Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[soslinky]

I wanted to put that out there for the people who are asking if they should drop B4 altogether (there's one a few posts back). Also for the people wondering about it but never bothered to ask.

[Crevox]

I don't understand the whole 3.0/4.0 rotation argument. The Stormblood rotation just seems better, albeit a little harder to do, but even then, I think the BLM rotation isn't difficult.

Your rotation shouldn't be so strict in a real fight anyways to just sticking to an exact order of actions. Because of movement, mana, procs, timing... it's super dynamic. You should always be evaluating the situation and doing what's necessary. If you understand the class enough that you can just make decisions on the fly, and not bind yourself into one rotation or the other, you'll do good DPS. Even in a heavy movement real fight, you should be doing the "4.0" rotation, and playing BLM to its fullest. We shouldn't be classifying them as "3.0" and "4.0" anyways, there's just "4.0", and you use the tools given to you to do as much DPS as possible.

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/gnWCK...pe=damage-done

Example log from Susano doing "4.0" rotation. Just because there's movement doesn't mean the "3.0" rotation is better. No single target AST cards, no infusion potions, no Ninja, no Summoner, PF pug party.

Depending on the changes they make to BLM, this whole discussion might just turn on its head anyways. I wouldn't get used to doing a subpar rotation, play the class as intended.

[Lilyth]

I'd like to clear something out as people might be getting the wrong idea on this whole 4.0 versus 3.0 debacle. In terms of pure uninterrupted PPS, 4.0>3.0.

From what I been reading, 3.0 is actually superior. Even on dummies where 4.0 is executed perfectly. That's why there's all this outrage going on.

[Lelila38]

I don't understand the whole 3.0/4.0 rotation argument. The Stormblood rotation just seems better, albeit a little harder to do, but even then, I think the BLM rotation isn't difficult.

Let me give you some personal numbers, mind it's only on the Susano SSS dummy, as I'm on ps4 and don't have access to my actual numbers. Both rotations have been trained and were executed perfectly.

4.0 rotation, aka B4 in every ice phase: left over time 3 seconds
3.0 rotation adjusted to the new skills by using B4 in opener and in combination with Triplecast: left over time 10 seconds

You see, even on a dummy situation, with zero movement, the 4.0 rotation is inferior.

I'm not even gonna bother saying anything to Blm being easy, it has an easy to learn rotation, but is one of the hardest classes to master in actual fights.

[Thela]

I don't understand the whole 3.0/4.0 rotation argument. The Stormblood rotation just seems better, albeit a little harder to do, but even then, I think the BLM rotation isn't difficult.

It isn't really about what is more easy or difficult, but rather what does the most damage in a given situation.

[Galvuu]

snip

Eeeh... PF party too, but favouring the 3.X rotation:

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/bH42t...pe=damage-done

NIN gives me ~1.6% dps over the whole fight, no single target cards either, and I did get one stupid stun (or two, can't remember, but I remember being very annoyed for having to hit Transpose).
Got about ~100ish dps over you (when you factor the NIN's dps contribution), which is actually what the calculations predict in terms of pps in the vacuum for 3.X VS 4.0.

Just putting more data out there. Hate uploading 99% logs, but I think it's worth it this time.
(ilv 315 btw)

[Gwaeron89]

My personal record was ~4.4k on Susano using mostly 3.0 rotation and some b4 during opener and when foul was almost off cd during umbral phase. It seems.. awkward honestly, i'd like to use b4 more during umbral but then astral rotation feels so tight and cluncky, it just not worth it. They should buff astral/umbral to 15 second and maybe give us 500-600 additional mp to make it better.

[Crevox]

My personal record was ~4.4k on Susano using mostly 3.0 rotation and some b4 during opener and when foul was almost off cd during umbral phase. It seems.. awkward honestly, i'd like to use b4 more during umbral but then astral rotation feels so tight and cluncky, it just not worth it. They should buff astral/umbral to 15 second and maybe give us 500-600 additional mp to make it better.

If it's not a log on FFLogs, then it's probably invalid due to aoeing the other stones and/or timing issues.

Eeeh... PF party too, but favouring the 3.X rotation:

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/bH42t...pe=damage-done

NIN gives me ~1.6% dps over the whole fight, no single target cards either, and I did get one stupid stun (or two, can't remember, but I remember being very annoyed for having to hit Transpose).
Got about ~100ish dps over you (when you factor the NIN's dps contribution), which is actually what the calculations predict in terms of pps in the vacuum for 3.X VS 4.0.

Just putting more data out there. Hate uploading 99% logs, but I think it's worth it this time.
(ilv 315 btw)

My run is far from perfect (I have very few runs as BLM on Susano, mistakes + encounter rng) but the point I'm trying to make is that it feels silly to learn this alternative rotation when they are likely going to make changes on Tuesday. Tonight they may preview some of those changes and we'll have a better idea. They may make no changes, who knows, but even then, this is all over what comes down to less than a 3% difference. The point is that both "styles" can reach 99th percentile, and I highly doubt everyone in this forum is discussing this all over trying to do better in that top percentile.

[Galvuu]

snip.

I'm just trying to play as optimally as possible.
I uploaded that because I thought it was interesting that the difference between your parse and mine is super close to what's theoretically predicted by the pps calculation (like 4%, which on a 4.15k parse, is around 200).
So I posted it as additional "confirmation" of the math.

I do agree with your sentiment... but part of me is very frightened that SE won't fix the issue at all... so I kinda am also getting used to swapping between the two rotations

[Gwaeron89]

If it's not a log on FFLogs, then it's probably invalid due to aoeing the other stones and/or timing issues.

Well im not bragging about my dps, just telling 3.0 rotation works better than 4.0 for me.