The Ultimate Black Mage Resources with Damage Calculator

[StouterTaru]

I've been consistently asking this and the only answer given is that you've got roughly 8.5% more chance of a Proc. However no one has computed the change in dps caused by hitting 251 (regardless how you do it via Novus, stat points, food, whatever) and frankly I think that is something everyone pounding on the stats Puro put out is missing.

Thunder II also has a 20% longer cast time, so that's an extra 1/5 GCD for the damage extra 55 potency plus increased procs. Optimal rotations are around 280-290 potency/GCD.

On top of that, the thundercloud proc has a greater effect if you are only using Thunder I, because you will get an extra tick out of it than you would if you were using Thunder II (assuming Thunder III for the proc in both cases, no reason at all not to)That's why they come out to basically even overall, with Thunder winning by a slight margin. As someone mentioned before, you can B3 > B1 > T2 instead of B3 > T2 > B1 due to B1 having lower MP cost, and that doesn't require any Piety boost.

I did some testing with Piety for the 6 Fire rotation, and it's about even with 5 Fire rotation after the INT loss. All gear was ilvl110 except hat and one ring at ilvl100 for INT build, hat/hands/belt/shoes/ring at ilvl90 with 4 melds each for Piety build, stats:

INT 547 570
PIE 317 268
Acc 442 457
Crit 514 540
Det 331 286
SpS 439 412

SpS and Crit differences basically cancelled each other out, damage per spell vs damage per rotation basically cancelled each other out, the only difference worth noting was the 15 Acc on the INT/ilvl build.

edit - side note, 249 Piety wins out in AoE rotations where stuff lives long enough to matter, because convert will give you enough MP to use a FireII before your 2nd Flare