Is Everyone Playing BLM wrong?

[Mikey_R]

I skimmed so I do not know if it was mentioned, however,

Going Despair > Transpose > Paradox > Blizzard 4 only puts you in UI2, not UI3, so you would need to cast Blizzard or Blizzard 3 to get to UI3 so that when you swap to AF, you will gain the Paradox Stack. If you have to use a GCD to get to UI, why not just Blizzard 3 at the start.

[MyakotApelsia]

So... funny thing happened... I joined Discord and found this...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...h.n62znhrbg8uc

Under "Intermediate" Under "Double Paradox" includes not only using "Transpose" to get MP back, but also using it to chance proc for Firestarter.
"Standard + 3xF4 Double Transpose F3P [N76]" Is more what I was looking at. In fact the document outlines everything I have been saying with additional ideas.
Transpose, Sharpcast, Paradox is a good addition to guarantee a Firestarter proc... but will have to do some math to verify which way I like better.

I do find it funny though it goes from "watch them immediately tell you why you're incorrect in every way" and "everything you're saying is invalid" to "Intermediate Non-Standard BLM Guide".

Im not pro at blm at all, however:

The purpose of using transpose lines is to try to cut weaker spells out of rotation (Read: Ice spells). However, what you propose, especially when not taking into account existence of paradox, can be summed up with "I like this spell animation".
Fire 3 is NOT a spell you spam. Its a spell that you use to either shift to fire, when you are doing normal lines, or to be sharped in fire to jump to AF3 without losing potency in ice phase.

Hell, look at any guide for lvl 80, there is no paradox in those, and there are NO rotations that involve overusing fire 3, because its not the ability that fills that purpose, F4 is, with F1 refresh.

Its like saying "Oh you know, i spam ice spells because numbers are same but it doesn't use mana", without taking in account other factors.

Also id imagine people that are on balance have pretty good math skills and test their stuff before releasing them into the wild.

Here's pretty good blm optimisation overview, that explains transpose lines pretty nicely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oitfdOPiqpw
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Funny how title reads "people are playing blm wrong", even tho its base (or standard i guess) rotation is probably what developers had intended for job. And what it was for 2 expansions already. That is to say, its good to have nice skill ceiling like this.

[Hasrat]

I stopped reading when they suggested most of us were only casting 4 Fire IVs in our rotation.

[MilkieTea]

[Picker]

No your playing blm wrong lol

[Chopstix]

oh hey it's you again
you're still not level 90

this is gold, thanks for making my day :P

yes OP pls lvl cap b4 u formulate any opinions, i seriously doubt that all the number crunchers that this game has have overlooked something u did not

there r niche optimal rotations for the in between levels (81-89 in ur example), like im pretty sure a lvl72 warrior would actually want to do CDH nascent chaos even on one target as opposed to just a simple fell cleave, this most certainly does not apply at 80+

[Absimiliard]

To quote a doctor I know,

[Xander_Diabolos]

Hey all,

Thanks for any helpful info. I think maybe the title was too insulting and caused people to get defensive. Hit 90 yesterday and this is what I tested out based on the results of the discussion. Opener doesn't look too different from most. Didn't include INT drink since I play too casually to get into high end raids. I did regret putting Blizzard III in opener, but it was the only way to get Paradox(Firestarter) vs Fire after the opener and reduce Fire III's casting. (I could also have included sharpcast Fire in the opener to get it, but would prefer not to do that either since you don't have enough mana to use it effectively without Umbral hearts)

Opener:
Fire III, Thunder III, Triplecast, Fire IV, Ley Lines, Fire IV, Amplifier, Fire IV, Swiftcast, Fire IV, Triplecast, Despair, Manafont, Fire IV, Despair, Blizzard III, Xenoglossy, Blizzard IV, Thunder III

After the opener I sharpcast Paradox to make the next Fire III instant cast which allows you to weave in triple cast/amplifier/leylines/manafont similar to how it was done in opener 120 seconds after. I might have to add a little more spell speed as I was sometimes having issues with Firestarter wearing off (30 seconds after Paradox) before I got back to my Fire III (especially if I had to Xenoglossy twice to wait for mana before insta-casting Fire III again).

After Opener:
Fire III, Fire IV x3, Sharpcast, Paradox, Fire IV x3, Despair, Transpose, Xenoglossy (once or twice depending on mp ticks), Blizzard IV, Thunder III
Still debating on Transposing after Thunder III to get more damage on Fire III which is instant cast and 0 mp regardless.

Benefits: Drop the low PPS Blizzard III after opener, have a spot to cast Xenoglossy every 30 seconds, Fire III becomes instant speed meaning you can move while casting it and don't have to clip to triplecast after the opener.

Negatives: Clipping Transpose, Clipping Sharpcast (when not doing triplecast), Using Sharpcast on Paradox means you can't Sharpcast Thunder III and guarantee to not hardcast it (I figure with 10 ticks and 10% chance each tick... most of the time you will not need to anyway), You lose out on a second Paradox by not casting Blizzard III (requires 3 Umbral hearts and Umbral ice), Blizzard IV is still low PPS but it has to happen in order to get Umbral hearts for longer Astral Fire phase.

[Hasrat]

Fire III, Thunder III, Triplecast, Fire IV, Ley Lines, F...

Why are you waiting so long to get Ley Lines down?

Fire III, Fire IV x3, Sharpcast, Paradox, Fire IV x3, Despair, Transpose, X....

Oh, you're still using Transpose.

[Mikey_R]

After Opener:
Fire III, Fire IV x3, Sharpcast, Paradox, Fire IV x3, Despair, Transpose, Xenoglossy (once or twice depending on mp ticks), Blizzard IV, Thunder III
Still debating on Transposing after Thunder III to get more damage on Fire III which is instant cast and 0 mp regardless.

Benefits: Drop the low PPS Blizzard III after opener, have a spot to cast Xenoglossy every 30 seconds, Fire III becomes instant speed meaning you can move while casting it and don't have to clip to triplecast after the opener.

Negatives: Clipping Transpose, Clipping Sharpcast (when not doing triplecast), Using Sharpcast on Paradox means you can't Sharpcast Thunder III and guarantee to not hardcast it (I figure with 10 ticks and 10% chance each tick... most of the time you will not need to anyway), You lose out on a second Paradox by not casting Blizzard III (requires 3 Umbral hearts and Umbral ice), Blizzard IV is still low PPS but it has to happen in order to get Umbral hearts for longer Astral Fire phase.

You aren't guaranteed to hit max MP after only 3 GCDs in UI1, which means you do less damage in AF as you cannot cast either a despair or you have to forgo a Fire 4.

If you run the calcs, doing your 'after opener' ends u as less PPS than the standard rotation, and this doesn't include Thunder 3 in the standard rotation, of which, if used under Thundercloud, is an effective 400 potency ontop of the normal Thunder 3 potency, of which the standard rotation will hit that every time, whereas yours does not (for actual numbers, standard gives 202.2 PPS and yours does 198.6 PPS, this includes 1 full Thundercloud Thunder 3 in each one, I used my cast times which has a base of 2.41 at my spell speed I also added a total of 1 second to the clipped GCDs for the Transpose and Sharpcast combined, I suspect it should be higher, however that would only hurt your rotation more).

The rotation just does not work at all and does less damage than the standard one. The maths has already been done by Black Mage players far far better at it than me and they would have considered every avenue. Black Mage is not a hard job to grasp, so the maths behind it is really easy which makes it even easier to debunk this failed attempt at a rotation.