Thread: Some interesting numbers on 4.0 BLM

Originally Posted by soslinky

snip.

I have the tables up on the post now, you can check them yourself (like, please do to make sure I didn't goof).
But those numbers are weird- is that using the "nerfed" Fire IV?
Note that both rotations use the same F4x8 opener (no reason not to, and in fact, 3.X should always do this to ensure they get Foul aligned for UI every time).
Further note that you can have Foul up almost always on 3.X if you do the extended 8xF4 opener and use B4 if you have Ley Lines and Triple up (Triple bypasses the movement issue)- this is to "buy time" on the Foul clock.

Also, do note that discounting TC procs hurts only 3.X. 4.X cannot fit them (trades a F4 for them in AF for a marginal pps gain), but 3.X can fit them without penalty, so that further brings it ahead (and gives it extra movement).

Originally Posted by soslinky

@Galvuu
The table uses the nerfed F4. It's 491.4 potency including AF3 and Enoch.

I don't have the energy to manually compute this so I used the DPS calc spreadsheet. Author claims it's updated and so far it looks like it is.

@Rakhabit
How are you computing for your numbers? What results did you get?

You can ignore Enochian since whichever comes ahead without it also comes ahead with it.
This is exactly the same thing I used for the main rotation. Huh, one of us is wrong. And I hope it's me xD
Is Excel lying to me or something.

Wait, losing a F4 has to be a pps loss, because the "fraction" of your overall rotation that's spent in AF is smaller, and the UI cycle has lower average pps than the AF one (the more overall time is spent on UI, the worse it is).
The reason why 3.x pulls ahead is because removing B4 from the UI phase makes it lose 1/3 of it's duration (and the third with the least potency, too, making the average UI potency for 3.X way higher).

Originally Posted by RyeMinx

snip

Lots of things here.
The base 600MP is so I don't (sometimes) need to stay put for 0.5 seconds doing nothing to wait for the mana tick.
In the 4.0 rotation, if your Fire III finishes before you get a refund on your UI cycle, you won't have enough mana to F4x3>F>F4x3>B3 (you'll be left at 0 MP) and will need to Transpose. This is a dps loss most of the time.

You should always use the 8xFire IV opener to buy time on the Foul clock. This opener is quite long (like 40ish seconds), so you buy enough time to ensure the next three 3.X rotations always have Foul up. By then, you have Triple/LL up again, and should do one/two 4.0 rotations to, again, buy Foul clock time. I never even considered the old Sharpcast opener (you won't even have Foul for your first UI cycle if you do it).
I didn't math this, but I'm very confident the Sharpcast opener loses in pps when you consider the full UI cycle (Foul is no joke).

The reason why you only need a rotation is because pps is inherently normalised for time. The 4.0 rotation lasts, on average, 33.5 seconds. The 3.X lasts 26.5 (if memory serves me correctly). If the 3.x yields more expected pps than the 4.0, any arbitrary least common multiple of the two lengths of time will reflect this. Think of it as speed- if 3.0 has higher velocity than 4.0, then it'll outrace it for any length of time (travel farther = doing more damage). The only thing that can offset this is if the time it takes to clear a fight/get to a transition, for instance, would align one just as you cast Foul (maximum pps) VS as you cast the first Fire IV (worst case scenario, Thunder has barely ticked and your last spell was an unboosted Fire III, least pps). But you cannot realistically predict when the fight will end this accurately with any degree of confidence.
Or, if you want to keep that analogy from before, pps isn't a monotonically increasing function over time (it has some bumps as you enter the low pps end of the UI cycle), so you could end up on one of these valleys for one and not the other.
That said, preliminary data, if top parsing BLMs are anything to go by, shows that 3.0 wins.

Just explaining the reasoning behind stuff.

Don't you just love character limits =D

Changes to Umbral Heart: gains in damage and AF refresh duration

I guess? Hearts do feel sorta lackluster, but I don't think adding Potency to them is the answer. Just adding potency back to F4 will increase overall 4.0 potency since that rotation casts more F4s in a fight theoretically than 3.0. The AF addition is cool... but I don't know... having Umbral Ice related skills increase Astral Fire? seems odd to me.

Make Foul 680 potency

I mean sure? Potency is potency. BLM should be the SAM of casters. Is this where the potency belongs? Beats me.

Kudos to Eddo for his BLM calculator.

Let me know if you wanna know my rotations and all that. Let's hope 4.05 brings some much need changes to BLM. At least we aren't MCH, amirite?