The Black Mage Rotations

[Synovius]

Bump for an updated tricks section!

[ShinryuReishiki]

Playing around with the iceless rotation idea, I've found that double Flares are still possible. It's still not anywhere near as good as Flare (UI3) > Flare (AF3) > Transpose > Blizzard II (UI1) > Blizzard II (UI2) was in 2.0, but it's better than I expected it to be without hasted casts. Need to add a Fire II to make it worth using, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82L9IbUPMxU

- Umbral Ice I gives 10% reduction in potency
- Astral Fire III gives a 80% increase in potency
- Cast times are based on my current times at 539 spell speed and 2.31s GCD
- All three rotations rely on an Umbral Ice I MP tick to start, so I've based PPS assuming the longest possible wait of 3s
- Counting Transpose at 0.5s due to having to wait a moment for Flare to hit first
- N = number of enemies in range

1)
Fire III (UI1) > Fire II (AF3) > Fire II (AF3) > Flare (AF3) > Transpose
3.0s + 3.23s + 2.77s + 2.77s + 3.7s + 0.5s = 15.97s
Single: 198
AOE: 180 + 180 + 468 = 828
198/15.97 = 12.39
828/15.97 = 51.84
PPS = 51.84N + 12.39

2)
Wait 2s after MP tick > Flare (UI1) > Flare (AF3) > Transpose
3.0s + 2.0s + 3.7s + 3.7s + 0.5s = 12.9s
AOE: 234 + 468 = 702
702/12.9 = 54.42
PPS = 54.42N

3)
Wait 2s after MP tick > Flare (UI1) > Fire II (AF3) > Flare (AF3) > Transpose
3.0s + 2.0s + 3.7s + 2.77s + 3.7s + 0.5s = 15.67s
AOE: 234 + 180 + 468 = 882
882/15.67 = 56.29
PPS = 56.29N

The MP tick won't always take 3s though, so let's see what the PPS with a 1 second wait.
1) 59.27N + 14.17
2) 58.5N (Transpose limits it to 12s minimum)
3) 64.52N

So under more ideal conditions, the Flare only rotation ends up falling behind the other two, while the other two stay strong. Between 1 and 3, 3 does more AOE damage, but also comes with the added risk of downtime if you mistime the Flare.

[O-Deka-K]

I'm glad someone else is doing calculations using potency! You made me realize that some of my formulas were wrong, because UI1 only gives a 10% reduction in potency and I was assuming 30% as if they were in UI3. I'll have to go correct those.

I'd like to point out that the mana tick times in your rotations are predictable. Mana ticks always occur exactly every 3s and this is not affected by spell speed. Since you know that a tick has to occur after the Transpose before you can do anything, you will know when the tick will occur after you cast all of your spells. Therefore, all of those rotations will be an exact multiple of 3s.

1) Time = 15s: (828N + 198) / 15 = 55.2N + 13.2 PPS
2) Time = 12s: 702N /12 = 58.5N PPS
3) Time = 15s: 882N / 15 = 58.8N PPS

Rotations #2 and #3 beat out #1 at 4 or more targets.

I'll have to try these out too. Thanks!

[mgonz711]

Hi all, I have started looking at the forums recently to learn how to play blm as effective as possible. I have learned about effective single target rotation and these forums have help a lot, infact I don't even know how I got as far as I did w/o it.

Here is my question with the update where can I learn more about aoe rotations, what is an effective cross bar setup, and maybe what skills are better left on a second cross bar?

If you have links to other threads or what page to start from on this thread it would be appreciated.
Thanks

[ShinryuReishiki]

Ah, right. When I finally got around to the math (Initially I thought this would be more a parlor trick than anything else), I wasn't looking at the rotation as a whole when thinking of the MP tick... Which is kinda silly, considering the rotation is entirely dependent on that.

[Synovius]

The AoE rotation is listed on the first page. It took a nerf with 2.1 but I believe it is still the top AoE DPS. As for cross bar setups, I'm not sure.

[Sleigh]

The AoE rotation is listed on the first page. It took a nerf with 2.1 but I believe it is still the top AoE DPS. As for cross bar setups, I'm not sure.

From my testing, it's Fire III > Fire II spam > Flare > (Transpose > wait 2s after tick > Flare > Fire II > Flare) X N until Flare > Convert + Swiftcast Flare can finish the enemies.

It sounds slow but it hits like a truck, and if you get lucky with your MP tick after Flare there's not THAT much down-time. Double Flare still exists, it's just slower. This parsed higher for me than any Blizzard II or Freeze rotation I tried, and it's almost as good as the old double Flare glitch. Almost.

[FenxBoden]

From my testing, it's Fire III > Fire II spam > Flare > (Transpose > wait 2s after tick > Flare > Fire II > Flare) X N until Flare > Convert + Swiftcast Flare can finish the enemies.

It sounds slow but it hits like a truck, and if you get lucky with your MP tick after Flare there's not THAT much down-time. Double Flare still exists, it's just slower. This parsed higher for me than any Blizzard II or Freeze rotation I tried, and it's almost as good as the old double Flare glitch. Almost.

I keep getting different feedback in parties - aoe: f3, f2, flare, covert, swiftcast, flare again, transpose and single: f3>f1, transpose, bliz3, mana build up, trans and repeat.

Those two seem the most common variations i keep getting. Then add the ones on this post at the top. So I'm a bit confused on any definitive rotation.

[O-Deka-K]

The AoE rotation is listed on the first page. It took a nerf with 2.1 but I believe it is still the top AoE DPS.

I have to disagree. When I do this rotation it takes 15s, which makes the potency:

B2-B2-F3-Flare-Transpose (15s): (568N + 154) / 15 = 37.9N + 10.3 PPS
where N is the number of targets.

Even if you had the spell speed to do it in 12s (it can't get any faster, because of Transpose's cooldown), it would be:

B2-B2-F3-Flare-Transpose (12s): (568N + 154) / 12 = 47.3N + 12.8 PPS

This is still far lower than F3-F2-F2-Flare-Transpose: 55.2N + 13.2 PPS. For only 3 targets, this is a difference of 21 PPS (12s) or 52 PPS (15s) and it gets worse with more targets. The B2-B2 rotation was great in 2.0, but it's taken a huge nerf. For reference, it was 55.7N + 12.8 PPS in 2.0.

I haven't even tried the double Flare rotations, but you can see the formulas in a previous post.

[Peptaru]

transpose > flare > f2 > flare > repeat is putting out my best numbers for an AoE rotation; but like the old one, if you have lag or bad timing, you will suffer. The other rotations that involve blizzards are safer and will leave you screwed less often.

Single target is the same it has ever been for me, just lost the speed buff of the initial F1. I do miss B3 > F3 > F3 > repeat.