The Black Mage Rotations

[xyaie]

What you're saying is "During a burst phase, crit has a larger impact". While this is true and may make sense for certain encounters where Flare burst is key to eliminating threats to the party, it is not the same as "Crit provides a greater effect because these spells hit harder".

Always remember what you sacrifice to buff that burst phase.

hmm, still not sure i agree with this. even during a burst phase, a 40% increased chance to do 50% more damage vs 20% more damage would net the same result. While it would be amazing if the increased crit chance lead to every flare critting, it would be horrible if it lead to every blizzard critting and no flares critting vs flare simply just doing 20% more damage. All and all, on average, the total damage done (if you were to do this same burst phase 1000000 times) would be the exact same between these 2 situations.

[PessimiStick]

hmm, still not sure i agree with this. even during a burst phase, a 40% increased chance to do 50% more damage vs 20% more damage would net the same result. While it would be amazing if the increased crit chance lead to every flare critting, it would be horrible if it lead to every blizzard critting and no flares critting vs flare simply just doing 20% more damage. All and all, on average, the total damage done (if you were to do this same burst phase 1000000 times) would be the exact same between these 2 situations.

And in the real world, 20% increased damage would be the better choice almost always, because then you *know* when things are going to die, rather than leaving it to RNG.

[AlphaGrahf]

@PessimiStick

So just F3 > Swiftcast > Flare > Transpose > B2 > B2 then repeat?

For AoE rotation? You wouldn't DoT all the adds with Thunder 2 first , then a quick B3 to get your MP back before jumping into this? Are you even getting a tick of MP to do a B2 after Flare? I know I've accidentatlly mis timed a swiftcast flare and sat at 0MP for easily 10 seconds before I could cast a B2 (Unless I potion or Convert but I tend to use those only for the "oh shit I fucked up" moments )

[Dips]

that rotation is crap, use:
Blizzard III -> Fire III -> Flare -> Transpose then repeat.

This rotation will give you fast cast buff on the Flare during to Blizzard III and dmg buff through Fire III. (Flare casts in 2seconds)

Double Flare with Cooldowns:
Raging Strikes -> Blizzard III -> Fire III -> Flare -> Convert (or elixir) -> Swiftcast -> Flare -> Tranpose.
(you want to use Raging Strikes so quickly because you have no time to use it after Blizzard III or Fire III without losing the right buff order)

With both rotations you want to spam the keys as quick as possible.
Greetz Dips

[Shadowzanon]

Sorry Dips, i thought myself doing the rotation you mention to be better but nope wrong. I tried the fire 3, flare, transpose , ice 2 ice 2, repeat combo and its by far superior. Ill explain.
One blizzard 3 hits 1 target, if i crit it may do prob about 600 dmg tops. In turn 4 the 1st and 4th group have 6 mobs or more, wp speed runs have atleast 10 mobs grouped up or more. thus this is where ice 2 shines, because 1 it hits em all thus waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more dmg than a single target ice3, for wp it binds targets giving the tank and healer breathing room even if its a second or 2. Due to the extra dmg to all mobs and with flare its better. Even more so when topped with foes.

But wait there is more. Ice 2 you do not need to target anything. If your target happens to die while trying to cast ice 3 guess what you need to hardcast again and thats over 3 seconds each time, thats not including the time you need to wait for a mana tic from transpose to even cast ice 3 which affects both rotations as in why i didnt include it. Because ice 2 can be used without a target, if your primary target goes down you automaticly have another target to keep going.

We have tried bard with mana song up at all times during mobs in wp to do fire 3, flare, then ice 3 since each mana song tic gives back enough mana to skip transpose. It great but Fire3, flare, convert, ice 2 , ice 2 outpreforms it with foes up , archer doing 100% dmg, me doing 110% dmg and killing groups quicker than me doing 100% dmg and bard doing 80%. Becuase of ice 2 our whm can sneak in a holy or 2 better than before thus mob groups just die much faster.

[Dips]

well, i tested it too now, you are right its really the better rotation with ice II

>.<

[Shadowzanon]

well, i tested it too now, you are right its really the better rotation with ice II

>.<

Oh there are some risks involved since you do have to get in the middle of things to maximize its potential, however not having to even deal with targetting other mobs in fear your ice 3 will be interrupted due to a dead target makes things much easier. I also had my doubts on it, but after seeing how darn easy coils turn 4 was because of it and just how much time we bought due to it I gotta say im impressed this was not discovered sooner.

Before was fire 3, fire 2 fire 2 bleh then flare, ice 3, fire 3 fire 2... gawd that so bad right now just remembering XD. Prob the only issue, is having a tank that can deal with the aggro you pull out. If you are ever with a tank who cannot other methods have their chances to be used.

[PsychologyPhD]

Thanks for the aoe rotation I've been looking for something new. Now, I want to know if anyone else runs into the issues where casting f3 seems to lag and you are stuck in the casting motion longer then you are suppose to be, which causes you to miss the ui3 speed buff flare. Is this happening to anyone else, is there anyway to stop this from happening ? Also at times it seems like my transpose doesn't swap af3 with ui. Every now and then I've use transpose and I still have af3 stack ticking away.

[Shadowzanon]

Thanks for the aoe rotation

I have had rare issues with me tossing out flare, transpose n it seems the transpose didnt go through leaving me hanging there. Also i have had something similar to what you have expereinced, after i cast the 2nd ice 2, i wait a lil bit to make sure i get the fast cast fire 3, it fires off then my flare will either take its time, not fire at all, or i get a long cast bar and it fires half way through completely taking me off guard. XD This does not happen to me all the time but it does occasionally happen where it botches my rotation.

[PessimiStick]

Thanks for the aoe rotation I've been looking for something new. Now, I want to know if anyone else runs into the issues where casting f3 seems to lag and you are stuck in the casting motion longer then you are suppose to be, which causes you to miss the ui3 speed buff flare. Is this happening to anyone else, is there anyway to stop this from happening ? Also at times it seems like my transpose doesn't swap af3 with ui. Every now and then I've use transpose and I still have af3 stack ticking away.

F3 bug seems to be latency related to me, but I haven't been able to recreate it on purpose. It's very rare for me. Maybe once in 8-10 WP speedruns. The Transpose issue I think you can avoid by not spamming it. I've only had that happen once or twice ever, and it was when I was mashing Transpose. I think what happens is you mash it, Transpose goes off, then the Flare applies damage and resets you to AF3. And then you're boned.