You'd be surprised how often I hear things like this. A lot of it is just experience and learning how to deal with each situation as it comes. Looking at your mana and procs and then going from there, it can be weird sometimes if you have, for example, higher black mana than white but you have a verfire proc that will set you over the 30cap you'll have to know that and know that you need to jolt into veraero first then go back to that verfire proc. Mostly it seems like a lot of people have the opener wrong.

I had never seen that guide linked above until now, but it's got some really good information in there! If you want a visual aid you can check out my youtube where I have 2 different guides for red mage that might help clear some things up for you. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNC...SEdnij70NFn8XQ, but it sounds like you pretty much got it though. Just let it be more fluid and you'll get it