Secret tips for keeping uptime with BLM

[ValidFlea]

So I've been maining BLM since I picked it up, and I love the class. Between the explosions and...well, the explosions, nothing else quite compares.

The other thing I love about it is the odd skill curve to being a good BLM. It's easy to get down, but it's hard to become masterful. Recently, I've made the jump from purely casual dungeons to testing the waters in Extremes. I've been able to get both Innocence and Titania clears, but I feel like I'm missing something. My DPS floats between 8k and 9k when I have to move, and about 10k if I'm allowed to just turret.

I've read guides and have the rotation down, and I know about slidecasting and pre-positioning and all that, I'm just curious if any fantastic BLM's out there have any insider tips that I might be missing. Some little secret that helped push you past the wall?

[CapricaLangley]

The secret tip is... Play them again, and again, and again. And with BLM you should have this mindset in any encounter. You cannot "freestyle" on BLM, the best way to increase uptime and DPS is to deepen the knowledge of the single encounter. As soon as the rotation becomes second nature to you and you just have to keep an eye for procs, it's the only way to get past the wall.

EDIT: And of course stats. IDK the current BLM meta, but in the past you had to get over a minimum threshold of Spell Speed and crit to pull the real numbers

[GutsyBoozetank]

Could be small things like clipping your oGCD's, for example, casting fire IV, swiftcast, despair, instead of using a instant cast before your swiftcast oGCD like a proc or Xenoglossy. oGCD's fit better if you use the ability during the GCD of one your instant spells. So it would be better to do fire IV, instant spell (firestarter, thundercloud, or xenoglossy) swiftcast, despair. But this might not even be your issue, just a thought.

[ValidFlea]

Clipping is definitely something I need to work on. Also I think keeping Thunder rolling most of the time will help also, I was playing around with that last night, and was up by about 1k just from keeping it up, except it threw off my whole rotation and I started fumbling. I'll guess that just means more practice.

[IchiExorz]

I kinda want to know some hints too.
I like BLM but I don't like having trash DPS because I don't know how to move well in high mobility encounters.
It's making me afraid to play BLM properly.

I know that what I personally have to work on is using my Firestarter & thunder procs for mobility & using Aetherical Manipulation (mouseover macro) properly to keep the dps rolling and not screw up my rotation.

I also kept forgetting about Thunder & didn't know where I could fit it in the rotation without making me lose Fire 4's or Enochian.
Still learning & getting used to things.

[AlphaFox]

For me it really is about knowing the fight. Once you do you know the best time to save triple cast for heavy movement or even see an ideal spot to plant yourself for a few moments it gets better. Have yet to do savage as I just don't have that kinda time but for E4, it's almost hypnotic once you know it all and can pop surecast, triple, leylines, and swift at the right times and get the full use. Plus a big smile on my face when I get "uh oh blm" jokes and end up top dps aggro wise anyway.

[Tint]

I have made a macro wich helped me a lot with Aetherial Manipulation (playing on controller).

/macroicon "Aetherial Manipulation"
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <t>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <2>

You can either select a target, or when no target is selected (when you have the boss targeted) this auto-targets the tank (with the standard group sorting).

I have read somewhere you should target someone who stays safe and they recommended the healer... but I have noticed healers usually don't stay safe. Especially not when you press the button early. Also you can't always use the same macro because the position of the healer in the group list is different in 4 and 8 man partys.
However, the tank is always on number 2, so this macro works in 4 man and 8 man content with no difference and because tanks are meeles they usually stay already safe when you have to move.
The main problem is that you get cleaved when you are porting to the tank. But that's usually not true. You use Aetherial Manipulation to dodge mechanics, and when the boss is casting mechanics, he is not cleaving the tank.

Giant AoEs with the safe zone at the boss, damage split markers, knockbacks, boss turns around and cleaves through the arena... just teleport to the tank and you are fine ^^

[SaberMaxwell]

I have made a macro wich helped me a lot with Aetherial Manipulation (playing on controller).

/macroicon "Aetherial Manipulation"
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <t>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <2>

Thank you for this! I keep forgetting macro conditionals are nice in the regard that they're ignored if they can't access the target. If one still wanted to target the healers they could use that same advantage:

/macroicon "Aetherial Manipulation"
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <t>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <8>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <4>

[Cynfael]

As others have said, knowing the fight is the most important thing. The actual rotation is incredibly simple and can be committed to muscle memory with a Target Dummy; it's anticipating how you will need to adjust to maintain uptime and preposition for mechanics that will keep your DPS high.

[Zerathor]

Took a look at some of your logs. You're slipping a few things like an occasional despair, not using sharpcast often, and sometimes missing a xenoglossy. for mobility sake, holding onto a xeno or 2 is good, just be sure not to let them overwrite. that gives you decent enough mobility for most of these fights without having to ogcd clip triple cast. Also be sure to not clip your ogcds. You want to use your ogcd's either after casting b3/f3 to switch from af/ui, or after an instant cast ability.

For example in the majority of your openers, you aren't utilizing sharpcast to get a guaranteed proc to weave manafont for, and are just clipping it. You can weave sharpcast in under one of your triple cast f4's after LL to get a f3p to weave it, or with higher spell speed you can do the 5 f4 despair f4 despair opener using a t3p to weave the manafont from pre sharpcasting before the pull.

Generally you can burn triple off cd for dps as it comes up when you get to a position to weave it, but for certain fights it may be nice to use for mobility. With sharpcast ensuring a f3p, having one or two xeno's on stock, triple cast, and swift cast gives you 6-7 gcd's of instant casts to move when lined up properly. There isn't that much that requires that level of movement though until you get to savage leviathan.