Question for summoners

[Hogie]

I originally posted this on KI and then 15min later was like, wait a sec... why the fuck did i do that?


I am "new" to summoner in the sense that i have not really had too much experience playing it in a party situation or end game nor have i played it much at all in the last 5 years. My SMN is currently 73 and i have access to a lot of nice gear for it, what i really need help with is when to put in what gear.

Here are my 2 current gear sets that i can think of using.

Idel - - FFXIAH.com

Blood Packs - - FFXIAH.com

Question 1: Main thing i am looking for is suggestions on gear. I used a SMN Macro guide i found on Wiki and oh my god i cant explain how much this has helped me. Aside from the clear upgrade for Yingyang Robe, what else should i be using? Should i get a summoning earring and torque for my Blood Packs? I have all HQ staffs and access to get most items in the game that i dont already have aside from a B Staff but soon maybe.

Like i said above, aside from Yingyang Robe, upgrades i can think of to start would be AF+1 Gloves.... Crap after looking at it, i guess i want more or less full AF2. What about a second earring? Should i get a summoning earring and almost full time it?

Any gear suggestions would be amazing!

EDIT!: i am 6/7 on my ring, just need to find some people to help me with Fenrir and then that will be my second ring rather then Ether

Question 2: how exactly does minus blood pack timer work? Should i macro it in before i actually use my skill? or does it have to be in before the Avatar uses the skill? Being the perfectionist i am, if i can leave my - perp cost in 1 second longer i will


Question 3: Merits, With the change to magic attack bonus on summons, is it worth meriting full magic bonus for them or is it better to do a little bit of a mix? I was thinking for Tier2 Merits to max Shiva and Ramuh, but what about Tier1? My first thoughts were 5/5 Phys Acc and 5/5 MAB, thoughts suggestions?

[Shin Volcano]

I originally posted this on KI and then 15min later was like, wait a sec... why the fuck did i do that?


I am "new" to summoner in the sense that i have not really had too much experience playing it in a party situation or end game nor have i played it much at all in the last 5 years. My SMN is currently 73 and i have access to a lot of nice gear for it, what i really need help with is when to put in what gear.

Here are my 2 current gear sets that i can think of using.

Idel - - FFXIAH.com

Blood Packs - - FFXIAH.com

Question 1: Main thing i am looking for is suggestions on gear. I used a SMN Macro guide i found on Wiki and oh my god i cant explain how much this has helped me. Aside from the clear upgrade for Yingyang Robe, what else should i be using? Should i get a summoning earring and torque for my Blood Packs? I have all HQ staffs and access to get most items in the game that i dont already have aside from a B Staff but soon maybe.

SMN magic skill is very important, BUT if it is NOT caped, anything increasing skill+ won't do you any good, you need to cap that asap to get ANY benefits from it. me i wear full MP to get started (earthen ward etc), then switch to SMN skill after torque and earring are your best options, but again as long as it is caped.

Like i said above, aside from Yingyang Robe, upgrades i can think of to start would be AF+1 Gloves.... Crap after looking at it, i guess i want more or less full AF2. What about a second earring? Should i get a summoning earring and almost full time it?

AF1 gloves are comeplty useless, same for Af+1 don't bother with them, ever. i have never seen that special proc, and i doubt it does often, your best bet is AF2 hands, if you don't have those, then something with MP i understand nashira gaes are hard to get, so i won't include those. MP is still important, but mainly before fights, i'd get that as secondary.


Almost all of SMNS best gear is rare/ex which is one of the things i loved about SMN< your best shit was free, you just had to work your ass off for it.

EDIT!: i am 6/7 on my ring, just need to find some people to help me with Fenrir and then that will be my second ring rather then Ether

I personaly hate convert gear, even more so on SMn since they have the WORST HP of any job in the game. i don't recommend full timing anything with - HP, unless you are sure you won't get hit. i personaly use tamas/Evoker's or Conjurers when /sch and HP macro. (which is when that convert gear actually does help)

Question 2: how exactly does minus blood pack timer work? Should i macro it in before i actually use my skill? or does it have to be in before the Avatar uses the skill? Being the perfectionist i am, if i can leave my - perp cost in 1 second longer i will

the timer already restarts as soon as you Excute the BP so you would need it on prior to doing a BP.

Question 3: Merits, With the change to magic attack bonus on summons, is it worth meriting full magic bonus for them or is it better to do a little bit of a mix? I was thinking for Tier2 Merits to max Shiva and Ramuh, but what about Tier1? My first thoughts were 5/5 Phys Acc and 5/5 MAB, thoughts suggestions?

Yes they are, they NEED to be merited or some sort of Help in the MAB department tho, and they are ranged and go thru mob shadows, they have there uses. it's all up to what you use smn for and how you use it, you can't go wrong with either. i got all because i like being comeplte, but it's comeptely up to you.

[Hogie]

Yeah the Ether ring was literally just something i had in my mog house that would make me have a ring on rather then a empty spot. I dont plan on using it ever once i get my Evokers Ring. I totally forgot about Nashira and yes i do have access to getting them, i actually just passed a paid 2 weeks ago because i didnt think i would ever use them hahaha stupid me.

Only reason i mentioned AF+1 Gloves is because of the -BP timer, i dont know how long it will be for me to get AF2 Gloves.


Any suggestion on another earring other then Loq + Summoning?

[jimbobsonofgod]

SMN damage = random.
I've seen a fully decked out 75 smn fully merited get out done by a fully naked just hit 70 smn.

Try for a pet att/mab earring from fei'yin.

-hp isn't so bad unless you are a taru really. some races can afford it.

Oh and love the avatar my fellow cannuck.

[Shin Volcano]

Magentic if you have it..earring slots suck for smn, badly, it's really just a matter of MP after SMN skill, or novia if you have it. if somone has better options for ear slot i'd like to know to. I did hear some of the ACP augument earrings have MAB and pet attack etc. but good luck getting those. I don't even remember what i used before af2 gloves..i think i just wore NQ af1 because it was the only thing i had, if you don't plan on getting AF2 for a loooong time you can get AF+1 but if you do get them..they become a wasted set of coins and items, your 1st priority is af+1 feet since they have Prep -1 after that it's really just whatever, because none of the other +1 peices stand out and some (legs in this case) are actually worse to upgrade.

[Shin Volcano]

I've seen a fully decked out 75 smn fully merited get out done by a fully naked just hit 70 smn.

This is mainly a hit and miss factor, if say Predator claws for example misses 1 of those 3 hits, she will do significatly less damage, but yea it is comeplty random, sometimes i get 1.1k BPS and on another 2 i'll hit 1.7-8k on that same mob.

-hp isn't so bad unless you are a taru really. some races can afford it.

I think Galka and maybe elvaan are the main races that can get away with this, but after watching a hume SMN get wasted on KB KS99 multiple on almost every metoer and im' standing right near him still standing many times because he decides to full time z slacks and crown it sort of makes you think diffrently on convert gear aspects.

[Ultimagi]

As a Tarutaru, I'd rather wear nothing than useless convert equipment on my mage jobs.

[Falisa]

As for the gear question, and what to wear for the actual rages, you will want to go for as much skill as you can stick on your char, as nothing else affects your rages other than the gear that specifically states that it does (AF1 legs, AF2 hands etc). Looking at your current rage setup, my suggestion would be to definitely get a summoning torque as that star necklace is doing nothing for you. Also, I would get austere cuffs to replace your AF1 hands, as they are the best you can wear on your hands before you can get AF2. Also, you can switch out AF1 hat for the austere hat for the actual rage if you feel like doing that. Austere feet are also a possibility if you want to dish out the gil for them before AF2 feet, no idea how much those are nowadays.

One thing that later on after getting better SMN gear, is to decide whether or not you want to use AF1 legs or skill legs (oracles/marduk). I personally adjust my macro to change between them depending on if I'm mostly using Garuda, where i would use the AF1 for accuracy, or I would change it to my marduk legs if I was using any other avatar. My rage setup if you're curious - FFXIAH.com

Now for how to set up your rage macro, the way I have mine set up is that I have it macro in my -BP timer set, use the Rage JA and then put in a /wait 1, then macro in my rage set. If everything goes correctly, this will put on your gear before the actual ability goes off. I stole my macro from a friend, and its worked perfectly for me.

/console exec "smnbp.txt" full -bp timer set
/console exec "bprage.txt" Contains 1 BP from every avatar, uses whichever avatar is out.
/wait 1
/console exec "smnbp2.txt" my skill set

[Ashokan]

Q1: I didn't read every word in this thread, but I'm sure people have given excellent suggestions for gear.

One option that isn't often covered for SMN macros is having them switch around to avoid having to spam them. If you use FFXI native macros, you'd accomplish this by tying /macro set # for each avatar then that macro set would have all your x avatar BPs on it.

If you have windower and use spellcast, you can just have it bind your keys as you summon any avatar. I switched to this, because I didn't like the spam and SpellCast doesn't like spam like that anyway.

Q2: Timer is based on the gear you have on as the bp command is sent through, so:
1) macro in all bp timer gear
2) send command for bp
3) switch to gear that increasing bp performance
4) after the avatar executes the bp, switch to idle/perp gear

Q3: Think others probably covered this. I would suggest considering "Geocrush" for the nasty Stun effect, eventhough it is earth based.

Any suggestion on another earring other then Loq + Summoning?
ACP augment earring is the best you can do for helping your avatar. Magnetic isn't bad for idle. Summoner isn't too hot in the earring department.

[Hogie]

As for the gear question, and what to wear for the actual rages, you will want to go for as much skill as you can stick on your char, as nothing else affects your rages other than the gear that specifically states that it does (AF1 legs, AF2 hands etc). Looking at your current rage setup, my suggestion would be to definitely get a summoning torque as that star necklace is doing nothing for you. Also, I would get austere cuffs to replace your AF1 hands, as they are the best you can wear on your hands before you can get AF2. Also, you can switch out AF1 hat for the austere hat for the actual rage if you feel like doing that. Austere feet are also a possibility if you want to dish out the gil for them before AF2 feet, no idea how much those are nowadays.

One thing that later on after getting better SMN gear, is to decide whether or not you want to use AF1 legs or skill legs (oracles/marduk). I personally adjust my macro to change between them depending on if I'm mostly using Garuda, where i would use the AF1 for accuracy, or I would change it to my marduk legs if I was using any other avatar. My rage setup if you're curious - FFXIAH.com

Now for how to set up your rage macro, the way I have mine set up is that I have it macro in my -BP timer set, use the Rage JA and then put in a /wait 1, then macro in my rage set. If everything goes correctly, this will put on your gear before the actual ability goes off. I stole my macro from a friend, and its worked perfectly for me.

/console exec "smnbp.txt" full -bp timer set
/console exec "bprage.txt" Contains 1 BP from every avatar, uses whichever avatar is out.
/wait 1
/console exec "smnbp2.txt" my skill set

Right now #1 for my SMN is to cap my summoning magic as it is grossly under leveled. I will definitely look in to getting a summoning torque and earring tonight as well as my Antivenom isnt really helping me much. I am a Taru myself so even putting on my Dalmatica scares me lol, im going to try and get YYR ToD since i was told a RDM can solo it.

Really really love your BP Macro. Does it macro in all your - timer stuff first, then wait and then put in your acc skill and damage gear?

[dejet]

Now for how to set up your rage macro, the way I have mine set up is that I have it macro in my -BP timer set, use the Rage JA and then put in a /wait 1, then macro in my rage set. If everything goes correctly, this will put on your gear before the actual ability goes off. I stole my macro from a friend, and its worked perfectly for me.

/console exec "smnbp.txt" full -bp timer set
/console exec "bprage.txt" Contains 1 BP from every avatar, uses whichever avatar is out.
/wait 1
/console exec "smnbp2.txt" my skill set

thats a big one get macros set up right. it adds a lot. -bp wont do anything if you have it in at the end so get -bp then go to t DMG/acc?MAB or what ever set you are building. i know this was about gear but the rest covered it well. just wished to point this out again as its something a lot smns forget.

[Shin Volcano]

Right now #1 for my SMN is to cap my summoning magic as it is grossly under leveled. I will definitely look in to getting a summoning torque and earring tonight as well as my Antivenom isnt really helping me much. I am a Taru myself so even putting on my Dalmatica scares me lol, im going to try and get YYR ToD since i was told a RDM can solo it.

Really really love your BP Macro. Does it macro in all your - timer stuff first, then wait and then put in your acc skill and damage gear?

That's the same exact BP Set i use, except i replaced af2 with Rendigote with 15 attack/dbl attack/critical which has landed me much harder hitting BPS,

other diffrence

I use Sacrafice torque if accuracy is not an issue, and penetitns rope to less the enimity when using commands, but i don't ussualy have room for it, so it's ussualy whatever is in that slot, same with the smn earring, no room, so it dosn't change.

[Linktri]

This is what I use:

Head: Evoker's Horn +1
Main: HQ Staves, Astral Staff, Diabolos Pole (just for kicks)
Sub: Staff Strap
Neck: Prudence Torque
Throwing: Phantom Tathlum
Body: Yingyang Robe
Hands: Summoner's Bracers/Carbuncle's Mitts
Legs: Summoner's Spats
Feet: Summoner's Pigaches/Rostrum Pumps/Nashira Crackows
Ring1: Tamas Ring
Ring2: Evoker's Ring
Earring1: Loquacious Earring
Earring2: Magnetic Earring
Back: Rainbow Cape
Waist: Hierarch Belt

My back, waist and head pieces aren't the absolute best but they don't really have to be. I can wait for a Summoner's Cape or some other better pieces of R/EX shit to pop into my inventory.

[Falisa]

Really really love your BP Macro. Does it macro in all your - timer stuff first, then wait and then put in your acc skill and damage gear?

The first gear set used is every piece of -BP timer you can equip, the last thing you do in the macro is equip your rage/skill set for before the ability actually goes off on the monster.

I had to dig around for what I said in a previous thread about my opinion of tier 2 merits.

My suggestion is to definitely get Geocrush. Its really a wonderful BP for kited fights because of the magic range of the BP and it stuns for whoever is kiting it currently. Its pretty much a good overall BP to use in situations where you don't want to use the physical BPs because it does more damage than what you'll get from nether blast and of course that stun. I suggest 5/5 in this as the damage increase was noticeable.

As for the last 5 points, it up to you. I decided to get grand fall a long time ago now because I wanted something with higher damage than Diabolos for Water weak monsters, like Tiamat in the air. It hasn't disappointed, I always use this in kiting or just situations where I cant get my avatar in range for a physical BP instead of Nether blast because I haven't personally put merit points into geocrush yet.

The tier 2 magical BPs are actually pretty nice. There are alot of situations where you will want to use a ranged BP instead of physical, and before tier 2, all you have is nether blast. My 2/5 grand fall does about 100 more damage than nether blast and i have 2 merits into magical attack.

[Hogie]

The first gear set used is every piece of -BP timer you can equip, the last thing you do in the macro is equip your rage/skill set for before the ability actually goes off on the monster.

I had to dig around for what I said in a previous thread about my opinion of tier 2 merits.


The tier 2 magical BPs are actually pretty nice. There are alot of situations where you will want to use a ranged BP instead of physical, and before tier 2, all you have is nether blast. My 2/5 grand fall does about 100 more damage than nether blast and i have 2 merits into magical attack.

Only thing i am worried about / thinking about is that, should i gear my summoner towards one or the other? (Magic or Phys) Because it seems that if i was to do 5/5 Geocrush and 5/5 in another, i am going to want Macc and MAB, or MAB only? If MAB only, should i put the other 5 tier1 merits in to Phys Acc? Phys BPs already do nice damage do is the Acc a better idea to make sure things like Rush or PC land better?

[Plow]

Only thing i am worried about / thinking about is that, should i gear my summoner towards one or the other? (Magic or Phys) Because it seems that if i was to do 5/5 Geocrush and 5/5 in another, i am going to want Macc and MAB, or MAB only? If MAB only, should i put the other 5 tier1 merits in to Phys Acc? Phys BPs already do nice damage do is the Acc a better idea to make sure things like Rush or PC land better?

I haven't gotten to mess around with stuff lately, but on virtually anything worth using magic bp's over (fully physical acc merited/geared) predator claws, the biggest drawback to the magical bp's is that they have a terrible resist rate.

Therefore I'd go with macc.


I've recently started using my smn again, and since the update I think I'm going to shift merits around, keeping 5/5 physical acc, but dropping 5/5 physical attack (qq) in favor of 5/5 magic acc, along with 5/5 wind blade and 4/5 geocrush. (I'm not dropping thunderstorm cuz it just looks too damn cool on wyrms.)


Oh, yeah, I'm an elf and I sit at ~1030 hp and ~1130 mp with dalmatica and serket on, I use insomnia earring/turban/intensifying cape/grandiose chain for starting out with max mp and keeping hp high enough to survive a lot of shit.

[Zekyr]

nthing the general BP macro laid out, here's mine just for shits and giggles

===example game macro===
//exec SMN/BP.txt
//exec SMN/rage-phys.txt
/wait 1
//exec SMN/phys.txt
/wait 3
//exec SMN/perp.txt

BP minus gear

input /equip head "Summoner's Horn";
input /equip body "Yinyang Robe";
input /equip hands "Summoner's Bracers";
input /equip legs "Summoner's Spats";
input /equip feet "Summoner's Pigaches";
input /echo SMN BP Delay- Gear

Physical BP set

input /pet "Flaming Crush" <t>;
input /pet "Mountain Buster" <t>;
input /pet "Spinning Dive" <t>;
input /pet "Predator Claws" <t>;
input /pet "Rush" <t>;
input /pet "Chaotic Strike" <t>;
input /pet "Eclipse Bite" <t>;

Magical BP set

input /pet "Meteorite" <t>;
input /pet "Meteor Strike" <t>;
input /pet "Geocrush" <t>;
input /pet "Grand Fall" <t>;
input /pet "Wind Blade" <t>;
input /pet "Heavenly Strike" <t>;
input /pet "Thunderstorm" <t>;
input /pet "Nether Blast" <t>;

Physical BP effect

input /equip head "Evoker's Horn";
input /equip neck "Sacrifice Torque";
input /equip ear1 "Summoning Earring";
input /equip body "Summoner's Doublet";
input /equip hands "Summoner's Bracers";
input /equip ring2 "Evoker's Ring";
input /equip back "Astute Cape";
input /equip legs "Evoker's Spats +1";
input /equip feet "Summoner's Pigaches";
input /echo SMN Atk/Acc Gear;
pause 5;
input /equip neck "Summoning Torque";

Magical BP effect

input /equip head "Evoker's Horn";
input /equip neck "Summoning Torque";
input /equip ear1 "Summoning Earring";
input /equip body "Royal Redingote";     [Pet MAcc/MAB]
input /equip hands "Summoner's Bracers";
input /equip ring2 "Evoker's Ring";
input /equip back "Astute Cape";
input /equip legs "Oracle's Braconi";
input /equip feet "Nashira Crackows";
input /echo SMN Skill Gear

Perp gear

input /equip head "Summoner's Horn";
input /equip body "Royal Redingote";     [Perp -2]
input /equip hands "Nashira Gages";
input /equip ring2 "Evoker's Ring";
input /equip back "Summoner's Cape";
input /equip feet "Evoker's Pigaches +1";
input /echo SMN Perp- Gear

Wards are similar, I probably don't need to go into those. Might be something missed here and there, and I don't have the best gear, but you can get an idea I think.

[Pindle]

This is slightly off topic, but why do people use //console exec filename.txt? /console exec filename.txt works too.

[Issac]

This is slightly off topic, but why do people use //console exec filename.txt? /console exec filename.txt works too.

You mean why don't people just use //exec filename.txt

[Pindle]

You mean why don't people just use //exec filename.txt

Except you didn't answer my question.