The Black Mage Rotations

[Synovius]

Even More Tricks!
If you find that your timing is off with your Fire III cast such that you aren't at full mana when it completes but rather are a bit shy of full mana (this happens if your timing is off and Fire III is cast a bit too late) then you will find that, to cast your "last" Fire I you'll be at under 1000 mana which means that, after casting that Fire I, you won't have enough mana immediately following the subsequent Blizzard III to cast Thunder II. When this occurs, just fill the gap with a Blizzard I and then proceed with the rotation as normal.

I feel that Fire II is a terrible spell and I don't even know why I have it bound, but as of 2.1, with the nerf to Blizzard II, Fire II finds use now in our "glitch" AoE rotation.

Having trouble timing out when to start your Flare cast for the infinite Flare AoE rotation? The orbs traveling around your body during your phases take 1.9s to complete a full revolution so just pick out an orb when you get that first mana tick and start your Flare at that time!

[Synovius]

Even More Tricks! Again!
If you're worried about tearing off the tank but want to get right into putting out high DPS quickly, open with Blizzard III still but cast an extra Thunder II on another mob. This sacrifices a bit of your upfront DPS at the potential gain of DPS down the line in additional Thundercloud procs (RNG ahoy!).

For the Single Target Rotation, make sure to always use Convert during the GCD. Given how animations work in FFXIV, never cast Convert when you could be casting a damaging spell.

[Synovius]

Last Batch of Tricks!
Proc calculations are done for us at the time of spell impact. What this means is that you won't know if you're going to get a Firestarter proc until the Fire I has actaully landed on the target (when you see the damage numbers). Out of this has come two schools of thought regarding Firestarter procs: those who want to wait a quarter to half second after casting Fire I to see if they get Firestarter and those who want the rotation to be fluid and will just use that Firestarter proc after their next Fire I. While the latter potentially means you may be wasting a Firestarter proc, some rough napkin math shows that it's really a negligible DPS difference between the two schools of thought so I choose fluidity!

Statements such as "why would you ever cast Flare while you have plenty of mana?" betray one's lack of understanding for how DPS really works. Remember, DPS is "damage per second". Your mana pool contributes nothing towards the potency of spells and can effectively be ignored so long as one loop through any rotation can fit within one trip through the mana pool in question.

Thanks and if you have any questions, hit me up on Adamantoise on Synovius Vynn!

[KrayZee]

I feel that Fire II is a terrible spell and I don't even know why I have it bound aside from being a bit OCD and wanting everything available and placed properly. I never (seriously, never) cast Fire II.

why is that? my Fire2 with 3AF does ~450, my blizzard 2 does ~280
its still better even if the recast time is 0,5 seconds longer

you can at least burn your mana with that before using flare.

[PenutButter]

why is that? my Fire2 with 3AF does ~450, my blizzard 2 does ~280
its still better even if the recast time is 0,5 seconds longer

you can at least burn your mana with that before using flare.

Some people ignore fire 2 not because Bliz 2 is superior, they do it cuz Flare is superior. A bug (yes I do think it is a bug, one that needs to be fixed) allows you to benefit from the cast time reduction reduction twice. This means you can got from Umbral Ice 3 > Fire 3 > Flare very quickly.

Personally I think Flare on every Swiftcast on single target is superior to just just spamming fire 1. Also, you guys do know that Thundercloud's damage depends on the Thunder DoT that is currently on the mob right? This means that you will not get Thunder 3's damage just cuz you use Thunder 3 during a Thunder 2's DoT proc, if you know what I mean. If you don't then whatever.

In the end though, you are free to do whatever the hell you want, I don't really care.

[Allyrion]

Some people ignore fire 2 not because Bliz 2 is superior, they do it cuz Flare is superior. A bug (yes I do think it is a bug, one that needs to be fixed) allows you to benefit from the cast time reduction reduction twice.
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Also, you guys do know that Thundercloud's damage depends on the Thunder DoT that is currently on the mob right?

Yes, you will Thunder 3 damage on Thunder 2's proc. The tooltip has been proven wrong.

Also, if they ever fix the double quick cast then we should also get instant Firestarter procs as well (as I said in another thread).
Both delays are based on the design of effects triggering 'on impact' which includes the travel time of the spell. I believe this is intentional.
However, I would give up double quick casting for instant Firestarter procs any day.

[Synovius]

Some people...

I can't bring myself to to use Flare in a ST rotation because the complete dump of mana causes you to have to sit there and do nothing for up to 3 full seconds. Because of this, I don't feel the few hundred extra damage from Flare gains you anything in terms of DPS. In fact, I think it's a DPS loss.

As for Thundercloud procs doing damage based on the DoT that is currently up, are you sure about that? I'll test it out when I get home and confirm/refute.

[Allyrion]

As for Thundercloud procs doing damage based on the DoT that is currently up, are you sure about that? I'll test it out when I get home and confirm/refute.

I even just retested this. It definitely gets Thunder III extra damage and duration.
I remember saying what Peanut did after launch, because the tooltip is misleading. I also wanted an excuse to use Thunder III because I liked the visual. Someone said to test it myself and I swallowed my words.
You shouldn't take my word for it, but it has been proven for a while now that Thundercloud proc's damage isn't based on the dot it applied off of.

[Synovius]

I even just retested this. It definitely gets Thunder III extra damage and duration.
I remember saying what Peanut did after launch, because the tooltip is misleading. I also wanted an excuse to use Thunder III because I liked the visual. Someone said to test it myself and I swallowed my words.
You shouldn't take my word for it, but it has been proven for a while now that Thundercloud proc's damage isn't based on the dot it applied off of.

Cool. I'll test it as well when I get home but that makes a lot more sense to me than having it based off of the DoT that was already up. That would be pretty silly IMO.

[Youmu]

I can't bring myself to to use Flare in a ST rotation because the complete dump of mana causes you to have to sit there and do nothing for up to 3 full seconds. Because of this, I don't feel the few hundred extra damage from Flare gains you anything in terms of DPS. In fact, I think it's a DPS loss.

As for Thundercloud procs doing damage based on the DoT that is currently up, are you sure about that? I'll test it out when I get home and confirm/refute.

No, you dont flare with full mana. You use it at the end of your rotation with a swiftcast (hard casting not worth it for ST), since at 251 piety you will have 300 mana left over after your 5th fire, every time. Also consider the following - Firestarter procs on your 5th fire, you go into your bliz/thunder downtime, transpose and use the proc for 70% full damage... or you can use that swiftcast for another flare, keep Astral 3 up, and deal full damage with your proc after the flare, then transpose.

Its very easy to tell which is superior, in practice and theory.