Help me, BLM-senpai!

So my BLM is level 60, but I haven't touched it in....years. I honestly have no idea what current rotations look like...and every time I start to think about playing it again, I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of what I've forgotten and what has changed...please help!

If someone could talk me through the single-target rotation and AoE rotation from 60 on, I'd be ecstatic! Maybe just the big intervals for ease. 60 and 70, or if there's a big change part-way through, but I'm also curious as to what BLM 80 is like right now.

BLM at 80 is as smooth and fluid as it has ever been, but you've got a little way to go before then.

At level 60 you get Fire IV, which is your main reason to keep Enochian up at all time.
Remember that Bliz3 and Fire3 are your transition spells that put you into UI/AF3, at which point you'll use Enochian, and never let it drop.

For example, if you start with Bliz3, then hit Enochian, you'll have time to get your Thunder out, and then Bliz4 to generate your Umbral Hearts (free fire spells) before you hit Fire3.
In AF with Enochian, it's Fire4 spam until you're about to lose Enochian or MP. If Enochian is less than 6s, use Fire1 to refresh it, if your MP isn't enough, hit Bliz3.
And repeat.
Swiftcast and Triplecast as necessary to facilitate movement. Firestarter proc can be used for movement or AF refresh depending on when it comes up. Thundercloud proc for movement, or whenever you get a chance to squeeze it in if you don't want to lose it.
Just remember, never lose Enochian.

That's the simple version at least, from there you can either learn yourself or look up more detailed guides.

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Originally Posted by KohakuTribal

So my BLM is level 60, but I haven't touched it in....years. I honestly have no idea what current rotations look like...and every time I start to think about playing it again, I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of what I've forgotten and what has changed...please help!

If someone could talk me through the single-target rotation and AoE rotation from 60 on, I'd be ecstatic! Maybe just the big intervals for ease. 60 and 70, or if there's a big change part-way through, but I'm also curious as to what BLM 80 is like right now.

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Simple Single Target rotation
60-70:
Blizzard 3 > (enochian/foul) > Blizzard 4 > thunder 3 > Fire 3 > Fire 4 x 3 > Fire 1 > Fire 4 x 3 > repeat

72-79:
Blizzard 3 > (enochian) > Blizzard 4 > thunder 3 > Fire 3 > Fire 4 x 3 > Fire 1 > Fire 4 x 3 > Despair > Foul > repeat

80:
Blizzard 3 > (enochian) > Blizzard 4 > Thunder 3 > Fire 3 > Sharpcast > Fire 1 > Fire 4 x 3 > Fire 3 > Fire 4 x 3 > Despair > (Xenoglossy) > repeat


If you need to move for mechanics truncate the fire 4s so you don't lose the astral fire buff. Save thundercloud/firestarter procs for when you are moving out of stuff.

--addtional information: With the timer for umbral ice/astral fire increased to 15 seconds it is possible to squeeze 4 fire 4 casts between fire 1 or blizz3 but the timing is really tight, better to keep it to 3 in general, unless you have triple cast up, then if you have to move you can figure out if it's worth trying to squeeze an extra into the latter half of your fire phase or not.

Enochian: Stays up as long as you have astral fire or umbral ice up. Gives access to fire4 and blizzard 4 spells. At 70 it also gives access to foul every thirty seconds and a 10% damage bonus. At 80 it gives an addition 5% damage bonus and a second stackable charge of foul. > Use it once immediately after your first blizzard spell then don't use it unless the buff falls off. Being stuck without Enochian is a huge damage loss.

Sharpcast: Gaurantees your next fire 1 or thunder spell will proc. I prefer to use it to force a firestarter at the beginning of my astral phases, I don't know if that's still the optimal use for it. At 74 the recast changes from 60s to 30s so you can use it at the start of every fire phase.

Aspect Mastery: Trait at 72, allows you to cast opposing element spells at no mp cost when you have full stacks of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice. Essentially you can now cast blizzard 3 (or freeze) for free at the end of your Fire phases.

Despair: Single target version of flare. You need atleast 800 mp(?) to cast it. It refreshes your astral timer but uses all your remaining mp.

Xenoglossy: Single target version of foul (also it has zero cast time) You learn it at 80, when you also gain the ability to store 2 stacks of foul/xenoglossy. I tend to save this for when I have to move out of mechanics, otherwise cast it after Despair before blizzard 3.

Triple cast: It's literally three consecutive fast casts, try to line it up so you always use it with fire 4. It's tempting to save it for when you have leylines, but their timers don't line up that well... So for the first time you use them they will line up, but then it's every other use of leylines.

Manafont: It used to be convert, now it just recovers 30% of your total mp without the HP cost. After 72 use it after you cast despair to cast another fire 4 and another despair.

AoE rotations; I haven't done any number crunching yet so I don't know what the mob break points are, so I'm going to suggest several rotations, feel free to try em out and figure which ones you like.

60-67:
Freeze > (enochian) > Thunder2/4 > Blizzard 4 > Fire3 > Fire 2 x3 > Flare > Transpose
or
Freeze > (enochian) > Thunder2/4 > Fire 3 > Flare > Transpose > repeat

68-71:
Freeze > (enochian) > Thunder2/4 > Flare > Flare > transpose > (foul) > repeat

72+:
Freeze > (enochian) > Foul > Thunder2/4 > Flare > Flare > repeat
or
Freeze > (enochian) > Foul > Thunder2/4 > Fire 3 > Flare > Flare > repeat

Thundercloud procs are the bulk of your AOE damage now, which means damage can be a bit erratic if you are fighting fewer mobs or getting really unlucky with procs.

If you get a thundercloud proc after your final flare and foul isn't up, save it until after you cast freeze/use transpose while you wait for MP to recover, otherwise use them as soon as you get them.

Freeze was changed in Shadowbringers. Now it has a much shorter cast time, doesn't have the awkward circle target reticle and gives three stacks of umbral ice. At 68 it also gives you one stack of Umbral Heart, and let's you cast flare with Umbral Heart up to consume 2/3s of your remaining mp instead of all of it.

--edit

I don't know what your control scheme is like, but I would recommend making a macro for Aetherial Manipulation to either work for mouse over target or for a specific party slot so you can use it more easily. It's much better than manually running to get out of large AoEs.

I have a macro that targets my healer friend with aetherial manipulation since I can always count on her to not be standing in something. The tank is also usually a good option.

With the increased duration on AF and UI, and the reduced cooldown on Sharpcast, I'd suggest this rotation :

Blizzard 3 > (enochian) > Blizzard 4 > (Xenoglossy) > Sharpcast > Thunder 3 > Fire 3 >Fire 4 x 4 > Fire 1 > Thunder 3 (ThunderCloud) > Fire 4 x 2 > Despair > repeat


Depending on if Thundercloud has procced again after the one due to sharpcast, you can delay its use.

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Originally Posted by Umsche

With the increased duration on AF and UI, and the reduced cooldown on Sharpcast, I'd suggest this rotation :

Blizzard 3 > (enochian) > Blizzard 4 > (Xenoglossy) > Sharpcast > Thunder 3 > Fire 3 >Fire 4 x 4 > Fire 1 > Thunder 3 (ThunderCloud) > Fire 4 x 2 > Despair > repeat


Depending on if Thundercloud has procced again after the one due to sharpcast, you can delay its use.

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I would swap Thunder 3 and Xenoglossy, so it's Blizzaard 3 > Blizzard 4 > Thunder 3 > Xenoglossy > Fire 3

This way you will have no problems with bad mana tics. After a bad mana tic you maybe don't have enough mana to cast Thunder 3 after Blizzard 3, but Blizzard 4 costs less mana so you can always cast it (in general you would want to cast Thunder 3 directly after Blizzard 3, so the DoT has a higher uptime, but because of bad mana tics I cast Blizzard 4 before Thunder 3).

When you cast Thunder 3 but have a bad mana tic you will have to wait for your mana before you cast Fire 3, or you will not have full mana when switching into Astral Fire, wich means you will lose out on a Fire 4 or the Despair at the end. Xenoglossy doesn't cost mana, so the mana has enough time to tic to full after the cast of Thunder 3, before you switch into Astral Fire.

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Originally Posted by Tint

I would swap Thunder 3 and Xenoglossy, so it's Blizzaard 3 > Blizzard 4 > Thunder 3 > Xenoglossy > Fire 3

This way you will have no problems with bad mana tics. After a bad mana tic you maybe don't have enough mana to cast Thunder 3 after Blizzard 3, but Blizzard 4 costs less mana so you can always cast it (in general you would want to cast Thunder 3 directly after Blizzard 3, so the DoT has a higher uptime, but because of bad mana tics I cast Blizzard 4 before Thunder 3).

When you cast Thunder 3 but have a bad mana tic you will have to wait for your mana before you cast Fire 3, or you will not have full mana when switching into Astral Fire, wich means you will lose out on a Fire 4 or the Despair at the end. Xenoglossy doesn't cost mana, so the mana has enough time to tic to full after the cast of Thunder 3, before you switch into Astral Fire.

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I did that at first, but then thundercloud would fall off before I could use it, This would mean only 3 F4 after the first F3.
The 400 mana cost of thunder 3 doesn't prevent me from casting Despair. With a good mana tic, I have 1200 mana before casting despair, with a bad one I have 800 which is enough.

In UI 3 Blizzard 4 costs no mana by the way.

Interesting... After 72 you would have just enough mp to hardcast a thunder 3 during your fire phase if you needed to. That hadn't occurred to me before. And after 74, when sharpcast is pretty much guaranteed for every fire phase you can hold on to it for a few seconds...

I've now been playing around with just re-upping thunder as it is needed. and my fire phase looks like: Fire3/sharpcast > Fire4 x1-2 > Fire1 > Fire4 x1-3 > Fire3 > Fire4 until despair, which leaves me 3 different spots in the fire phase where I have enough time to hard cast thunder 3 if i need to as well as the standard ice phase cast if it's needed. It's a bit less cut-and-dry so you need to be a bit better at keeping track of the duration of thunder 3, but each window for thunder 3 could also be used for xenoglossy if you are about to time-out on a third stack.

This also gives huge windows to move out of mechanics if you need to without running much risk of losing AF/UI.

I started to use freeze instead of blizzard 3 since its a shorter cast time, more mp than blizz 3, but much faster cast time.

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Originally Posted by Windwalker

I started to use freeze instead of blizzard 3 since its a shorter cast time, more mp than blizz 3, but much faster cast time.

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Blizz 3 is already only 1.75s cast, as opposed to 1.25s for Freeze. Freeze should not be used on single targets, it's just a straight dps loss.

Thanks for the awesome feedback, everyone! That's been really helpful and I have a much better idea of what to do and expect moving forward!

Whoa, even simplified, my head is spinning. I hope when I get my BLM leveled this will all feel easy.

I admit it may seem like a lot but once you practice it everything starts to click as it really is a simple rotation. Granted I am also sitting here looking at SMN, BRD, MCH like they are a bit more insane to handle.

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Originally Posted by KohakuTribal

So my BLM is level 60, but I haven't touched it in....years. I honestly have no idea what current rotations look like...and every time I start to think about playing it again, I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of what I've forgotten and what has changed...please help!

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I've been away for 4 years and just getting back into it now too. I'm still yet to finish HW... yep, very overwhelming! Great to see i'm not alone though and lot's of useful info here for rotation though! (sorry to reply to an old thread)

Remember to throw in Manafont once you've burned about 3 Fire IVs. More DPS and all. If you Sharpcast the Fire I then your Fire 3 to refresh the timer will be instant and MP free.