Is this a good Black Mage rotation?

[Nyalia]

Read the info in this thread...
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...age-Calculator

^

To summarize the info on that thread, and add in my own personal experiences:

Single Target Rotations (from the thread):

• F5T2: Fire 3, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Blizzard 3, Thunder 2, <repeat>
• F5T1: Fire 3, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Blizzard 3, Thunder 1, <repeat>
• F5T1-B: Fire 3, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Fire 1, Blizzard 3, Thunder 1, Blizzard 1/Scathe, <repeat>

According to the people who mathed all this out, Thunder 1 is more DPS than Thunder 2, especially when you consider the Thundercloud procs which can completely negate the benefit of casting the slower Thunder 2 over the faster Thunder 1. However, at high spell speeds, after casting Thunder 1, if you immediately cast Fire 3, your Fire 3 will go off before the second mana tick and you will not be able to do a full 5x Fire 1s. So, if you think that's going to happen, throw in a Blizzard 1 or Scathe (Blizzard 1 is much more damage, Scathe is faster and allows movement during that period with minimal loss of DPS) after the Thunder 1 before the Fire 3.

If you ever accidentally cast an extra Fire 1 that puts you at too little mana to cast Blizzard 3, recover by using Convert (if it's on CD) followed by Fire 1, and then Blizzard 3. If Convert is on CD, instead transpose, wait a tic, and Blizzard 3, then Fire 3 and go back into the rotation.

Normally, if casting full speed, by the time the game gives you the Firestarter proc from a given Fire 1, your next Fire 1 is already halfway through the cast. Interrupting a Fire 1 to cast a Firestarter is a bad idea, as it will decrease your overall DPS (I believe?), and if you get a Firestarter proc on the Fire 1, you get nothing for it. So, to maximize Firestarter procs, only use Thundercloud, Raging Strikes, Quelling Strikes, and other similar skills after a cast of Fire 1. This way, if Firestarter procs on the Fire 1 cast, you can then use it immediately, and thus using the buff decreased your DPS by a trivial amount.

Also, if you ever need to move around to handle non-urgent mechanics, the best time to move is 0.5 seconds before a Fire 1 finishes casting. The cast will still go off, and if you proc Firestarter, you can use it while still moving, causing the movement to only trivially decrease your DPS. If you don't proc Firestarter, you lose more DPS, but it's still the best time to move because of Firestarter. The other best time to move is after Blizzard 3, if a Thundercloud proc happened causing Thunder 1 to be unnecessary. Another good time is after Thunder 1, as you can Scathe as you move, causing almost no DPS loss. The worst time is, of course, after a non-Firestarter Fire 3 cast.



AoE rotation (from the thread), use for 2+ enemies:

• Fire 3, then: Flare, Transpose, (wait 1 mana tick), Fire 3, Fire 2, Fire 2, <repeat from Flare>

At very high spell speeds, if you cast the Fire 3 immediately after getting that first mana tick, the Fire 3 will go off before the second mana tick and you will be in bad shape. If this happens to you, Flare, wait for transpose to recharge (about 2 seconds), and go back into the rotation from there. Don't cast Fire 2, as it won't leave you enough mana for a Flare, though if you do by accident, recover by casting Blizzard 3 (or just Transpose) and go back into the rotation. If you know you have enough Spell Speed to have this occur, wait a beat after the mana tick before you cast Fire 3. If there are only a small number of enemies in the group, you could throw in a scathe or blizzard 1 immediately after the first mana tick as padding, but I don't know if this actually increases DPS or decreases it.

And, obviously, when Convert is cooled down, after a Flare, you can Swiftcast+Convert+Flare to double-flare (then Transpose and continue the rotation). If you do this as the fight opener, please use Quelling Strikes first or you make your tanks sad and will likely die even with Manawall up (depending on what you're dealing with). If you want to really destroy things in AoE, carry around Mega Ethers and use them in place of Convert when Convert is on CD (and potions are off CD). I prefer to use them after Swiftcast cools down for a second swift double-flare, though there is something to be said about triple flaring even if there's a delay in the flareage since one of the followup casts has to be slow-cast.


As an aside, for stats, BLM benefits the most from Spell Speed due to the ice/fire mana mechanic. Point for point, Det is better than Crit, but only barely. As a result, since you get more Crit than Det on gear, Crit gear is better than Det gear. So, provided you have enough accuracy, you want to prioritize Spell Speed gear followed by Crit gear, with as little Det as possible. That said, if you ever get the BLM relic, since all points are weighted equally, max Spell Speed + max Det is mathematically the best you can put on it (unless you want some PIE for one of the F6 rotations listed in the linked thread/spreadsheet, but I haven't messed with those and they require pentamelded gear, which I don't feel like paying for just to try out a new rotation that I might or might not like).