Are Blizzard II, and Freeze useful at all?

[CorbinDallas]

What I do myself is use blizzard 1 at first while pulling so you can pop enochian and keep transposing your stacks whole dungeon if you can not keep or maintain it other way. Then try collect hearts while pulling and possible thunder 4 some mobs. Then once mobs are finally at one stack use transpose(in ice stance) -> fire 2 -> fire 2 -> triplecast -> flare -> flare -> convert -> flare -> transpose -> foul -> blizzard 4 -> thunder 4 -> transpose -> repeat. Thunder procs can be used even in fire stance and sharpcast can be used for some extra procs.

Never use transpose to switch between fire and ice during a standard rotation, only after Flare. You're severely gimping those Fire 2 casts even more than they are already by only having one stack of Fire.

A proper AoE rotation, given enough spellspeed, should be, from starting: B3 > B4 > T4 > F3 > Flare > Flare (> Convert > Flare) > Transpose > repeat from B4, using Foul and Thundercloud as and when they pop.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, but this is what I've been using because Fire 2, Blizzard 2, and Freeze are complete garbage. Could even skip the Thunder 4 if it's less than a specific number of enemies, but I'm not sure on the math of that one.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

Never use transpose to switch between fire and ice during a standard rotation, only after Flare. You're severely gimping those Fire 2 casts even more than they are already by only having one stack of Fire.

A proper AoE rotation, given enough spellspeed, should be, from starting: B3 > B4 > T4 > F3 > Flare > Flare (> Convert > Flare) > Transpose > repeat from B4, using Foul and Thundercloud as and when they pop.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, but this is what I've been using because Fire 2, Blizzard 2, and Freeze are complete garbage. Could even skip the Thunder 4 if it's less than a specific number of enemies, but I'm not sure on the math of that one.

That's the standard opener in a nutshell, except that you'd preclude your first Flare with a swift cast, then triplecast Flare, Convert, Flare, Super Ether (or whatever Ether gives you 1200+ mana) Flare. It's not hard to work in that ether either; this is a BLM who doesn't use Sharpcast but I worked in the consumable because 4 flares is just GLORY. That's the only reason I even consider it. Fire 2 is useful if you have to revert to the old AOE rotation (waiting for CDs or Foul or whatever) instead of trying to creak out consecutive flares without Swiftcast/Triplecast. And if you're melded for spellspeed, T4 is so so good.

OP, here's some helpful tips for successful Black Mage-ing:

Get used to using Transpose to transition between Ice and Fire while you're moving between mobs. Your goal is to keep the timer active. This doesn't really do anything expressly useful until you get Foul at level 70 but it's a good habit to get into and it will help you regen mana between fights.

Also get used to starting your rotations with Blizzard 3. They changed the way Black Mage works a little in SB so until you hit level 60 and can make use of Blizz 4, Fire 4, and Enochian it's not really necessary but it'll make transitioning when you do have those skills much much more natural. Also you'll get used to the switch between B3 and F3. It's super fast and what you'll use instead of Transpose once you unlock both level 3 spells. And as Corbin pointed out, your damage rotation should always start with F3 so you have full Astral Fire stacks (3) to do damage in. You can extend your full stacks by throwing out a F1 but Transpose only gives you one stack no matter what so doing damage straight out of that is basically like poking something with a stick.


When you get Manaward, put it on your bar and keep it there. It's your tank stance.


And finally: the secret to Black Mage is that it's rotations are designed to make use of timing more than anything else. Your standard ARR aoe rotation is F3>F2>F2>F2>Flare>Transpose>F3>F2>F2>F2>Flare>Transpose X repeat (second part) ad infinitum (you can substitute an T2 for one of the F2s for the proc, I'd do it right after the Fire 3). This rotation is designed so that the slow cast of F3 gives you just enough mana for the 2-3 casts of F2 + Flare before Transpose starts the chain over again. The other rotations are like this also. Successful execution should make it so you never ever run out of mana. This is why BLM is a prime class to use the Manashift ability.


Freeze has always been the odd duck. No rotation I've ever used includes it but it's cool looking and useful for World Map so just keep that in mind. Happy Black Mageing!

[Sunako]

Never use transpose to switch between fire and ice during a standard rotation, only after Flare. You're severely gimping those Fire 2 casts even more than they are already by only having one stack of Fire.

A proper AoE rotation, given enough spellspeed, should be, from starting: B3 > B4 > T4 > F3 > Flare > Flare (> Convert > Flare) > Transpose > repeat from B4, using Foul and Thundercloud as and when they pop.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, but this is what I've been using because Fire 2, Blizzard 2, and Freeze are complete garbage. Could even skip the Thunder 4 if it's less than a specific number of enemies, but I'm not sure on the math of that one.

Well the thing is you are using fire 3 spell that is singletarget spell on top of of that it is insanely long cast time with only 1 ice stack(3.5 seconds). If you compare damage difference between fire 3 + flare or transpose + fire 2 + flare, fire 2 + flare surpass overall aoe damage over fire 3 + flare with same time frame. Fire 2 is 4k damage with one fire stack, flare is 15k damage with two fire stacks and three stack of flare is doing 16k damage. Why would you waste 3.5sec for singletarget spell in aoe rotation that is only 7k damage?

[Zerathor]

Well the thing is you are using fire 3 spell that is singletarget spell on top of of that it is insanely long cast time with only 1 ice stack(3.5 seconds). If you compare damage difference between fire 3 + flare or transpose + fire 2 + flare, fire 2 + flare surpass overall aoe damage than fire 3 + flare. Fire 2 is 4k damage with one fire stack, flare is 15k damage with two fire stacks and three stack of flare is doing 16k damage. Why would you waste your global for singletarget ability in aoe rotation that is only 7k damage?

F3 flare flare with 4 targets is 3,117.6 potency, starting from umbral ice one. Assuming you had no triple or swift, ignoring sps modifier this is 11.5s. 271.1 potency per second. This also assumes you got umbral hearts.

No umbral hearts, f3> flare is 1666.8 potency with 4 targets over 7.5s. 222.4 pps.

Your transpose f2 flare is 1737.6 potency with 4 targets over 7 seconds, 248.2 pps.

In a scenario your transpose was off cd to do this (possibly between a pull) and you didn't have umbral hearts to set up, and the targets will die before a second rotation(transpose will be on cd for another second), trans into AF1 f2 flare can be a brief 26 pps gain. But that's pretty niche to worry about imo.

The issue of sustaining this is that transpose is 8s cd. After flare, transpose, b4 t3 is 5.3s, leaving 2.7s of downtime which will negate the gain it has. Maybe if you had a very slow mp tic and you noticed it, you could do this for a small gain however.

[Sunako]

The issue of sustaining this is that transpose is 8s cd. After flare, transpose, b4 t3 is 5.3s, leaving 2.7s of downtime which will negate the gain it has. Maybe if you had a very slow mp tic and you noticed it, you could do this for a small gain however.

Well I usually weave last flare with either triplecast or swiftcast that leave me like two second before next gcd is up, then use foul 2.5 sec + blizzard 4 is 3 seconds and thunder is 2.5 - 3 sec depending if you have proc, if you use sharpcast you can thunder twice. There is plenty of ways fit that 8 second timer. I do not force anybody use that rotation, but i said i use it myself.

[Zerathor]

Well I usually weave last flare with either triplecast or swiftcast that leave me like two second before next gcd is up, then use foul 2.5 sec + blizzard 4 is 3 seconds and thunder is 2.5 - 3 sec depending if you have proc, if you use sharpcast you can thunder twice. There is plenty of ways fit that 8 second timer. I do not force anybody use that rotation, but i said i use it myself.

It's certainly not bad, it's just a little extra effort with a little gain and room for more errors. Blm aoe rotation is pretty much only used in 4 mans where I kinda prefer to just auto pilot flare spam. Or uwu garuda where you're already in af3 during both add parts with one umbral heart to double flare transpose foul (depending on your sps)

Then on another topic, freeze.
I think the only use I've found freeze can do in raids is if a boss goes untargetable and you're in UI, you can precast it where the boss will spawn to maintain UI3, or get a miniscule extra poke in for free. That's extremely niche, and not super amazing usually when you pull it off, but, it's something I suppose.