BLM macros

[scarebearz]

Which is ridiculous, because "half seconds" go out the window the moment you have to interrupt casting mid-rotation in order to dodge something, which AM can't handle, when it's on cooldown, or otherwise can't be avoided.

Reasoning like this is why there are so many hopeless blm's xD

[EvianEverdeen]

Reasoning like this is why there are so many hopeless blm's xD

It's not theorycrafting, it's truth in reality. What, you never got stuck in the middle of something that was unavoidable in that current moment or are you just impervious to all instances of such? You're not as good as you think you are. Also, mistakes happen. You're not going to be perfect every time you play.

Guess you came out of the womb a perfect BLM too. Tell me, how did they get you out of there with that goofy witch hat?

[kujowaltz]

Reasoning like this is why there are so many hopeless blm's xD

Here's a scenario for you. MP is at 80% (lets say 700 MP away from full) and you have umbral 3. What do you do? go

[kujowaltz]

"just half a second longer" for many on here would be a big negative on it's own.

But like I said, that only occurs when I need to hardcast flare when swiftcast is cooling. Those same people that care so much about "half a second" would most likely be the same people who would never hardcast flare. And as I mentioned, I rarely hardcast it; the only time I hardcast flare is when I'm halfassing it on trash mobs

[blackermage]

While I feel like OP is arguing just to argue, there still might be some questions unanswered for newer players.

My two cents:

1) Macroing Swiftcast
Pretty much useless. Along with being slightly slower than manually casting, you will usually be running into 1 of the following situations:
- Large pulls of AOE (think brayflox HM speedruns). If you're doing a double / triple flare at the end, you want swiftcast for the last flare. Thus, the macro isn't going to save any keybind / help.
- Single target prolonged fight without much movement. In this case it's fine
- Single target fight that requires movement (EX primals, new coil, etc). That macro again just uses up keybind as you will need to use swiftcast separately.


2) Macroing Defensive CDs (Manawall, Manaward, Aposcatastasis, Eye for an Eye, Virus)
As a BLM, it depends on if you're doing progression content (relative to each person) or not. If it's farm content or if the group is overgeared, do whatever you want with cooldowns.
However if it's a new fight, every one of these -ARE- useful and needs to be used separately (i.e. not macroed). Many wipes will happen when there's unexpected burst going onto your tank or huge AOE that hits DPS because the fight is unfamiliar.
Helping out as much as you can with these CDs (virus on adds, eye for an eye for incoming burst phases, manawall and manaward so the healer doesn't need to heal you at all) so that your group can progress should be expected from everyone.


3) Macroing Aetherial Manipulation
You want to use this most whenever there's forced movement and stacking (think Ifrit/Titan EX, Turn 6, 8, 9, etc).
However this spell is quite hard to use in time without macros (finding a player to jump to, switching target to them, use, and then switching back to boss). Find a macro that works for you, such as the mouseover and get used to it.

[EvianEverdeen]

3) Macroing Aetherial Manipulation
You want to use this most whenever there's forced movement and stacking (think Ifrit/Titan EX, Turn 6, 8, 9, etc).
However this spell is quite hard to use in time without macros (finding a player to jump to, switching target to them, use, and then switching back to boss). Find a macro that works for you, such as the mouseover and get used to it.

The most helpful, honest, and humble advice-giver so far. Thank you for that. Sorry I couldn't quote the rest of your post, too many characters, but I beleive you are on par with everything you said even though it didn't fit my original playstyle when I first came here and wrote the original post I really like your AM advice, currently I am trying a macro using a focus target and practicing using AM on focus targets since I'm a console player and can't mouseover.

[Halloween]

Evian, I don't recommend getting used to focus-target AM as blm, only because you will benefit from focus-target on boss mobs. Try using a specific # set for a healer in the group.

And using your personal defensive abilities actually translates to more dps, like during snakes/divebombs in t5, you pop Manawall and you can stand there and continue attacking big snake rather than dodging. Same with landslides

[EvianEverdeen]

Evian, I don't recommend getting used to focus-target AM as blm, only because you will benefit from focus-target on boss mobs. Try using a specific # set for a healer in the group.

And using your personal defensive abilities actually translates to more dps, like during snakes/divebombs in t5, you pop Manawall and you can stand there and continue attacking big snake rather than dodging. Same with landslides

Sounds good thanks! I was going to try what you had suggested, but was worried the numbers wouldn't match up, between light parties and full parties. I suppose I wouldn't need such cooldowns as bad in light parties though, so maybe I can work this out.

[Halloween]

please feel free to add to these. this is what immediately came to mind from my experiences with these abilities

realworld uses for Manawall:
~Titan's landslide: negates damage and push (you can continue dps without worrying about permadeath)
~Titan's Mountain Buster: negates damage (stand there and take one just to scare the tank/healers)
~Leviathan's Dash: negates damage, you still get pushed (this is good if you're just learning the battle and haven't quite gotten the dodging down)
~Twintania's Divebombs: negates damage and push (use on 2nd set of divebombs to continue attacking big snake)
~t1 snake tailslaps: negates damage (if you want to intentionally provoke tail slaps and continue dps)
~t7 lamia tailslaps: negates severe dmg (if you are in the way of OT moving lamias to position and you want to continue dps)
~if MT dies and you happen to be 2nd on hate list

realworld uses for Manaward:
~ifrit explosion things, stand there and take 'em like a taru - if stun failed
~titan stomps, if your hp is not topped off
~t5 fireball, if you're about to eat one and your healers haven't topped you off
~t7 fireball, if you're about to eat one and your healers haven't topped you off
~anytime you're expecting magic damage and you're not at a safe hp range

etc...

[NyneAlexander]

please feel free to add to these. this is what immediately came to mind from my experiences with these abilities

realworld uses for Manawall:
Negates Arrow Rain in Moogle EX. This move is often a 1 shot if the archer has stacks or the player is weakened

added one in for manawall that I feel is very important

Also, during the nails phase on ifrit ex, manawall will negate that AoE pushback move, and manaward will reduce the damage you take during the nail explosions. Thats the only time I ever use them at the same time really.