Blue Mage DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Endwalker 6.4
On this page, you will learn how to optimise your opener and rotation in both single-target and multi-target situations. We also cover the use of your cooldowns, to ensure you can achieve the best use of them every time as a Blue Mage DPS in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (Patch 6.4).
Blue Mage Rotation
This guide is intended for level 70 Blue Mages that have learned all spells. If you're not at that point yet, then check out the Leveling and Spells pages.
Moon Flute Opener
The most important part dealing DPS effectively as a Blue Mage is
being able to pull off a Moon Flute opener. Moon Flute grants
50% increased damage for 15 seconds followed by 15 seconds of being unable to
use spells or abilities. We can abuse this to cram all of our highest potency
spells into that 15 second window.
The timeline for the opener can be found below, where larger spells on the
bottom are GCD and smaller spells on top are OGCD. Blue Mage spells are weird,
and Surpanakha actually requires a quadruple weave to get the
full effect. When we use it, we actually have six OGCDs in a row and a
ton of GCD clipping, but it's the only way to make everything fit!

After Moon Flute Opener
You might be wondering what to do after the Moon Flute opener. It's actually pretty simple, we basically follow this priority:
- Is the boss nearly dead and in
Final Sting range? Everyone (except the tank usually) should coordinate a
Moon Flute, use any cooldowns they have available, and then finish with
Whistle into
Final Sting.
- Is there raidwide damage about to happen? If yes, use
Cold Fog to be able to spam a 400 potency instant cast spell for 15 seconds!
- Is
Nightbloom or
Song of Torment (they don't stack) on the target? If no, use
Bristle followed by
Song of Torment.
- Are any cooldowns up that will be up in time again for the next Moon
Flute? If yes, use them. This applies to
Feather Rain,
Shock Strike, and
The Rose of Destruction to name a few.
- Is
Triple Trident off cooldown, and you are running a Spell Speed setup? Use the combo with
Whistle and
Tingle! You can also hold until the next opener, and if you are running a Critical Hit setup you only want to use it in the opener.
- Use
Sonic Boom or equivalent filler spell.
Do I Use the Second Hit of Phantom Flurry?
You might be wondering why Phantom Flurry is the last spell
used, and whether you should use the second activation. When we use Phantom
Flurry at the end of
Moon Flute, the damage buff snapshots and
we are able to continue channeling even after we go into Waning. This means it
is actually more damage to let it run out rather than try to use the second
activation. On top of this, the opener is already so tight that it is unlikely
you could even use the second activation if you wanted to!
How Frequently Do I Use a Moon Flute Opener
If we're looking at just target dummy damage, ideally we use an opener every
two minutes when all of our cooldowns are up. However, in practice we usually need
to handle mechanics, or might need to use Diamondback, or any
number of things. What this means is that we still try to use it every
two minutes, but only when it is actually safe to do so. Most of the time this
will be right after a big mechanic or phase transition
Do Tanks and Healers Use Moon Flute Openers?
There are almost no circumstances where a tank will use this opener. Tanks
primarily have to focus on keeping MP up with Blood Drain so
that they can use
Diamondback for tankbusters. Additionally,
tanks will be focusing a lot on using things like
Bad Breath
to mitigate raid damage and help heal with
White Wind.
Healers do benefit from using this opener. It is common to have one healer act as "main healer" who focuses primarily on healing, and one healer act as "off healer" who focuses primarily on DPS but helps with healing where needed. Off healers will definitely be using a Moon Flute opener. You can find the different loadouts for healers at the Spells page.
What If I Can't Fit Everything Into Moon Flute?
The opener is extremely tight, especially if you are not running a
Spell Speed setup or have high ping. There are some ways to mitigate this. The
easiest option is to just meld more Spell Speed into your gear until you are
able to consistently pull it off. If this doesn't work, you can also do things
like move J Kick before
Moon Flute and move each OGCD
up one spot. This is less damage, but it is important to fit everything else in
where possible
Dungeon Rotations
The above information mostly applies to bosses, such as in Trials or Raids. Dungeons are slightly different for Blue Mage.
When running dungeons, we are able to use abilities like
The Ram's Voice to freeze enemies and
Ultravibration to kill them instantly. Some dungeon bosses
are even vulnerable to effects like
Missile and
Doom! This means that we really don't actually spend a lot of
time DPSing, and instead we just run straight through cheesing enemies along the
way. When you are running dungeons with other Blue Mages, it's important to
figure out a
Ultravibration rotation so that you don't
overlap cooldowns and waste them!
Changelog
- 23 May 2023: Checked for Patch 6.4.
- 24 Feb. 2023: Guide added.
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Liam Galt, who created the Blue Academy Youtube channel and Discord in response to the lack of consolidated and accurate Blue Mage resources available. Liam enjoys finding non-standard solutions to problems, so Blue Mage content with all of its zaniness is a natural interest! Outside of Blue Mage, he also enjoys Savage and Ultimate raiding which he streams on Twitch.
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