BLM questions

[Deadgye]

What does smn have that counters the of usefulness black mages aoe spam on phase 1 and 4? When I went back and watched our first win I realized we cleared phase 1 in like 30-40 seconds and phase 4 in 48 seconds lol. Can probably do it faster when the second blm gets quelling strikes.

Never had the chance to do turn 4 with a summoner, so I don't actually know what/how they do. D:

[Seravi Edalborez]

Bane'ing DoTs from the (knight/soldier I'm a SCH I can never remember which one reflects without looking) to the (one that reflects) is pretty good. Especially if your SCH can do it too (guess what I need to work on).

[Spider-Dan]

Knight is anti-magic, Soldier is anti-physical.

Going further off-topic, but can SMN also Fester those DoTs after they are spread to the Knight?

[Seravi Edalborez]

I know Energy Drain gets countered by Knight so I don't see why Fester wouldn't.

[Spider-Dan]

Well, given that Bane doesn't get countered, it seems like Fester wouldn't either.

[Nirokun!]

What does smn have that counters the of usefulness black mages aoe spam on phase 1 and 4? When I went back and watched our first win I realized we cleared phase 1 in like 30-40 seconds and phase 4 in 48 seconds lol. Can probably do it faster when the second blm gets quelling strikes.

Never had the chance to do turn 4 with a summoner, so I don't actually know what/how they do. D:

I think you're making this more than it is, because it's not like a "counter" to blm, it works differently and, imo, is safer. SMN competes with blm on single target easily, and these pulls lend themselves to Bane, because these "trash" mobs live long enough to make DoTs useful over the negligible setup time for BLM AoE rotation. The difference, from my experience, is that the kill speeds are much faster. Parsers can't show it, but I and others think so who've been with me on both (and I was using the same gear, relic+1/DL for both before committing myth to smn) say it's much faster.

*SMN gets full utility from bane because mobs have a lot of HP (compare to WP where stuff dies too fast to get all of the tick damage in). This lets you get Bane off on soldier/knight for full effect*** where blm has to focus on one.

*Shadowflare has slow, making things safer. Everything you're dropping a Shadowflare on usually fits within. :Q All that damage!

*Miasma II actually has a good use!

***Knight/Soldier: You DoT the soldier then bane to the knight. Knight reflects and hits your for +1k, but now you're functioning as a melee DD on the knight and the soldier (except for ruin/fester, they act like magic damage). Because your DoT's are doing "melee" damage to the soldier, it gets locked and doesn't do damage (idk how long). Knight dies super fast and you have a locked soldier. With 2 blm, soldier always dies first and knight remains (doing damage). It's a safer situation because 1k damage taken is really nothing. Blm is only doing full damage to 1 monster at a time, smn is maybe 1.5~2 and contributing to a favorable lock situation.

Going further off-topic, but can SMN also Fester those DoTs after they are spread to the Knight?

I've never tried, I always fester the soldier and the knights are already dead because bards/melee + BioII/Miasma/Bio

What makes this encounter really great is that you almost never drop to ruin (the suckiest place to be) because there's always something to do that is a better, more damaging option until you're stuck on single target again or something is almost dead.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Well, given that Bane doesn't get countered, it seems like Fester wouldn't either.

Fair point, I don't really have an answer to why Bane avoids the issue. I would say maybe splash damage or "no initial potency" doesn't count as being reflected, but I don't know if that's necessarily true for the former (Fire2? Flare?) and the latter is definitely not true.

Edit: Nevermind, I guess Bane does reflect onto you based on above! Still worth it.

[Nirokun!]

Well, given that Bane doesn't get countered, it seems like Fester wouldn't either.

Bane gets countered. I looked it up in the log after T4 because I wanted to relive the glory of BANEtown and it hits for +1k. But it doesnt matter because SMN makes the knights die before you have a chance to fester them (if there's no better opportunity to bane, fester is better used bypassing soldier's stoneskin and attacking their HP pool).

[Ratatapa]

Bane gets countered. I looked it up in the log after T4 because I wanted to relive the glory of BANEtown and it hits for +1k. But it doesnt matter because SMN makes the knights die before you have a chance to fester them (if there's no better opportunity to bane, fester is better used bypassing soldier's stoneskin and attacking their HP pool).

It doesn't i use it every T4 and never got hit

[Niiro]

There are people that have seen Flash get reflected too, shit's probably just buggy.

[Rocl]

Bane will definitely reflect on the user if you use it on the wrong mob.

I'd imagine Flash works the same way, and there's video evidence of Flash reflecting.

[Nirokun!]

It doesn't i use it every T4 and never got hit

I dont ever notice it mid-fight, but it's in the log. But when I'm on smn, I'm not really paying attention to my hp.

[Lokus]

Bane most definitely reflects. When I reflect on 1 Knight, I take 1k+ damage. When I reflect onto 2 Knights, I take 2k+ damage. Shadowflare doesn't reflect at all which is nice.

[Azurewrath]

What do you guys use swiftcast on for single target encounters? To get into the initial AF3 faster with a Swift F3? What about after that?

[Scythiroth]

I generally Swiftcast a Flare during Raging Strikes when I'm under the MP cost of a Fire 1 -> Convert -> Fire 1 -> normal rotation. Convert's cooldown lines up nicely with Raging Strikes for doing this.

[backslider]

Same as above, I use SC for the occasional Flare use, even on single targets. Another arguable use for it is Thunder III

[Yukari]

Yeah, I usually use swiftcast for casting thunder 3 at the beginning of single target pulls, or for when I have to run from AoEs and want to get damage in. I think using it for flare is the best though, if you're okay with taking a bit to get back to full MP again from 0.

[Azurewrath]

Anyone know why in certain zones you can't consistently get the UI3->Fire3->Fire1 speed bonus? Normally you get a quick fire 3 and the fire directly after is quick, but in Coerthas it hardly ever works, but other zones its 100% success rate. Strange. It's not my pc either, I get high frames in any zone

[Azurewrath]

Edit: Double post

[Sylvrdragon]

Anyone know why in certain zones you can't consistently get the UI3->Fire3->Fire1 speed bonus? Normally you get a quick fire 3 and the fire directly after is quick, but in Coerthas it hardly ever works, but other zones its 100% success rate. Strange. It's not my pc either, I get high frames in any zone

I've found that if I mash the buttons, then I'll occasionally (annoyingly often) get locked up in animation lag where my bar has finished casting, but my character is just sitting there waiting to throw the F3, and that lag almost always lasts long enough for UI3 to drop before it lets me start my follow-up F1/Flare, resulting in a slow-cast. If I instead watch my cast bars and hit my buttons once or twice instead of spamming, then it feels like I don't fall into that lag as often.

I don't know dick about computers or programming or any of that junk, so I'm not even going to speculate on what this means behind the scene.