Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[Dajinn]

You think the devs actually play this game and test things?

[Aikaal]

You think the devs actually play this game and test things?

Yes. They are not players so they can't understand what it means to feel an ability causes as much issues than gains. But it works out in the end.

They failed to understand we didn't want the DPS buff from Thundercloud. We wanted it to be actually part of the rotation. It feels like an intruder but it's 780 Potency. You'll still sac your base rotation to use it.

[Malevicton]

So when sharpcast is up in between convert rotations now, would the ideal rotation be:

sharp+t1>f3>f4>tc>f1>f4>f4>f4>b3>b4?

That doesn't sacrifice any of the core rotation, but adds a procced t3. Or would the wasted potency from the first thunder be too problematic?

[Mercutial]

Soooo.. I haven't play tested this yet. But doesn't the automatic 30sec Enochian refresh greatly increase our mobility (at least in the second and third go thru's of our rotation)? I understand the AF timer still enforces a bit of a chokehold, but this buff can only be a good thing I would think.

[myonko]

automatic 30sec Enochian refresh

You have misread the change, the 30sec Enochian refresh only applies if you have Enochian buff running and use the Enochian ability.

[Malevicton]

You have misread the change, the 30sec Enochian refresh only applies if you have Enochian buff running and use the Enochian ability.

This does mean, however, that we can "borrow" some of the leniency of the first rotation for our third rotation now. The 2nd rotation is still the problem child.

[Aikaal]

I do believe there is no reason to use Sharpcasft Fire 1 in between rotations DPS wise. You gain more betting on the 40% and having a free Thundercloud proc worth 780 Potency after that Fire 1. This mean it should do about 660 Potency if you clip 3 ticks. 700 Potency if you clip 2 ticks. It's much better than Fire 3 proc. Actually, F3 proc is 432 Potency and T3 Thundercloud is 460 Potency + 320 from ticks lol.

[Waliel]

It's definitely a boost for stuff like A1 and at a base of 780 Potency.

Isn't it 710? 40*8*2+70=710. And depending on when you use TC, wouldn't it also result in you exchanging one F4 for F1, a loss of 190 potency.

[Malevicton]

Isn't it 710? 40*8*2+70=710

It's not straight up multiplied like that. The initial hit potency is 390 since it includes the normal initial hit potency, it's just worded strangely. So it's ((40*8)+70))*2 you add the 70 before multiplying by 2 not after

[Sleigh]

I do believe there is no reason to use Sharpcasft Fire 1 in between rotations DPS wise. You gain more betting on the 40% and having a free Thundercloud proc worth 780 Potency after that Fire 1. This mean it should do about 660 Potency if you clip 3 ticks. 700 Potency if you clip 2 ticks. It's much better than Fire 3 proc. Actually, F3 proc is 432 Potency and T3 Thundercloud is 460 Potency + 320 from ticks lol.

I'm not saying your numbers are wrong but they may be misguided. Don't forget to take opportunity costs into account. Every potency you take from the previous Thunder, every F4 you turn into a B1 or another T1, will make it a lot less simple than just 780 vs F4 vs F3 (IE even though technically using a Thundercloud at 18s left of Thunder is a DPS gain in pure potency, it's not actually a tangible DPS gain because you traded a different move + last Thunder's duration + a potentially weaker future Thunder since you'd be clipping then too for that Thundercloud). In some cases Thundercloud will straight up be virtually the same DPS as without if you clip too hard and you lose a F4, and clip near the end and you might be losing 300+ potency by trading in a B1 for an F4.

Not saying Thundercloud doesn't have a place, or your idea about Sharpcast T1 definitely isn't real (I see a lot of opportunity cost there though), just I think you should look deeper than what a DoT will do for you right then and there; after all, if on SMN you do Bio > Bio, technically the second one is almost full potency but you just made that first Bio absolute garbage. Without going into the math heavy I think it will mostly be a situational dummy increase depending on where it is in our rotation. I also think the best thing to know for now is if you have to dodge and you have Thundercloud it is absolutely worth it to skip a F4 later on in that instance, because that's a real, tangible scenario where you wouldn't have done anything without Thundercloud.