Quote Originally Posted by scarebearz View Post
The total damage for those few spells may be higher doing it that way, but it's the "Damage Per Second" overall that is important.

There is a GCD to weave something in for both, but a GCD in Astral Fire III with full MP is generally much more useful than a GCD when you are just going into Astral Ice MP regain phase.

Overall dps wise I doubt there is much difference between the 2 methods, but I'd go with the much more fluid method.
Wouldn't another factor to consider, which would tie into the "overall dps" issue, be the fact that you have to wait a moment to cast the Firestarted Fire III rather than instantly going into Blizzard III when the Fire I finishes casting? Thus delaying the damage output by a small amount. Could that delay reduce the overall dps to make the two match up (ignoring the placement of any off-GCD skills, just comparing the direct dps of the two methods).