Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[Sleigh]

I have one macro for Mana Ward and Mana Wall, you know for when you get preyed. Means you can survive without the healing. Reason, I don't like Mana Ward and Mana Wall taking up two spaces on my hotbar.
My AM macro needs some work, cuz it just auto-targets the closest person, which sometimes puts me right into an AoR =/

On another note, I'm going to try T1 instead of T2 in my Enochian rotation, see if that gives me some downtime.
I really want spell speed lol.

T2 is garbage except for possibly when under Leylines, with enough MP.

T2 takes longer to cast (bad for Enochian), costs more MP (this is huge, BLM is all about the MP game and unless you got the holy 1700~ MP going into B3, which is RNG, you probably can't afford T2), and with such a decent rate of TC per rotation, it's actually a DPS loss to have done T2 if you get a TC in the first place.

The MP cost alone is enough to generally skip T2.

[FunkyBunch]

T2 is garbage except for possibly when under Leylines, with enough MP.

T2 takes longer to cast (bad for Enochian), costs more MP (this is huge, BLM is all about the MP game and unless you got the holy 1700~ MP going into B3, which is RNG, you probably can't afford T2), and with such a decent rate of TC per rotation, it's actually a DPS loss to have done T2 if you get a TC in the first place.

The MP cost alone is enough to generally skip T2.

Grazie, I will adjust that. T1 goes on my hot bar, T2 goes away.
I was under the impression that T2 fit perfectly into the rotation, but it was always tight. But anyways, thanks I will try out the T1.

[xxvaynxx]

Hey everybody I have a question.
I was in Thordan EX earlier today and another blm told me my opener was "bad" basically. I usually always hit about 1500+ in the first phase and at the end of the fight I have about 1220+ or 1250+.( I don't really always know my dps at the end of the fight because I don't always ask the person looking at the dps, but those are the numbers I was told before.)
My opener is;
Swiftcast - Sharpcast - LeyLines - F3 - Enochian - Raging Strike - Pot - F1 - F4x4 - F3 - convert (end of pot) - F4x2 - (end of RS) B3 - T1 - B4.
I'm always looking to improve so if this isn't a good opener...should I just use the ones in the first page?

[Waliel]

For Thordan, I'm doing the normal F4x3 - FS - F4x3 opener and use Swift after FS to dodge meteor and use Convert one GCD later. This puts me over 1700, up to 1900 with some good luck, without food/pots when Thordan leaves. I think just over 1750 was the usual when I last did few runs. And then there's that one random run where you get literally 0 crits in p1 with 2x DRG, and you sit like 250-300 DPS below normal... Stupid game.

In general, I don't think doing F4x4 - FS is a good idea as I'm pretty sure you AF3 will drop before your F3 goes off and you don't get the extra damage for that. It also feels unnecessary to do it like that. If you also use your pot after F1, so the opener would look like stuff - F1 - pot - F4x3 - FS - swift - F4 - convert - F4x2 - B3 etc., it will affect one extra F4 instead. Another thing you can also do is to time your first F3 to hit just as the pull happens and then drop Ley, making you essentially to get it for "free".

[luckystrikes]

Considering how even .1s can make or break an Enochian rotation, I would not use any GCD macros on BLM, more so than just the fact that you will lose DPS from doing it.

I believe you misinterpreted my original macro. The macro does not cast B4 then B3 in a sequence. It cast either B4 or B3 depending on what conditions are up...one action only. This way I do not need two separate buttons on my hot bar for both actions. I fail to see how this results in a lost any time whatsoever. Do you care to explain?

[FunkyBunch]

I believe you misinterpreted my original macro. The macro does not cast B4 then B3 in a sequence. It cast either B4 or B3 depending on what conditions are up...one action only. This way I do not need two separate buttons on my hot bar for both actions. I fail to see how this results in a lost any time whatsoever. Do you care to explain?

The only thing I can think of is that you might miscast a B4 when you don't have enough time to cast it this way. EG-Enochian is still up but enough up for a cast of B4.

[luckystrikes]

The only thing I can think of is that you might miscast a B4 when you don't have enough time to cast it this way. EG-Enochian is still up but enough up for a cast of B4.

The ONLY issue I have had with this method is if you somehow cast a B1 and want to follow up with a B3 to refill your mana faster. I have seen no rotations that fall in to this so far. And there is no reason to cast a B3 after a B4 under normal circumstances.

Try it out on a casting dummy. I think you will be pleased in how it works out for you. Or it could be something that only a space-constrained PS4 player is interested in. For me, when I switch cross-bars...that is a dps loss with the .1 seconds adding up you discussed earlier.

[Sleigh]

I believe you misinterpreted my original macro. The macro does not cast B4 then B3 in a sequence. It cast either B4 or B3 depending on what conditions are up...one action only. This way I do not need two separate buttons on my hot bar for both actions. I fail to see how this results in a lost any time whatsoever. Do you care to explain?

I understood what your macro does. Macros cannot be queued, and you will, for certain, lose a small amount of time with each button press of a macro. This can literally be tenths of a second each time.

[Hontaro]

snip

Don't use swiftcast to cast F3, pre-cast it instead, you will then have Swiftcast up for anything else, e.g. cast F4 while dodging an AoE or whatever you want, you won't gain or lose any dps when swiftcasting your first spell as long as your tank isn't shit.

snip

There is one (probably a few more) situation where you are in UI and you want to cast B3 and not B4, and that's right after you Flare -> Transposed and want to get back to full mana.

[luckystrikes]

Don't use swiftcast to cast F3, pre-cast it instead, you will then have Swiftcast up for anything else, e.g. cast F4 while dodging an AoE or whatever you want, you won't gain or lose any dps when swiftcasting your first spell as long as your tank isn't shit.


There is one (probably a few more) situation where you are in UI and you want to cast B3 and not B4, and that's right after you Flare -> Transposed and want to get back to full mana.

That is very accurate hontaro. You would lose the +5% dps under aoe for flare.

The other above posting claims there is a time loss under this macro. That is inaccurate..there is no animation lock or casting delay with trying to cast a skill you do no meet the condition for. It is instantaneous.

I offer this as a general quality of life improvement for all blms...there is no other downside on this.