The Black Mage Rotations

[Malevicton]

You may as well edit the infinite flare rotation out. Hasn't worked in a while now.

[Jinrya-Geki]

So is thunder II not part of the single target DPS anymore?

During your 2nd opener rotation, you wrote Blizzrd 1 (If time). What does that mean?

[Kenji1134]

This is due to the mana tick no longer being synced with the player.
You cast B3, you now need 2 mana ticks to get to full MP before casting F3.
Mana ticks are always 3 seconds apart. Casting T1+F3 takes 2.5+3.5/2 = 4.25 seconds. However "around" halfway through F3's cast, you lose the UI3 buff. So in effect you have T1+F3 = 2.5+3.5/4 = 3.375-3.5s of "safe" casting.

The question is, when do you get that first mana tick during T1?

If you get the tick right at the start of T1, then 2.5s elapses once you finish T1, and a functional 1 second elapses for F3, which is 3.5s, but the 2nd tick happened at 3.0s... So you got your 2nd tick DURING F3 but BEFORE losing UI3.

If you get the tick halfway through T1, at 1.25, then another 1.25 passes to finish T1, and 1 sec for F3 is 2.5s, so you will likely lose the UI3 buff before the 2nd tick because it comes towards the end of the F3 cast. In this case you would need to throw in a B1 after T1 to make sure that you get the 2nd tick, and don't go into your fire cycle with 2/3 mana.

In practice there is a "bit" more leeway than the numbers I gave above, so a good rule of thumb is as follows.

IF you get the mana tick BEFORE the cast bar clears the word CAST (in CASTING), which is roughly 1/3 of the 2.5s cast or 0.8s, skip B1 and go into F3.
IF you get the mana tick JUST after the cast bar clears CAST, wait for the Thunder orb to land on the target (takes the same time regardless of distance, about 0.5s), THEN go into F3. (lil risky)
And if you get the tick after the bar has cleared CAST, throw in the B1, you till get the tick towards the middle of the B1 cast, where you'd have lost the UI3 buff had you cast F3 instead.
(Alternatively Thunder and Blizzard are roughly the same length as CAST, and can be used as gauges.)

Another little trick:

If you go into UI3 with a Firestarter proc, you will lose UI3 the moment you hit F3, as all effects will be applied instantly.
When this happens, simply do T1, B1, Transpose, Firestarter-F3.
This ensures you have full mana, and lets you land the instant F3 with a 1.3x damage gain instead of a 0.7x damage penalty.

[Synestr]

I use TII > FireIII after I go into UI from BLIZIII and haven't noticed any mana regeneration problems.

[Synovius]

Bump. This information is still very relevant. I will be updating this for Heavensward as we get closer to early access!

[Synovius]

BTW - just to point out that Mecan is definitely trolling, take a look at this other post he made in an earlier thread:

Just an FYI. Bard as many more AoEs than BLM. BLM is much more single-target focused. I think you have these two backwards.

I... I... I don't even know where to begin with this...