Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[Waliel]

"If used under Thundercloud proc, its total Potency is 710 Potency."

Should be 780.

I just did some testing, and TC is definitely 390 initial + 320 dot = 710 total. 15 minutes of hitting dummy with F3 and thunders.

Highest non-crit F3 = 3269
Highest non-crit TC = 2939

432/390 = 1.108~
3269/2939 = 1.112~

E: It appears there is a bug with ACT and Thunder ticks. No matter what level of Thunder you use -- whether it's a TC proc or not -- ACT will only show and calculate damage for six ticks.

[Sleigh]

Tested it myself now, you're right, TC T3 damage is definitely 390 potency. Dang.

[OneWingedSora]

I'd agree with blm in A1 savage, we spend less time maintaining the multidot and well our single target just dumps on smn single target. I think our fire 4 will make up for fact that we're missing some potency on dots, thunder dot tick potency helped a lot in A1, without bard I'm clearing that fight over 1k dps, with bard it'd be far more + I'm handling my own adds, granted add pick up can screw me if i have to cross the entire world to get to my laser.

Yes, and Summoners can do 1.1k without a Bard & Nin. Granted, some of those might be considered "padding"(Although I don't agree with that, since killing the first set of adds faster means the other DPS+healers can get back to the boss faster), It's still 100 more than what a BLM does.

Also, do you have a link for that 1k+ w/o a bard parse ? I am genuinely interested

Did you kill it before the third jump ?

[Aikaal]

Mmm. People use the strat to burn Oppressor to 5% and nuke 0.5 after. Focusing your damage increases the damage gain from TA and such. It definitely works well for BLM but it is not for SMN that prefers to down them equally to multi-dot.

[Xisin]

The boss did all of its jumps in that specific fight. Also unless you deathflare + painflare then you don't out potency flare on the add drops. Deathflare vs flare, flare wins on 3 or less targets, by a whopping 6.78 potency. More on 2 targets. This is including DWT and enochian buff on either side. While I havent played smn in A1 savage yet, I kinda would be afraid to death + pain (not sure) due to it killing the adds on either flank. Sorry I do not have a link to that specific parse, you'll have to trust me, I don't often state my parses on the forums anyway.

The set up for the parse was whm sch pld war drg mch mnk blm. I was on the opposite side of the drg (makes more sense to pair drg with mch) as well so I was off and on on getting litany depending on where the adds placed me. The stupid boss also died mid raging strikes... so it could've been higher.

I'd imagine with a bard and nin blm would benefit more than smn due to how front-loaded blm is compared to smn during battle voice.

[OneWingedSora]

The boss did all of its jump in that specific fight. Also unless you deathflare + painflare then you don't out potency flare on the add drops. Deathflare vs flare, flare wins on 3 or less targets, by a whopping 6.78 potency. More on 2 targets. This is including DWT and enochian buff on either side. While I havent played smn in A1 savage yet, I kinda would be afraid to death + pain (not sure) due to it killing the adds on either flank.

Yes, I deathflare+painflare on the first set of adds. You can also use enkindle+aerial slash each set of adds(Enkindle on the 3rd set. We never saw the 5th set but you can also use it there depending on your group's DPS) for the rest of the fight since they won't tether to you. Simply place Garuda right behind whichever boss you are hitting and you can safely use Enkindle and Aerial Slash each time they are off cd without the melees losing any DPS.

[Sleigh]

The boss did all of its jump in that specific fight. Also unless you deathflare + painflare then you don't out potency flare on the add drops. Deathflare vs flare, flare wins on 3 or less targets, by a whopping 6.78 potency. More on 2 targets. This is including DWT and enochian buff on either side. While I havent played smn in A1 savage yet, I kinda would be afraid to death + pain (not sure) due to it killing the adds on either flank.

The set up for the parse was whm sch pld war drg mch mnk blm. I was on the opposite of the drg as well so I was off and on on getting litany depending on where the adds placed me.

I'd imagine with a bard and nin blm would benefit more than smn due to how front-loaded blm is compared to smn during battle voice.

Have to consider that while Deathflare vs Flare is similar on 3 targets, BLM loses quite a bit of ST damage in that scenario while Deathflare is virtually free and the only cost to it is making your DWT mis-align with 3D. Really though all you gotta do is Bane + pet AoE for even less ST cost - much like a T12 Blackfire situation, you can use free stuff to kill them rather than specifically use things that cost ST DPS. If anyone else puts out some of their relatively free AoE at this time it destroys them. Also, you can delay the Deathflare so it hits them + boss still so it's not on the boss, or drag them into a puddle and then Deathflare them + boss.

Really it's a good fight for both classes. Top of the line if played well, even more so with a BRD. Gotta agree that BLM will be more front-loaded though, which would play a part as we outgear the fight and can really push it down hard before the split.

[Xisin]

i try to have a thundercloud loaded for after the flare there, as the the timing of it lines up with enochian refresh from buff. But ya we lose some ST on the flare.

[raisetheglass1]

I just did some testing, and TC is definitely 390 initial + 320 dot = 710 total. 15 minutes of hitting dummy with F3 and thunders.

Highest non-crit F3 = 3269
Highest non-crit TC = 2939

432/390 = 1.108~
3269/2939 = 1.112~

E: It appears there is a bug with ACT and Thunder ticks. No matter what level of Thunder you use -- whether it's a TC proc or not -- ACT will only show and calculate damage for six ticks.

Can you help me interpret this information? Are you saying that ACT fails to properly account for T3 proc damage?

Also, is it still the case that as long as T3 Proc is allowed to tick for 18 seconds, it's a DPS increase over Fire 4? That's the rule I've been using although I am still not super confident in the dps contribution of thunder.

[Sleigh]

Also, is it still the case that as long as T3 Proc is allowed to tick for 18 seconds, it's a DPS increase over Fire 4? That's the rule I've been using although I am still not super confident in the dps contribution of thunder.

Not really, even if you match F4's potency with a clip so short, you're just devaluing the previous Thunder usage anyway and it can be a DPS loss. Use it sometime after F1 in your rotation for a more certain DPS gain, and even better yet, if you can, save it until after B3.