Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[Garotte14]

Another factor is the fight itself; when you have to move, when the boss vanishes, and when adds appear. If you are casting B3 when adds pop or you need to phase push, that's significant. If you are at full MP casting F4 (vs low MP casting B3) when the boss jumps, that's a factor.

Sharpcast F1 is probably slightly more dps in most cases, but not always.

Absolutely. I also make this very clear in the guide where I explain that building an opener around each fight is important for optimization. There are instances where starting with Blizz 3 could net you more uptime on your opener depending on movement windows and when/if the boss becomes untargetable. But if you're looking for the best opener PPS wise, Sharpcast > F1 will win. I'm not saying to never use a blizz opener. I'm only stating that it is less optimal in most cases.

• You do 1000 dps outside your burst
• Burst A rotation does 2000 dps and lasts 20 seconds
• Burst B rotation does 1800 dps and lasts 30 seconds
• Burst A is higher dps, but is beaten out by Burst B over time

I'm not understanding this logic at all. Maybe I misunderstand, but those numbers are pretty much impossible in comparison. You are viewing these DPS scenarios completely in a vacuum by saying 1000 DPS for 10 seconds, which I'm not sure where you got that number. B would not beat A over time, because A is starting out higher, and assuming both would decline evenly. In your scenarios, you are saying that you will deal 40,000 damage in 20s with A, and you will deal 54,000 damage in 30s with B. This gives your bursts 2000 DPS and 1800 DPS respectively. But you are then saying that you will deal 10000 damage in the additional 10s left in burst A, which is impossible unless you are literally throttling back dps. In reality, using these arbitrary numbers, if you burst 40,000 damage in 20s, you will deal roughly 18,000 damage in the additional 10s; putting you at around 58,000 or 1900 DPS. At this point both A and B would decline at an even pace, with scenario A always being about 100 DPS higher than B.