Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

[Sleigh]

No one should do B3 > B4 > T1 unless they have to, that's an error, especially in the opener. You are tossing away Enochian time for the next rotation, possibly a lot. Also Leylines post-F3 really doesn't get you anything because it probably saves you less time used after F3 from an additional spell cast under Leylines than it takes to raw cast (roughly .5s or so), and the sooner it's off CD, the better, since lining up the third Ley + RS + Sharp can be a bitch.

But yes the whole Swiftcast > F4 > Convert thing wasn't really thought of at 3.0 launch AFAIK. Everyone thought it was double weave or you're wasting, even though Convert is almost never used on CD. I think I wrote it down a couple months later and no one seemed to pay attention to it, but it has become common place these days that I see. Probably because the best A3S opener that I know of has it mandatory.

There are actually slight modifications that can be done to every opener in that list, IMO. Aikaal doesn't play anymore so that's why they're still as they were when created I believe, though they're good enough regardless.

[Lavitz_]

But yes the whole Swiftcast > F4 > Convert thing wasn't really thought of at 3.0 launch AFAIK.

I've been doing it since week 1! :P

[jmdude]

There's something I don't understand about the sharpcast opener. If you get a F3P why do you swift cast flare and not fire 4 . They are both instant cast with swiftcast but fire 4 is stronger than Flare and you can still convert do another fire and switch, I really can't wrap my head around why flare is stronger.

[Sleigh]

There's something I don't understand about the sharpcast opener. If you get a F3P why do you swift cast flare and not fire 4 . They are both instant cast with swiftcast but fire 4 is stronger than Flare and you can still convert do another fire and switch, I really can't wrap my head around why flare is stronger.

It depends. If you don't get a proc you really can't do a Swiftcast F4 ... you'll run out of Astral Fire (F3P > F4 F4 > F1 (10s) > F4 F4 (5s left) Swiftcast F4 F4 (no AF left) B3 will fail terribly).

If you get a proc, it's still somewhat iffy. You have to go by pot/Trick Attack timers too, getting any of those makes Flare stronger than F4. A standard pure potency upgrade with a proc is F3P > F4 F4 F1 F4 F3P Swift F4 Convert F4 F4, which is fine MP wise and AF/Enochian wise, but it may not sync up with your pot/TA in such the way that F3P > F4 F4 F1 F4 F4 F3P Swiftcast Flare Convert F4 B3 does. We're talking min/maxing here, it's really not even a big enough deal to care or change your parse in a way that anyone would notice.

Me I just do the Swiftcast Flare usually because of that, even with the proc, because my personal pot and TA timers make that stronger - which may vary BLM to BLM. What I WILL adapt to though, is if I got an MP tick before combat started ... if you get the MP tick and the F3P, you can do F3P > F4 F4 F1 F4 F4 F3P Swiftcast F4 Convert F4, which is as lenient as it gets to interacting with TA/pot because you can put your Swiftcast in one of two places if you wish.

[Hontaro]

There's something I don't understand about the sharpcast opener. If you get a F3P why do you swift cast flare and not fire 4 . They are both instant cast with swiftcast but fire 4 is stronger than Flare and you can still convert do another fire and switch, I really can't wrap my head around why flare is stronger.

You don't have enough mana to use F4 unless you get an MP tick after casting the first F1.

[OneWingedSora]

You don't have enough mana to use F4 unless you get an MP tick after casting the first F1.

I have no problems doing that as a Dunesfolk lala : ^ )

[Hontaro]

I have no problems doing that as a Dunesfolk lala : ^ )

Strange, last time I tried I was left at around 1040 MP, nowhere near a Fire IV, it doesn't matter which race I am at that point. I'll try it again tomorrow since Chaos datacenter is currently dead it seems.

[Sleigh]

F4 X6 + F1 works every time with the F1 opener, with a F3P, regardless of race or MP ticks.

The only thing that is altered is if you try to do it later, IE Hontaro's 1040 MP conundrum; most F4 X6 with F3P openers just do F4 F4 F1 F4 F3P instead of F4 F4 F1 F4 F4 F3P, so you have a larger amount of MP at that point. If you try to F4 X6 at the Swiftcast Flare point, normally you can't afford it in place of a Swiftcast Flare. You need an MP tick from the start of the pull, to succeed here.

tl;dr - don't do F4 F4 F1 F4 F4 F3P F4 unless you know what you're doing, your opener allows for it, and you care about literally 300 damage or so, which even I barely do. If you get a F3P, yes go for F4 F4 F1 F4 F3P F4 F4 because it's only better to do anything else if TA/pot make it better to do anything else.

[Garotte14]

Sleigh, if you don't mind, whats your email? I have something I'd like you to go over if you are willing

[Sleigh]

Sleigh, if you don't mind, whats your email? I have something I'd like you to go over if you are willing

I'm no math guy really but if you want any advice or something, hit me up on my Reddit account, Mockbuster.