The Ultimate Black Mage Resources with Damage Calculator

[Sleigh]

I've never really been sure, is it good or bad to do a slowcast or swiftcast flare on 2 targets at the end of a normal rotation if you then need to transpose? (eg. T10 adds.) Currently I've beeb doing it with swiftcast but not without.

It's a DPS with and without Swiftcast. Flare's that good. Ideally Flare > Transpose > T2 > F3 > normal, but if you have the Selene SS buff you have to use T3.

It helps immensely if you have a Firestarter proc for your post-Flare, which eases the Transpose MP tick.

[StouterTaru]

For 2 mobs it is for sure, you essentially replace a B3, B1, and a F1 with a slowcast Flare for a combined 3x the damage of a F1. Thunder is still in there, and the dps difference of using T1/T2/T3 is very insignificant in comparison.

Added time:
0.6xGCD for Flare cast
0.4xGCD for Fire3 in next rotation starting from UI instead of UI3
0-3 seconds for the first transpose to kick in.

Lost casts:
B3 in AF3
B1 in UI3
F1 in next rotation from not hitting max MP

[Skeith-Adeline]

A question about Int Pots.

If I use ether during our opening Raging Strikes rotation, I get another Fire 1 cast. Is that extra Fire 1 cast better than the potential gain from Int Pot? with the 40% Proc rate and a potential crit, it doesn't seem odd to think it might make gain?
(Swiftcast > Flare > Convert > Fire 1 > Ether > Fire 1)

[Nemhy]

How should I be handling Thundercloud procs? at the moment I just use them with my next spell cast, but I've heard that doing it that way is incorrect. What do I do if it procs like crazy, is it worth just holding it?

ATM I use the thunder1 + blizzard 1 rotation. I've heard that this is a huge DPS loss over Thunder 2 (with 251 pie). Is that really true?

Finally... For the finale fire1 in my current Astral rotation, is it worth mashing fireIII to try and get the quick final proc? Rather than just taking it into Umbral and transposing the proc out.

[Numenor1379]

TC procs should be used after a F1 cast to help ensure you do not miss a Firestarter proc.

T1-B1 is the best rotation we have, whomever said otherwise is talking out their rear. Keep using it.

For your last F1, if you have a TC proc use it then (or something like Virus or E4E). Otherwise keep going with the rotation and Transpose before using it when you are done with your Umbral phase.

[Arkenne]

Hrm... weird thing about Transpose.
If you have a certain amount of lag, when using Transpose to go from UI3 -> AF1, AF1 will take a moment to hit in,
so you can use Fire3 during this time and it will cast with the UI3 cast speed and strike with AF1 fire power (and MP consumption) :|

If you arent lagging tho, you won't even have a chance to try, and if not enough lag, cast might interrupt halfway :v
(still, at least BLM CAN benefit from lag somehow)

[thendcomes]

T1-B1 is the best rotation we have, whomever said otherwise is talking out their rear.

It was Puro who originally had T2 as the best rotation. Not sure why or exactly when that changed.

[Aresaka]

So i've been messing around with det lately seeing as we have so much of it now. Personally i've always been the type to stack crit+ss, but i made a det heavy set and was wondering where exactly it would stack up. It hits the free point of crit and the accuracy cap, while still retaining 523 spell speed. I imagine it wouldnt be too optimal seeing as the weapon is currently a 125, but what about if it became a 135? http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/OYDP

[OneWingedSora]

snip

That set is lacking so much Spell Speed ;;

[PuroStrider]

It was Puro who originally had T2 as the best rotation. Not sure why or exactly when that changed.

T1 and T2 are pretty much neck and neck.

In a perfect condition (all DOT ticks applied and equal RNG chance for TC proc), T2 will beat T1 by ~1 DPS for the whole fight. This 1 DPS advantage from T2 won't be realized until about every 20th Thunder cast or ~8 min into the fight, where you'd benefit from the extra Thundercloud proc chance over T1 given ideal RNG condition.

For T1, you're trading that 1 extra DPS for slightly faster recovery time (-0.5 sec) and closing that 1 DPS gap difference due to no chance of losing a DOT (-15 potency and +0.5 sec cast time) if no firestarter proc during Fire Ix5.

for F1x6 rotation, it's better to go T2 no doubt because you won't risk losing any dot tick, but you'd also need ~317 PIE (~320 if casting blizzard I also) compared to 305 PIE for T1. Level Cap increased after expansion will most likely makes T1 obsolete, though it looks like they're planning on revamping black mage.

tl;dr - can't go wrong with either one really...

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Anyways, I just hope that most of the stuff in my spread still apply after the revamp. Hopefully...