Openers

Openers should put abilities on cooldown, fit strong spells within buff windows, and minimize clipping. All openers assume there is a pull countdown and the boss is pulled at zero. If your group pulls earlier, adjust them as necessary. Use the highest tier Potion of Intelligence available.

Standard 5+7 Opener

The standard opener for BLM. This opener skips a Despair cast pre-Manafont as well as a Paradox cast post-Manafont in order to cast 12 total Fire IV casts (5 before and 7 after Manafont, thus the name “5+7”), enabling two uses of Flare Star.

The initial Fire III cast should start around 4 seconds prepull (to land at the same time the boss is pulled). High Thunder should be refreshed just before raid buffs are falling off, which may shift depending on spell speed and party buff timing.

Additional notes:

• 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.
• Triplecast and Swiftcast usage is fairly flexible as needed in the opener for movement, but should still ideally be weaved after an instant-cast spell. At very low spell speeds, Swiftcast will come off cooldown to be available for the Umbral Ice I Blizzard III usage as pictured.
• This opener does not generate a Firestarter proc due to skipping the Paradox in Astral Fire. As a result, in order to consistently generate the proc for stronger reentry into Astral Fire III you should continue to use Paradox as your first spell in Astral Fire until at least the next Manafont cycle.

Alternative Single-Target Flare Opener

This alternative opener leverages Flare to generate sufficient Astral Soul stacks for a second Flare Star in the opener. The initial Fire III cast should start around 4 seconds prepull (to land at the same time the boss is pulled). High Thunder should be refreshed just before raid buffs are falling off, which may shift depending on spell speed and party buff timing.

While a minor loss compared to the Standard opener, this opener allows for casting Paradox post-Manafont. This generates a Firestarter proc for use in the following Astral Fire cycle, allowing for more flexible Paradox usage in subsequent cycles compared to the Standard opener.

If you were to use the Standard opener and would want or otherwise need to regain this flexibility by casting Fire III from Umbral Ice III instead of the recommended Astral Fire I -> Paradox -> Firestarter, you will lose less from swapping to this Alternative Opener to begin with.

Additional notes:

• 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.
• Triplecast and Swiftcast usage is fairly flexible as needed in the opener for movement, but should still ideally be weaved after an instant-cast spell.
• The placement of Xenoglossy is flexible in the opener but should ideally be used within the raid buff window.
• This opener can sometimes be referred to as “Potato Rotato” as homage to an old Stormblood BLM optimization nicknamed “Potato Rotato”, similarly leveraging Triplecast for single-target Flare and Umbral Ice I Blizzard III.