Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent.

[Mysterysword]

Some of the highest DPS I've ever ran with have been BLM, stuff died fast even when the other DPS is garbage. I've also had my share of garbage BLM too though. Even some bare minimum Ilvl BLM have had really impressive dps though. My main gripe with BLM is that even the good ones seem to die at least once an instance.

This made me tear up a little bit from the sheer force of the truth in it. Every time I land with a BLM in DF, I cringe a little bit because they inevitably suck.

Like that one time I landed in A12 normal. The other BLM's rotation, as Prime was pulled, was to stand around for a bit, then drop Ley Lines, then HARDCAST Fire III and I stopped paying attention after that because ugh.

More recently, I tanked a Stone Vigil for 2 BLMs... who never once used Raging Strikes during the entire run... didn't know their AoE rotation whatsoever... one of them kept casting Sleep for whatever stupid reason... kept hardcasting Fire III... transposing when they had enough MP for Blizzard III... oh yeah, and had no idea how to use Thunder or Thundercloud procs, sitting on them and letting the buff run out.

It's runs like these that make me so irrationally upset.

[Sacred_Nym]

I don't even have words for this.

[Hasrat]

More recently, I tanked a Stone Vigil for 2 BLMs... who never once used Raging Strikes during the entire run... didn't know their AoE rotation whatsoever... one of them kept casting Sleep for whatever stupid reason... kept hardcasting Fire III... transposing when they had enough MP for Blizzard III... oh yeah, and had no idea how to use Thunder or Thundercloud procs, sitting on them and letting the buff run out.

Gonna jump to defend here a little, since, imo, Stone Vigil is right about the point that BLM rotation and skill set change dramatically (assuming these particular BLMs weren't synced). They've only just gotten up to 3 stacks of UI/AF. I'm not entirely certain that the game mentions explicitly how you can switch between them with Blizz3/Fire3 at that point instead of using Transpose. Idunno when most players start picking up on their AoE rotations, but that was about when I started learning the effectiveness of Fire2.

But, it's harder to defend some of the other stuff. Hardcasting Fire3, well, sometimes less intuitive players just assume it's better than Fire1. Sometimes they can be educated, and sometimes they just won't grasp anything. The Sleep thing, ehhh, that is about when it becomes AoE, which can sound helpful, but obviously not when players are slipping into their actual AoE dps. And there's not really any excuse for the Thunder thing.

But anyway, point is, I would advocate for cutting BLMs a little slack in that dungeon, because that seems to coincide with a big turning point for their mechanics (at least that's how I felt at that stage). I even remember staying after the final boss to offer some pointers to another BLM going through the same thing right after I had learned my own new tricks, so, if they're receptive to it, it might be possible to point them in the right direction, so that they can really dig into how explosive the job can be.

Assuming they were unsynced, again. If these were synced down mages, disregard all of this concerning them, they're probably just lazy and never bothered to read a single tooltip.

[CatStarPrime]

One thing about BLM dying at least once a run - even the good ones, sometimes especially the good ones, will try to hold on to one... more... uninterrupted... cast before they start to stutter-step/run from an AoE, and sometimes they wait just a bit too late, and BOOM.

[Mikaeus_The_Lunarch]

gonna have to blur/cross out the names else you risk being banned.

anywho, yeah that's rediculous

[sarehptar]

Queued up a mentor roulette tonight as heals and got an in-progress Weeping City at Ozma. Right away I knew there must have been issues because one of the alliances threatened to jump off en mass if someone pulled early. Everyone got there, fight started okay... And I immediately DC'd. No problems at all up until that run, then I just lagged the hell out. Had to completely restart and didn't make it back until the tail end of the Ozma fight, but the other healer kept it together and they got through pretty much entirely without me, so props to that person! Then we got to Calofisteri... and someone just charged in and pulled with half of the raid still outside. Everyone dies so we can wipe it and start again...

Except for one PLD and one MNK. Who proceed to attempt to duo the boss for as long as they can. Which, because her mechanics and damage are minimal at the beginning of the fight, was a long, long time. They agonizingly slowly chipped away at the boss, keeping everyone else in the raid waiting, until they finally, finally died to the unavoidable bijou damage. I can only imagine what their alliance's party chat was like... I really hope someone called them out on their trolling.

Anyway, they wiped, we restarted, damage was a million times faster, but I could see why the original healer left in the first place because almost every member of my alliance seemed to experience critical failure to dodge. At one point--not during the bijou phase!--the tank had six vulnerability stacks, people were getting sucked into the trap aoes left and right, half the party got hit by haircut aoes repeatedly... I tried hard to keep everyone alive but man, it was impossible.

Somehow walked away with four comms despite DCing and only actively being part of the alliance for one fight?? I was confused, but... /shrug, I guess.

[Mysterysword]

Assuming they were unsynced, again. If these were synced down mages, disregard all of this concerning them, they're probably just lazy and never bothered to read a single tooltip.

Not only were both of them synced down from 50, it was seemingly their main job (nothing else at that level), and they both had the "returning player" icon. Neither of them even cast Thunder or Thunder II until I told them about it. One of them gave the excuse that "only have T3 on hotbar" (fucking WHY?), and when I asked why neither of them once used Raging Strikes, the only response I got was "still won anyway". Because that totally excuses being complete garbage at your job.

But this isn't even the worst I've seen out of BLMs. It simply boggles my mind how someone can possibly get to level 60, queue for Expert Roulette, and still not understand the first thing about Umbral Ice/Astral Fire mechanics, when it is the first thing the THM quests teach you.

Also, Fire/Blizzard II are skills available to you as low as level 18. You can perform the THM/BLM AoE rotation in Sastasha. There's no excuse for not knowing it at level 41.

[Bebekurenai]

'Scuse my ignorance, haven't played blm in quiet a bit, but what's the problem with hardcasting fire3?
I used to open with fire3, then fire2 on aoe's a few times until I swifted flare, convert, another flare and so on. And single target also, prepare for enochian/leylines and open with a fire3, leaving swiftcast either to squeeze another fire4 or a blizz4 when timers were tight. Was I supposed to swift fire3 always?

[Sacred_Nym]

gonna have to blur/cross out the names else you risk being banned.

anywho, yeah that's rediculous

Fixed. My bad. Just so flabbergasted.

[Mysterysword]

'Scuse my ignorance, haven't played blm in quiet a bit, but what's the problem with hardcasting fire3?
I used to open with fire3, then fire2 on aoe's a few times until I swifted flare, convert, another flare and so on. And single target also, prepare for enochian/leylines and open with a fire3, leaving swiftcast either to squeeze another fire4 or a blizz4 when timers were tight. Was I supposed to swift fire3 always?

At level 54, BLM gets Sharpcast. Hit that, Fire, then use the Firestarter proc you get. I really really really do not understand just why so many BLMs seem to forget that Sharpcast is a skill that exists.

The problem with hardcasting Fire III is that it consumes almost twice as much MP as regular Fire, doesn't do nearly enough damage to make up the difference, and takes a full second longer to cast. There's also the fact that the Firestarter trait means that BLMs spamming Fire would get free Fire III casts that are not only free, but also cast instantly.

TL;DR: Hardcasting Fire III is bad and the only reason to do it is when your rotation is already so screwed up that hardcasting 1 more spell wouldn't hurt anyway.