Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[Waliel]

I freakin' hate BLM A4 though, holy moly. So annoying.

Heh, I find myself getting the highest DPS in A4. I always forget about the liftoff in A1 and I'm all >GA/ Maybe some day I'll remember it.

Anyways out of curiosity if it's fine with you, how much do you usually do as BLM on A3 ? I am kinda having trouble on that fight if only for that horrible add phase.

If my input of i178 gear is any good for you, around 900, I think. Maybe just short. I don't bother with Eno during add phase, as it can be a bitch to maintain, and all your cooldowns will be up after that (at least with my semi-lazy usage they are), so I want to make sure i get the full duration then. BRD+NIN and no food/pots.

[Ephier]

I freakin' hate BLM A4 though, holy moly. So annoying. Think SMN wins either in effectiveness or consistency A2-4.

Leylines. NOPE QUARANTINED. Happens to our BLM so much. I laugh every time.

[Hontaro]

^
Adding to that:
Let me refresh Enochian with this B4 cast or AF3 with F1.
NOPE QUARANTINED.

I really have trouble with these fights because the I don't know when those downtimes happen, except Quarantine, they don't have a cast time...

[mayonnegg]

What's everyone going for in terms of Alex gear? Dunno what drops to take.

[Sleigh]

What's everyone going for in terms of Alex gear? Dunno what drops to take.

Personally:

Boots, legs, belt, bracelet, ring

3rd week I will probably get the other 2 accessories and one more left side.

[Aikaal]

There is 2 common patterns going on right now.

Double accessories, pants, boots, belt
Double accessories, boots, head, gloves, belt.

I personally prefer the second one as it slightly gives more Int/Vit and we can assume that gear costs for new tomes should be the same than 2.4. 825 for Chest/Pants and 495 for Gloves, Head, Boots. So regardless what you do I feel going for everything but Chest and Pants is the way to go.

I personally went Ring + Neck

[Garotte14]

Alright so I have a question. I do not have access to ACT so I can't crunch numbers myself, but I'm curious about this rotation as compared to the OPs rotation. While that rotation is most certainly better, it leaves no room for error, or rather movement of any kind

Precast Quelling > Precast Sharpcast > Fire I (lands as tank pulls) > Ley Lines > F3 Proc > Enochian + Raging Strikes > Fire IV > Potion > Fire IV > Fire I > Fire IV > Fire IV > Swiftcast + Flare + Convert > Fire IV > F3 Proc (If available) > Blizzard III > Thunder 1 > Blizzard IV.

Now I know that Flare's potency isn't as strong as Fire IV but at least with this I've found I have room to be targeted by an AOE and still complete this opener without any problems. Also you can drop the Thunder 1 if you really have to if you have to move more than once during the opener. I'm just curious of the number differences

[Uninstall]

It's actually really bad because you're pretty much trading AF3 Fire 3 AF3 Fire for a single AF1 Fire 3. This is before accounting for the slight potency loss on Fire 4 to Flare and misaligned cooldowns.

[Garotte14]

It's actually really bad because you're pretty much trading AF3 Fire 3 AF3 Fire for a single AF1 Fire 3. This is before accounting for the slight potency loss on Fire 4 to Flare and misaligned cooldowns.

I'm not talking about potencies here. Obviously an AF3 F3 + AF3 F1 is more potent, but I'm considering the cast times, the full rotation time, thunder starting to tick in this rotation. I've still spiked at over 2k on this opener, and I'm curious about what the overall number differences are between this opener and the optimal opener.

I'm not trying to argue that this is a better way. I will be using the most potent opener of course. On a fight like Ravana Ex the optimal opener is perfect, because I know I won't have to move and I can execute the best opener without issue, but on fights such as T11 where movement might be guaranteed during your opener, I'd like to have options. Something to use if I know I need a little more leeway since this one has a little more freedom with movement and timers

[Aikaal]

Someone asked me to math Sharp > F1 > Eno > F3P > Ley + RS > F4 > F1 > Pot > F4x3 > F3P (If Proc) > Swift Flare > Convert > F4 > B3 > B4

Compared to Sharp > Ley > F3 > Eno > F1 > RS + Pot > F4x3 > F3P > Convert + Swift > F4x3 > B3 > B4

Sharp F1 opener will never miss MP for B4 compared to the F3 opener. Take note you could swap a F4 for Flare to lose DPS or you could replace the Flare in the F1 opener for another F4.

The results were interesting;

Sharp F1 may win over F3 opener. First it needs to get the F3 proc so it can only happen 40% of the time. F3 opener must be waiting a long time to get the MP tick for B4. What I've personally experienced is whenever you end up with extreme low MP after B3, you get that MP tick really fast and you almost have no downtime. When you have about 700 MP, you'll get a long MP tick but you can fill T1. Sometimes you will end with 400-500 MP so you can B1. There is also this weird scenario you have 880+ MP.

Take note that waiting on the MP tick while doing nothing is a pretty big lost but the way server latency works, it seems you'll never wait 3 seconds for a MP tick while doing nothing so F3 opener should always win.