The Black Mage Rotations

[ShinryuReishiki]

Ah, right. When I finally got around to the math (Initially I thought this would be more a parlor trick than anything else), I wasn't looking at the rotation as a whole when thinking of the MP tick... Which is kinda silly, considering the rotation is entirely dependent on that.

[mgonz711]

Hi all, I have started looking at the forums recently to learn how to play blm as effective as possible. I have learned about effective single target rotation and these forums have help a lot, infact I don't even know how I got as far as I did w/o it.

Here is my question with the update where can I learn more about aoe rotations, what is an effective cross bar setup, and maybe what skills are better left on a second cross bar?

If you have links to other threads or what page to start from on this thread it would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Synovius]

The AoE rotation is listed on the first page. It took a nerf with 2.1 but I believe it is still the top AoE DPS. As for cross bar setups, I'm not sure.

[Sleigh]

The AoE rotation is listed on the first page. It took a nerf with 2.1 but I believe it is still the top AoE DPS. As for cross bar setups, I'm not sure.

From my testing, it's Fire III > Fire II spam > Flare > (Transpose > wait 2s after tick > Flare > Fire II > Flare) X N until Flare > Convert + Swiftcast Flare can finish the enemies.

It sounds slow but it hits like a truck, and if you get lucky with your MP tick after Flare there's not THAT much down-time. Double Flare still exists, it's just slower. This parsed higher for me than any Blizzard II or Freeze rotation I tried, and it's almost as good as the old double Flare glitch. Almost.

[FenxBoden]

From my testing, it's Fire III > Fire II spam > Flare > (Transpose > wait 2s after tick > Flare > Fire II > Flare) X N until Flare > Convert + Swiftcast Flare can finish the enemies.

It sounds slow but it hits like a truck, and if you get lucky with your MP tick after Flare there's not THAT much down-time. Double Flare still exists, it's just slower. This parsed higher for me than any Blizzard II or Freeze rotation I tried, and it's almost as good as the old double Flare glitch. Almost.

I keep getting different feedback in parties - aoe: f3, f2, flare, covert, swiftcast, flare again, transpose and single: f3>f1, transpose, bliz3, mana build up, trans and repeat.

Those two seem the most common variations i keep getting. Then add the ones on this post at the top. So I'm a bit confused on any definitive rotation.

[Peptaru]

transpose > flare > f2 > flare > repeat is putting out my best numbers for an AoE rotation; but like the old one, if you have lag or bad timing, you will suffer. The other rotations that involve blizzards are safer and will leave you screwed less often.

Single target is the same it has ever been for me, just lost the speed buff of the initial F1. I do miss B3 > F3 > F3 > repeat.

[O-Deka-K]

The AoE rotation is listed on the first page. It took a nerf with 2.1 but I believe it is still the top AoE DPS.

I have to disagree. When I do this rotation it takes 15s, which makes the potency:

B2-B2-F3-Flare-Transpose (15s): (568N + 154) / 15 = 37.9N + 10.3 PPS
where N is the number of targets.

Even if you had the spell speed to do it in 12s (it can't get any faster, because of Transpose's cooldown), it would be:

B2-B2-F3-Flare-Transpose (12s): (568N + 154) / 12 = 47.3N + 12.8 PPS

This is still far lower than F3-F2-F2-Flare-Transpose: 55.2N + 13.2 PPS. For only 3 targets, this is a difference of 21 PPS (12s) or 52 PPS (15s) and it gets worse with more targets. The B2-B2 rotation was great in 2.0, but it's taken a huge nerf. For reference, it was 55.7N + 12.8 PPS in 2.0.

I haven't even tried the double Flare rotations, but you can see the formulas in a previous post.

[Synovius]

So, like you posted in the other thread about the Blizzard II nerf, you're saying the new AoE rotation is:

Fire III ==> Fire II ==> Flare ==> Transpose ==> Wait for mana tick

With the following math as support:

154 ==> 180 ==> 468
(154 + 180 + 468) / (3.5 + 3.0 + 4.0)
802 / 10.5 = 76.38 PPS

If we added a second Fire II, it would look like:

154 ==> 180 ==> 180 ==> 468
(154 + 180 + 180 + 468) / (3.5 + 3.0 + 3.0 + 4.0)
982 / 13.5 = 72.74 PPS

A third (not consistently possible at current gear levels):

154 ==> 180 ==> 180 ==> 180 ==> 468
(154 + 180 + 180 + 180 + 468) / (3.5 + 3.0 + 3.0 + 3.0 + 4.0)
1162 / 16.5 = 70.42 PPS

I think someone said earlier that, theoretically, adding in as many Fire II between Fire III and Flare would be a net increase in DPS but it actually looks like it's a decrease in DPS where the decrease would be less and less the more Fire II's you cast.

What if we cut out Fire II's altogether though?

154 ==> 468
(154 + 468) / (3.5 + 4.0)
622 / 7.5 = 82.93

The downside of the above, however, would be more "downtime" over the duration of parses as you will be waiting on your UI tick more often. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think mana regeneration ticks are on a global 3s timer so let's split the difference and say that, on average, we'll get our tick of mana 1.5s after Transpose. This effectively makes one pass through the first rotation mentioned herein go as follows:

(154 + 180 + 468) / (3.5 + 3.0 + 4.0 + 1.5)
802 / 12 = 66.83

And a pass through the Fire II-less rotation go like this:

(154 + 468) / (3.5 + 4.0 + 1.5)
622 / 9 = 69.11

However, the CD on Transpose is 12s so even accounting for human error, latency, the split second you have to wait to Transpose after Flare so the game doesn't leave with 0 mana in AFIII, you'd still be a bit off on the timing which would easily knock the 2.3 PPS of difference between the two rotations.

Thanks for all the math, Deka. I'll update the OP accordingly.

[Peptaru]

F3? Ewww no! Flare > F2 > Flare! F3 is for wussies!

[Synovius]

F3? Ewww no! Flare > F2 > Flare! F3 is for wussies!

wat is dis i dont even