Couple BLM questions!

[Youmu]

While were on the topic of flare crits...



Have you broken 2100 fire3 crits yet? This class scales so amazingly well.

[Rbstr]

Mana cost on TIII doesn't even matter if you're putting it after BIII in your mana phase. It'll all regen by the time you get your next FIII off.

[Foullacy]

Mana cost on TIII doesn't even matter if you're putting it after BIII in your mana phase. It'll all regen by the time you get your next FIII off.

Has nothing to do with the mana cost, it has everything to do with the time you spend casting Thunder III and how many Fire cast it cost you in a boss fight. Thunder I > II and III. Period. Thunder III at the start as the tank is pulling, and during TStorm, that's it.

[Macho]

Has nothing to do with the mana cost, it has everything to do with the time you spend casting Thunder III and how many Fire cast it cost you in a boss fight. Thunder I > II and III. Period. Thunder III at the start as the tank is pulling, and during TStorm, that's it.

I'm in agreement with Foullacy, it all comes down to time management while keeping your dps up. If you spend all your time in a casting animation you'll realize the same thing my fellow FC mate did when we had this debate at day 1 of this game. He didn't change his mind till we partied up and he realized while he was in a casting animation I was continually casting. Thunder III has it's time, mainly when you proc...as long as you always think about an effective use of your time you'll be ok.

[Crabsy]

Very awesome info I'm seeing here! I'm thinking I may hold on the flare x2 thing until I get more comfortable with the basic rotation. But when would you do the flare x2? When the perfect amount of buffs are up?

[Shisou]

/macroicon "Sleep"
/ac "Sleep" <mo>

I also use:

/macroicon "Thunder II"
/ac "Swiftcast" <me>
/ac "Thunder III" <t>
/ac "Thunder II" <t>
/ac "Thunder" <t>

because I'm lazy. I use Thunder right after Blizz III in my rotation in order to maximize DoT up-time, and so I'm often casting it before the mana pulse hits. This makes sure I'm always up on the DoT, and after getting used to it I can break the macro to cast a FS/TC proc before the Thunder cast. If TC procs it doesn't consume the Swiftcast, meaning my first Fire I/III is insta'd.

[ChickensEvil]

Wait, Thunder 1? I thought that one did less damage AND less up time? I thought the only real debate was between Thunder 2 and 3. For my proc rate, I tend to prefer Thunder 2 anyway since it is normally just barely wearing off as I am casting it, making it perfect (or near perfect) for timing. The only way Thunder 1 might be good is is you get 0 firestarter/thunder procs... so you burn through all your mana and still have your DoT on the target... but that is very rare.

The other issue I would have with T1 over T2 is that since the cast time is shorter, I might not get all my mana back up in time. I already have this happen on rare occasion using T2. It happens something like this: B3 - T2 - F3 (end up with ~2800 mana on tick shy of a full bar). This happens when the timing of the regen ticks just *happen* to fall out of line with my cast timer and thus I "miss" a tick. I would imagine this problem being even more of an issue with the shorter cast time on T1... so if T1 is somehow better what are you doing with that time gap to ensure a full mana bar? Not casting anything for half a second? Throwing in a scathe (thus being well over the proc regen timer?)

Maybe It is just an issue for me, because of the amount of spell speed I have, vs other people? Unless the spell speed would also speed up the mana regen ticks. But on a 5 minute fight using my normal rotation I have this "issue" happen to me at least 1 time.

[Risbyn]

Has nothing to do with the mana cost, it has everything to do with the time you spend casting Thunder III and how many Fire cast it cost you in a boss fight. Thunder I > II and III. Period. Thunder III at the start as the tank is pulling, and during TStorm, that's it.

Not sure I'm understanding this. How does Thunder I save time? I'm honestly curious that I could be doing something wrong here.

My typical standard rotation is this ->
Thunder III at start
Fire III for Astral Fire III
Fire x4
By this time, I'm low on mana and cannot squeeze in another Fire
Blizzard III
Thunder III to refresh if it's about to fall off or Scathe if Thunder DoT is still on target (while mana is recharging)
Fire III (Full mana bar at the end of this cast)
Fire x5

Not sure where I'd be saving Fire casts by casting Thunder I instead.

[ChickensEvil]

OK just for kicks here are the stats on each one (fixed):

Thunder:
Cast Time 2.5
Potency 30
DoT Potency 35
Duration 18s
Proc Potency 240

Thunder 2:
Cast Time 3
Potency 50
DoT Potency 35
Duration 21s
Proc Potency 295

Thunder 3:
Cast Time 3.5
Potency 60
DoT Potency 35
Duration 24s
Proc Potency 340

(Removed the rest of the information because I had wrong calculations... Will need to recalculate the numbers when I can actually get into the game... unless someone else has already done this and can show how it affects things.)

[Shadowzanon]

Each thunder lasts longer than what you have posted.

Double Flare crits make mobs angry. got the pic as i held back till tank got aggro XD.