7.x Black Mage Guide

By: Rika Vanih

Job Overview

Black Mage is a caster specializing in high, steady personal damage in place of providing party buffs. The job maintains a cyclical flow of expending MP via long, powerful casts in Astral Fire then swapping to refresh MP in Umbral Ice. While the rotation itself is somewhat simple, utilizing its movement tools and the flexibility built into its rotation to their fullest is key to maintaining uptime and maximizing damage as a Black Mage.

Basic Concepts/Resources

Astral Fire grants a damage bonus to all fire-aspected spells while doubling their MP cost. Ice-aspected spells have no MP cost in Astral Fire and deal less damage. At three stacks of Astral Fire, ice-aspected spell cast times are reduced by half. Astral Fire prevents MP regen, though things which grant MP directly like Manafont and Ethers still work.

Umbral Ice decreases the damage of fire-aspected spells, and casting ice-aspected spells replenish MP depending on current number of stacks. While in Umbral Ice, ice-aspected spells have no MP cost, and at three stacks of Umbral Ice fire-aspected spell cast times are reduced by half.

Unaspected Spells like Foul, Xenoglossy, Paradox, and Scathe do not count as fire-aspected or ice-aspected and so do not gain any damage bonus/penalty from either Astral Fire or Umbral Ice.

Enochian provides a personal passive bonus to all damage dealt, and is active while in either Astral Fire or Umbral Ice. It also remains active while swapping between Astral Fire and Umbral ice (even via Transpose), and is only lost upon completely dropping Astral Fire or Umbral Ice.

Umbral Hearts are a resource gained from casting Blizzard IV, Freeze (level 58+), or Umbral Soul. One Umbral Heart is consumed with each fire-aspected spell casted in Astral Fire (other than Flare and Despair), negating the increased MP cost. Flare instead will consume all current Umbral Hearts, and reduce the MP cost of the Flare by 1/3. This interaction is not present with Despair, which will use all remaining MP and not consume Umbral Hearts.

Polyglot is a resource gained every 30 seconds that Enochian is active. At level 80+, a maximum of two polyglot stacks can be held at a time. At level 98+, a maximum of three polyglot stacks can be held at a time. If the polyglot timer completes while at maximum stacks, no additional polyglot stack is gained, and the timer restarts at zero again. If Enochian is dropped the polyglot stacks remain, but the timer is reset to 0.

Paradox is a resource and spell available at level 90. When you have the resource, Paradox replaces both Fire and Blizzard on your hotbars. In Astral Fire, it replaces the Fire cast to refresh your Astral Fire timer, is instant-cast, and generates a guaranteed Firestarter proc. In Umbral ice, it is a strong instant-cast spell that refreshes your Umbral Ice timer and can be leveraged for weaving/movement. You gain a Paradox marker on your job gauge by transitioning from Umbral Ice III with three Umbral Hearts to Astral Fire, as well as from Astral Fire III to Umbral Ice.

Astral Soul is a resource available at level 100. Successful casting of Fire IV generates one Astral Soul stack, casting Flare grants three Astral Soul stacks. Generating the maximum of 6 stacks of Astral Soul allows for the user to cast Flare Star. Stacks are consumed upon casting Flare Star, and expire upon leaving Astral Fire.

Job Gauge

1. Astral Fire/Umbral Ice stacks
2. Duration of Astral Fire/Umbral Ice
3. Umbral Hearts
4. Polyglot stacks
5. Polyglot timer
6. Paradox marker
7. Astral Soul Stacks

General Gameplay

In Astral Fire, the goal is to use all of your MP on Fire IV casts, and end in Despair followed by Flare Star. However, Fire IV does not refresh the Astral Fire timer, so Paradox is used once in between the Fire IV spam to maintain Astral Fire.

In Umbral Ice, Blizzard IV is used to obtain three Umbral Hearts (as well as produce a Paradox marker when entering Astral Fire again), as well as refresh MP for the next Astral Fire cycle. The Paradox generated upon entering Umbral Ice from Astral Fire III is also used in this phase.

In either stance, keeping the High Thunder DoT up is important, as well as utilizing polyglot stacks for Xenoglossy for movement/weaving/damage as needed.

Opener

Fire III Opener

The standard opener for BLM. This opener has a rough bare minimum GCD (recast) of 2.45s, though most people will likely want some more Spell Speed than this for consistency in execution. If running a slower set and/or otherwise having issues with Astral Fire timing out, consider double weaving Ley Lines with the INT pot usage in the opener.

The initial Fire III cast should start around 4 seconds prepull (to land at the same time the boss is pulled). The second Fire IV is hardcasted with the expectation of raid buffs landing just before the cast goes off.

Additional notes:

• Despite missing out on a second Flare Star usage by starting in Astral Fire, it is still generally a gain to do so rather than have to cast relatively weak Blizzard IV then Fire III in Umbral Ice III. Having a slower start with an Umbral Ice opener will likely also result in pushing some stronger spells out of buffs.
• The second charge of Ley Lines can be flexibly used at any point after the opener, with the goal of using it during a window where its full duration can be used.

Using Flare for the extra Astral Soul stacks to enable an additional Flare Star in the opener before the Manafont is not worthwhile. Even if the Flare is instant-cast, it is too weak of a spell to justify using it for single-target to use over Despair, particularly when considering the lost potency from Flare is during raid buffs and the extra Flare Star usage occurs after buffs expire.

Single Target Rotation

Rotation Overview

The standard format for the single target rotation loop is as above, following directly after the second Despair in the opener. Both Xenoglossy and High Thunder have no set place in the rotation, and instead are used as needed. The guaranteed Firestarter proc from Paradox has some flexibility in use as well. All of these will be further explained in later sections.

With Paradox now being instant-cast during Astral Fire as well in Dawntrail, it is recommended to default to having four Fire IV casts before Paradox. This provides similar leeway to Endwalker, allowing one extra cast on either half of the Astral Fire cycle. This can be used to shift Fire IV casts around and/or use Xenoglossy/High Thunder as needed anywhere in the cycle.

Patch 7.1 changed Despair to be instant-cast at level 100, providing additional leeway and flexibility as well.

As of Patch 7.05, Paradox is now available for use in Umbral Ice again. Since this is a strong spell, it should generally be used every Umbral Ice phase. Prioritize using it for movement/weaving as needed, or for refreshing your Umbral Ice timer if needed.

High Thunder

Replacing the previous Thunder/Thundercloud system in previous expansions is the new Thunderhead system. Thunderhead is granted from gaining Astral Fire or Umbral Ice from either neutral or swapping between the two. The Thunderhead buff lasts for 30 seconds, allowing the user to cast either their single target or AoE Thunder spell and consuming the buff in the process. At level 100, these spells are High Thunder and High Thunder II, respectively.

In general, the goal for single target is to use High Thunder when the DoT is about to fall off (less than 3s remaining on the DoT timer). Since one cycle through Astral Fire and Umbral Ice is longer than 30 seconds, the refresh timing will not have a set place in your rotation, and instead will naturally drift.

A few important notes:

• A large portion of the damage from High Thunder comes from the DoT damage, with less on the initial hit compared to procs from last expansion. As a result, letting the DoT fall off for a while and losing DoT ticks or conversely having enough early refreshes to result in an extra refresh is fairly costly and should be generally avoided or otherwise accounted for when making situational decisions.
• While a fresh Thunderhead buff is obtained from every transition between Astral Fire and Umbral Ice, other than potentially for two-target situations it is not expected to use every proc, and instead just focus on refreshing when the DoT is falling off.

Xenoglossy

Xenoglossy is a powerful instant-cast spell that can be leveraged for movement or weaving as needed, in Astral Fire and/or Umbral Ice. With the ability to hold a third polyglot stack, it is now even easier to be more flexible with uses, with the potential to save stacks to use with raid buffs. This can be generally good practice, but movement considerations take priority, as well as ensuring that your Astral Fire timer is not at risk due to using an excess of Xenoglossy at a given time.

Firestarter

Paradox now grants a guaranteed Firestarter proc upon execution in Astral Fire, which allows for a free instant-cast Fire III. There are two primary considerations for using Firestarter procs–extending your Astral Fire timer by using the proc in Astral Fire III, or using it to re-enter Astral Fire after the Umbral Ice phase.

Astral Fire III

Using your Firestarter proc in Astral Fire III, typically referred to as “AF3 F3P”, allows for extra flexibility in your Astral Fire timer, as well as extra mobility. Pictured below is a baseline version of using the proc for this purpose, allowing for the maximum leeway in your Astral Fire timer:

This is just an example though–as needed, you can easily shift around any of the Fire IV/Paradox casts then use the Firestarter proc when your Astral Fire timer is getting low. Situationally, if you will not be able to complete all of your six Fire IV casts before Astral Fire drops, it will generally be the largest priority to use your Firestarter proc to refresh your timer. Guaranteeing the Flare Star is often going to be more important than other potential usage for the Firestarter proc.

Astral Fire I

Whenever possible, it is generally recommended to carry your Firestarter proc through Umbral Ice and use it when transitioning back into Astral Fire, typically referred to as “AF1 F3P”, as below:

While using the Firestarter proc in Astral Fire III is still a reasonably strong spell, using the proc this way replaces a relatively weak Fire III casted in Umbral Ice III with one used in Astral Fire I and as a result provides more of a gain.

Generally we can utilize Paradox in Umbral Ice to weave the Transpose for this use case as above. As needed, High Thunder or Xenoglossy can also be utilized for weaving here, or even (less ideally) have your Blizzard IV be instant-cast via Swiftcast/Triplecast.

It is important to note that the Firestarter proc applies Astral Fire III sooner than a regular cast of Fire III would apply it, which will result in a slightly stricter Astral Fire timer to work with.

AoE Rotation (3+ targets)

Rotation Overview

The AoE rotation has a fairly straightforward flow—High Blizzard II to enter Umbral Ice III and Freeze for 3 Umbral Hearts as well as refilling MP, then High Fire II to enter Astral Fire III. Due to the lowered potency compared to Endwalker, it is no longer worthwhile to use High Fire II any additional times, and instead use Flare twice followed by Flare Star.

Foul can be used for movement, weaving oGCDs, or just generally as a strong AoE spell. High Thunder II should generally be refreshed when the DoT timer is low on the targets (less than 3s remaining), unless the mobs are going to die soon.

Manafont can be used for an additional two Flare casts followed by another Flare Star. Using any ether that grants at least 800 MP can be used for an additional Flare in dungeons and can still be worthwhile even though it will not enable an additional Flare Star by itself. Leveraging Swiftcast/Triplecast to make Flare and/or Flare Star casts instant is very valuable due to their long base cast time.

Transpose Optimization

With the nerf to High Blizzard II and High Fire II, it is usually beneficial to use Transpose to skip them entirely.

Even at the cost of having only the Astral Fire I bonus on the first Flare, it is more worthwhile to skip the High Fire II cast. The Freeze cast in Umbral Ice I grants enough MP to use both Flare casts in the following Astral Fire. The filler spells (Foul/High Thunder II) are used to weave Transpose, though if the Flare Star at the end of an Astral Fire cycle is instant via Swiftcast/Triplecast, the filler after it is unnecessary. Prioritize using High Thunder II for filler only when the DoT timer is lower to get the most value out of the DoT.

In a situation where you are running out of filler spells, prioritize using Transpose to skip High Blizzard II over High Fire II, as the latter still provides a damage bonus to the first Flare. Clipping Transpose can still be a gain over using High Blizzard II/High Fire II, though note that due to the cooldown of Transpose it is not possible to clip twice without waiting or otherwise using a filler spell anyways in Umbral Ice.

2-Target Situations

For 2-target situations, use High Thunder II instead of High Thunder if you can hit both with it, otherwise DoT one with High Thunder and apply it to the other target when you swap between Astral Fire/Umbral Ice naturally in your rotation.

oGCD Abilities

Whenever possible, oGCD abilities should be weaved to avoid delays in casting. One oGCD ability can be used after Fire III/High Fire II from Umbral Ice III, and after Blizzard III/High Blizzard II from Astral Fire III. Up to two oGCD abilities can be weaved after instant-cast spells (Xenoglossy/Foul, Paradox, High Thunder/High Thunder II, Firestarter procs, or spells made instant via Swiftcast/Triplecast).

In case of emergency to prevent deaths (using Addle, Manaward, or panic Aetherial Manipulation) or to keep uptime where it otherwise would not be possible, it situationally can still be good to use oGCD abilities even without weaving them. However, it is recommended to later figure out a better way to deal with the situation without relying on clipping oGCD abilities.

Below are general recommendations for usage of various oGCD abilities for BLM.

Ley Lines/Between the Lines/Retrace

Standing within Ley Lines grants the user the buff Circle of Power, reducing both the cast time and recast time of all spells. Since Ley Lines affects all GCDs and lasts for 30s, it does not need to be specifically lined up for use in Astral Fire, but instead should generally be used roughly off cooldown at the next available weaving window, with the second charge used when there is a window of time to make use of its full duration. Notably, since the recast time is also reduced for spells used within Ley Lines, even instant-cast spells gain value.

Fight-specific mechanics/timings may warrant specific positioning or potentially small delays in order to maximize overall uptime within Ley Lines. With the addition of the second charge to the ability with Patch 7.1, minor delays are unlikely to cause drift/missed uses over the course of a fight. In addition, there are some options for flexibility for mechanics without having to delay usage:

1. It can be beneficial to stand at one edge of your Ley Lines by default. Many AoEs or other targeted mechanics are not large enough to cover them entirely, so by standing on one edge you may be able to dodge to the opposite edge.
2. If you need to leave your Ley Lines for a short time, consider using an instant cast spell within them, moving out to dodge/handle a mechanic, and then use Between the Lines to return to them. If you are able to return before your next cast starts, you do not lose any effective uptime.

If you need to move out of your Ley Lines for a longer duration, such as a persistent ground AoE lingering where you had initially placed them, you can consider using Retrace to reposition them at your new location after moving away, once per Ley Lines duration.

Triplecast/Swiftcast

In general, the ideal is to get maximum uses out of Swiftcast, and especially Triplecast, in a fight. Note that these abilities are not used up on instant cast spells like Xenoglossy, Paradox, and High Thunder. There are a few options for usage of these abilities:

Movement/Weaving

The instant casts from Triplecast and Swiftcast are valuable for weaving other oGCD abilities, as well as continuing casting while moving for mechanics. With the ability to hold up to two charges of Triplecast, it can be very beneficial to hold onto one charge if it may be needed for movement, while still being able to avoid missing uses. Being able to keep casting in situations where it would be impossible otherwise provides much more benefit than any other option, and should be the primary consideration.

Gaining Time

Using Triplecast and Swiftcast on spells that are longer than base GCD (notably Fire IV, Flare Star and Flare) will instead make them instant, saving a small amount of time and eventually resulting in additional casts over the course of a fight. For example, on a Fire IV cast, instead of taking the ~2.8s before starting the following cast, it is instead subject to the base 2.5s GCD, saving ~0.3s. Saving time over the course of an encounter will result in additional casts that you would have not gotten otherwise.

Instant Blizzard III

An additional consideration for Swiftcast or Triplecast is usage along with Transpose to increase the damage of Blizzard III. When casted in Astral Fire III, Blizzard III takes a 30% damage penalty, so using Transpose to enter Umbral Ice before using it removes this penalty. The Triplecast/Swiftcast makes the Blizzard III instant so it is not subject to the otherwise slow cast time in Umbral Ice—without this, it is not worthwhile over just casting the spell in Astral Fire. On average this has similar value to making Fire IV instant-cast, and can especially be a solid option especially if you need movement on that GCD or if you can weave a Triplecast early to catch a Fire IV, Flare Star, and the Blizzard III:

Manafont

In Dawntrail, Manafont grants full MP and Umbral Hearts, refreshes your Astral Fire timer, and provides both a Thunderhead buff and a Paradox marker. Therefore, outside of the opener it should primarily be weaved at the tail end of an Astral Fire phase when it is available, in order to get full value of a second Astral Fire phase along with a second Flare Star.

Due to the specific placement in the rotation, Manafont will rarely line up to be used strictly on cooldown, often incurring some (often significant) delay in usage. Since it is not a burst cooldown and does not have notable value in lining it up with raid buffs, this drift by itself is often not a large issue. However, if the collective drift over the course of a fight results in missing out on an entire usage, it may be worthwhile to look into options for shifting alignment to be able to get maximum uses out of Manafont. This will be expanded upon in the Additional Optimizations section, later likely moved to a separate advanced guide.

Miscellaneous

Amplifier: used roughly on cooldown, as long as it will not overcap the Polyglot gauge and waste a stack.

Aetherial Manipulation: movement tool used when a party member is in a position to move to, in order to reposition for a mechanic or whatever else may be required. Mostly useful when the distance required to travel is larger than a slidecast or current available movement tools will allow for. Consider using a macro for focus target as listed in the Appendix.

Manaward: solid personal shield which can be used proactively to help with mitigation, or reactively if needed to survive a mechanic.

Transpose: used primarily when bosses become untargetable/die while in Astral Fire, in order to swap to Umbral Ice to allow use of Umbral Soul . Can also be used in the case of larger mistakes where Astral Fire will drop otherwise, to swap to Umbral Ice and maintain Enochian. Can also be used for some small optimizations for both single target and for AoE.

Addle: used to lower damage dealt by the target, more effective on magic-based damage. Consider planning uses in a static environment, otherwise use when available to help mitigate raidwide damage.

Surecast: used to nullify knockback/draw-in effects in order to help keep uptime.

Lucid Dreaming: Astral Fire prevents MP refresh effects like Lucid Dreaming, and using an ice-aspected spell in Umbral Ice III grants full MP. As a result, this ability will generally not be used.

Downtime and Recovery

Inevitably when learning a fight (and the job itself), there will be situations where maintaining the rotation perfectly will not be possible, or otherwise interrupted by downtime. In these cases, learning how best to either maintain Astral Fire or what to do across the downtime is extremely beneficial.

Maintaining Astral Fire

With the introduction of Flare Star, it is even more important than ever to make sure you complete your entire Astral Fire cycle successfully. While some situations can make it much more difficult of a prospect, there are some good habits to keep in mind to set you up for the highest chance of success:

1. Frontloading your Astral Fire cycle with four Fire IV casts before the Paradox by default, five if possible (usually facilitated via Ley Lines and/or Triplecast/Swiftcast) provides you much more leeway to work with particularly in the second half of your Astral Fire cycle.
2. Particularly in situations where you need to fit in a Xenoglossy use or a High Thunder refresh, consider using Triplecast/Swiftcast wherever best suited to give yourself sufficient leeway on your Astral Fire timer wherever it may be tighter.
3. As previously mentioned, using your Firestarter procs to re-enter Astral Fire is generally the most optimal usage. However, if you have no other options to complete your Astral Fire cycle without it, using the proc to extend your Astral Fire timer is more valuable if it means finishing your cycle off and getting a Flare Star where you would not otherwise.

Recovery After Panic Transpose

If you are unable to complete your Astral Fire phase properly, including leveraging your tools as above, it is generally preferable to Transpose out of Astral Fire instead of letting it drop entirely. In this situation we have a recommended recovery option, named after a nickname of one of the BLM Helpfuls “Geiji”: “Geiji Ice Recovery Line” (commonly referred to as GIRL):

Using Transpose from Astral Fire grants Umbral Ice I, Paradox grants Umbral Ice II. The Blizzard cast provides the final stack of Umbral Ice to get back to Umbral Ice III, so we can cast Blizzard IV to get to full MP and three Umbral Hearts and resume the rotation as normal from there.

There are additional potential use cases for this line, discussed later in the “Additional Optimizations” section.

Handling Downtime and End of Fight

Depending on the length and type of downtime, there are a few options to consider for prep before/after downtime.

Before downtime/end of fight:

1. Other than some rare situations, DoTs do not tick while enemies are untargetable (and of course will not deal damage after the target is dead). Unless the DoT ticks nearly fully, it is often less worthwhile to apply/refresh High Thunder before downtimes/end of fight/during short uptime phases.
2. Ensure that you will not overcap on polyglot stacks during downtime, and that you use up all of your stacks before the end of a fight. Xenoglossy is the strongest BLM spell, so it is important to not miss any uses.
3. Try to prioritize strong spells before downtime. For example, if you are unable to get both Despair and Flare Star off right before downtime, the Flare Star takes priority.
4. An instant cast frontloads its damage at the start of the GCD, so it is good practice to plan to end on an instant cast before the downtime/end of fight. This can result in a last tap of damage where a normal cast would not have been able to finish otherwise.

Continuing across/after downtime:

1. For short downtime, try leveraging Triplecast/Swiftcast to help you finish the rest of your Astral Fire phase when you have uptime again. Otherwise, having a Firestarter proc to use to refresh your timer can have pretty large value in short downtimes.
2. For moderate length downtimes, you will often be able to use Umbral Soul to get back to full MP with three Umbral Hearts. If you are going to end the uptime phase in Astral Fire, consider dumping the rest of your MP with Despair, then using Transpose to enter Umbral Ice before using Umbral Soul.
3. For especially long downtime, a Thunderhead buff you may initially obtain may not last long enough. In these cases, you can consider using Transpose to head back into Astral Fire, then Transpose back into Umbral Ice, using Umbral Soul to build back up to Umbral Ice III with three Umbral Hearts before you have uptime again. You will generate a fresh Thunderhead buff with each transition, so you can time this to ensure the proc lasts long enough to reapply immediately when possible. You can also similarly generate a Paradox for Umbral Ice by building up to Umbral Ice III with three Umbral Hearts before the first Transpose.

4. Of note, especially for downtime before AoE in dungeons, you can easily Transpose to Astral Fire after all the mobs are grouped together to apply High Thunder II before continuing on with your Flares/Flare Star.
5. Downtime where you are stunned or are otherwise in a cutscene and unable to use Umbral Soul can be especially problematic, regardless of length. In most cases, try to end up in Umbral Ice for the downtime, via Transpose or otherwise to ensure you do not delay getting at least natural MP refresh from having to wait until your Astral Fire timer expires.

Dropped Astral Fire/Umbral Ice

Flare Star creates extra incentive for a full Astral Fire cycle, and the only way to get much MP back is from casting ice-aspected spells in Umbral Ice. Therefore, most of the time if you do end up dropping Astral Fire/Umbral Ice, your best course of action will be to cast Blizzard III (ideally using Swiftcast to avoid the long cast time), refresh/apply High Thunder if needed, then cast Blizzard IV and continue on with a normal Astral Fire cycle.

Additional Optimizations

These sections are more preliminary and will likely be added onto/adjusted with more details/options as time goes on. It is likely some if not all of this will be moved over into an advanced guide.

Single Target Flare Usage

Flare has the unique ability to generate three Astral Soul stacks with a single cast, where otherwise only one stack is generated per Fire IV cast for the single target rotation. While the spell itself is relatively weak for single target, there is room for some level of viability for it with regards to alignment as well as for end of fight considerations (to generate a Flare Star where you wouldn’t be able to otherwise).

Early/Late High Thunder Refresh

With most of the High Thunder damage on the DoT portion and less on the on-hit, it is generally important to try to aim to refresh when the DoT is falling off (less than 3 seconds remaining).

Refreshing the DoT after it has fallen off, especially for a longer period of time, more directly loses damage that you would get from the DoT ticks otherwise. Refreshing the DoT slightly prematurely, however, really only starts to lose more damage if it causes you to have to spend an extra GCD refreshing the DoT to have the same uptime, or if you end up missing ticks before downtime/end of fight that you would have gotten with regular refresh timing.

On average it will be better to refresh slightly early than let it drop off entirely. However, in either case, it is quite possible to have minimal to no loss from an early/late refresh. In an ideal environment and planned uptime lengths/killtimes/casting timeline, it is viable to quantify loss in alternative refresh timings compared to the gains they may facilitate for things like weaving for AF1 F3P, movement, or whatever else.

In a less controlled environment, it can still situationally be worthwhile to refresh slightly early/late, particularly if it helps keep better uptime on the DoT overall or otherwise helps you from having to sacrifice your rotation later in order to refresh the DoT. To stress again, however, it is important to not overly rely on early/late High Thunder refreshes, and they should instead be more considered as a situational alternative to utilize when needed.

Pre-Manafont Considerations

With Manafont now granting full resources including a Paradox, normally we will end up with a spare Firestarter proc pre-Manafont that we need to burn in Astral Fire III before we generate a new one with the second Paradox. While the proc used in Astral Fire III is still fairly solid, it’s not as valuable as it would be otherwise since we cannot use it to enable AF1 F3P.

This can lead way towards justifying an alternative setup pre-Manafont that does not generate this Firestarter proc since it is otherwise “wasted” in Astral Fire III, and can also potentially help adjust alignment for an earlier Manafont usage.

Additional GIRL Applications

Beyond simply a recovery option after a panic Transpose to prevent dropping Astral Fire, GIRL can be used in place of a regular Blizzard III cast. By itself, this is a small potency loss, but there are a few use cases for it which can result in a net gain (typically with a weaved Transpose usage):

• Using Transpose at the tail end of an Astral Fire cycle grants Thunderhead a GCD earlier than after casting Blizzard III. If this results in gaining a DoT tick due to being able to reapply High Thunder a GCD earlier, it can end up being a gain. This situation most likely will come up if you refresh your High Thunder DoT at the start of an Astral Fire phase, since the DoT may fall off before you reenter Umbral Ice normally.
• A Paradox in raid buffs is significantly stronger than a Blizzard III in buffs, particularly if casted in Astral Fire III. If you’re in a situation with one GCD left before raid buffs fall off, with the ability to weave Transpose at the tail end of an Astral Fire phase to use Paradox, it can be a good consideration.
• Paradox provides an additional GCD of movement that Blizzard III would not grant by itself. While not a direct gain, this can be used to extend movement by an extra GCD for a small loss. If this results in uptime that you would not get otherwise, it can turn into a gain.

Appendix

Macros

Since Sprint cannot be properly queued like regular oGCD actions, using a macro to spam the action can help with reliability, with no downside:

/merror off
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/ac "Sprint"
/micon "Sprint"

Manually targeting to use Aetherial Manipulation can often result in minor delay due to needing to change targets multiple times. Therefore, a common alternative is to use a mouseover macro for the ability:

/merror off
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/micon "Aetherial Manipulation"

Hovering over the character model of a party member, or even their name in the party list, and then pressing the macro will use Aetherial Manipulation on them without changing target. If the flexibility for regular targeting is desired, the bottom or two can be replaced with . There is also the option to replace the with the number of the slot of a specified party member (i.e. <3>) that may be consistently in a good spot to use Aetherial Manipulation to (though in this case it is recommended to have a regular version of Aetherial Manipulation available for more manual targeting in case another target is situationally preferred).

Common Abbreviations

For this document, full names of spells, buffs, and abilities were used for clarity. However, these are frequently abbreviated in regular discussion. Below are the most common abbreviations for these:

• F1, F2, F3, F4: Fire spells, the number designates the rank (i.e. F1 = Fire, F2 = Fire II, etc.)
• B1, B2, B3, B4: Blizzard spells, the number designates the rank (i.e. B1 = Blizzard, B2 = Blizzard II, etc.)
• T1, T2, T3, T4: Thunder spells, the number designates the rank (i.e. T1 = Thunder, T2 = Thunder II, etc.)
• HT, HT2: High Thunder and High Thunder II, respectively
• FS: Flare Star
• HF2/HB2: High Fire II, High Blizzard II
• AF1, AF2, AF3: Astral Fire, Astral Fire II, and Astral Fire III respectively
• UI1, UI2, UI3: Umbral Ice, Umbral Ice II, Umbral Ice III respectively
• Eno: Enochian
• Xeno: Xenoglossy
• Para: Paradox
• Amp: Amplifier
• LL: Ley Lines
• Triple: Triplecast
• Swift: Swiftcast
• AM: Aetherial Manipulation
• BtL: Between the Lines
• Poly: Polyglot
• MF: Manafont
• Lucid: Lucid Dreaming
• SpS/sps: Spell Speed
• Pot: Main stat (Intelligence) potion, current strongest option is HQ Grade 2 Gemdraught of Intelligence
• GIRL: Geiji Ice Recovery Line, a recovery option to get back into the regular rotation

Acknowledgements

Big thanks to my fellow mentors Fürst Blumier and Reina Leigh for their work and support, as well as all of the BLM Helpfuls.

And also to all the various BLM players on the Balance–whether you’re one of the bigger names who help teach others or otherwise just hang out, one of the newer players asking questions to help learn and improve, or anyone in between, know that you’re very much appreciated <3