DPS Potential....

I'm posting this here because I'm DPS class, and I didn't see anywhere else to post. If I've posted in the wrong place, please let me know.

I've been playing the game for a little while now, but I'm still very newbish to the way rotations are used. I've looked up example rotation and hot-bar set ups and they're all very confusing to read and most of them are set up for lvls 60+.

I'm looking for some guidance to get the most out of my BLM.

This is the current set up I have.



https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...f8&oe=5A7CF918

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...b7&oe=5AACFC22

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...a2&oe=5A7AEF59

Put Fire II and Thunder II on your bars. You'll be using Thunder II/IV forever, and Fire II until 68. Use these on groups. Keep Thunder II up. Procs instant Thunder II for 150 potency per target, plus DoT. Fire II is 144 per target.

For single target, until 60 (58? I haven't done the SB sub-60 math--in HW Blizzard IV without Fire IV was a damage loss):
Thunder III, Fire III, spam Fire, use Firestarter and Thundercloud procs when available, Blizzard III, repeat. Flare only when it's possible to Swiftcast-Flare-Convert.

Get rid of Drain and Erase and put Diversion and Manashift instead. Your tanks and healers will appreciate it.

As for hotbars, don't forget that there is such thing as the extended hotbar. I have mine set to show the same hotbar no matter the order it's pressed. Google extended hotbar setup if you'd like. :0

Skills like: Sleep, Freeze, and Surecast you can stick on your backest of Bars. You will use them very infrequently, but they should be placed. Everything else you should be able to fit on your main/extended hotbar.

For role skills you don't really need drain and erase. Replace them with diversion and apocatastasis or lucid dreaming. If you are going to use apocatastasis though, use this marcro: /ac "Apocatastasis" <tt> so you can throw it on the tank automatically without having to switch targets.

Yeah, drain is sometimes useful while soloing but you never want to bring it into a group situation. The heal is too small to matter when you have a healer, and your actual damage spells do so much more to the target. If you want to keep it for soloing thats fine, but i would swap it to diversion when in groups. Erase and Surecast are also fairly situational. Many dungeons dont feature erasable DoTs or dangerous push/pull mechanics. Lucid Dreaming makes a great emergency button(as a BLM you mostly use it for hate dumping, the refresh doesnt function under astral fire and doesnt matter much under umbral ice), and Mana Shift can help healers a lot(also useful to extend certain bard songs). Or Apoc as AppleJinx said.

As for the BLM rotation, Rongway covered it. Until you get Fire 4(level 60) you want to cast all the Fire 1s you can while under AF3(and get in the habit of using and maintaining Enochian if you dont already). You want to keep your Thunder DoT ticking. You want to use your procs. And when you run low on mana you need to refill. So you cast all your fire spells, then use Bliz 3 to switch stances, one filler spell will get you to full mana - this is a good place to refresh thunder, then Fire 3 to switch back to offense and keep going.

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Originally Posted by AppleJinx

For role skills you don't really need drain and erase. Replace them with diversion and apocatastasis or lucid dreaming. If you are going to use apocatastasis though, use this marcro: /ac "Apocatastasis" <tt> so you can throw it on the tank automatically without having to switch targets.

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I don't know how to set up macros......do I just copy and paste what you wrote there and take the icon and put it on my bar?

I just unlocked Sharpcast last night. I don't have Enochian yet.

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Originally Posted by AppleJinx

For role skills you don't really need drain and erase. Replace them with diversion and apocatastasis or lucid dreaming.

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A BLM will never need lucid dreaming, instead grab mana shift to help out your healers

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Originally Posted by Tsubaki75

A BLM will never need lucid dreaming, instead grab mana shift to help out your healers

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it halves enmity, BLM i know use it on cooldown

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Originally Posted by Seraphiime

it halves enmity, BLM i know use it on cooldown

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Manashift still brings more party utility. If youre using diversion, you should be ok

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Originally Posted by Rawrz

Manashift still brings more party utility. If youre using diversion, you should be ok

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You can still have mana shift with lucid dreaming and diversion

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Originally Posted by Jukebox12

You can still have mana shift with lucid dreaming and diversion

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Exactly. I run most content with Swift, Lucid, Diversion, and Mana Shift locked in. I swap the 5th between Apoc, Addle, Sure and Erase - depending on which i think will be most useful. Diversion is only usable every 120 seconds, and it only reduces the enmity you generate - it does nothing for what you already have. If ive used Diversion during my opener and im about to(or just have) stolen threat i can give it right back before the enemy even turns around. Does this happen all the time? No of course not. But it happens enough.

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Originally Posted by Tsubaki75

A BLM will never need lucid dreaming, instead grab mana shift to help out your healers

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A BLM doesn't even really need diversion tbh, Lucid Dreaming is far better for aggro management for bosses.

ALWAYS have all your skills and abilities on your bar. Read the tooltips on your spells/weaponskills and abilities too. So you know how and when to use them. That should hold you over for most of your leveling. And once you get to a point where you are higher level (DEFINITELY do this at max level) look over some info on your job online to make sure you are doing it correctly and not missing out on tons of potential damage. Because, as a dps, you need to try and be efficient with your damage output. Otherwise you're just getting carried through content. And you'll hit a point in this game where you will not be able to progress because of that.

Why 3 flares when you could add sharpcast in there?

That was simply something someone told me that they did so I was trying it out. It was kinda redundant. Besides that, I didn't have Sharpcast at that point. I do now.

To be honest I've never had to use Diversion, and if there was any case I accidentally pulled aggro from aoes etc then the tank was quick to correct the situation. Take it if you want, it's really situational though so up to you.

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Originally Posted by Kurando

To be honest I've never had to use Diversion, and if there was any case I accidentally pulled aggro from aoes etc then the tank was quick to correct the situation. Take it if you want, it's really situational though so up to you.

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I'm actually preferring Lucid over Diversion purely for aggro management.

When I rip aggro from a tank, it's not because I didn't use Diversion, but because the tank overestimated their ability to hold aggro without using an occasional enmity combo.

I ran through an Expert roulette the other day where the O4S-geared tank did a great job overall keeping DPS up and barely used Grit, but he repeatedly lost aggro to me at the final boss starting about halfway through, even with my use of Diversion. I had to prolong my UI phase unnecessarily to give him a chance to catch up in aggro when Diversion was down. If I'd had Lucid slotted at the time, I could have let him continue to be full-on aggressive without interruption (I don't mind a DPS-focused tank, but I hadn't expected that one to ignore enmity THAT much lol).

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Originally Posted by Rawrz

Manashift still brings more party utility. If youre using diversion, you should be ok

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I'd love if this were true.