Is Everyone Playing BLM wrong?

[catofsnake]

After Opener:
Fire III, Fire IV x3, Sharpcast, Paradox, Fire IV x3, Despair, Transpose, Xenoglossy (once or twice depending on mp ticks), Blizzard IV, Thunder III
Still debating on Transposing after Thunder III to get more damage on Fire III which is instant cast and 0 mp regardless.

Benefits: Drop the low PPS Blizzard III after opener, have a spot to cast Xenoglossy every 30 seconds, Fire III becomes instant speed meaning you can move while casting it and don't have to clip to triplecast after the opener.

Negatives: Clipping Transpose, Clipping Sharpcast (when not doing triplecast), Using Sharpcast on Paradox means you can't Sharpcast Thunder III and guarantee to not hardcast it (I figure with 10 ticks and 10% chance each tick... most of the time you will not need to anyway), You lose out on a second Paradox by not casting Blizzard III (requires 3 Umbral hearts and Umbral ice), Blizzard IV is still low PPS but it has to happen in order to get Umbral hearts for longer Astral Fire phase.

This is getting there, but the clips are what will hold you back. Assuming 0.7s clip per non instant/element swap, it's about a 1.4s time loss and more if you transpose after T3. Some adjustments that could help would be shifting the Xeno to be just after Despair in order to not clip Transpose, and using your fire gained paradox as an instant before your transpose out of ice.
But honestly, the main thing you need to know is that the transpose lines are situational - you may or may not be able to go into them based off however many instants and procs you have. and, that some lines are only few percent potency gains over standard, immediately losing them if you clip casts at all. You should only really start considering it once you're 100% confident on standard - near 100% or 99 uptime. And, standard makes it that much easier to do so, with the extra xenoglossies/guaranteed t3p's available for movement. An easy trick you *can* start using even during standard play though, is transposing out of an instant in ice into F3 proc - that's about 182 more potency than normal. Have you rechecked the non-standard BLM guide? I know it was linked or mentioned earlier in the thread, that doc explains a lot of the ideas more concisely and thoroughly than I could in a forum post.

Why are you waiting so long to get Ley Lines down?

This is actually standard, using leylines after a triplecast instant allows you to make full use of it without clipping, and because you can precast F3 only really waits you 2 GCDS before using it. Pre-pull leylines has uses in some fights though, like when a mechanic within the first 30 seconds or at future use times would force you out.

[Hasrat]

This is actually standard, using leylines after a triplecast instant allows you to make full use of it without clipping, and because you can precast F3 only really waits you 2 GCDS before using it. Pre-pull leylines has uses in some fights though, like when a mechanic within the first 30 seconds or at future use times would force you out.

This is sensible... but nothing about this thread suggests we're looking for savage-level efficiency here.

Admittedly what probably throws me off more than that, tho, is that I hadn't realized folks had started just opening straight with a short fire phase.