Help with DPS in Turn 7 as a BLM

Yesterday was my first time through T6 and T7. My numbers were horrible. Granted, they were the first time I've ever been in each turn, nevertheless won each one. I didn't break 200 in either fight.

In turn 7, how can I keep my DPS high? I'm worried about positioning so much that I don't cast spells constantly. If I'm targeted by Voice, I turn around and don't cast, which wastes 7 seconds. Positioning for shriek (when not targeted), I don't cast at all until the action is finished and I re-position.

Again, this was my first attempt at T7 so I know I can improve, but any tips? My group was friggen excellent to make up for my piteous DPS numbers.

I'm a 106 BLM with UAT weapon. Got the HA belt of casting and stuff. My normal numbers are only 405

you don't have to turn around for voice until you got less than 4 second. (depend on your lagtency. you can go as low as 2 second.) for shriek , you can use aether manipulation to reposition faster. (manipulate to healer is a safe bet, the boss might fire ball at you and healer if you got bad timing but 1 fire ball can be easily heal off with 1 medica.

It seems idiotic, but I completely forgot about Aetherial Manipulation. I don't think I've ever used it in a serious battle. Also, I recently switched to a Lalafel (on the 4th). I'm having slight difficulty noticing if I'm facing away from enemies and friendlies. Would switching to an elezen or human rift my DPS potential?

no idea. I am a lalafel since 2.0 start. Lala4LIFE xD

btw, my setting is always force my character to face the target when I start casting. hope that help

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Originally Posted by Skeith-Adeline

In turn 7, how can I keep my DPS high? I'm worried about positioning so much that I don't cast spells constantly. If I'm targeted by Voice, I turn around and don't cast, which wastes 7 seconds. Positioning for shriek (when not targeted), I don't cast at all until the action is finished and I re-position.

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This is probably most of your problem, but it's still a good call if you think you might mess up the mechanics. There aren't any particularly rough dps checks in t7, but stoning the mt because you really wanted that last fire cast will be a wipe fersure. That being said, standing around doing nothing kills blm dps. Not as bad for someone like smn since most of their damage goes with dots, but almost all of our dps is from active casts. You should still prioritize not stoning your raid, but as you get the feel for the boss rotation you should start trying to get as much casting uptime as you can. T7 is a practice intensive fight - aka you'll get way better at it the more you do it.

t7 is arguably the most mechanics driven of the scob encounters. As long as you're clearing it, I'd focus your optimization efforts on t8.

Some tips to consider:
Try your best to line up UI for when you're turned around. Doesn't always work out that way, but helps a lot when it does.
You can manaward fireballs.
You can manawall the attacks from the 4 archer adds (doesn't help much but there isn't anything important to manawall).
Depending on how/where your group tanks the first add, you might be able to flare-convert that punk. Helps your dps, but more importantly is just fun to do.

Hope some of this is helpful. The biggest thing I see from what you've told us is to try and increase your time spent casting. There's not wholly a lot of required movement for a ranged in t7, so find a good spot that's far enough to not fireball melee, but close enough that you don't have to move to much for shriek. Then just go turret mode and you'll start wrecking stuff.

Good luck!

Edit:
Aetherial Manipulation is super freaking awesome... but unfortunately it's not great on t7 (mostly cause of fireballs). But on t6, t8 and t9, just think of any time that you need to be somewhere that you are not; this is a good time for AM. ex: in my static, I'm supposed to activate the mine tower that spawns with the second set of towers. So what I do:
1) be killing the dread that will be up before this.
2)wait for a proc during dread, use it to move into the edge of the tower without interrupting my cast (the edge of the tower won't activate it, so don't worry about prematurely setting it off).
3)after the tower's proced, use AM ogcd to get back to the group.
^By doing this I've run to a tower and back without ever losing even a fraction of cast time. Any remotely similar situation is a good time for AM.

Edit-edit:
On races - the stats are negligible, but if you care about the stats anyways, then the best non-lala is the elezen duskwight. They've got the highest base INT.

I'm not one to advocate not trying to improve DPS. However, you mentioned it was your first time through it. Becoming comfortable with mechanics first and foremost "should" increase your DPS. IMO, while learning T7, tunnel vision mechanics, not the dps. The DPS check is nearly non existent(outside of 1st add set for learning groups).

Once you're comfortable with the fight, these are some things to work on to improve DPS.

- 4 seconds or more on voice = casting (as mentioned)
- AM to return from shriek depending on distance while shrieking (fireball pending)
- Prepare for being shriek target. Keep tabs on distance from renaud and yourself. Make use of the fact you can cast and move within last portion of cast bar (while still firing off next spell as soon as gcd is up) to inch close to renaud to minimize amount of time you spend running to renaud if you're shriek target.
- 2nd add set. Position/Dps/CD dependent. SC/Flare/Convert Melusine/add. During umbral if convert not up. T2 as normal, SC T3 last prioritized add to try and cheese a proc. If you do get one, toss back on melusine or another add if it will last duration. And that's one thing in general i see many BLM do. Basically throwing away additional damage and chances at procs by firing off T3 on current target the second TC procs (when it's about to die)regardless of whether there is another target that you could be putting it on where you can make use of the actual DoT uptime.

Really good advice in this thread. If you can push 400 like you said it's just a matter of being comfortable with mechanics.

Did you break your Astral Fire or Umbral Ice during those fights? If so, the very first step toward increasing your DPS for those fights is to keep AF3 or UI3 up in all time. Then slowly work on when/what to cast a spell during those fights. The key is to keep your buff up.

Oh man. Everything was messed up haha. I remember at one point, I had 1000mp, used Fire 3 to get back into UF, noticed that I had made a mistake, clicked Blizzard instead of Blizzard 3, lost my UF without UI, clicked Transpose for no logical reason other than panic, forced to continue to use BLizzard 3, froze tank and hit boss with Voice because I was so focused on doing my role, which I believe to be a nuke cannon lol. Shooting out peas that round though.

With the Shriek, I stopped casting because I was afraid of latency with the fireballs after the shriek is finished. I don't want to hit my raid with something that would have been my fault. I was focused on the Shrieked targets icon to know when to leave lol.
With Voice, my lalafel has white hair, and wearing light pink outfit with white skin. I couldn't tell her face from her backside so I was more focused on that than casting haha. (one time I almost hit my melee DPS from misunderstanding)

I was just checked again (my last numbers were in 103; I just just hit ilvl 108) and I bursted at 700 for 10 seconds, dropped down to 500 for a few and stayed static at 420 so me having a 140dps in T7 is disheartening. I try no tto focus too hard on it as it was my first time in T7 but it still stucks knowing the Paladin almost matched my DPS lol

I think it was a success though... knew nothign about the fight before hand, first time in it... just finished T6 in the same situation.

Mostly you need to practice more and panic less xD

When you are more used to the fight and get voice, you can try and force/save a proc (or SC Flare - Transpose) to cast on 1/2s remaining, then turn for voice while the GDC is being refreshed.

As soon as you get Shriek, unload everything you can while running into position and transpose to get back to full mana.

Keep Thunder on boss even when adds are up for possible TC procs.

Once you get past understanding the mechanics and when to expect what, you will have the second easiest dps job other than a bard (if they are not kiting renauld's)

You want to stay motionless in the middle ring just far enough from everyone that you won't clip them with the flame circle. And basically your same rotation. I'm like only i93 on that fight and I think my dps was close to 300. Considering had bad luck with flame circles and it dropped at the end. That and I don't normally dps but I do in this fight. Just once you get used to the mechanics, your dps will shoot up.

And don't turn away as soon as you get the voice debuff. Keep attacking till it hits 3 seconds then turn away. 4 seconds is most likely two fire 1's and possible a firestarter lol.

if you have too much dps in t7 it will throw off your voices & shrieks anyway.
my group actually had to lower our DPS and me (the kiter) basically stopped dpsing and just focused on kiting except when I'd throw a few DOTs on the ads.
T6 and T7 are really unfavorable for a black mage (which is also why I switched to smn to begin with) but you should be able to shine in T8 =)

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Originally Posted by Nukocafe

T6 and T7 are really unfavorable for a black mage (which is also why I switched to smn to begin with)

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I disagree, t6 and t7 are both fine for a BLM now.

It does take more practice for a BLM, but we can certainly keep up with the other DPS classes on those turns.

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Originally Posted by scarebearz

I disagree, t6 and t7 are both fine for a BLM now.

It does take more practice for a BLM, but we can certainly keep up with the other DPS classes on those turns.

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Never said you can't keep up, you just have to do a lot more work to find ways to "weave in your casts" so that there's no DPS loss while dealing with stuff like vine breaking,bulbs, boquets, voices and shrieks. A really good BLM will know the mechanics and be able to put out a lot of DPS but I think the average person will be stuck at a disadvantage.\

I was too lazy to bother becoming one of those good BLMs so switching back to summoner was a lot easier for me. I began the game as a scholar anyway :P

Fair enough :D

I can agree that SMN is easier to put out decent numbers with xD

T7 is more favorable to BLM's than T6 from my experience. I am a lot more stationary in T7 which leads to higher DPS than in T6 for sure.

To be fair, it is pointless to look at DPS parses in T7 because it is largely RNG and unfair to any other DPS than a BRD.

But I'm curious how you scored under 200 for T6 though, that's puzzling.

Well, it was my first time in the fight and the only thing I knew of it was that BB mechanic. I didn't know any of the targeting icons, status ailments, nothing. We killed it with one wipe, so I'm /still/ completely ignorant on that battle.