I thought I would hate Blm. I was wrong.

[Leidolf]

Against a single target at Level 68, I usually go: Thunder III > Sharpcast > Fire > Enochian > Fire III (Proc) > Triplecast > Fire IV > Fire IV > Fire IV > Ley Lines > Fire > Fire IV > Manafont > Fire IV > Swiftcast > Flare > Transpose > Blizzard III > Blizzard IV.

But in a video I saw, I noticed they usually started in an Ice Phase. Is there a reason to not just start in Fire Phase and then switch to Ice Phase when you've burned most of your MP doing the initial damage?

[Frizze]

Starting from a blank canvas(so a trial/raid pull for instance), i start from ice for a couple reasons. But the main one is timers. I want Eno started ASAP and i want to start accruing polyglots i can turn into xeno's/fouls. If the tank gives a countdown all the better, ill pre-cast Bliz 3 to land as he pulls and have the whole fight with Eno going. Starting in ice also lets you get an early Bliz 4 in, so you can have an extra Fire 4 cast during whatever buffs the party members can get going. It puts my first Thunder under the Eno counter, so it gets the extra 15% damage. And finally, it lets me use sharp on the fire that keeps AF up during my burst phase so i can use the proc either for movement or as an extra damage bit(or optionally, use sharp on thunder for a guaranteed thundercloud proc should one be beneficial) rather then using it to get full stacks right away.

Now at 68 some of that doesnt apply to you(foul and xeno are higher level abilities), but youll get there soon enough so it doesnt hurt to think ahead. And maybe one of the smarter math-minded people will come along and give even better reasons why ice is considered the standard start.

[Waliel]

We recall it differently. Stormblood era balance concerns are still very fresh in my mind especially in the context of how the community at large, and in particular the channels in The Balance, was reacting to them. There were many complaints about Foul having a cost being clunky for the UI phase and people across the regions being dissatisfied with the damage potential and its execution against the timers. That's what the 3s -> 2.8s cast time adjustment helped address in the initial wave of changes. Then once Deltascape hit there were more complaints on other matters even prior to 4.1.

No B4 rotation memes.

[PyurBlue]

Against a single target at Level 68, I usually go: Thunder III > Sharpcast > Fire > Enochian > Fire III (Proc) > Triplecast > Fire IV > Fire IV > Fire IV > Ley Lines > Fire > Fire IV > Manafont > Fire IV > Swiftcast > Flare > Transpose > Blizzard III > Blizzard IV.

But in a video I saw, I noticed they usually started in an Ice Phase. Is there a reason to not just start in Fire Phase and then switch to Ice Phase when you've burned most of your MP doing the initial damage?

Parties will usually perform countdowns in endgame content. This negates the cast time of your first cast and B3 is more potency than F1 without AF status. You also want your opening Sharpcast to be used on Thunder because it's more damage than using it on Fire, and Thunder needs to be cast after Enochian to get maximum damage. Eno also needs to be activated as soon as possible to build Polyglot stacks. That dictates the order of casts in the BLM opener:

Prepull Sharpcast > B3 at 4 seconds before pull > Eno > T3 > F3 > etc

Also never use Flare in a single target rotation over F4. Transpose is a last resort. Use B3 to quickly switch from AF to UI. Lastly your rotation has some clipping issues. Triplecast and Sharp procs are used to generate windows for BLM to weave. It's after these instant casts that you should use things like Manafont and Swiftcast (if for damage).

[Ryaz]

Against a single target at Level 68, I usually go: Thunder III > Sharpcast > Fire > Enochian > Fire III (Proc) > Triplecast > Fire IV > Fire IV > Fire IV > Ley Lines > Fire > Fire IV > Manafont > Fire IV > Swiftcast > Flare > Transpose > Blizzard III > Blizzard IV.

But in a video I saw, I noticed they usually started in an Ice Phase. Is there a reason to not just start in Fire Phase and then switch to Ice Phase when you've burned most of your MP doing the initial damage?

Umbral Hearts. You can cast Blizz III during countdown or swiftcast if tank pulls instantly, Enochian, Blizz IV. This will give 3 Umbral Hearts that will negate the mp cost increase of your next three fire spells once you enter Astral Fire, so after Fire III, your next three Fire IVs will only cost 800 mana instead of 1600 allowing for another Fire IV and leaving you with enough mana at the end to cast Despair at level 72.

And yes don't use Flare in a single target rotation. The potency on Blizz III is a bit less, but the cast time is much faster in Astral Fire III and Transpose leaves you vulnerable to server ticks. Its important to get that mana regenning as fast as possible.

At 72, you'll be using Despair at the end of your rotation like you're using Flare now, but you also get Aspect Mastery at that level which negates the use of Transpose outside keeping Enochian from falling off between pulls.

[Silverquick]

We recall it differently. Stormblood era balance concerns are still very fresh in my mind especially in the context of how the community at large, and in particular the channels in The Balance, was reacting to them. There were many complaints about Foul having a cost being clunky for the UI phase and people across the regions being dissatisfied with the damage potential and its execution against the timers. That's what the 3s -> 2.8s cast time adjustment helped address in the initial wave of changes. Then once Deltascape hit there were more complaints on other matters even prior to 4.1.

I agree,

Honestly I remember the beginning days of Stormblood. BLM was weak as hell at the outset. So weak you couldn't even use your normal fire spells on the world map mobs. I remember literally having to kick in Enochian just to keep from taking an insane amount of damage due to how slow they would go down. Which really just cheapened Enochian as it was supposed to be the uber boomer sequence for big bad guys, not some common every day thing.

In all fairness through this part hit all jobs equally as they removed Subjobs and we lost a ton of stats. So even in Augmented Shire gear it was hard to solo and you didn't have self heals anymore by subbing WHM or SMN.

At that point they'd literally nerfed SMN into the ground (On top of the loss of Subjobs) as we'd lost a good 60+ potency in DoTs and Ruin 3 took a major nerf and at the time Pet damage did not make up for it. BLM which was already hard to solo got even worse.

I played through the first part of Stormblood with BLM up through Siren Song which did have a LOT of movement required in it that hosed up Enochian a lot... at that point I went back and leveled up Red Mage. It was much more doable, with the Vercures and I didn't have to put up with Running an overly complicated Enochian rotation every damn mob.

So that was my experience at the outset of Stormblood.

[Mhaeric]

The only bad thing about BLM in 5.0 is how much the rotation changes depending on what level you sync down to. If SE could figure out a skill progression with the current iteration of skills that didn't result in so many differences depending on your level then the job would be perfect.

[Hasrat]

While I can agree with the sentiment, it's also one thing I kinda secretly enjoy about the job. When you understand those shift points, it becomes increasingly obvious when you see another player struggling with their rotation at various levels, and for me, I like perking up and guiding them towards improvements, and knowing how they start to enjoy the flow a little better when they understand what they can do with new tools.

[Mhaeric]

I don't mind some differences, but what differences there are should ideally build on a rotation by adding a new mechanic or extending an old one not by significantly changing the flow of it multiple times.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

I agree,

Honestly I remember the beginning days of Stormblood. BLM was weak as hell at the outset. So weak you couldn't even use your normal fire spells on the world map mobs. I remember literally having to kick in Enochian just to keep from taking an insane amount of damage due to how slow they would go down. Which really just cheapened Enochian as it was supposed to be the uber boomer sequence for big bad guys, not some common every day thing.

In all fairness through this part hit all jobs equally as they removed Subjobs and we lost a ton of stats. So even in Augmented Shire gear it was hard to solo and you didn't have self heals anymore by subbing WHM or SMN.

At that point they'd literally nerfed SMN into the ground (On top of the loss of Subjobs) as we'd lost a good 60+ potency in DoTs and Ruin 3 took a major nerf and at the time Pet damage did not make up for it. BLM which was already hard to solo got even worse.

I played through the first part of Stormblood with BLM up through Siren Song which did have a LOT of movement required in it that hosed up Enochian a lot... at that point I went back and leveled up Red Mage. It was much more doable, with the Vercures and I didn't have to put up with Running an overly complicated Enochian rotation every damn mob.

So that was my experience at the outset of Stormblood.

I don't remember it being weak per say, I DO remember it being ostracized by people picking up Red Mage because the lack of utility but the part that stands out is the level 70 job class battle which felt stupid hard, especially when switching to leading with UI instead of AF (which was again, jarring). And all you got was the cartoonish relic gear.

I raged for days.