Couple BLM questions!

[ChickensEvil]

Wait, Thunder 1? I thought that one did less damage AND less up time? I thought the only real debate was between Thunder 2 and 3. For my proc rate, I tend to prefer Thunder 2 anyway since it is normally just barely wearing off as I am casting it, making it perfect (or near perfect) for timing. The only way Thunder 1 might be good is is you get 0 firestarter/thunder procs... so you burn through all your mana and still have your DoT on the target... but that is very rare.

The other issue I would have with T1 over T2 is that since the cast time is shorter, I might not get all my mana back up in time. I already have this happen on rare occasion using T2. It happens something like this: B3 - T2 - F3 (end up with ~2800 mana on tick shy of a full bar). This happens when the timing of the regen ticks just *happen* to fall out of line with my cast timer and thus I "miss" a tick. I would imagine this problem being even more of an issue with the shorter cast time on T1... so if T1 is somehow better what are you doing with that time gap to ensure a full mana bar? Not casting anything for half a second? Throwing in a scathe (thus being well over the proc regen timer?)

Maybe It is just an issue for me, because of the amount of spell speed I have, vs other people? Unless the spell speed would also speed up the mana regen ticks. But on a 5 minute fight using my normal rotation I have this "issue" happen to me at least 1 time.

[Shisou]

The only way Thunder 1 might be good is is you get 0 firestarter/thunder procs... so you burn through all your mana and still have your DoT on the target... but that is very rare.

^This situation is why it's there, yeah. I prefer a bit of DoT downtime at the end of Thunder to having wasted time in between GCD's in my rotation. It normally never happens, but I include it on the off-chance. Ymmv, of course. Thunder II syncs up perfectly so that I finish casting it in my UI cycle right as it's falling off.

[ChickensEvil]

^This situation is why it's there, yeah. I prefer a bit of DoT downtime at the end of Thunder to having wasted time in between GCD's in my rotation. It normally never happens, but I include it on the off-chance. Ymmv, of course. Thunder II syncs up perfectly so that I finish casting it in my UI cycle right as it's falling off.

My personal experience has also placed it where Thunder 2 seems to be wearing off just as I am casting it in a worst case scenario on procs, in a best case I lost the DoT because I get like 2 firestarter procs.

[ChickensEvil]

So, double flare is definitely amazing! I don't know why I didn't think to really try this before, but was using all last night and really enjoying myself. Whether you are trying to burn a group of adds or burn the boss, or both... it really does the job well. But be warned it really does make things very angry with you, so you need to make sure the tank has a good threat lead before hitting it.

I would still like to see a comparison of doing flare at the end of a fire cycle, verses going straight to blizzard 3.
so Fire until < 1038 - Flare - transpose - blizzard 3 - thunder 2 - etc
vs Fire until < 1038 - Blizzard 3 - thunder 2.

Why I ask, is because at first glance this seems really good, but the problem with it is 2 fold. When you hit Flare you have 0 Mana left, so after hitting transpose you must wait for one tick regeneration which sets you back by about 1 GCD. The second problem being that you are now full length casting Blizzard 3, so eating 3 seconds instead of 1.7. So the question is, does the damage of flare make up for and exceed the added time spent out of AF3.

[Crabsy]

Awesome stuff I'm reading here! Back to a more general question. Would it be a bad idea to macro Raging Strikes to Fire I? Just to make sure that I am always using it and its up each cooldown?

[ChickensEvil]

There are two situations where that might be bad

Beginning of the fight: depending on your tank and how much better your gear is compared to them (or if they are just a bad tank at generating threat... happens sometimes) hitting your CD on your first Fire cycle might be too much damage too soon.

During very specific burn phases where you need as much DPS you can squeeze out. For example, Titan during the heart phase, Ifrit during the spikes, Garuda is just an all around burn this, burn that... so 2 of 3 primals have distinct burn phases. You pulling out 5 more dps because you always hit it on CD, verses causing a wipe because you didn't have that extra 20% damage during the burn phase... I would take the not wiping part

Otherwise, I wouldn't think it would be bad. I just have it easily within reach so I don't have a delay, rather than macro it together.

[HoroBoro]

I never use raging strikes unless tank I'm safely in yellow or tank really knows what he's doing.

It's called "Raging Strikes" for a reason.

I.E. It makes tanks rage when you take aggro from them. Or it makes healers rage because they actually have to heal you. Or it makes other DPS rage because now they're doing < 1/2 the damage your doing...

Eventually, it makes you rage because your PUG is depressed that they're not better then you, and quit the dungeon without saying anything.