Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[Thela]

Hey I'm a returning player for Stormblood, trying to get into playing BLM just wanted to ask this since there are 200+ pages to this thread and Id rather not have to read through everything. How accurate is the guide at the very beginning of the post?

Been trying to find good details on Opener/rotation

I've been able to figure out rotation myself and it seems to match up with with what's on the guide on the first page but I'm still rather confused about ideal openers.

It is accurate as for live atm, obviously not for Stormblood yet. As for Stormblood, some ppl have made guesses as to the best openers but once it releases will be easier to test and figure out the optimal opener. One thing should be for certain though, you will want to start in Umbral Ice for Stormblood, the reason for this is to gain the Umbral Hearts stacks for your opening Astral Fire sequence.

[Sephorai]

Thank you very much Thela! I just needed to make sure that info was still relevant.

Edit: another quick question, in the sharp cast F1 opener you're supposed to go F4, F4, F1, F4, F3proc, Swiftcast F4, convert, F4, F4. What do I do if I don't get a fire 3 proc?

[Psycofang]

Oh funny seems like blm will have 8-9 fire 4 openers.

I was mauling over why sharp cast seemed to have been left in the dust sans aoe force proccing thunder 4.

Bit then i realised our opener could end up being long as hell.

B3-enochian-T3-B4-sharp-leylines - f3- f4-f4-f4-f1 (procs FS)-f4-f4-f4-f3p-convert (+7667)/triple cast-f4-f4-f4-b3

Grats everyone we gave 9 f4 openers


The time itll take though depends on proper CD usage but if you sharp/ leylines right before using a fast fire 3 the rotation at 0 ss assuming will take 29.8 seconds (accounting in late sever updates) in fact due to this opener youll achieve Foul before your last 2 fire f4s so you can switch at your leisure or use it during UI phase.

If at any time you get i interrupted (remember where next time) and use triple cast + swift cast to alleviate 10 seconds of movement then BtLs back to leylines.

[Ferth]

Our ice phase seems like it'll be a bit longer. Foul + thunder 3/proc (720 potency iirc so it beats foul) + blizzard iv. Would that bring our dps down over time or will 6x Fire IV every AF phase make up for it?

Thunder 3 (I think) is having it's cast time reduced to be in line with Thunder 1, and already our ice rotation factors in blizz 4. Foul is a huge hit, so even though it will be extending the time we are in Umbral phase it won't be a negative impact on our dps. Then factor in extended astral phases every time and our (potential) dps is going to be in a pretty nice place.

[HaroldSaxon]

The speed increases with 0 ss

Thunder 3 in 3.0 with 1037ss has a cast time of 3.13

Thunder 1 upgrades to thunder 3 keeps 3s dot timer and potency but 1s cast timer.


New thunder 3 beats our old need to mash t1 by 180 potency and new thunder 3 takes .71 less to cast for 180 more potency and a longer DoT.

Foul is fast with a 2.42 cast time and 685potency ever 30s to 1 minute.

Transpose has a shorter Cool down

Ley lines warp is on a 3 second recast.

Triple cast is every 90 seconds in an average raid fight of 7- 9 minutes youll gain 3 high speed casts 4 to 6 times in a fight thats massive.

Swift cast is no longer a mandatory rescue button unless you really REALLY mess up and can be used to push another GCD every 60s.

Time spent casting is reduced by another 7-9 in conjunction with triple cast and between the lines blm down time has decreased and speed has increased.

Umbral heart guarantees we will always be able to do 5-6 fire 4 rotations without convert.

Thunder 3 is being reduced to a GCD cast time so that is wrong. New thunder 3's only disadvantage compared to thunder 1 is its mana cost.

Foul is a GCD cast time. Yes, its a potency increase, but not a speed increase.

Do you have a source on the transpose cooldown reduction? Either way, doesn't increase our speed and actually makes 0 difference whatsoever

Ley Lines warp doesn't increase our speed, is only available when Ley Lines is up and we're animation locked when using it. Its some nice utility though in the right situation.

Swiftcast wasn't ever mandatory as a rescue button. It was used for specific mechanics OR as a dps cooldown (paired with Fire 4 after a proc).

Triple cast, is nice, its literally just 3 times the advantage of swiftcast - which wasn't a big advantage. It will be planned out movement/mechanics and dps - or AOE. Gives us a minor rotational speed increase if used on F4's (anything above the GCD).

I don't know where you get the time spent casting is reduced by 7-9 seconds. That is completely incorrect. At best triplecast gives 1.5 seconds.

Umbral heart does increase the amount of fire 4's - but remember, F4's potency is nerfed by 7%.

There has been nothing announced so far that gives a speed increase.

Non opener comparisons leylines, convert and swift are down

240- 518 (f4) - 518 (f4) - 333 (f1)- 518 - 518 = 2645 potency over 15.62 seconds 0 delay nor interruption.

New non opener

240 (f3)- 481 (f4 1 UH used)- 481 (f4 1UH used) - 481 (f4 last UH used) - 333 (f1)- 481 - 481 - 481 = a potency of 3459 Over the course of 21.38s. Now if you look at that you\\\\'re correct we are slower to do our full rotation and if we opt for old

But add in triple cast once lines vert and swift are down and the cast time drops to 19 seconds not counting any spell speed and i gave old 3.0 blm 1037 spell speed times giving it an advantage and our second 6x f4 is only 3s behind and but 814 potency ahead every 90s.
Add in ss and that 19s drops quickly.

We are faster, not light speed but we are faster, even if we lose 1 fire 4 we are still 333 better with relatively the same time of 16s

also forgot to mention ice phase we will generally gain 685 potency over 3.0s ice phase as well.

We are not faster. Where are you getting the idea that we are faster from? And you are completely missing the fact that we are losing raging strikes, which stacks ridiculously well with our other damage buffs - more than any other class.

[Psycofang]

Thunder 3 is being reduced to a GCD cast time so that is wrong. New thunder 3\\\\\\\\\\'s only disadvantage compared to thunder 1 is its mana cost.

You literally repeated what i said about thunder 3.13-.71 is 2.42 on global.

Foul is a GCD cast time. Yes, its a potency increase, but not a speed increase.

Foul replaced raging strikes and can be used at any time even UI.

Do you have a source on the transpose cooldown reduction? Either way, doesn\\\\\\\\\\'t increase our speed and actually makes 0 difference whatsoever

Live letter 36 1h 28 minute mark transpose was reduced from 12 s recast to 10.

[Psycofang]

[/QUOTE]Triple cast, is nice, its literally just 3 times the advantage of swiftcast - which wasn\\\\\\\\\\\\'t a big advantage. It will be planned out movement/mechanics and dps - or AOE. Gives us a minor rotational speed increase if used on F4\\\\\\\\\\\\'s (anything above the GCD).[/QUOTE]

Youre heavily under estimating saving .40s per GCD as itll lapse and further increase the average number of cool downs youll fit in a raid environment. Every 90s you save 1.2s + .41 every swift cast, every 3 minutes its 2.4s and 1.2 for every swift cast in 3 minutes totalling 3.6 seconds which is 1 extra fire 4/foul/Thunder pushed 1GCD ahead. The longer the raid like say A8S the more GCDs you fit in per 3 minutes.

Thats a speed increase.

I don\\\\\\\\\\\\'t know where you get the time spent casting is reduced by 7-9 seconds. That is completely incorrect. At best triplecast gives 1.5 seconds.

Up.

[Psycofang]

Umbral heart does increase the amount of fire 4\\\\\\\\\\\\'s - but remember, F4\\\\\\\\\\\\'s potency is nerfed by 7%.

But we beat old fire 4 potency rotation by casting 5 f4s out of 6 we will have at all times.

Also keep in mind a lot of other jobs got potency nerfs, heavy ones. We are still the heaviest to second heaviest (samurai is up in the air) hitter in the game.

There has been nothing announced so far that gives a speed increase.

Every thing points to the fact we gain GCDs over old blm how is that not a speed increase? Our rotations are also longer and anything from fire 4 number 5 (which beats old f4x3 f1 f4) is a huge gain since our dos phases are longer.

Our opener theoretically has +3 fire f4s over old hws 6 and + 2 over old hws 4.

We are not faster

Crunch the numbers and show me otherwise.

.

Where are you getting the idea that we are faster from?

Math.

[Psycofang]

And you are completely missing the fact that we are losing raging strikes, which stacks ridiculously well with our other damage buffs - more than any other class.

Raging strikes only increased our fire 4s by 56 potency for 6 fire 4s, fire 1 by 36 and f3p by 48 totaling to 420 bonus potency per 3 minutes.

Foul alone is 128 potency stronger than a fully buffed fire 4 by raging strikes.

440 potency every 3 minutes vs 685 per minute or 204 (foul taking a fire 4s spot difference) per minute is 612 vs RS 440.

Foul is raging strikes.

With SB blm vs HW blm SB blm gains 1 GCD over hw blm, longer dps uptime, better leylines uptime, swift and tri is all dps GCD pushing.

We got nerfed by 7% but total rotation % went up by 18% of hws rotations. 5 f4s undoes the 7% nerf and then some 6 blows old blm out the water.

I

[Psycofang]

had a whole time line comparison set up but it logged me out when i hit post so ill have to post it all tomorrow morning.

But a snippet rs rotation took 29.8 seconds from start to finsh, in the same time span sb blm will outright destroy old hws total potency is RS within 32 seconds.

Ley Lines warp doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t increase our speed, is only available when Ley Lines is up and we\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re animation locked when using it. Its some nice utility though in the right situation.

It directly increases our uptime in situations where movement is out of our control, stage shifting, push back, tethers,aoes, stacking.

The time it takes to get back to lines is almost 0d out.

Swiftcast wasn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t ever mandatory as a rescue button. It was used for specific mechanics OR as a dps cooldown (paired with Fire 4 after a proc).