The Black Mage Rotations

[Synovius]

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.

I'm not sure standing and not casting anything for 3 seconds while you wait for a tick of mana after Flare is worth it is what I'm saying. I've tried the rotation and I can't work Flare into the ST rotation in any capacity for a DPS gain.

[Youmu]

Its during your umbral regen downtime - you're not losing much there.

[Waliel]

It's only worth it to use Swiftcast Flare with Convert or mana potions up as far as I know.

[lordbraska2]

I just did some parsing using this rotation versus the rotation I've outlined. All parses were done for 2 minutes nonstop on 3 targets. I used the DPS dummies in Whitebrim (Coerthas) for these parses. Here are the results:

Rotation: Fire III ==> Fire II (spam) ==> Flare ==> Transpose
Note: Initial Flare of rotation was followed by Convert + a second Flare. This was repeated on CD.
Result 1: 398
Result 2: 387
Result 3: 402

Rotation: Fire III ==> Flare ==> Transpose ==> Blizzard II ==> Blizzard II
Note: Initial Flare of rotation was followed by Convert + a second Flare. This was repeated on CD.
Result 1: 448
Result 2: 456
Result 3: 454

you say this can be repeated on CD what do you mean? only could down i have is raging strikes and swiftcast i dont understand what ur trying to say

[Allyrion]

you say this can be repeated on CD what do you mean? only could down i have is raging strikes and swiftcast i dont understand what ur trying to say

Initial Flare of rotation was followed by Convert + a second Flare. This was repeated on CD.

Convert is the CD being referenced. He's saying that you can start with
Fire III ==> Flare ==> Convert ==> Flare ==> Transpose ==> Blizzard II ==> Blizzard II
This is a double flare with convert. You can do it whenever convert is off CD.

[lordbraska2]

why would you even do this

fire3-fire2 fire2 till oom is fine is it not? my dps during ak with just that is about 200-250 n that is decent

[Allyrion]

why would you even do this

fire3-fire2 fire2 till oom is fine is it not? my dps during ak with just that is about 200-250 n that is decent

Fine? Yea, I guess. It's just not the best. The quote you used in your last post had the OP's test, which included 3 results showing the dps difference between the two rotations.

You can test it yourself and decide. Honestly, I didn't take the OP's word for it when I found this, but after testing I concluded that it was indeed the optimal AoE rotation.

Omitting Fire II always wins out. It's not even that close. I use Fire II only if I'm worried about enmity. So I would use it in AK, but I would use the Flare rotation in WP if the tank can hold hate. It really shines in Turn 4.

[xyaie]

why would you even do this

fire3-fire2 fire2 till oom is fine is it not? my dps during ak with just that is about 200-250 n that is decent

some people strive for more than "decent"

[lordbraska2]

i understand that but they say turn 5 needs 280 min dps. i did normal fire 2 AoE rotation in ak last night and was getting 2-250 dps. only problem with b2 is u have to be in the middle of mobs to do it.

what if you do this
Rotation: Fire III ==> Fire II (spam) ==> Flare ==> Convert ==> Flare ==> Transpose ==> Bliz2

[Turbo_Gerbil]

For AOE am I the only one that bliz 3 > flare > flare > transpose > bliz 2 > bliz 2 > flare > flare > transpose...? With the occasional convert/swiftcast flare when available.
The only down time is at the start waiting for bliz 3 mp to tick and after transpose for bliz 2. And if done correctly both flares have 1/2 casting times.