Thread: Some interesting numbers on 4.0 BLM

Make Umbral Hearts have a cast-time reduction effect in addition to mana reduction.
or
Make Umbral Hearts give an extra couple seconds to your AF timer.
or
Make AF/UI a few seconds longer.

Option 1 is the most fun; option 3 is probably the route they go because the answer is usually: what is the easiest / most boring way to fix this?

Originally Posted by corey1

Make Umbral Hearts have a cast-time reduction effect in addition to mana reduction.
or
Make Umbral Hearts give an extra couple seconds to your AF timer.
or
Make AF/UI a few seconds longer.

Option 1 is the most fun; option 3 is probably the route they go because the answer is usually: what is the easiest / most boring way to fix this?

AF/UI timers should have a couple extra seconds on them as a matter of course and shouldn't have anything to do with Umbral Hearts. Additionally, we should have a bit more mana so the 2400 situation never happens; we should not be held at the behest of an arbitrary server tick.

What I'd like to see Umbral Hearts in addition to the mana reduction, is simply provide a 5% damage boost to the fire spells cast under it. That way there would be a clear and tangible benefit to casting Blizzard 4 and not just something that is at best a negligible increase over not using it.

Make Blizzard IV reduce magic resistance by 5%. Forces you to use the "proper" rotation, slightly improves BLM dps and also provides raid utility.
or
Make Blizzard IV reduce fire resistance by 10%. Brings BLM closer to SAM dps but no raid utility (except I guess Katon and a couple of RDM spells)

Originally Posted by Alkimi

Make Blizzard IV reduce magic resistance by 5%. Forces you to use the "proper" rotation, slightly improves BLM dps and also provides raid utility.
or
Make Blizzard IV reduce fire resistance by 10%. Brings BLM closer to SAM dps but no raid utility (except I guess Katon and a couple of RDM spells)

And it's good utility!
This is a very good idea

Originally Posted by Alkimi

Make Blizzard IV reduce magic resistance by 5%. Forces you to use the "proper" rotation, slightly improves BLM dps and also provides raid utility.
or
Make Blizzard IV reduce fire resistance by 10%. Brings BLM closer to SAM dps but no raid utility (except I guess Katon and a couple of RDM spells)

tbh i dont realy like this idea. simply from a logical point of view (i know its called final fantasy but even fantasy follows some kind of logic . Umbral hearts are like a gameplay mechanic belonging to a BLM so i dont see how it can be equated to a debuff.

i suggest that they should increase the potency of the spell cast within umbral hearts. each umbral heart increases the spell potency cast in AF by 30 so for example:
if you have 3 umbral hearts up and you cast 1 fire spell in AF than the first spell will get a 90 potency boost, the second spell will get a 60 potency boost because one of the UH's have been used and the third spell will increase its potency by 30.
I did some quick calculations with this using only the opener rotation and it showed an increase of about ~ 5%.

They did a pretty good job on BLM, they only need to tweak it a bit in terms of damage and its fine. by giving umbral hearts more reason to be used outside the opener, within ley and aoe.

So am I correct if I understand it like this:
On a dummy 4.0 rotation is better as more F4=more dps, as one would think.
In an actual fight you should use an UH opener but then go back to 3.x rotation, cause, let's face it, an actual fight isn't a dummy and you will be forced to move. As soon as you lose 1 F4 in 4.0 rotation due to movement/mechanics it falls behind 3.x rotation.

On a side note, did anyone try not using B4 in normal rotation and only using it in combination with Triplecast?

Originally Posted by Lelila38

So am I correct if I understand it like this:
On a dummy 4.0 rotation is better as more F4=more dps, as one would think.
In an actual fight you should use an UH opener but then go back to 3.x rotation, cause, let's face it, an actual fight isn't a dummy and you will be forced to move. As soon as you lose 1 F4 in 4.0 rotation due to movement/mechanics it falls behind 3.x rotation.

On a side note, did anyone try not using B4 in normal rotation and only using it in combination with Triplecast?

My latest parse on Susano had me using only 6 B4s and I only used it when:
A) I got a slow mana tick and foul wasn't up, and when
B) I had the purple marker on my head so I knew I had to move and would miss out in completing the 6 F4s.

I cast a total of 82 Fire4s so on average that's 15-18 AF windows (this is pure approximation).

I did not purposely hold off on Triplecast and used it on CD and proceeded to 3x F4. From what I've surmised, if I think I can get away with 6 Fire4s I go ahead and B4. If I have T3P up during Umbral I weave a Swiftcast to B4 just so I can get back to AF that much quicker.

Moving forward, what do you think this means for spellspeed stacking? Cause if I can fit everything thanks to the 3.0 rotation on the new AF/UI timer then what's the point? Lowering your SpS in exchange for more DH/Crit might even be more beneficial for Foul since its timing is rather off for the 3.0 rotation.

So after reading about this 3.x rotation > 4.0 rotation I did the sky stone sea for Lakshmi to see how it turned out and.... (Mind you my gear is setup for RDM so only had 895 spell speed, 1700 crit and 1400ish Direct hit.)


4.x rotation:


3.x rotation:

Originally Posted by Sarynth

snip

At that SpS, how many procs were you able to fit within one AF window? Did foul line up at umbral ice every time? I'm thinking of jumping ship and dropping some SpS in favor of DH/Crit.