BLM Changes-Pretty much shafted

[charlemagne]

Honestly I'm not at all bothered. I think overall it will probably make as much difference as if they'd nerfed apocostasis.

[Itseotle]

Now Scathe, I don't see why but I also don't care that much.

Nerffed for PvP. No cast time means it can be spammed while evading an attacker. Maybe the devs thought this coupled with its current damage was too much.

[Rainsford]

I feel like lots of people in here don't realize that Fire 2 is a useless skill and should never be used.

That said, although the B2 rotation was like 50-100dps ahead, you did have to stay in melee range. Replacing it with Freeze, it will take a second longer, but you're now at full range. It continues to be the best AOE rotation.

Also, if the manaticks are really synced now, you're forced to stay in UI for at least 6 seconds. This makes Thunder>Scathe>F3 (with a 2.5>2,5>1,5 cast time) the go-to rotation. Thunder II now means you clip your tick, spend longer in UI or do nothing for 2 seconds.

[Ephier]

For anyone actually on twintania as well. Virus was a very high skill cap skill to be used because you had to time it well for a 10% reduction for twintanias death sentence/auto attack/plummet combination. Its just a rant I was hoping for something good to happen with this patch.

She plummets twice, wait 3~5 seconds, death sentence. Watching her plummet twice and waiting a few seconds is high skill cap? Virus rotation spamming was silly. Now they have it so that the damage reductions have been spaced out. Warriors now have 10% dmg reduction in one of their combos. Can still use virus once every 60 seconds, so two people can use it, one if you want to wait 30 seconds and use the traited version (not necessary IMO).

[Kuroyasha]

I feel like lots of people in here don't realize that Fire 2 is a useless skill and should never be used.
.

Stopped reading right there

For one, double dipping was removed. For AOE rotations this is gigantic.....

I do AoE damage just fine without using the "bug" as they call it. Not a big deal.

[Rainsford]

Stopped reading right there

You're playing incorrectly then. Bliz3>Fire3>Flare>Transpose>Blizx2>Fire3>repeat and Bliz3>Fire3>Flare>Tranpose>repeat put out higher DPS then Fire3>Fire2x4>Bliz3. The difference, especially between the B2 rotation and F2 rotation, is about 500 pot after 7 casts.

So yea, if you're casting F2, you're gimping your damage.

[Kuroyasha]

You're playing incorrectly then. Bliz3>Fire3>Flare>Transpose>Blizx2>Fire3>repeat and Bliz3>Fire3>Flare>Tranpose>repeat put out higher DPS then Fire3>Fire2x4>Bliz3. The difference, especially between the B2 rotation and F2 rotation, is about 500 pot after 7 casts.

So yea, if you're casting F2, you're gimping your damage.

Who said i do F3>f2 x4>b3(though it doesnt matter on a speedrun since you're overgeared anyway)? Im not about to flare with a full mp bar (lol?) either as your rotation suggests

F3> f2 til mp low > flare> convert >swiftcast > flare > transpose > can fire 3 again if u want to another flare or use the new freeze > F3 > f2 til mp low > flare and do it all over again, though by the time u get to third flare stuff is dead from the whm/smn/bard/whatever/whoever. works fine on t4 too(non freeze part of course). Im not about to use a nerfed bliz 2 in my aoe, and it wasnt even necessary pre patch. i get enough mp back already if I just wanted to only flare.

I do just fine on my class and dps.

[ChickensEvil]

So yea, if you're casting F2, you're gimping your damage.

One of those requires that your BRD is running mana song full time (which means they are gimping 20% of their damage), and the first one, you do realize that if you have to wait for an umbral tick (before patch potentially up to 3 seconds, post patch a guaranteed wait of 3 seconds) That you must account for that in the timing difference. And now with talks that this change is going to be hitting your timing of your fire casts (i.e. you will not be able to cast flare at the reduced cast time anymore), then I really don't see how it is good to do that strategy and rotation any more.

Also, suggesting that it is gimping your damage would be like if you were racing against a honda civic in a Lambo, and then decided to switch to a corvette. You are still going to smoke out the civic... just not as much as before. Our AOE damage using Fire 2 was still leaps and bounds ahead of any other class both in damage and sustainment. (For example a DRG had decent AOE, but could not sustain it for any real length of time - read: sustain even through one add burst phase without some extra help)

[Rainsford]

*snip*

Let me help you. Let's ignore ST damage and look at each rotation, and let's pretend Swiftcast and Convert are on cooldown (since in any rotation, you'd use them for extra Flares so they would cancel out).

From UI3: F3>F2>F2>F2>F2>Flare(running 1.5s over GCD)>Transpose>B3>B1(I assume? What do you use until your MP fills?)>Repeat. Remember, each F2 cast runs you over your GCD by .5 seconds so, assuming a 2.3~ GCD, you're actually using up 9 and a half GCD's while only casting 8 spells, for a total of 1,188 potency.

Now, standard rotation from UI3 is F3>Flare(with cast speed buff, so you don't run over GCD)>Transpose>Bliz2>Bliz2>F3>Flare>Transpose>Bliz2>Bliz2.

Again, you end about to start another Fire rotation and have used 8 GCDs, so you'd already be mid-cast on your next Flare. Total damage is (468x2)+(100x4)= 1,336 potency. Every other rotation, you'd get an extra 468 potency Flare, too. So, when you're talking the second spider phase on T4, 2 BLM using the 2nd rotation can clear them all, while 2 BLM using your rotation will not.

I hope for a "you're right, my rotation is inefficient" response, but I'm sure that won't happen.

*snip*)

You don't need a BRD for F3>Flare>Transpose>B3. You get back more than enough MP after Transposing to cast B3. You're right that you need to wait for a tick, but any rotation that uses Flare is going to have that requirement. Considering Flare is worth 2.5x a Fire 2, even if you waited the full 3s in each rotation, it will do more damage. Also remember that if you use F2, you're in UI until your MP refills (which you don't have to wait for if you're ignoring F2) and F2 has a cast time .5 higher than GCD, so 4 Fire 2's costs 4gcd's+2s, higher than the average wait time in the "preferred" Flare rotation.

But remember, B3 is only used if you can't be in melee range but, again, even with waiting considered its more AOE potency. I'm aware that there's talk of them nerfing the "fast-cast Flare" but there's no evidence of that (the "mana ticks start on attunement change" rumor is debunked by looking at Yoshi P's BLM in the Titan Extreme video).

Even if they remove double dipping and you're forced to hardcast every flare, a F2x4 rotation leaves you 2s over GCD while a hard-casted Flare only leaves you 1.5s over GCD. If you use Freeze instead of B2 you're now 2.5s over GCD but it's still ~always~ more damage, as I listed above (removing Flare from the F2 combo just makes it's damage significantly lower, as well).

Again, any way you cut it, F2 is a pointless skill unfortunatly.

[Rochetm]

Our AOE damage using Fire 2 was still leaps and bounds ahead of any other class both in damage and sustainment. (For example a DRG had decent AOE, but could not sustain it for any real length of time - read: sustain even through one add burst phase without some extra help)

People will continue to bring Blm for this and the fact they never have resource issues. Blm aoe is also getting a buff in the form of extra threat on shield oath and warriors many buffs... including being in raids. Blm with a war tank is downright insane.