Qusetion about Blizzard 3

I just got Blizzard 3 on my Black Mage, and I'm wondering if I should use it to go into my MP regaining or stick to Transpose, or just when it should be used.

I've been using fire 3 to go into my fire phase instead of transpose, since it gives me the three stacks.

You generally don't use transpose anymore with the exception of trying to maintain enochian in downtimes (or after flare when your MP drops to 0). You use blizzard III / Fire III to swap between astral/umbral as it's not a spell you spam. The cast time for either is shortened significantly when you're in astral/umbral III.

So at level 50 you'd cast fire 1 (single target situations) until you can't anymore, cast blizzard III with the shortened cast due to astral fire, while in umbral ice you'd cast thunders on targets. When your MP is full you'd swap back to astral fire using fire III. Then you repeat the rotation with fire 1. The rotation changes a bit at level 60 with fire IV and blizzard IV.

I'm speaking in a very basic manner as I don't main BLM but I understand the fundamentals. Blizzard III is a quick way to go into umbral ice and, insanely quickly, regen your MP to full as well as refresh thunder DoTs on targets (you shouldn't be using thunder in astral fire as you aren't regaining MP and reducing potential fires).

tl;dr Blizzard III and Fire III give you an instant astral fire/umbral Ice III stack for enhanced damage/quick MP regenration. You don't regen mp in astral fire but you regen all MP in mere server ticks in umbral III.

I'm sure a BLM main can make any elaborations or corrections.

Yes, you can now include Blizzard 3 on your rotation to switch to umbral ice with 3 stacks. It'll let you have the time to cast thunder during your mana recovery, then cast Fire III to get back to astral fire.
Then fire fire fire.. no mana left for fire => blizzard 3, thunder, repeat.

Until lvl 50, you'll only use transpose in between pulls in dungeon or during dowtime where you can't attack any mob to switch back to umbral ice to recover your mana.
You however don't need to keep using transpose to keep any buff (at least right now)
That's something you'll see later with enochian

Thank =) Helps a ton =D

Yep, Transpose only gives you 1 of the element buff while using fire/blizzard 3 gives the full deal.
Im not gonna say youre not gonna use transpose ever again anymore but you might want to only do it when running from boss to boss.
I can garantee that especially at the start of endgame you might use transpose now and then simply because of reflex/in panic when Enochian almost runs out or youre moving to much.
The endgame idea of BLM is ofcourse that they do more dps than most, but at the same time lose dps with almost every step they do :P (Swiftcast etc. relieve this usually) so eventually when you know your positioning.. you wont panic to much anymore and stay away from transpose

Thanks a bunch again! With Firestarter, I've been lining it up with going back into Fire from Ice, and the job went from really fun, to extremely fun and I wish I had went Black Mage instead of Summoner (Got my Summoner to 50 before realizing I didn't like it as much)

Actually you want to use fire start in your Astral phase.
It has more potency than fire1 so it's one extra fire spell during your Astral phase.

The fact that it is instant doesn't give u more damage because you still need to wait for the GCD to finish.

Wether you have fire starter or not you'll use fire3 to go from umbral to Astral.
But fire starter grants you extra damage while in Astral.
It will have a slightly different purpose when you hit 58 tho, (but that's for another day :p)

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

Actually you want to use fire start in your Astral phase.
It has more potency than fire1 so it's one extra fire spell during your Astral phase.

The fact that it is instant doesn't give u more damage because you still need to wait for the GCD to finish.

Wether you have fire starter or not you'll use fire3 to go from umbral to Astral.
But fire starter grants you extra damage while in Astral.

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Adding to this, FS also gives you room to weave OGCD's. At level 50 those would mainly be Convert and Swiftcast. Using these after a FS will let you keep you maximize damage because they won't interrupt your GCD.

Before level 60, just use FS as soon as you get it most of the time so you don't lose any new procs from Fire 1. You can hold on to them for a little while if you need to move (and combine with Swiftcast for even more movement) or if you want to use more MP before using Convert.

Happy to hear you're enjoying BLM! Good news is that 50 you're merely scratching the surface of the job, it becomes much more fun later on! :D

Also, like people said, use your firestarter procs on Astral Fire (AF). AF increases the potency of all fire spells and their mana cost. Since firestarter procs cost no mana, it would be a waste to not use them on AF3 for the free added potency.

I also wanted to ask about Flare, I just got it and I'm not entirely sure when or how to use it, since it uses all of my MP.

Also, again, Thanks =D

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Originally Posted by Aikeiko

I also wanted to ask about Flare, I just got it and I'm not entirely sure when or how to use it, since it uses all of my MP.

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AoE from 50 through 67:
Thunder II/IV, Fire III, Fire II, Fire II, (Fire II again if enough MP to do this and still Flare), Flare, Transpose repeat.

Don't Blizzard III in this situation; it's an extra single target action and you want to get back to AoE fire spells ASAP (all the splodies). Even under Umbral Ice I, the time spent casting Thunder II/IV and Fire III should get you enough MP to Fire II, Fire II, Flare again.

If you have Convert or appropriately potent ethers available, you can Flare, Convert/ether, Flare for an extra splody fire phase. For an obscene level of splodiness, Triplecast Flare Convert Flare ether Flare.

Thankies =D

Just to add, at lvl 68 you get a passive making your flare only cost 75% of your mana after getting ice stacks using ice4. Allows you to use Ice4 and then use flare twice (with some other skills for efficient mana usage)
Example of a 70 flare rotation:
Bliz 3, bliz 4, thunder 4, fire 3, fire 2, flare, flare, convert, flare, tranpose, TC proc if you have it, bliz 4, fire 3, flare, flare, transpose

The fire3's are to get a tiny bit more dmg out of the flares due to the fire stacks and makes sure youre not throwing all your mana into just flare