Blizzard III cast
Blizzard III
Thunder II
Carry on. I throw in Raging Strikes when necessary for extra DPS if need be (Although most dungeon Mobs I've fought have done more than fine with just Astral buff).
I noticed a BLM earlier spamming Fire III/Blizzard III as his primary DPS. Is this actually going to end up being significantly more (Enough to warrant the extra cast time) than just using Fire/Blizzard?
The Proven,best parsed and most stable DPS (so far anyways) is:-
Thunder II
Swiftcast
Fire III
Fire I ... (spam untill enough mana to finish the next few steps in rotation)
Bilzzard III
Thunder II
Scathe
Fire III
...Back to spamming Fire...
-You use 'Thunder II' instead of 'Thunder III' because 'Thunder III' is a 0.5s longer cast for only a 10 potancy buff. Instead you use 'Thunder II' on the rotation and 'Thunder III' with your 'Thundercloud' procs.
I will post the rest of the explanation below since there's not enough room in this post
-We use Fire III only once to get instant 3 Astral Fire Stacks saving you around 0.5-0.7 seconds overall in the rotation, someone posted above saying that you can cast 2x Fire III at 50% cast speed, this is untrue, it looks like you can but in actual fact the second cast bar will get 'interupted' (but the spell wont be) around 50% and extend the cast time back to its original cast length.
-Fire - We spam this for firestarter to use instant Fire III
-Blizzard III - Use for instant 3x Astral Ice - Again saving around 0.4-0.7 seconds overall
-Scathe - I use this directly after Thunder (recast) simply to use a global, it works out that once i've cast Fire III and its about 0.3-0.1 seconds from finishing its cast my mana Hits cap
-Hopefully this has shed a little light on the matter. Any other questions feel free to post