BLM's Blizzard 4 needs a potency buff

[Stepjam]

I seem to remember there was a period in Stormblood where people tried to calculate whether Blizz 4 could be removed from rotation, but it turned out that it was a DPS loss to do so despite on paper seeming like potentially a good idea.

[Seraphor]

No. BLM is already top dps by a nice margin. Next.

If you were paying attention, you'd realise this isn't a buff at all.
It's simply binging the B4 rotation up to the same dps as the no-B4 rotation, so that there's no reason to use the no-B4 rotation.

[Mhaeric]

Playing around with that rotation, it's a lot tighter in terms of timing and reminds me of when Enochian was first a thing due to how close it cuts to Enochian being dropped. I did get slightly better results on a striking dummy, but I'm pretty sure I would lose dps during a real fight because of how tight the windows are to refresh Enochian and get the regen ticks in before Fire 3. Having Swiftcast, Enochian on a 30 cd, and Xenoglossy help out with giving space in these windows but I personally prefer the security of the standard rotation. I don't think this necessarily needs to be nerfed so to speak, but maybe just taken into consideration with future patches so that it doesn't become the de facto rotation.

[Renkei]

But, BLM is top DPS?

[Flatopia]

This thread misses the point of Blizzard 4. You have to typically wait for 2 ticks of mp gain to get full mp, which you obviously want.
Blizzard 4 was created in order to satisfy that. In fact, many times you need a little under 3 GCDs if you're unlucky with server ticks, which is also one of the factors of why people use thunder during ice phase.
You don't use blizzard 4 for it's sweet damage or anything like that. In fact, I'd bet if blizzard three just gave you a full mp bar upon casting, you wouldn't even want the umbral hearts.

Blizzard 4 is there because BLM needs another skill to use during ice phase to fulfill server ticks. The dev team saw this, and gave them a low damage utility spell in that slot.
If you already have a full MP bar, like say, in your opener, it's not necessary to fluff up your blizzard phase with another cast.
Blizzard 4's "issue" as described by people here is literally that it fulfills it's role of a utility spell to cast while waiting for your MP to come back extremely well.

It's wonderful at the moment. It needs absolutely no change whatsoever.

[LeonKeyh]

Uhh...I don't think we need any buffs.
We're already the top dps.
Though ofc I wouldn't say no but kinda don't wanna be that op to the point everybody is playing blm.

But, BLM is top DPS?

Guys. Read the post. This isn't about a meaningful increase to DPS. As it stands, casting Blizzard 4 assuming that you're already full mana isn't worth it (and it looks like it might not worth it if you are below full mana either). It's better to just get out the 4 Fire IVs and a Despair instead of 6 Fire IVs that Blizzard IV allows for with a Fire I in between.

They're not asking for "more DPS" just for the sake of more DPS, they're asking for a potency increase on Blizzard 4 so that casting Blizzard IV is ALWAYS worth it. As it stands, Blizzard IV isn't worth the cast, but increasing the potency would actually make it worth it and make the BLM's intended rotation the ideal rotation.

tl;dr:

The Blizzard III / Thunder III / Blizzard IV / Fire III / 3 Fire IV / 1 Fire I / 3 Fire IV / Despair rotation isn't as good as
Blizzard III / Thunder III / Fire III / 4 Fire IV/ Despair

Increasing potency on Blizzard IV bridge the gap between those 2 rotations with a minimal DPS increase.

This thread misses the point of Blizzard 4. You have to typically wait for 2 ticks of mp gain to get full mp, which you obviously want.
Blizzard 4 was created in order to satisfy that. In fact, many times you need a little under 3 GCDs if you're unlucky with server ticks, which is also one of the factors of why people use thunder during ice phase.
You don't use blizzard 4 for it's sweet damage or anything like that. In fact, I'd bet if blizzard three just gave you a full mp bar upon casting, you wouldn't even want the umbral hearts.

Blizzard 4 is there because BLM needs another skill to use during ice phase to fulfill server ticks. The dev team saw this, and gave them a low damage utility spell in that slot.
If you already have a full MP bar, like say, in your opener, it's not necessary to fluff up your blizzard phase with another cast.
Blizzard 4's "issue" as described by people here is literally that it fulfills it's role of a utility spell to cast while waiting for your MP to come back extremely well.

It's wonderful at the moment. It needs absolutely no change whatsoever.

This is a good point, but according to Rongway's math, it looks like the short rotation is still better than casting Blizzard IV in the scenario you described where you need another GCD to hit that second tick. I would wager a guess that given the cast time and GCD of Blizzard IV, it would likely be better to just wait a little longer before starting the Fire III cast than it would casting Blizzard IV beforehand.

[Rongway]

This thread misses the point of Blizzard 4.

...

Blizzard 4 is there because BLM needs another skill to use during ice phase to fulfill server ticks. The dev team saw this, and gave them a low damage utility spell in that slot.

This is a good point, but according to Rongway's math, it looks like the short rotation is still better than casting Blizzard IV in the scenario you described where you need another GCD to hit that second tick. I would wager a guess that given the cast time and GCD of Blizzard IV, it would likely be better to just wait a little longer before starting the Fire III cast than it would casting Blizzard IV beforehand.

Just to be clear, Fire III > 3x Fire IV > Despair is far worse than a Blizzard IV rotation. However, a macrorotation with fire phases consisting of 4x, 4x, and 3x Fire IVs still comes out ahead of always casting Blizzard IV.

The best practice would probably be to use Blizzard IV and 6 Fire IVs on the rotations where you don't have Polyglot (roughly every third rotation). In this case, you need to make sure you use Fire and get the extra Fire IVs; Blizzard IV with only 4x Fire IVs is worse than skipping Blizzard IV and only getting 3x Fire IVs.

[LeonKeyh]

Just to be clear, Fire III > 3x Fire IV > Despair is far worse than a Blizzard IV rotation. However, a macrorotation with fire phases consisting of 4x, 4x, and 3x Fire IVs still comes out ahead of always casting Blizzard IV.

The best practice would probably be to use Blizzard IV and 6 Fire IVs on the rotations where you don't have Polyglot (roughly every third rotation). In this case, you need to make sure you use Fire and get the extra Fire IVs; Blizzard IV with only 4x Fire IVs is worse than skipping Blizzard IV and only getting 3x Fire IVs.

Got it, so if you're aware enough, making sure to cast Blizzard IV whenever missing a tick is better, but if you're not paying attention to the ticks and just casting a strict rotation then the short rotation ends up correcting itself due to tick timing and the difference between rotation DPS every 3 cycles (i.e. the DPS loss on a 3x Fire IV phase doesn't fully negate the gain from the previous/next 2 4xFire IV phases). I figured that was how it ended up working out, but didn't know the full math. Thanks for the clarification.

[Curisu]

Well, I see at on the TGS livestream right now.
Even Yoshi-P is sometimes skipping B4 when he has lucky serverticks.