The Black Mage Rotations

[O-Deka-K]

You have to be careful with transpose/flare and low MS. You might find yourself stuck in astral fire 3 after your transpose failed because you were mashing it during your flare cast. heh

Yes. From my experience, if you're already in AF3 when you cast Flare, then you can safely Transpose immediately without a problem. However, if you're in UI3 when you cast Flare and immediately Transpose, you'll be stuck in AF3.

[ShinryuReishiki]

I have to ask, but why are you guys putting the fire II in-between the double flare?

Personally, I do it because it's slightly more DPS. As O-Deka-K posted, it's 58.8N PPS vs 58.5N PPS. In turn 4, where you're using it on 6 enemies at a time that's 352.8 PPS vs 351 PPS. When translated to actual DPS... It's still just as insigificant. I just like to know I'm squeezing out that little bit extra, though I do leave out the Fire II if the Flare will be enough damage for the kill.

That said, the Flare -> Flare rotation will actually beat out the Flare -> Fire II -> Flare rotation in the event that you're doing AOE for an entire minute; being 3 seconds shorter adds up. I don't know any current content that you should be doing an AOE rotation on that would live that long, though.

Fire III -> astral fire III - flare - transpose - wait 2 seconds on first mana tick - flare - flare - transpose - wait 2 seconds on first mana tick - flare - flare - transpose etc.

It's a bit wasteful to start out like that. Starting with Fire III -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Flare will give you higher DPS. It's only good as an opener, though, as the downtime required to have MP to repeat it brings the DPS down below doing a no Blizzard rotation. For Turn 4 I always do this:

Fire III -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Flare -> Transpose -> Flare -> Fire II -> Flare -> Transpose -> Flare -> Flare

I'll use Swiftcast on an AF3 Flare when it's off cooldown. Depending on how other DPS is doing, I'll add in Convert/Ether as needed. I try to save Convert/item cooldown for more damage on Dreadnought if I can.

Yes. From my experience, if you're already in AF3 when you cast Flare, then you can safely Transpose immediately without a problem. However, if you're in UI3 when you cast Flare and immediately Transpose, you'll be stuck in AF3.

Yeah, it seems much safer now than I recall.

[O-Deka-K]

That said, the Flare -> Flare rotation will actually beat out the Flare -> Fire II -> Flare rotation in the event that you're doing AOE for an entire minute; being 3 seconds shorter adds up.

This doesn't make sense to me. What does being 3 seconds shorter have anything to do with it?

It's a bit wasteful to start out like that. Starting with Fire III -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Flare will give you higher DPS.

I've been thinking about this. I have been doing exactly that until now, but I don't think it's right anymore.

Edit: I'm wrong. More Fire 2's is better.

I did previously say that adding more Fire 2's give you more PPS (potency per second) for 3 or more targets. That was true for every rotation that I could find or think of. However, the opener doesn't really count as a rotation, because you can't repeat it (there's no mana regeneration at all).

Since you're effectively removing the entire Umbral phase, the PPS for this opener is much higher than any normal rotation. In this case, adding more Fire 2's will actually lower the PPS:

AoE Openers, if you start from no UI/AF buff:
Flare: (260N) / 4.0 = 65N PPS
F3-Flare: (468N + 220) / 7.5 = 62.4N + 29.3 PPS <-- Best!
F3-F2-Flare: (648N + 220) / 10.5 = 61.7N + 21.0 PPS
F3-F2-F2-Flare: (828N + 220) / 13.5 = 61.3N + 16.3 PPS
F3-F2-F2-F2-Flare: (1008N + 220) / 16.5 = 61.1N + 13.3 PPS <-- Best!

Edit: The last opener is best because it is longer while still having higher PPS than the regular rotation.

Just starting with Flare may look like the best opener, but it isn't. It only catches up in PPS for 12 targets or more. However, if you're already in AF3 at the start of the fight (and have over 4s left on it), then opening with Flare would be the highest damage.

As always, Swiftcast Flare will increase this, but I generally don't open with it. Gotta give the tank a little breathing space.

[ShinryuReishiki]

It's important to consider the amount of time over which you're getting that higher PPS, though; getting higher PPS for a lesser amount of time may result in overall less potency dealt.

Flare -> (Transpose -> Flare -> Flare) repeat
65N PPS for 4s, then 58.5N PPS
(65N)4 = 260N
@20s: 260N + 58.5N(16) = 1196N
@30s: 260N + 58.5N(26) = 1781N
@40s: 260N + 58.5N(36) = 2366N

Fire III -> Flare -> (Transpose -> Flare -> Flare) repeat
62.4N + 29.3 PPS for 7.5s, then 58.5N PPS
(62.4N + 29.3)7.5 = 220 + 468N
@20s: 220 + 468N + 58.5N(12.5) = 220 + 1199.25N
@30s: 220 + 468N + 58.5N(22.5) = 220 + 1784.25N
@40s: 220 + 468N + 58.5N(32.5) = 220 + 2369.25N

Fire III -> Fire II -> Flare -> (Transpose -> Flare -> Flare) repeat
61.7N + 21.0 PPS for 10.5s, then 58.5N PPS
(61.7N + 21.0)10.5 = 220 + 648N
@20s: 220 + 648N + 58.5N(9.5) = 220 + 1203.75N
@30s: 220 + 648N + 58.5N(19.5) = 220 + 1788.75N
@40s: 220 + 648N + 58.5N(29.5) = 220 + 2373.75N

Fire III -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Flare -> (Transpose -> Flare -> Flare) repeat
61.3N + 16.3 PPS for 13.5s, then 58.5N PPS
(61.3N + 16.3)13.5 = 220 + 828N
@20s: 220 + 828N + 58.5N(6.5) = 220 + 1208.25N
@30s: 220 + 828N + 58.5N(16.5) = 220 + 1793.25N
@40s: 220 + 828N + 58.5N(26.5) = 220 + 2378.25N

Fire III -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Fire II -> Flare -> (Transpose -> Flare -> Flare) repeat
61.1N + 13.3 PPS for 16.5s, then 58.5N PPS
(61.1N + 13.3)16.5 = 220 + 1008N
@20s: 220 + 1008N + 58.5N(3.5) = 220 + 1212.75N
@30s: 220 + 1008N + 58.5N(13.5) = 220 + 1797.75N
@40s: 220 + 1008N + 58.5N(23.5) = 220 + 2382.75N

Each Fire II before the Flare results in 4.5N more potency dealt.

This doesn't make sense to me. What does being 3 seconds shorter have anything to do with it?

Nothing; you're right. Was mixing up two different concepts.

[Kenji1134]

At times I wish to hammer this simple solution home until it sticks...

Undo the UI3 change.
Give Flare a 5-10s recast.
Make Swiftcast reset the cooldown of all BLM damaging abilities.
Separate the mana regen and cast time reduction effects into 2 parts. Mana regen ticks as before the fix. But the cast time reduction is a single stack buff that refreshes when UI3 refreshes, and is lost when a Fire element spell is "successfully cast".

Now, you cant double flare from UI3, you cant double flare from UI1, you can still double flare from swiftcast... so down from every 12 sec to once a minute.

Also, you can fast-cast 1 Fire spell going out of UI3. If you fail to cast it, tough luck, cast another B1 and try again.

BUT... Mana ticks will work like before. We can still save the fluidity of the Pre-2.1 BLM rotation!

[O-Deka-K]

For AoE rotation. I don't recall who said this, but transpose right after oom for instant tick then Fire III immediately does not really work well. The reason is the second tick is always 3 seconds wait if I'm not mistaken. First instant tick is 1.2k, enough for one Fire III followed by one Fire II.

After Transpose, you wait until the first mana tick and cast Fire 3. This takes about about 3.5s (since you're in UI1 not UI3), which means that you'll get a second tick during casting. You should then have enough mana to cast two Fire 2 and then Flare.

With your Spell Speed of 505, Fire 3 should still take 3.27s to cast. I'm going by the Spell Speed data in The Ultimate Black Mage Resources with Damage Calculator. When in UI1, you don't lose the UI buff until the Fire 3 hits (unlike how they "fixed" UI3).

Even if you have to wait a half-second or so in order to get that second mana tick, it's still worth it. It will still give higher DPS than a B3-F3-F2 rotation, even if your Spell Speed is fast enough to save one mana tick.

[Pinworms]

SE didn't have a problem with doing flare twice. They had a problem with the spell speed from umbral going onto 2 fire casts instead of only one. People were using this trick to do 2 flares faster than hard casts. It had nothing to do with the ability to cast flare twice in a row.

[NeoAmon]

SE didn't have a problem with doing flare twice. They had a problem with the spell speed from umbral going onto 2 fire casts instead of only one. People were using this trick to do 2 flares faster than hard casts. It had nothing to do with the ability to cast flare twice in a row.

wot?

I heard Yoshi talks about it with both my ears in the live letter. He literally said casting flare twice using UI ticks is a bug.

SE had a problem with both casting fast Fire after switching to Astral III and also casting double flare using UI ticks. They tried to fix both but only managed to fix the fast fire cast.

[Theremita]

I just hit 50 and I'm getting my BLM armour which means I'm getting flare too. How and when in the rotation is it used? Want to get it down before I start the last fight

[Synovius]

I just hit 50 and I'm getting my BLM armour which means I'm getting flare too. How and when in the rotation is it used? Want to get it down before I start the last fight

Flare is typically not used in a single-target rotation except under very certain circumstances. The single target and AoE rotations that you should be using are listed in my OP of this thread. Flare will be used almost exclusively in your AoE rotation. Take a look at my OP and let me know if you have any questions.