Quote Originally Posted by Ferrinus View Post
Basically, the fact that we'll be refreshing AF3 with instant spells means that a refresh buys us 12.5 seconds instead of 15 seconds, but, having a whole extra refresh means that we're going to have a potential 15 + 12.5 + 12.5 = 40 seconds of AF3 time total, where before we had around 30. So I'm not at all worried about this increasing difficulty for newer or weaker players.
Apologies, I think my post was not written good enough or my english sucks more then I think.
That wasn't my point.

I agree that two instant fire casts will make it easier for new and casual players to stay in fire phase.
I also think though, experienced players will feel too railroaded on the fire rotation and that the whole experience will be far more clunky because of the nature of instant casts and the wait time after them.

Quote Originally Posted by Ferrinus View Post
Right now, Flare Star hits only a little harder than Despair, although that might change. I guess the question is whether A) fire opener lets you cast Flare Star under raid buffs B) ice opener lets you cast Flare Star under raid buffs (an ice opener contains like 11 GCDs before flare star, after all) C) a fight's length is such that going fire vs. ice actually changes how many Flare Stars you can cast all together. I'm guessing that not casting B3 or B4 makes up for casting your first Flare Star a little bit later, but I could see it going either way, and wouldn't mind opening with ice spells after several expansions of opening with fire spells instead.
I see. I didn't take raid buffs into consideration.