Thaumaturge Spell Rotation

I've been mucking around with THM in order to unlock SMN and, while I'm at it, farm tickets from the low-level Moonfaire FATEs.

I'm pretty sure I understand how Blizzard and Fire work. Repeated casts of Fire drain your MP pretty quickly but do more damage, while repeated castings of Blizzard do less damage but replenish your MP more quickly.

I've heard people on these forums reference the THM spell rotation, usually in the context of players doing poorly in dungeons. ("He didn't even do the rotation properly.") Is this referring to an optimal way to juggle the different elemental spells for optimal output?

If so, what is that method at these lower levels? Should you be spamming Fire until your MP is depleted and then switching to Blizzard until you get it back? Should you be alternating back and forth between Blizzard and Fire? Is there some other formula?

Thanks.

what i do, while it may not be up to the standards of the elites but at low levels for me (only 15 THM) my rotation is usually this --- Blizzard I > Thunder I > Transpose > Fire I until around 50MP > either Transpose again or Blizzard II/Blizzard I depending on situation. Repeat if necessary.

oh, your welcome by that way!

I ran with a great THM a couple days ago..

It seemed to be open up with Thunder.. fire until Low MP.. transpose... then blizzard until around full.. transpose.. fire..

not sure how much thunder you throw in there.. but he was pretty beast.

If you stick with Thaumaturge, eventually you will want to switch stances with Fire III or Blizzard III, as they give you the full stacks and being in the opposite stance makes them cost less MP to switch over.

Really I think people just get fed up with bad BLM/THM who think that spamming Blizzard is amazing because they don't run out of MP, and don't get it through their head that doing incredibly larger amounts of damage while still not running out of MP is much better.

When to cast Thunder is, as far as I know, up to the caster. It might be nice to lead with it just because it's best to have DoTs on as much as possible and it gives the tank some time to grab hate. I personally like to throw it in when in Umbral Ice since my MP is usually full by the time it's done casting.

Early on, I think a successful rotation is:
1. Thunder
2. Fire (until MP is exhausted)
3. Transpose
4. Blizzard/Scathe (until Transpose is back up)
5. Transpose, and continue with Fire

Refresh the Thunder DoT at any point in the mix (or as soon as Thunderstorm triggers). Apply Sleep as the situation dictates. Mix in any other cross class spells you have equipped as you see fit, so long as you don't lose Astral Fire/Umbral Ice.

The key is understanding the difference between Umbral Ice and Umbral Fire. Although the base Fire/Blizzard spells have equivalent potencies, Umbral Fire will increase the damage of successive fire spells beyond that base amount (while also increasing their mana cost). As such, in terms of sheer damage per second, Fire is far more effective. However, as Umbral Fire simultaneously increases the cost of your Fire spells, continuous casting will empty out your mana pool. At that point, you want to leverage Umbral Ice to quickly restore your mana. Early on, this is achieved with Transpose; later on, with Blizzard/Fire III.

Thunder has a small initial kick and a DoT. As such, the longer it's active, the more damage it does. As a DoT, it ticks without any effort from you, and so once cast, will increase your damage per second without any additional effort on your part.

Long story short, you want to open with Thunder, then go with Fire until your mana is almost drained, hit Transpose, and depending on mana/timing, probably Thunder again and resume Fire with maybe a Blizzard in the middle, if necessary. It's really important as a THM/BLM to have a feel for how your mana will regen and balance your DPS accordingly.
Also, Scathe - as an instant cast spell - is often very useful as a finisher, i.e. follow up your last Fire/Blizzard with it, when the mob is almost dead, for a quick end to the battle.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlienWacKo

oh, your welcome by that way!

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THANK YOU!!!!!....(I'm not being sarcastic either, I really didn't know any of that. and now I actually do exactly what you wrote.)

One thing I would like to add is level Conjurer or Arcanist at least until you get a self heal. A lot of the gear you will get leveling up will have MND on it so your self heal isn't going to totally blow chunks like it would with a Disciple of War class, and it's very useful if you get in over your head. Also Aero from Conjurer is another useful spell.

Endgame rotation changes a bit once you get the teir3 spells as they overwrite the umbral or astral buff. The rotation that works best for me (not sure if its the best, but welcome to suggestions) is:

1.Open with swiftcast Thunder 3
2.fire repeat with fire3 when firestarter procs. (also tossing thunderspark procs here as well)
3. when below 500 MP blizz3 (overwrites astral 3 with umbral 3) also blizz3 (all blizzard spells) is half mp cost and half casting time when under astral 3
4. if swiftcast is back up i reapply after getting back to umbral 3 otherwise i toss a scathe in while waiting for umbral to get mp back which takes 2 ticks (6 seconds).
5. at about 5 seconds i start casting fire3 and by the time the game registers it lands and overwrites my umbral3 with astral the second tick to top me off has landed.