Quote Originally Posted by Voidmage View Post
Yes, i agree that there will be less variables in fire phase but all in all these are all things that I liked about blm.
> timing your casts to squeeze everything out even at the last second
> the flow of fire phase
> using transpose and paradox in an emergency and even in standard rotation just then stepping into non standard real quick.
> managing thunderprog
I think all this stuff basically remains, but with the chief difference that it's never an advantage to skip ice spells or have shorter fire/ice cycles, so while you still might be forced to do that by mistakes or mechanics, the challenge is always going to be about how well you can minimize a loss, rather than if you can squeak out a gain. I think we're going to end up making a lot of the same decisions under pressure, though. If you have to move and you're out of instants, you might throw a Thunder spell to get at least a little potency in even though you're clipping your DoT. If a boss is about to vanish or you're about to run out of timer due to previous movement mechanics or mistakes, you'll cut your astral cycle short with a swiftcast Despair and then charge up for the next one. Etcetera.

On another note, enhanced flare also seems to be gone.
Yes, I noticed that, too. I'm actually a little sad about no Enhanced Flare combined with an apparent drop in High-Fire II potency, because it just felt right to cast HF2 for damage and then use your last Umbral Heart on Flare, rather than using all your Umbral Hearts on Flare. Now it seems like HF2 is just for swapping stances and your damage cycle will always be Flare, Flare, Flare Star for groups of monsters.