People claim that BLM is the easiest class to learn, but in reality it is the hardest class to play well. You need knowledge of not only the fight but exactly when attacks will happen and where they will end up, and you need very good prediction skills.
One thing I will add for you is that due to latency, you can actually begin moving when there is about 0.5 second left on the cast bar. It allows for a lot of clutch casts and lets you really sneak in that extra one. Titan EX is a good example. During double plumes there s enough time to actually get n a spell between each set of plumes before you run.
This like Manawall an be useful as well for if you can safely stand in a physical hit and continue to cast. Divebombs on T5 are a good example. Before Manawall got nerfed, BLMs could safely stand to one side and ignore the entire Divebomb mechanic entirely.
BLM movement is also something you can only learn. You don't want to be moving for ore than one GCD if you can help it. Sometimes sitting on Thundercloud and Firestarter Procs is necessary to keep up your damage. As a BLM you are less moving and more adjusting position. Put Aetherical Manipulation onto a mouseover macro and SPAM IT. Your recovery from the animation is far shorted than your recovery animation from moving. Also Sprint should ALWAYS be up when you need to move. The sooner you are at your destination before your GCD ends, the less DPS you lose having to use GCDs casting Scathe.
Also, I cant believe how many people I see doing this. You should NEVER hard cast Thunder III. It is a DPS loss compared to Thunder II wth a Blizzard I weaved in. Basically in your Umbral Ice Phases you want to do the following Combos depending on your MP:
Blizzard III > Thunder II (Thunder III if Thundercloud or Swiftcast is up) > Blizzard I > Fire III
Blizzard III > Blizzard I > Thunder II (Thunder III if Thundercloud or Swiftcast is up) > Fire III
Blizzard III > Blizzard I > Blizzard I > Fire III
If you have to move replace the Blizzards with Scathe.
So few BLMs weave in Blizzard I's when there s more then enough time to do it during Umbral Ice phases.
You also want your Piety at 251. The best way to do this is put stat points into PIE until you are at 244, and the rest into INT. Losing 1-2 points of INT is nothing as this puts you are 251 PIE with a SCH in the group, which means you get one more Fire I in Astral Fire Phases, and your MP pool is big enough to allow you to weave in a Blizzard in Umbral Ice Phases. This also pretty much makes Spell Speed a junk stat for BLMs that you should only ever be stacking if you are hitting diminishing returns on Crit (and even then DET is flat out better).
Also your should be gunning for 460 Accuracy. Anything more or less is a waste in Second Coil. You need 471, and with a HQ Apkallu Omelette you can hit that easily. 460 is your magic number as that 11 Accuracy difference is made up by the food you should be using, and is better spent on an item that further boosts your Crit or DET.
One thing I will add for you is that due to latency, you can actually begin moving when there is about 0.5 second left on the cast bar. It allows for a lot of clutch casts and lets you really sneak in that extra one. Titan EX is a good example. During double plumes there s enough time to actually get n a spell between each set of plumes before you run.
This like Manawall an be useful as well for if you can safely stand in a physical hit and continue to cast. Divebombs on T5 are a good example. Before Manawall got nerfed, BLMs could safely stand to one side and ignore the entire Divebomb mechanic entirely.
BLM movement is also something you can only learn. You don't want to be moving for ore than one GCD if you can help it. Sometimes sitting on Thundercloud and Firestarter Procs is necessary to keep up your damage. As a BLM you are less moving and more adjusting position. Put Aetherical Manipulation onto a mouseover macro and SPAM IT. Your recovery from the animation is far shorted than your recovery animation from moving. Also Sprint should ALWAYS be up when you need to move. The sooner you are at your destination before your GCD ends, the less DPS you lose having to use GCDs casting Scathe.
Also, I cant believe how many people I see doing this. You should NEVER hard cast Thunder III. It is a DPS loss compared to Thunder II wth a Blizzard I weaved in. Basically in your Umbral Ice Phases you want to do the following Combos depending on your MP:
Blizzard III > Thunder II (Thunder III if Thundercloud or Swiftcast is up) > Blizzard I > Fire III
Blizzard III > Blizzard I > Thunder II (Thunder III if Thundercloud or Swiftcast is up) > Fire III
Blizzard III > Blizzard I > Blizzard I > Fire III
If you have to move replace the Blizzards with Scathe.
So few BLMs weave in Blizzard I's when there s more then enough time to do it during Umbral Ice phases.
You also want your Piety at 251. The best way to do this is put stat points into PIE until you are at 244, and the rest into INT. Losing 1-2 points of INT is nothing as this puts you are 251 PIE with a SCH in the group, which means you get one more Fire I in Astral Fire Phases, and your MP pool is big enough to allow you to weave in a Blizzard in Umbral Ice Phases. This also pretty much makes Spell Speed a junk stat for BLMs that you should only ever be stacking if you are hitting diminishing returns on Crit (and even then DET is flat out better).
Also your should be gunning for 460 Accuracy. Anything more or less is a waste in Second Coil. You need 471, and with a HQ Apkallu Omelette you can hit that easily. 460 is your magic number as that 11 Accuracy difference is made up by the food you should be using, and is better spent on an item that further boosts your Crit or DET.
