BLM Mana tick, Solution and New Rotation

[NeoAmon]

I figured this needs it own thread to keep all information in one place. I will list the problems then the solutions I'm using atm to remedy it.

Problems:

1- Mana Ticks have been changed. Now, using Thunder I/II or Swiftcast Thunder III will only give you one mana tick before you start your Fire rotation.

2- Having SCH in the group will increase your piety and break your rotation unless you have 251 piety. To clarify, I don't have 251 piety, now from full mana fire rotation leaves me at 20 mana only and unable to cast Bliz III to switch back and have to use convert or Transpose. You may not have this problem and it is different from race to race but it is happening so please don't dismiss yet.

Current Solution:

Keep in mind this is my own solution and I will update it as other players offer a better one.

Mana ticks now require new rotation. I found two of them working up to 99%-100% of the time.

Rotation 1: Bliz III > Thunder 3 (hard cast) > Fire III > Fire I until low mana > repeat. 99% of the time full mana before fire rotation.

Rotation 2: Bliz III > Thunder II/I > Scathe > Fire III > Fire I until low mana > repeat. 100% full mana before fire rotation.

Rotation 3: Same as old rotation, you just have to wait a second or two more or less to get a second tick.

If you are asking why Bliz III first, it is because you want Thunder III/II & Scathe to cost 0 mana and Fire III to only cost 133 initially.

Now for the 20 mana problem at the end of fire rotation when you have SCH in group it may no longer be an option not to have 251 piety counting SCH 8 points increase. I have not tried anything to fix this yet because it is not constant and I might be doing something wrong to cause this.

I will update this post as players provide better solutions and we test more.

[Zerosix]

All I know is mana regen is screwed. I can understand changing double dipping, but they rocked the foundation of our class... We are having to try and throw fill in places to make up for it. All in all this results in a pretty big loss.

[SirGazuntai]

I don't think it's a better solution than these, but when you make the transition from AF to UI, watch your MP bar until the first tick happens. As soon as that happens, cast Scathe and then spam Fire III to your hearts content. I usually get the tick just after Fire III starts casting, which is as close as I can get right now without timing down to split seconds, in which case I wouldn't need Scathe.

[Pinworms]

Just got done with coil and there is defiantly something going on with the ticks and rotations. I think we do need a new rotation and I think we gotta get the math nuts in on this.

[LetBloodline]

First of all, if you go to 20mp left you made a mistake. The cycle is not "cast stupidly fire1 until you can" is to cast fire1 until you can afford B3 and Thunder (1 2 or 3, the one you use). If you get a buff to pie you could cast one more fire1 that will screw your rotation. Don't cast it

personally i prefear the cycle with T3. Many fight require me to move and delay my cycle and i like to be covered with longher thunder duration. Plus with it you can fill your mana easily without waste more time for a schate

[NeruMew]

I agree, is preferrably to stop casting fire if you foresee you won't be able to afford Thunder, but anyway.. I think they really fucked it up changing mana ticks, it's still doable but you gotta get adapted and I feel it's not as reliable, I used to be able to precast knowing that I would get a mana tick in between my casts every single time. Now I have managed to avoid casting too fast, but sometimes I find myself either I wasted too much time because I waited split a second that wasnt necessary, or I failed to calculate the time and went back into fire without getting the mana back ( I personally don't like waiting till full mp, depending on the situation and thunder duration etc, anyway).

I agree though, with mana ticks being broken, because they are broken now. Before used to have a perfect synergy, the nerf to our scathe (not a very good ability anwyay,) sad blizzard 2 nerf... whichw as totally uncalled for, they could have just changed the blizzard 2 from cross class... it already had low damage. AND to top it off we can't clip double fast casts... I feel that was too much, even if our damage is still fine. I feel they broke our class synergy for nothing really. It would be nice to atleast see a either more responsive firestarter proc, or allow us to stack it to two... So we don't lose em to damn RNG, because honestly, it happens VERY often that you get a new firestarter on that second fire after the first one procced it too.

/sigh.. I really hope we can get our mana ticks back and double-fast casts when switching from AF3 and UI3... To fix flare abuse just make it freaking responsive that it consumes the mana when you successfully casted the spell... -.-

Also I dont know if you guys noticed, but the fast cast is in fact now our cast bar getting cut off by half, like, it used to be faster filling, now it just jumps half the duration ahead when it recognizes you have the right stance on (AF3 or UI3).

[Optikal]

What I have been trying that works is:

Bliz III > Thun II > Bliz I > Fire III > Fire I Spam > Repeat

I do a Thunder 2 and then a Bliz 1. Bliz 1 is better damage than Scathe (especially now) and cooldown/cast times really make them cost the same amount of time. And you get a 40% heavy in this rotation.

[LetBloodline]

What I have been trying that works is:

Bliz III > Thun II > Bliz I > Fire III > Fire I Spam > Repeat

I do a Thunder 2 and then a Bliz 1. Bliz 1 is better damage than Scathe (especially now) and cooldown/cast times really make them cost the same amount of time. And you get a 40% heavy in this rotation.

why waste a full GCD? T3 is only 1 sec longher and you are full mana anyway

[ChickensEvil]

The only issue I have with just agreeing to use T3 is now you have to plan for that extra mana cost of T3. At my current piety level this means clipping a fire from my cast cycle so instead of ending at around 400 mana I am sitting on over 1000 mana left because the threshold moved. I will admit I haven't tested it out yet to see the dps difference, but I assume clipping that fire from your rotation has GOT to be a huge impact... and if instead you just wait for the first regen tick to ensure you have enough for T3, then you might as well just skip T3 altogether because at that point you are REALLY wasting time... (extra .5 second on T3 cast over T2 and whatever time you wasted waiting around for your first mana tick which is up to three seconds)

[Dale]

All I know is mana regen is screwed. I can understand changing double dipping, but they rocked the foundation of our class... We are having to try and throw fill in places to make up for it. All in all this results in a pretty big loss.

I don't understand what you and other black mages are talking about here. I seem to get my mana back just as fast while in umbral ice as I always have. So how did they nerf our mana regen? Because I can't seem to tell a difference.

And so far I have liked this patch. The freeze improvements are significant and actually makes it a decent AoE spell to use while in umbral ice. So I haven't noticed any pretty big losses, at least not as yet. It seems to be an improvement for the class.