The Black Mage Rotations

[Synovius]

All

I'd like to provide the rotation I use for Black Mage that, to me, is both fluid and my highest yield rotation. I don't claim this to be the absolute maximum obtainable DPS but I do claim it to be very competitive with that which could be considered as such. Let's begin:

Opener
There are two openers in common use. The difference in DPS over the course of a fight is negligible but there are advantages to both:
1) Thunder III ==> Fire III ==> Fire I ==> Raging Strikes ==> Fire I ==> X-Potion of Intelligence ==> Fire I..... ==> Swiftcast + Flare ==> Convert + Fire I
2) Blizzard III ==> Thunder I ==> Blizzard I (if time) ==> Fire III + Raging Strikes ==> Fire I... Fire I ==> Swiftcast + Flare ==> Convert + Fire I

The first opener is going to give you an overall damage done edge for the fight as you can open as the tank is running in. Further, it is theoretically slightly higher DPS. One issue, however, is that the use of Raging Strikes in that opener is very clunky. If you use it prior Thunder III then you're losing out on a lot of time with the buff during the highest DPS portion of your rotation: the Fire I spam. If you use it as mentioned above, after Fire III, then you'll have some "dead air" time between your Fire III and first Fire I due to animation lock.

The second opener is what I use. It means that I have to wait until the pull has actually been done before I can open (since Blizzard III has decent aggro-generation) but it is more fluid. Further, you can fit Raging Strikes into the GCD left over from your half cast Fire III thus allowing you to have RS up for the entirety of the most important part of your rotation.

Single Target Rotation
Blizzard III ==> Thunder I ==> Blizzard I (if time) ==> Fire III ==> Fire I
Repeat Fire I until at or just above 1000 mana and then cast one more Fire I
Use Firestarter procs after your next Fire I
Use Thunder III for all Thundercloud procs and strike a balance between holding Thundercloud as long as you can and weaving in Thundercloud after Fire Is.
In case of having both Firestarter and Thundercloud up, Thundercloud takes priority as it will give you an immediate chance at an additional Thundercloud proc.

AoE Rotation
Fire III ==> Fire II ==> Flare ==> Transpose ==> (wait until mana tick)
For high burst AoE, open instead as follows:
Fire III ==> Flare ==> Convert + Swiftcast ==> Flare ==> Transpose == (wait until mana tick)

Accuracy Caps
Turns 6 and 7: ~451
Turns 8 and 9: ~471
Turns 10-13: ~515 and call it a day. You'll be hard pressed to get less than this while gearing anyway.