tiggerkiddo
Member
Why start with Thunder 2 instead of Thunder 3?
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Final Fantasy XIV |OT5| All You Need is Gil
- Thread starter tiggerkiddo
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Why start with Thunder 2 instead of Thunder 3?
Just going to point out here that the autocrit on Straighter Shot, the 10% crit boost on Straight Shot buff, and Internal Release actually make the crit stat less effective.
The Bloodletter procs do make crit more effective, which offsets all of the above and more. This is just the ONLY positive synergy with the crit stat that bards have.
I don't know what's actually optimal, but if you're going to use another GCD after Thunder II, it should be on Blizzard, not Scathe. Even though Scathe is instant, you still have to wait an entire GCD to use your next spell, which is the same for Blizzard, but Blizzard does more damage.
There may be an exception if you need to use an off GCD skill before the next GCD, but I don't know where the math ends up there.
Thunder II has a faster cast time, as well as uses less mana [which gives you more to use during the Fire I spam].
The bulk of your Thunder damage comes from the procs, which you'll "overwrite" the Thunder II casts with Thunder III [when it procs].
tiggerkiddo
Member
Ahhh all right, had been starting off with Thunder 3 but I'll change it out for 2 and use 3 whenever Thundercloud feels like procing.
I mean, more crit is more good. You can definitely argue that loading down crit on a bard isn't super necessary because of all of the bonus you can apply to it. I would agree. That's why I like that most of the HA Bard loot packs det instead of being loaded down with crit like the myth gear was.
I think you can still make a case that more crit is more better because more crits on dots mean more bloodletters which means more dps because they're off GCD and hit as hard as Heavy Shot/Straight Shot. As to how much crit would be optimal, I dunno since I'm not that huge of a nerd about Bard dps.
yet
Don't feel too bad, I did the same initially.
I think you'll find the use of Thunder II for applying/refreshing the DOT [and Thunder III on the proc] to make for a much more enjoyable [albeit shocking] experience.
Boo this man.
Pyros_Eien
Member
I see, my mistake I guess is I assumed you didn't want to wait for the first tick when switching, so I always Blizzard 3 when I have enough to cast Thunder 2 right away, which leads to having to wait sometimes before Fire 3. I guess I could fit in another Fire 1, then be forced to wait for first tick, which would guarantee a 2nd tick by the time I'm done with Thunder and Fire 3 again.
I deserve that.
I will show myself out.
That's what I do.
The timing from the first tick to the second is perfectly timed, at least for me, for a single Thunder II, so I can re-apply my Thunder DOT and be ready to jump right back into Astral Fire III as soon as it finishes. You might need to wait a second or two for that first Umbral Ice tick to cast Thunder II [although sometimes I get it right away], but either way you'll probably be waiting if you want to wait for full mana before going back into Astral Fire III [which you should].
Do not encourage my "pun" behaviour. It will lead nowhere good, trust me on that.
I think you misunderstood me. Crit IS still good for bard, but it's ONLY because of the Bloodletter procs. All of that other stuff makes crit somewhat worse, but the Bloodletter procs more than make up for it. I wasn't trying to say it's bad overall. As far as I know, crit is actually the best secondary stat for bard. Det is better point for point, but you get less of it on gear so it's not as good in practice.
As for how much crit is optimal, with the current attainable values, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer wasn't to stack it wherever you can. In theory, it gets worse point for point the higher you stack it (true for every stat except skill speed), but I don't know if we've reached the point where that actually matters. I don't care enough to go figure that out.
Yup. I can whole-heartily co-sign this. If I get to Novus it's in my mind to go all out on SS and Crit.
Well the master has spoken, go all out on crit
I feel re-assured.
This is me at the moment. 540 crit is great.
For the thunder question I also use the down time in Umbral Ice to re-apply this. Though now for the opening of fights I start with Thunder III to maximse on Raging Strikes which I normally pop at the beginning.
While we're having this BLM pow wow I have a question. So Firestarter only shows up when your Fire I actually hits. But typically you could start casting a Fire I again before this happens, especially as I like to stand as far away from the target as possible. So what do people do, wait that split second to find out if you got Firestarter or just dive into the next Fire I and throw the Firestarter afterwards? This means you could be casting Fire I when you have a Firestarter ready to go and it could be potentially wasted.
The delay in the Firestarter proc is one of the things I wish they would change. Maybe have it "activate" during the last 20% of your cast so you can use it right away?
But yes, I always finish my Fire I cast before using it, it would be a DPS loss otherwise. It can be frustrating to see yourself getting two Firestarter proc's back-to-back effectively "wasting" the first, though.
tiggerkiddo
Member
You should upgrade your weapon first honestly...if you don't want to do the atma quest, go get a soldiery weapon.
Yup. I can whole-heartily co-sign this. If I get to Novus it's in my mind to go all out on SS and Crit.
I feel re-assured.
This is me at the moment. 540 crit is great.
For the thunder question I also use the down time in Umbral Ice to re-apply this. Though now for the opening of fights I start with Thunder III to maximse on Raging Strikes which I normally pop at the beginning.
While we're having this BLM pow wow I have a question. So Firestarter only shows up when your Fire I actually hits. But typically you could start casting a Fire I again before this happens, especially as I like to stand as far away from the target as possible. So what do people do, wait that split second to find out if you got Firestarter or just dive into the next Fire I and throw the Firestarter afterwards? This means you could be casting Fire I when you have a Firestarter ready to go and it could be potentially wasted.
I think it's better to just use Firestarter after your next Fire I. NEVER wait to see if it procs. There's an obviously better alternative of starting your Fire I cast regardless and cancelling it if you see the proc. I still don't think this is better than just finishing your cast, but it is definitely better than waiting around doing nothing in case of a proc.
The delay in the Firestarter proc is one of the things I wish they would change. Maybe have it "activate" during the last 20% of your cast so you can use it right away?
But yes, I always finish my Fire I cast before using it, it would be a DPS loss otherwise. It can be frustrating to see yourself getting two Firestarter proc's back-to-back effectively "wasting" the first, though.
Well, they can't have it activate before you finish casting. What they should do is just let you stack up to two.
The delay in the Firestarter proc is one of the things I wish they would change. Maybe have it "activate" during the last 20% of your cast so you can use it right away?
But yes, I always finish my Fire I cast before using it, it would be a DPS loss otherwise. It can be frustrating to see yourself getting two Firestarter proc's back-to-back effectively "wasting" the first, though.
Yeah this is what I do. It sucks casting a Fire I when you can see the Firestarter just sitting there. Do you guys buffer your Fire I's? I tried doing this but it was just so fast I couldn't really keep up.
Yeah three ATMAs to go. But I decided today to buy a Leviatetin since it has a nice chunk of accuracy on there. I can only do it next week though thanks to stupid soldiery cap.
I'm in the same boat. I've been stuck at 9 atmas for what feels like weeks so I came up with a plan to save my sanity. I finally got Scylla's boots of casting today so I'll grind hunts to cap soldiery (and hopefully get a log or two) for this week, then next week run Syrcus Tower for a UAT, cap soldiery again, then go straight for the Laevateinn. By then I'll hopefully have 3 logs from hunting but if not I'll have enough allied seals to buy my way to the sands I'll need to unweather it. Those two weeks will probably be far less painful than atma grinding.
Do you apply Thunder3 if you have a Firestarter as you're switching to Umbral ice?
Pyros_Eien
Member
Unless you get very lucky I doubt you'll get 3logs from 3weeks of hunting if you only hunt enough to cap soldiery. You get 340soldiery from basically clearing all A ranks once, and the droprate on logs is pretty damn low. On the other hand, you get enough Allied Seals doing them that you'll be able to buy the logs regardless, so not a big deal unless you want to use the seals to buy other stuff(but then you can just keep hunting past the cap).
But yeah that's what I've been doing, I have enough now to buy a weathered weapon and upgrade it, though I'm not sure which class I should do it with, so for now I'm still using Zenith weapons. I really like BLM but at the same time I get in groups much faster with Scholar(which I also like, just is more annoying to play with all the stuff to keep in check vs LOLOLFIREFLAREFIRE).
In that situation, sure. It could help.
I generally don't, considering the cast-time for Fire III to go from Umbral Ice III --> Astral Fire III is already insignificant. If you have a Firestarter proc waiting, you could either cast Thunder III instead of Thunder II or use a Scathe in-between spells. The damage for both, in the long run, will likely be similar. Due to force of habit, I normally go Thunder II + Scathe, just because of the way my fingers are trained. >_<
Congrats!
Also, congrats to you.
R_thanatos
Member
By the time he prints them out he'll need to print a new one for clearing T9.
Do you use Transpose before using the Firestarter proc? I found that's pretty significant and not many people seem to do it.
I'm gonna try that, wonder if the damage is about the same or if one is better. To clarify what meant, what I do (assuming convert is down):
Last fire 1 procs Firestarter -> Blizzard 3 -> Thunder 3 -> Transpose -> Fire 3 from proc -> normal rotation.
I never thought to do an extra Fire 1 after using Convert from Flare either, that's a good idea.
irfaanator
Banned
I forgot to mention that, thanks.
Yes, it adds a bit of DPS and, since the Firestarter proc is off the GCD, you might as well!
It's definitely worth trying out. We BLM's are all about testing our theories in-battle!
That coupon was only good for 8/31 to 9/06.
Pyros_Eien
Member
Today was a good day, I learned that you can add <wait.3> to macros now instead of adding a line like you had to in 2.0, making crafting macros a ton more efficient so I can alt tab while making spiritbinding crap. I also beat T5 on my 2nd DF only, took about a dozen of wipes total. Fight was fairly simple but I guess the main issue is finding the right people as per usual so I was pretty lucky to end up with a good group on my 2nd DF. Now on to Leviathan and Ultima, came close to beating both but too many people still dying.
R_thanatos
Member
Ultima is damn hard in DF because People don't freaking realise that they have to break the violet orbs together NO MATTER what else IS HAPPENNING
Played Garuda EX last week we had a SMN with garuda on Auto.. said garuda was breaking all the plumes ( YES ALL OF THEM ) the guy was proud. too bad we were dying as a result.
Played Garuda EX last week we had a SMN with garuda on Auto.. said garuda was breaking all the plumes ( YES ALL OF THEM ) the guy was proud. too bad we were dying as a result.
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Melusine might present some problems if a few people aren't on the ball and T8 can drag out but surely T6 is now getting beat pretty consistently?
Meanwhile Judgement Ring of Healing just refuses to drop for me... QQ
But on the other hand I'm 4 slot 5 melds away from having fully melded my crafters and gatherers! The struggle is no more!
Worst ones I did I failed out on 5% and 2% respectively in T6 while OT.
Always fun to take it easy running only to get slapped in the face out of nowhere.
tiggerkiddo
Member
Have pugged Turn 7 before. It went really well and we downed it within 30 minutes. Though to be fair, I went in with two other static members and a few other folks had cleared Turn 9...
I have tried to help other statics do it and the groups usually died at the first set of adds...ugh
I have tried to help other statics do it and the groups usually died at the first set of adds...ugh
Well first set of adds is arguably the toughest part.
9 minutes long video, what am I supposed to see here?
death
irfaanator
Banned
tiggerkiddo
Member
It is really boring. I am always on the boss and I get bored to tears. Even doing towers only lessens the boredom by a small amount.
Skip to 6:45.
No worries, we did run without you though. New tank seems to be on point to me. We're all clear for this week and I told everyone next tuesday at normal time would be next run.
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