Black Mage Lvl. 50 Rotation

So I wanted to see what all the other Black Mage's rotations were. Any suggestions are welcome to help improve us all!

Blizzard III>Thunder III (Swiftcast)>Fire III>Fire I (Firestarter Procs between)

At ~500 mp I cast Blizzard III to start my MP regen. Depending on the amount I will either use Scathe, or immediately cast Thunder II. I only cast Thunder III if I'm consuming a Thundercloud proc or if Swiftcast is off CD

My main question is if people wait till their Thundercloud procs are about to expire to use them or if, they consume them as soon as the proc. I understand why you would wait, but the more I played the class the more I realized that it would proc several times while I waited for the right moment to use it

I would love to see the Firestarter proc to stack twice. One thing I hate is cutting the rotation mid cast because the Firestarter proc doesn't appear till halfway through next the Fire I cast. Opinions? Suggestions? Let me know!

My rotation tends to go as follows:

Blizzard III --> Thunder III --> Fire III --> Fire I (Fire III when Firestarter is up) --> 504 MP (this is the magic number) --> Blizzard III --> Thunder III~

Every 180 seconds, you can change into another variation...

Blizzard III --> Thunder III --> Fire III --> Fire I (Fire III when Firestarter is up) --> 504 MP (this is the magic number) --> Flare (Swiftcast)>Convert --> Fire I (Fire III when Firestarter is up) --> 504 MP --> Blizzard III --> Thunder III~

Flare can be very useful in rotations, just only when Convert is up to immediately continue DPS. When you have the perfect Piety stat, you will be able to Convert directly into a Fire I and lead up with Blizzard III and Thunder III. In some cases, you have to downgrade for Thunder II until you have the ideal MP (yes, it exists for us BLMs). In regards to your Firestarter & Thundercloud issue, use them when you get them. For Firestarter, I will jump out of a Fire I cast in order to use the Fire III cast (you will jump cancel and immediately be able to Fire III in mid-air, not hurting your damage). For Thundercloud, I wait until my cast finishes before throwing it out. Thundercloud being wasted is a shame, but Firestarter going to waste/over-writing itself hurts far more, in my opinion.

On procs...It just sort of depends. I almost never cancel a cast to use a proc. If my last fire 1 procs starter I usually wait for bliz3->thunder3->use proc to get back in burn phase.
Similarly with Thunder procs. If it hits at the end of the burn I use it where I'd normally cast thunder.

Unless I'm in raging strikes. Then I don't wait.
But if Garuda is about to drop the feathers I let the firestarter proc sit to make sure AF3 is up to hit them with a swift-cast flare right away while they're bunched.

1.Thunder II > 2.Fire III > 3.Fire I > 4.Thundercloud Proc > 5.Firestarter Proc > 6.If above 600MP repeat 3-6 > 7.Blizzard III

Increased initial damage and increased DOT length of Thunder III does not warrant the use of Thunder III outside of the Thundercloud proc.

Single Target Rotation

• Pre Cast Thunder III just before tank pulls during a count down
• Swiftcast (Opener) + Raging Strikes (Cross Skill from Level 4 Archer) + Fire III (To get a 3 stack of Astral Fire)
• Fire (Till 15%-20% MP)
• Blizzard III (To get a 3 stack of Umbral Ice for large MP regeneration ticks)
• Thunder II (Reapply only if needed) ***
• Fire III (3 stack of Astral Fire reapplied)
• Fire (Till 15%-20% MP)
• Repeat Rotation....

*** Seeing if filling with Thunder vs Thunder II to re apply is more or less dps. Reason being is the dot duration vs cast time. .5 sec less cast time in theory should get you back into the fire rotation for the higher damage. Though there is a 20 potency difference between Thunder and Thunder II.

Situational Reminders (For Single Target DPS)

• Only use Fire III when you have a 3 stack of Umbral Ice (Reminder when you have either 3 stack of Umbral Ice or Astral Fire, it will cut the cast time of your ice / fire spells by 50%.)
  
• Only use Thunder II when you are in Umbral Ice state, this will give you time for your MP consumption from Umbral Ice stacks to tick.
  
• Only use Thunder III when you have proc Thundercloud.
  
• While using Fire always weave in your free instant cast Fire III from Firestarter

AoE Rotation

• Fire III (To get a 3 stack of Astral Fire)
• Fire II (Till 20% MP)
• Blizzard III (To get a 3 stack of Umbral Ice for large MP regeneration ticks)
• Fire III (Target highest HP mob)
• Fire II (Till 20% MP)
• Blizzard III
• Repeat Rotation....

Regarding Raging Strikes : How big of a benefit do you get from using it before Fire III as opposed to after when you have stacks of Astral Fire to further increase damage?

I'm only lvl 21 so when I've used it in dungeons I do it after I've got buff from Astral Fire.

Raging Strikes is an oGCD ability, so when I played BLM I would do swiftcast->fire 3->raging strikes instead of double buffing first. It gets you into your GCD rotation faster by not delaying with animation locks. This is a bigger deal for me on BRD, but can be applied to BLM as well. Using ~1 second animation locks on buffs (for simplicity here), the timings look something like this...

Swiftcast (1s) -> Raging Strikes (2s) -> Fire 3 (2s) -> Fire 1 (4.5s)
vs
Swiftcast(1s) -> Fire 3 (1s) -> Raging Strikes (2s) -> Fire 1 (3.5s)

RS after fire 3 puts you a full second ahead on your rotation, with little dps loss from the non-astral fire 3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ambiguous

Flare can be very useful in rotations, just only when Convert is up to immediately continue DPS. When you have the perfect Piety stat, you will be able to Convert directly into a Fire I and lead up with Blizzard III and Thunder III.

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So what is your stat allocation?

For aoe i use bliz3->fire3->fire2 til 300mp -> flare -> convert -> flare -> transpose -> swift cast -> blizz3 (repeat)


Without swift cast yiu can transpose to get ui1 then go near adds and spam blizz2 til full mana then fire3-fire2 etc etc