BLM Operation Handbook

[Chiaki_Izumi]

[I translate this article From CHN Forum. Author is considered to be one of the top-ranking BLM in CHN server. ]

BLM Operation Handbook

——Kings

I wrote this article in early 3.0 after I reach iL 180. At that time, SS is normally about 600, as the time goes by, 1000+ SS makes BLM different, but the core Rotation never change.
I’ve read some 3.0 BLM theory when CHN server is still in 2.57. But this is not enough for me. So I make some calculate. To find what is real in BLM’s rotation.
If I have something to say after patch 3.2, I put my word in (…)
To play BLM well, you need think, calculate and practice. I’ve paid half a year to focus on BLM, from 3.0 to 3.2, then AFK since I Beat Brute Justice.
This handbook is for who really like BLM. It is Advanced, I don’t talk about basic rotation in this article.
In honor of Leroy T’ & Blackcat Ofillomen , their logs taught me lot and inspire me to explore BLM’s rotation in early 3.0  

Chapter 1. Consciousness

Here is abbreviations of BLM
Eno ——Enochain (You don’t have leg anymore)
LL ——Ley Lines (Greatest Enhance of BLM, 25% in perfect state)
SP ——Sharp cast (Create a Proc for many occasion)
ST ——Swift Cast (Often use in opening outburst, but usually save it for Emergency )
RS Rage Strike (Half a loaf is better than no bread. Compare with LL)
QS Quelling Strike (You never know there is a Pig or Dog is Role playing Tank in Your party)
CV Convert
PT Potion (Potion is not a key to get higher DPS , because of its very long CD)
FL Flare (it was almost forgotten)
TP Transpose
A3 Astral Fire Level 3
U3 Umbral Ice Level 3
F1234 B1234 T123 – (you know)

1. Maintain Your Buff
When you playing BLM, The First Priority is keeping your A3&U3. If you lose Your Eno , you still have 2.0 rotation .
(And you need buy some NQ Max-Ether for Emergency. Like you use Scathe in running and suddenly find you don’t have enough MP for B3.
There is a resolution of AOE by using Max-Ether:
Full MP Start up when there are lots of creeps around MT.
LL Eno RS QS F3 F222 ST FL CV SP F1 FL TP (wait for 1 server tick)
F3p FL Max-Ether FL TP)
After keeping your A3U3 perfectly. You could think about how to keep Eno. If you have Eno with you, you can cast F4 with 280 potency, look so cool, isn’t it?
But, because of T3p chance adjust from 5% to 10% and F3p expectation, 2.0 rotation have a wonderful maneuverability, and still have about 90% DPS of 3.0 rotation.
Alexander is much friendly to BLM than CoB. But Eno came out and say: Don’t move or you will lose me. So 3.0 raids feels more difficult to BLM to make a perfect rotation than 2.0. Instead of B4F4 and die, use 2.0 rotation in some occasion when you need a lot maneuver.
At last, try to keeping DoT of thunder. Expectation is Expectation, T3p is determined by your lucky (just pray to lilith). So T3p is an unstable DPS, and sometime it create an amazing DPS. Half a loaf is better than no bread.
Aetherial Manipulation is a cool ability when you know how to use /ac Aetherial Manipulation <mo>

2. Outburst Alignment
(I always say , SS is never too much , I put SS in the first priority when I calibrate my gear. following was written while 600ss with iL180)
Outburst Alignment include 2 part. CD Align with each other. CD Align to phase in raid.
Every time I press Eno I call it A Eno . Every time I press B4 I call it 1st Rotation 2nd Rotation 3rd rotation. I believe 4th rotation is useless. A complete outburst rotation cost about 30s, normal rotation cost about 25s. Normal rotation under LL cost about 20s. OutBurst1>2>3 is about 80s .you should always put your outburst in your 1st rotation. Outburst1 >2 is about 55s.
Advantage of OB1>2>3 is continuous outgoing. Disadvantage is hard to align to RSCV near 180s. If you use OB1>2, you should count your F3p & T3p. (exclude create by SP). If you are lucky enough and have 4 proc in 55s. open a new Eno after 2nd rotation. (I hardly met such perfect occasion in raid) If you have 3 proc, cast B3T1B1 to make an extra GCD for Eno CD.
I notice some BLM cast F3 F44 F1 Eno F44 B3 T1 F3 in 3rd rotation. But I don’t think so. F44 B3 T1 F3 after press Eno will cost about 12s, it makes next 1st rotation hard to complete.
Most BLM choose B3T1F3 Eno after 3rd rotation. But if you complete 2nd Eno of 6 rotation. Your RS’s CD only left 30s. If press Eno third time and complete another 3 rotation. Outburst ability is await about 1min. it means your RS’s CD is 4min now. Because you must complete rotation. Another Problem is, Normal rotation cost 25s, waste 5s Eno time.
I found a resolution in Effective Enochain Time (EET in chapter2). When you complete your 3rd rotation. Cast B3 Eno T1 F3 SP F441443 (That mean always use SP with a new Eno 1st rotation to align), press every Eno ahead of 2 GCD, trying to let your outburst align to phase in specific raid. Make next 1st rotation equal to a 3rd rotation in EET and could insert 2 proc (F3p +T3p).
Let’s talk about LL. If you cast OB1>2 in your 1st Eno, LL will cold down at 2nd Eno 2nd Rotation start. If you cast OB1>2>3 in your 1st Eno, LL will cold down at 2nd Eno 1st rotation start.
BLM don’t have any ability to enhance DPS in 3rd Eno except SP. Just need to keep your buff. When you are lucky enough, you complete your 1st Eno only cost 2 rotation. (30+25)+(25+20+25)+(25+25+25)=200s. You have your fully outburst again at 3min20s. But this is perfect occasion. In normally occasion. You must rebuild your full outburst within 3min45s. (30+25+25)+(20+25+25)+(25+25+25)=225s. so when you practice rotation, continuous rotation up to 5min,and find what time you can rebuild your fully outburst.
Outburst align, (1*1.2*1.2)+1 is always better than (1*1.2)+(1*1.2)
(That is why I say SS is first priority to BLM, more SS you are, less time you align your next fully outburst.)
 

Chapter 2. EET

Insert how many F3p &T3p in BLM's rotation is determined by Effective Enochain Time ,to predicting EET in next rotation and enhance MP recovery Efficiency, I Advise using B3(t1)B4F3 to end every rotation.
This is my favorite Startup. For best EET Using and T3p expectation in perfect occasion. I exchange location of SP&Eno for getting more EET. (After 3.2 with 1000+SS, you can even insert 2*T3p under A3)
Cast B4 or T1B4 after B3 is determined by MPtimer.[pic1]


2nd rotation follows 1st B4. Minus B&F transfer time and B4 cast time, we get our EET. 17s EET only can insert 1 Proc[pic2]

If you fail to catch MP recover, insert T1 or T3p. Then you just have 14.5s EET, and can’t insert any Proc. [pic3]


3rd rotation follows 2nd B4. Ignore B3T1 in the end .you still have much EET.
17s EET insert 1 Proc[pic4]


If you fail to catch MP recover, insert T1 or T3p. Then you just have 14.5s EET, and can’t insert any Proc in EET.
But in 3rd rotation. You can save your Proc after Eno buff is disappear. [pic5]


When you complete your 3 rotation. Rebuild Eno this way and you have 19.5s EET to insert 2 Proc [pic6]


How to use LL? I make an example. Using SP to open a window at 2nd Eno 1st rotation. Make 1st &2nd rotation could insert 2 Proc.[pic7]



（I choose 2.5s GCD for estimating EET. When SS get higher and higher, rotation of BLM become more variable. Higher SS provide Flexible Rotation and better maneuverability and more EET and more proc to insert. Patch 3.2 change A3U3 from 10s to 12s. it brings a lot variation to BLM’s rotation. But it doesn’t matter, buff time extend of A3U3 is equal to a shorter GCD. This excel is to explain EET, A clock located in every great BLM player’s head. You should know what you had cast and what will you cast in every time.）
 

Chapter 3. Ability Choosen in U3

I made many calculation about server tick. The Excel I’ve made is very long and abstract. Here is conclusion Straight to You.
In early FFXIV:ARR, I’ve read an article talking about influence of SS. Crit. Det. to BLM. Writer test 2 extreme SS of iL110 and give a conclusion: “SS is useless to BLM.” Higher SS you are, more B1 you need to cast under U3 to wait server tick. This is just writer’s feeling. I never mind that “Feeling” until many BLM player found SS&Det. provide a higher DPS than Crit.&Det. in patch 2.57 with iL130. I Feel that “Feeling” too. but not strong enough to have my attention.
3.0 came. Most article for BLM rotation in early 3.0 use T1&B4 to fill in U3. If I want Thundercloud expectation, I have to insert T1 in U3, but server tick bother me a lot. And I found B4 is similar to T2, T1 is similar to B1, so T1B4’s hand feeling is similar to T2B1 in 2.0. Reminds of insert B1 in ARR, I make this calculation.
In my opinion, T1 should be treated as B1, cast B4 is first priority. Predicting B3T1B4 or B3B4F3 by server tick. Never B3B4T1F3, it reduce EET in next rotation. But, how to predict? MPtimer makes BLM complete.
Refers to my calculation. Your GCD is about 2.0s Under LL, you have 50% chance to insert T1. If you are iL180 with 2.4s GCD ,you only get 20% to insert T1. So Higher SS provide more chance to insert T1 and more T3p Expectation you have.
Here is a method to predicting insert T1 or not .
If you are 2.3s GCD now. First boundary is 2.3s
Second boundary is 2*gcd + B4 cast time – 6s(2 server tick)
2.3+2.3+(2.3/2.5*3)=7.36
About 7.4
7.4-6=1.4
1.4 is your second boundary.
If your MPtimer shows 2.3s-1.4s at you press B3. Cast T1B4 after B3
If your MPtimer shows 3.0s-2.3s and 1.4s-0s at you press B3. Cast B4 after B3.
I don’t want to make another calculation about thundercloud expectation. It’s an unstable DPS.
To play BLM well, you should focus on your Eno maintenance, it is stable DPS.

(Something to say after patch 3.2↓)
I believe many BLM player notice that A3U3 appear at the time that complete cast B3F3 in 3.2, no longer like before, appear at the time that damage number appears. So server tick may happen before the time you could start cast your next magic. I call It Ahead Tick. My way to solve this problem is ignore Ahead Tick. Ahead tick is equal to MPtimer shows 2.3s-1.4s. I don’t like 284 Piety, 264 is absolutely enough. If you can predict insert T1 or not every time, you will never worry about Ahead Tick anymore.
By reaching a higher SS in 3.2, there is a 7F4 1st rotation without RSCV. it just can be used in some specific situation.
B3 T1 LL F3 Eno F4444 B3 SP T1 F3 F444 B3 T3 STB4 F3>2nd rotation. It has a higher PPS than normal 1st rotation. But it is impossible to maneuver or you will lose your buff.
Some players don’t like Advanced Combat Tracker. Whatever, it is only way against server tick. Without ACT, Skilled BLM can still play well.

These are my all of BLM. Thanks.

[Maero]

Since no one else seems to appreciate it i will say a big thank you.
While i have been a blm for sometime i can still appreciate you and the creator having taken time to write this up with calculations and such.
This may open up the eyes of newer black mages and they can learn