Is Everyone Playing BLM wrong?

[MilkieTea]

... this looks so scuffed, your OGCDs are misaligned and you're not getting the most use out of them. For anyone wondering, the current opener and rota look like this

Fire 3 Opener: Prepull Sharpcast and F3 || T3 > Triplecast +F4 +Pot > F4 +Amplifier +Ley Lines > F4 +Swift > F4 +Triplecast > Despair +Manafont > F4 +Sharpcast > Despair > B3 > Xenoglossy > Paradox > B4 > T3

Which likely means that right after that opener, you'd land in the bolded part of this rotation below, and then loop around over and over, til everything is off cooldown for you to do your Opener again

B3 > B4 > T3 > (after opener) Paradox > F3 > F4 > F4 > F4 > Paradox > F4 > F4 > F4 > Despair

[catofsnake]

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.

This is getting there, but the clips are what will hold you back. Assuming 0.7s clip per non instant/element swap, it's about a 1.4s time loss and more if you transpose after T3. Some adjustments that could help would be shifting the Xeno to be just after Despair in order to not clip Transpose, and using your fire gained paradox as an instant before your transpose out of ice.
But honestly, the main thing you need to know is that the transpose lines are situational - you may or may not be able to go into them based off however many instants and procs you have. and, that some lines are only few percent potency gains over standard, immediately losing them if you clip casts at all. You should only really start considering it once you're 100% confident on standard - near 100% or 99 uptime. And, standard makes it that much easier to do so, with the extra xenoglossies/guaranteed t3p's available for movement. An easy trick you *can* start using even during standard play though, is transposing out of an instant in ice into F3 proc - that's about 182 more potency than normal. Have you rechecked the non-standard BLM guide? I know it was linked or mentioned earlier in the thread, that doc explains a lot of the ideas more concisely and thoroughly than I could in a forum post.

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

This is actually standard, using leylines after a triplecast instant allows you to make full use of it without clipping, and because you can precast F3 only really waits you 2 GCDS before using it. Pre-pull leylines has uses in some fights though, like when a mechanic within the first 30 seconds or at future use times would force you out.

[MilkieTea]

Pre-pull leylines has uses in some fights though, like when a mechanic within the first 30 seconds or at future use times would force you out.

Something that brings to mind moving your ley-lines around depending on mechanics, is the beginning of P1S. Within the first 30 secs you go from hugging Eric’s butt, to standing in the center for heals after the raidwide, to going to your clock spot. I’d imagine it would be more beneficial to push leylines into your prepull then, to get the most use out of it?

Then again no one in my group plays BLM, we’ve got two smns instead, so I personally wouldn’t know/havent seen what the response to that would be.

[SeiyaSoiya]

Something that brings to mind moving your ley-lines around depending on mechanics, is the beginning of P1S. Within the first 30 secs you go from hugging Eric’s butt, to standing in the center for heals after the raidwide, to going to your clock spot. I’d imagine it would be more beneficial to push leylines into your prepull then, to get the most use out of it?

Then again no one in my group plays BLM, we’ve got two smns instead, so I personally wouldn’t know/havent seen what the response to that would be.

assuming you're talking about having to move for the first chains of companionship/loneliness, you should preposition yourself on your marker and drop your leylines there, healers adjust
that's how most black mage gameplay is like, you don't move even if you take damage and are outside aoe heal range

[MilkieTea]

assuming you're talking about having to move for the first chains of companionship/loneliness, you should preposition yourself on your marker and drop your leylines there, healers adjust
that's how most black mage gameplay is like, you don't move even if you take damage and are outside aoe heal range

Hm, makes sense. I’m not one for turret gameplay, myself, so I never take BLM into higher end content, and my group sticks to the safe side of things with having extra rezzes available if necessary etc etc, so I’ve never gotten the chance to see how BLMs respond to choreographed raidwides.

[Hasrat]

This is actually standard, using leylines after a triplecast instant allows you to make full use of it without clipping, and because you can precast F3 only really waits you 2 GCDS before using it. Pre-pull leylines has uses in some fights though, like when a mechanic within the first 30 seconds or at future use times would force you out.

This is sensible... but nothing about this thread suggests we're looking for savage-level efficiency here.

Admittedly what probably throws me off more than that, tho, is that I hadn't realized folks had started just opening straight with a short fire phase.

[Picker]

The opener hasn’t really changed since last tier aside from adding in a second triple cast. Only fight I can remember doing pre pull leylines is e12s, so it lines up better with shiva/titan mechs.

Opener used to be sharp -12s, f3 -3 seconds, t3>f4>triple>f4>pot>f4>Leylines>f4>swift>despair>font>f4>despair>b3>sharp>t3>b4. Now you switch last t3 for paradox. I wouldn’t use xeno in the opener, I’d save it for mechs. Holding that xeno will give you a weave window for triple if you held it in the opener (lines up with fireplume movement in p3s and disease/tether swapping in p4s)

[coffeecutie]

low effort bait didnt even level ur job to 90(takes a handful of dungeon runs to do)

[DubiousDisk]

The best part about this thread is that it attracted all the BLM mains which has helped me learn to perfect the opener.

[Gruntler]

The best part about this thread is that it attracted all the BLM mains which has helped me learn to perfect the opener.

Give a man a fish, and he'll have a fish. Teach a man to fish but do so in a terrible way and then lock him in a room with fishing professionals and they'll start teaching everyone in a five mile radius how to fish.