BLM questions

[Yukari]

That "ripping" off of UI3 at the end of the cast, does that also kill your cast time on your next fire spell? Since I did pharos last night, and it felt sorta clunky moving from UI3 Fire 3 -> fire spam, where the cast bar would correct itself and then slow down. I dunno why SE thought that this was a better solution than to allow double flare.

[Serenseven]

That "ripping" off of UI3 at the end of the cast, does that also kill your cast time on your next fire spell?

Yes. If you try to squeeze the Fire spell in the UI3 window like you would previously, it will look at first like it will go double-speed, but then you will see the cast bar "correction" you mentioned. (You could actually see this pre-2.1 if you were slow but not too slow about casting Fire after Fire III.)

[SamanosukeShiva]

doing thunder2 during ui3 doesnt always fill up mp now, gotta weave scathe every now and then on top of thunder to fill in the gap.

[Crizto]

Wouldn't Blizzard be a better spell to weave in over Scathe if you don't have to move? The cast time of Blizzard is equivalent to a GCD length right (my tooltip says 2.35 seconds), so the two abilities should both require the same amount of time.

Scathe avg. potency should be 120 (.8*100 + .2*200)?
Blizzard potency is 150

I was randomly doing Blizzard or Scathe last night in coil because I was caught a little off guard with the timing of MP regen ticks. Both of them filled the gap nicely but don't know if my reasoning behind preferring Blizzard is wrong.

[Falisa]

Is anyone else encountering your character stopping to cast a firestarter Fire 3? I got hit by several weights in Titan extreme because I went to use up the proc and my character stopped running to do the Fire 3 cast animation. It was only during Titan extreme I've encountered this so far though... I learned to stop using Fire 3 when I knew I needed to avoid something (weights, bombs, landslide).

[Seravi Edalborez]

Might not be related but be sure to check your keybinds; alt or ctrl+a is default to Alliance chat so that stopped me a few times mid-fight before I realized.

[Azurewrath]

So on aoe rotations, when it it worth it to get into UI3 with Blizz 2? Over how many targets?

[lilbubbles]

I really really really really really really really really really really hate this change.

It isn't fun, my damage is way down, and the flexibility I had is GONE.

It feels like I went from driving a motorcycle to driving a concrete mixer.

[Argantes]

I really really really really really really really really really really hate this change.

It isn't fun, my damage is way down, and the flexibility I had is GONE.

It feels like I went from driving a motorcycle to driving a concrete mixer.

I only used BLM once in HM Hauke earlier today since the patch, but honestly, yeah I do notice a difference but other than flare, I don't really notice a significant difference.

[HitomeOfBismarck]

Wish LogRep would update its memory locations. I want to see where we stand now. Doing EX primals with two Allagan-wielding MNKs, it felt OK because they have to do quite a bit of moving and are stuck in instances where they can't do any DPS at all. For coil, however, I notice a considerable difference.

I hate this change, needless to say. Coupled with the bump to virus, I might as well just be playing a BRD or PLD without their CDs: couple keys and occasionally seeing if the server regenerated MP instantly on the first tick or not which slightly alters the rotation.

[Akairyu]

BLM does feel a whole lot clunkier than it did before the update. The only upside I did notice doing Pharos and attempting Garuda Ex is that my MP was more consistent across my rotations, since the UI3 refill during Fire 3 -> Fire swap back to AF3 never happens anymore, instead of "sometimes if UI3 tics are timed right". Made it easier to predict MP levels, but it still feels like grasping at straws for a bright side of the change...

Before I derail too much more about UI3... Does anyone have definitive accuracy requirements for T4/T5 for casters? I've been operating under the assumption that 435 was the requirement for 100% accuracy in T4 and 445 in T5, but the BLMs in my FC's other coil group say they haven't noticed any misses in T4 at an effective accuracy of 430. Did I misread something somewhere?

[backslider]

It isn't definitive, but 432 appears to the minimum accuracy needed to reach 100%. I sourced that info from Puro Strider's spreadsheet.

[OWS_Tonx]

I'm at 430ish as well and I don't miss in T4. I haven't done T5 yet though.

[Chumm]

100% in turn 5 with 441, but haven't gotten to dread knights so dunno if that pushes it up (seems unlikely).

[HitomeOfBismarck]

It's either 432 or 433. I'm guessing 432 since Puro has a reasonably high sample size with that accuracy on T5 with no misses. My own parses indicate that as well.

[Azurewrath]

You will not cast thunder 2 and still have time to cast a blizzard, that's for sure

As of now with how the ticks work, it's up in the air whether thunder or thunder 2 is better. If you get your first tick within a half second after casting Blizz 3, thunder is by far better. If it takes over that, thunder 2 is better. Thing is, you have no idea when youre getting that tick. Pre-patch Thunder 1 was by far better, but I still saw lots of blms using thunder 2 and wasting a crapload of time with the long cast time. Over the course of an entire battle a thunder 1 user would end up an entire rotation ahead, now it's all luck

I still usually do Thunder 1, if i get a tick fast, I start fire 3 directly after and it goes off right after my mp gets to full, if it takes a while to get my first tick, I just pause for a half second after my cast before casting the fire 3 and get my mp moments after getting my next tick. Getting fire 3 off as soon as you get that second MP tick is key to high dps. A few extra seconds for your 5% chance to thundercloud on T2 can pay off if you have lottery-like odds, but chances are the long ass cast time means youre sitting in UI3 for an extra half second that you should be into your rotation

Waiting after your last fire is a horrible idea, cause there's a 60% chance you're gonna get nothing. Why not cast blizzard 3 and if you get your firestarter, take a tiny step and fire 3? Best of both worlds.

This is all about squeezing every last point of damage out though, which can mean a lot if all 4 DPS are doing it for their jobs.

I'm still trying to get the timing down on that second UI3 tick though. Seems really hit or miss. I've switched into AF3 with half mp a few times since patch. Gotta work on getting that timing down

[Evane]

It's his subtle way to get 10 posts.

[Sylvrdragon]

Whenever I get a FS proc on my last Fire, I save it. After the last UI3 tick, I hit Transpose and use the proc to get back into AF3. If you interrupt B3 to use the proc, then you're not only losing the ~1 second it takes for the interrupt to register, but then you're adding another GCD for the F3 itself. You may be getting a full AF3 F3 off, but it's costing you quite a lot of time. With the Transpose method, you get AF1 F3 damage instead, but you save yourself an entire GCD (we'll say that the Transpose animation is roughly equivalent to the B3 interrupt).

Interrupt Method:

Fire (FS Proc) > B3-Interrupt (~1 second?) > AF3 F3 w/FS (GCD) > B3 > Thunder Something > F3 (Half cast time, but full GCD) > Fire Rotation

Transpose Method:

Fire (FS Proc) > B3 (GCD) > Thunder Something > Transpose (~1 second?) > F3 w/FS > Fire Rotation

Cancel out the similarities and you're left with:

B3-Interrupt (~1 second) + GDC = AF3 F3 (From FS proc)

vs

Transpose (~1 second) = AF1 F3 (From FS proc)

The question we have to answer is whether 2 tiers of AF (40% of base damage is the number I've found in an old post) is worth 1 GCD.

[Lokus]

Waiting after your last fire is a horrible idea, cause there's a 60% chance you're gonna get nothing. Why not cast blizzard 3 and if you get your firestarter, take a tiny step and fire 3? Best of both worlds.

This is all about squeezing every last point of damage out though, which can mean a lot if all 4 DPS are doing it for their jobs.

I'm still trying to get the timing down on that second UI3 tick though. Seems really hit or miss. I've switched into AF3 with half mp a few times since patch. Gotta work on getting that timing down

As far as getting a Firestarter on the last fire, I have issues canceling Blizz 3 to use up the Firestarter proc before going into UI3. I move as soon as I see the proc appear on screen and 8/10, my Blizz 3 still goes off. I end up just using transpose after the last tick of MP to get into AF1 and then using up the Firestarter.

[Azurewrath]

Yeah, sometimes it's tough to interrupt especially if there's a lot happening. In that situation the transpose Fire 3 is great.

I sat down and tested for hours a month ago or so, and found that interrupting your Blizzard for a proc was indeed higher DPS because if you transposed you lost out on the quick cast Fire after that fire 3, and of course lost out on the full AF3 Fire 3.

Now that you don't get a quick fire either way, I'll definitely re-test to see if it's better to save time and transpose AF1 F3 or to interrupt your blizzard. Honestly not too sure. I hope the Transpose method is better, because that also usually allows for a Scathe after thunder, then transpose directly after the mp tick while gcd is happening directly into your quick F3. If that scathe crits or gets the boost(or both), your dps jumps nicely. Another reason I pick Thunder over Thunder 2.

I'll also have to retest a lot of my rotations now that the quick fire isn't a thing.

What's your guys thoughts on Thunder? (not if 1 or 2 is better) Do you guys cast right at the start of single target fights?

I get so few thunderclouds that I jump directly into fires and just get thunder on during my first MP refill. Another thing to parse. Looks like I have a busy day soon