Patch 4.0 BLM Quick Reference Handbook

[Maero]

By needles are you referencing the Gauge which you need to build up? I am certain some actions will require certain conditions to be met.
Again i have really not read much and only seen the one video Mr Happy had done so not sure.

[javid]

Check Yoshi P's demo on youtube. On the Gauge there is a long finger that starts at the 3 o clock position and works it way to the 6 o clock before it resets bk to 3. To the left of that finger are 6 needles, split into 3 in the upper left and 3 on the lower left. The Top 3 both indicate what effect you're under (astral fire or umbral ice) as well as how many stacks you currently have (1, 2, or 3). Now the BOTTOM 3!!! The bottom 3 only lit up AFTER Yoshi casted B4 and was only consumed after he used either f4 or f1.

Our speculation is to figure out if those bottom 3 BUFF the f1 and/or f3 actions?? And if it does buff those 2 kinds of fires why doesn't it expend on fire3??





On another topic BLM related. Foul doesn't stack HOWEVER we notice at one point that Yoshi loses his infinite Enochain buff BUT retain his FOUL!!! Does this foul maintain itself like mnk maintain charka? or mch maintain Reloads?? If its maintain thru changing instances I can see a double foul opener that will properly need to be nerfed >.> ......GG

[Ferth]

Check Yoshi P's demo on youtube. On the Gauge there is a long finger that starts at the 3 o clock position and works it way to the 6 o clock before it resets bk to 3. To the left of that finger are 6 needles, split into 3 in the upper left and 3 on the lower left. The Top 3 both indicate what effect you're under (astral fire or umbral ice) as well as how many stacks you currently have (1, 2, or 3). Now the BOTTOM 3!!! The bottom 3 only lit up AFTER Yoshi casted B4 and was only consumed after he used either f4 or f1.

Our speculation is to figure out if those bottom 3 BUFF the f1 and/or f3 actions?? And if it does buff those 2 kinds of fires why doesn't it expend on fire3??





On another topic BLM related. Foul doesn't stack HOWEVER we notice at one point that Yoshi loses his infinite Enochain buff BUT retain his FOUL!!! Does this foul maintain itself like mnk maintain charka? or mch maintain Reloads?? If its maintain thru changing instances I can see a double foul opener that will properly need to be nerfed >.> ......GG

Someone pointed out elsewhere that those needles (umbral heart is their name btw) allow casting of fire spells with full astral stacks but at an mp cost as if we didn't have any astral fire stacks (almost half the cost)

So re-upping blizzard 4 every ice phase will extend our mp pool in astral phase.

Also, AoE thunder spells are gonna be the bee's knees. if the potencies listed for thunder 4 are correct that's going to be a 230 potency per mob aoe. Add in foul and permanochian and it looks like blm will be regaining some lost footing on SMN in the aoe department.

[javid]

Someone pointed out elsewhere that those needles (umbral heart is their name btw) allow casting of fire spells with full astral stacks but at an mp cost as if we didn't have any astral fire stacks (almost half the cost)

So re-upping blizzard 4 every ice phase will extend our mp pool in astral phase.

Also, AoE thunder spells are gonna be the bee's knees. if the potencies listed for thunder 4 are correct that's going to be a 230 potency per mob aoe. Add in foul and permanochian and it looks like blm will be regaining some lost footing on SMN in the aoe department.

I don't understand what you meant by the umbral heart explanation. Why would it skip FIRE 3? Also you're already under the full effect of Astral fire in the demo Yoshi P presented.



In other news that return to ley lines ability is on a 3 sec cd! and it appears to have a range equal to your spell range; this is demonstrated in the Yoshi P video.

[Lelila38]

From what I get so far the Umbral heart will allow us to cast Fire spells at half their mp costs, effectively allowing us to fit in more F4 in our mp pool, they are what will enable us to do the 4441444 rotation. Anyway, keep in mind, that until we actually see the skills ingame and on lv70, most, if not all of this, is just theory-crafting. It might be as the OP stated, and I definitely hope it is, cause it looks pretty neat to me.

[Ferth]

I don't understand what you meant by the umbral heart explanation. Why would it skip FIRE 3? Also you're already under the full effect of Astral fire in the demo Yoshi P presented.



In other news that return to ley lines ability is on a 3 sec cd! and it appears to have a range equal to your spell range; this is demonstrated in the Yoshi P video.

When you have stacks of umbral heart active AND you have astral fire active it allows you to cast fire spells at a reduced MP cost (the same mp cost that fire spells have when you don't have astral fire stacks.)

It bypasses the initial fire 3 because you don't have astral fire stacks when you switch from umbral phase to astral phase.

So in the live letter we see Yoshi-p Cast blizzard 3, cast thunder, activate enochian, cast blizzard 4 (which grants three stacks of umbral heart), then cast fire 3 (taking him from three stacks of umbral ice to 3 stacks of astral fire) then casting two fire 4s at a reduced mp cost and using up two stacks of umbral heart.

[javid]

We'll have to have some analyze the Yoshi P video to see just how much it reduces mp consumption. And yes since we only need to be under astral/umbral to keep a constant enochain we won't need to switch to ice until we're out of MP! So I think we'll be able to do 6 fire 4 rotations beyond just the opener!!

[Sylvain]

If those Needles are our new "raging strike" then the current blm rotation will completely change!!

completely change is a gross overstatement

B4 grants you 3 charge (or 4?) charge of Umbral Heart which reduce by 50%the MP cost of your next Firespell/FireIV (not sure if it's all firespell or just fireIV)
The Needle tick just advance as you stay in Enochian, every30sec your purple crystal turns on and you can cast the new cool purple aoe.
FireIV doesn't refresh Astral Fire, so you need to use it to refresh it.

So... it will change a few things, but you're not having a complete new rotation, not to the extend of 2.0 - 3.0
The BLM mostly got quality of life changes, making the whole thing much easier and forgiving to play.
You can't really loose enochian, you can't loose Umbral or Astral. Mana management is easier.
You'll still however mostly do the same thing.

[Keyln]

Isn't it a bit too early to start crunching numbers at this point? Considering that the game isn't out yet, and the numbers we've seen from the Live Letter will likely change by the time Stormblood comes out.

[Thela]

[SNIP]

And we can add some piety from Metaria.

Piety is no longer a secondary stat so not much chance of that happening.