The Ultimate Black Mage Resources with Damage Calculator

[axemtitanium]

I've seen this rotation floated around, particularly with respect to WP SRs.

Under Mage's Ballad, Blizz3, Fire3, Flare, Blizz3, Fire3, Flare, etc.

The reason it works is because one tick of Mage's Ballad is enough to cast Blizz3 after oom'ing from Flare. Is this rotation an overall dps increase? Is it an overall dps increase, even considering that the Bard loses 20% of his dps? Is it an overall dps increase, compared to the Bard singing Foe's Requiem instead and not taking the 20% decrease in damage?

[Sleigh]

Hmm, IIRC, to do the double Flare trick, much like the double F3 trick, one is affected by UI3 and one by AF3.
Under UI, Flare has 260*.7 = 182 potency. Under AF3, Fire 2 has 180 potency, but generally has a lower cost.

In effect from a full-ish mana bar, you can do 3 F2s and a Flare, which puts you at 0 mana and you need to transpose. This is a total of 1008 potency for your mana bar, and transpose is always up after Flare.
Going from UI3 into Flare for 182 potency, then a 2nd flare to 468 potency is a total of 650 potency, but even without doing any math, my gut feeling is that transpose wont be up in time.
Transpose takes ~5 gcd's to refresh.
So trans - tick (1) - B3 (1.4) - Flare (1) - Flare (1) = 4.4 gcd's. So transpose would not be up.
Also 468/4.4 = 106 pot/gcd, barely above B2 spam, and below the 3 F2 - Flare rotation.

Hmm, Ill get back to this idea later.

Edit: Returning to the idea.

I got ACT running for FFXIV this week... makes quicker testing a whole lot easier.

Baseline B2 spam: 98 dps on 1 dummy... 98 dps aoe... All tests are done on a lvl 1 dummy in the Bannock, that doesnt clip the other one with 5m range aoes... so its all effectively ST and AoE's that just hit 1 target.
Ranged Double Flare: *0 mana - Transpose - tick - B3 - *wait for tick, hit Flare a bit before the blue bar fills up - Flare - *back at 0 mana = 125 dps on 1 dummy, 91.25 aoe.
Melee Double Flare: *0 mana - Transpose - tick - B2 - B2 - *wait for tick, hit Flare a bit before the blue bar fills up - Flare - *back at 0 mana = 120 dps on 1 dummy, 120 aoe.
Ranged F2-Flare: B3 - F3 - F2x3 - Flare - Transpose - tick - *back to B3 = 151 dps on 1 dummy, 110 aoe.
Melee F2-Flare: B2 - B2 - F3 - F2x3 - Flare - Transpose - tick - *back to B2's = 132 dps on 1 dummy, 115.4 aoe.

Comparisons

If you can be in melee range:
Melee Double Flare is best, if you watch your mana bar like a hawk. If you get the timing wrong, then you lose the AF3 Flare and that just sucks.
2nd best is the ol melee version of the 3F2-Flare rotation, trading B3 for 2 B2's in melee range. ~96% as effective as the "New King" Melee Double Flare... but SOOO much easier to do.
And 3rd place in the melee category goes to the the old standby "mash Blizzard 2 until everything dies"... coming in at 82% of #1's dps... Also mindlessly easy and you never miss cause your target died...

From a distance:
Your best bet is the standard 3F2-Flare rotation using B3.
The ranged Double Flare rotation sadly falls flat in this category, coming in at 83% of the above rotation's dps, and for more work.

Conclusion

If you get the timing down, and can safely stay in melee range, this "new" Double-Flare rotation does seem to be our best option for AoE.
That said, the non-double Flare melee rotation is a close second, and likely easier to use in the long run.

And one last comment. Since I separated the damage into "total" and "aoe", I could do a quick analysis on the break-even point between [AoE * N] vs [ST + AoE * (N-1)]... and simply put, the magic number seems to be 4. On 4 mobs, a purely or predominantly aoe rotation is better than a slightly less aoe rotation...
So... the answer is 4... when you must choose whether to AoE... or AAAAYEEEOOOOHHHWWWWWWHHEEEEEEEE!!!!!

More AoE DPS is nice, gonna have to try to get the timing down for some of these. The only problem is, for me, I usually come close to pulling threat with the old Fire III > Fire II spam > Blizzard III > Blizzard II > repeat string, and adding in more damage, while definitely useful in some situations if the tank is going all out or is established, would force aggro on me. I think PLD AoE aggro is balanced around the intent of Fire II or Blizzard II less than Flares.

I'll give some of these a whirl during my weekly WP speed runs tomorrow, see if I have aggro issues with tanks who are geared a little better than me (iLVL80ish).

[PessimiStick]

I've seen this rotation floated around, particularly with respect to WP SRs.

Under Mage's Ballad, Blizz3, Fire3, Flare, Blizz3, Fire3, Flare, etc.

The reason it works is because one tick of Mage's Ballad is enough to cast Blizz3 after oom'ing from Flare. Is this rotation an overall dps increase? Is it an overall dps increase, even considering that the Bard loses 20% of his dps? Is it an overall dps increase, compared to the Bard singing Foe's Requiem instead and not taking the 20% decrease in damage?

Absolutely not. If you didn't lose Foe and the bard didn't lose 20% damage, then maybe it would be better. As is, it's not even close.

[PuroStrider]

@Zenithx

Yes, that is because the DPS is directly influenced by spell speed in the calculation. Now I hope we can agree that 0.01 second extra cast time is not going to make a difference (if any) if we were to get 1 extra Fire I every 235 casts in one fight (if the fight even last that long). (1 Fire cast = 2.35 GCD and -0.01 GCD = 1 extra sec every 100 casts).

And if you look at the stats side-by-side,

Allagan Ring:
+2.5 int (+3 base damage for Fire I, +5 for Fire III)
-0.01 GCD (-0.02 if you don't put in at least +4 Spell SPD in Astral Ring (See sheet), which can be disregarded

Astral Ring:
+12 Crit pt (+0.87% Crit)
+8 Vit (+116 HP)
2 extra materia slots left for you to put into whatever you need (ACC, PIE, Spell SPD).
*Healers can use it as well due to +9 MND

It's a matter of opinion in the end; you be the judge.

EDIT: If we disregarded spell spd, the Astral ring has INT net worth of 13.21 while Allagan is worth 13.00.

Hope that helps.

[Otterus]

Hey PuroStrider, just wanted to thank you for you "Ultimate BLM Resources", this is so useful. I showed this to my fellow BLM in my FC and they all loved it.
Good work !

[Zenithx]

@PuroStrider

Yes that clarified my doubts, thanks!

[Sleigh]

@Puro

Just for absolute curiosity's sake, could you find out what would be the lowest theoretical INT in a set, and do a Worst in Slot DPS check? Assume BC Accuracy needs are still met, and all items are iLVL90.

Strange at that sounds, I have a sneaking suspicion that BiS and "WiS" are much closer in performance than some of us min/maxers would like to believe.

[PuroStrider]

@Otterus - Glad I could contribute to the community. I've been slacking off quite a bit after getting accepting this new job offer though, but I'll do my best to do more testing and update it whenever I have time.

@Zenithx - You are welcomed.

@Sleigh - That shouldn't take long. I'll let you know once it's done.

I'll look into double F3 and double Flare rotation that people have been mentioning above and those that won't stop bugging me in game about it (yes that's your Kyp). It will have to wait a bit, however. I could only do so much with only 2 hands and 3 legs ^^

[Youmu]

Absolutely not. If you didn't lose Foe and the bard didn't lose 20% damage, then maybe it would be better. As is, it's not even close.

For WP speed run purposes, you will have manasong during pulls regardless of what AOE rotation you use, because unless youre a shite geared BLM, PLD will need manasong for flash spamming to maintain threat.

[PessimiStick]

For WP speed run purposes, you will have manasong during pulls regardless of what AOE rotation you use, because unless youre a shite geared BLM, PLD will need manasong for flash spamming to maintain threat.

Depends, I used to SR with a PLD who had slightly better gear (some i90, I only have DL), and we used Foe on most packs. I always have QS up for the first pack of each section when I have Convert up, and I never pulled from him.