The Black Mage Rotations

[Allyrion]

If we just make it so Flare cannot be double-cast by putting a decent recast timer on it, like 10s, then it doesnt matter how the ticks sync up.

Unfortunately, it's not just double casting Flare that's the problem.
They don't want us to get the reduced cast time on two spells.

Can we stop talking about "syncing"? Nothing changed with the ticks. It is like you said, UI/AF changes 85% into the cast of Fire III/Blizzard III. It has nothing to do with the way the mana ticks.

[Kenji1134]

In the long run, fast-casting Fire 1 isnt/wasnt a gain. You cast it in 1.25s, and then wait out the rest of the 2.5s gcd... for example.
Fast-casting anything that was equal to the gcd didnt make the gcd any shorter... but fast-casting something longer than the gcd (Fire 3 and Flare) was always a gain.

[NeruMew]

In my opinion, it's mainly mana ticks being funky and completely unreliable. Since they are tied to the clock and no longer our own character (trying to save processing maybe???) soemtimes they go off fast sometimes you wait a lot. Before it was stone solid. Other than that, we can't double cast with 2x speed anymore... that changed the feel of blm greatly for me. but more than anything, Mana ticks.

I don't think it goes by the clock anymore. I can consistently get insta-ticks after using Transpose in my rotations every single time except the first one (if I start the rotation with a Fire III > Swiftcast > Flare > Transpose > and go back into my rotation the first Transpose tick works fine, however that's something for another time...). People (including myself) jumped to conclusion about it and didn't do enough testing to figure it out. I can still do about 400 DPS in a 3-target AoE, which is still pretty good.

Well, possibly it doesn't go by the clock, but something is still off, consistancy is not the same, I am not saying I can't do it, because I've been doing it for most of the time, but it's just off. Sometimes it just won't go through, and sometimes goes through too fast.

So the thing would be finding what actually changed and how it's working now.

[Synovius]

As an update, the ST rotation has not changed for me aside from one small change: Thunder III instead of Thunder II inside the rotation. This is because the extra cast time on Thunder III makes the rotation more fluid now that we can't "cheat" on Umbral Ice to get a tick of mana at or shortly after our Fire III casts.

As for the AoE rotation, it hasn't changed either but it's just a bit less now than it used to be as we can no longer fast-cast Flare and Blizzard II's damage was reduced.

[Allyrion]

As for the AoE rotation, it hasn't changed either but it's just a bit less now than it used to be as we can no longer fast-cast Flare and Blizzard II's damage was reduced.

Are you sure that Blizzard II's 0.5s shorter lockout isn't worth the 50 potency from Freeze?
I feel like
Fire III > Flare > Transpose > Freeze > Freeze > Repeat
is stronger than the old one which is just Blizzard II instead of Freeze.

Have you tried
Fire III > Fire II x3 > Flare > Transpose > Blizzard II/Freeze > Blizzard II/Freeze > Repeat?

I will do some testing myself as well.


EDIT:
Testing heavily favors
Fire III > Fire II x3 > Flare > Transpose > Blizzard II/Freeze > Blizzard II/Freeze > Repeat
over either
Fire III > Flare > Transpose > Freeze > Freeze > Repeat OR Fire III > Flare > Transpose > Blizzard II > Blizzard II > Repeat

Between those, I got a ~10 dps increase using Freeze over Blizzard II.
Same with the Fire II rotation. I got around ~10 dps increase using Freeze.
With Fire II though, I got an amazing ~30-40 dps increase over just using Flare.

[Sleigh]

I've been sticking with (run out of MP) > Thunder I > (Blizzard I if not close to a tick or wait a split second if I am) > Fire III > Fire I spam > repeat. Even though Thunder II has a tiny, almost insignificant bit more potency per second than Thunder, it's more time away from our AH3 phase. This also helps with the weird amounts of MP we sometimes end up with due Thunder's MP cost often counting now after your MP tick, so at those times we can just do Blizzard I first and be okay.

I used to parse about 320+ without obscene procs with my gear, now it's closer to 310 on an average test in full i90 gear and i95 weapon. It's a shame but whatever, nothing I can do about it but make the best of it.

In the long run, fast-casting Fire 1 isnt/wasnt a gain. You cast it in 1.25s, and then wait out the rest of the 2.5s gcd... for example.
Fast-casting anything that was equal to the gcd didnt make the gcd any shorter... but fast-casting something longer than the gcd (Fire 3 and Flare) was always a gain.

It hurts because we don't get a free Firestarter check off of double dip Fire I, and while that's often not an issue in the rotation too much, it hurts our burst a lot.

I used to love burst damage situations, going into UI3 and double dipping our stuff, with how easy the MP regen was and going into either Fire III > Fire III or Fire III > Fire I with free Firestarter check before the next GCD. Now I feel so much less effective when a burst mechanic comes out, like Titan EM rocks, Ifrit EM spikes, Conflags, etc.

As an update, the ST rotation has not changed for me aside from one small change: Thunder III instead of Thunder II inside the rotation. This is because the extra cast time on Thunder III makes the rotation more fluid now that we can't "cheat" on Umbral Ice to get a tick of mana at or shortly after our Fire III casts.

As for the AoE rotation, it hasn't changed either but it's just a bit less now than it used to be as we can no longer fast-cast Flare and Blizzard II's damage was reduced.

The problem with Thunder III is that you have to sacrifice a Fire I to have enough MP unless you have crazy amounts of Piety. I haven't tested it yet but it sounds like a DPS loss for sure.

[Sleigh]

AoE testing

I get similar results in testing against 3 enemies. Flare as the central point of AoE just doesn't seem viable anymore, sadly.

I also tried Fire III > Fire II spam until dry > Blizzard III > Freeze > repeat, that tested lower than Fire III > Fire II spam > Flare > Transpose > Freeze > Freeze > repeat.

[Allyrion]

I get similar results in testing against 3 enemies. Flare as the central point of AoE just doesn't seem viable anymore, sadly.

I also tried Fire III > Fire II spam until dry > Blizzard III > Freeze > repeat, that tested lower than Fire III > Fire II spam > Flare > Transpose > Freeze > Freeze > repeat.

Thanks.
I will say this though.

This rotation -
Fire III > Fire II > Flare > Transpose > Repeat
seems to parser higher than any of the above mentioned. It was mentioned in some of the other BLM threads.

I don't believe in it though!
A BLM rotation without any ice spells just seems wrong to me. However, it did test higher.

[O-Deka-K]

Thanks.
This rotation -
Fire III > Fire II > Flare > Transpose > Repeat
seems to parser higher than any of the above mentioned. It was mentioned in some of the other BLM threads.

I don't believe in it though!
A BLM rotation without any ice spells just seems wrong to me. However, it did test higher.

Mentioned by Kalvin1783 in Blizzard II nerf for BLM too severe. See my post for the math.

I know what you mean. No ice spells seems like a ridiculous idea for a good rotation. Guess you have to think outside of the box!

[Kalvin1783]

Thanks for credit! I believe SirGazuntai‎ should get a mention for his thread So, I tested some BLM rotations... and his rotation testing. He did a very good job organizing his information and putting it together for everyone to use. He also put in a lot of leg work figuring out the kinks in the rotation and understanding how to make it smooth (especially how it auto-syncs itself to the server ticks after the first rotation.) Good work Sir!

Also, Louro999 submitted a nearly identical rotation a few minutes before mine that should probably be looked into. I noticed you (O-Deka-K) said "Adding more Fire 2 always increases DPS, even for 2 targets." His uses two Fire 2's instead of one (Fire III > Fire II > Fire II > Flare > Transpose > Repeat), so theoretically that one should be better. I was wondering if you could check the PPS on that one as well with your equation. If it's better even by a tiny bit I would rather use it. I was always under the impression that Fire 2 is not very good DPS, and was only using it as filler for transpose cool down.

Thanks for your work as well! Glad to see BLM doesn't need a bug to do broken AOE DPS.