Summoner Changes 10/18/06 Anyone test yet?

[Lamente]

Thats nice, too bad they're still among the weakest support jobs and for damage they're a 1-trick pony with weak DPS. They're simply not in the same league as BRD, COR, RDM, BLU for support + offence. Heck, a PLD is a better support job than SMN, they at least get Cure IV.

Yeah Aurik didnt you know that a PLD's Cure IV is better than earthen ward, blinkga, hastega, and nectosheild combined? Jeez.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...m/Furtered.jpg

[Tomino]

they made one sweet, sweet thing, or maybe two.

first, almost every Ward now lasts a decent amount of time which makes it finally useful. well everything except Crimson Howl I fear.
Even Shiva's Ice Spikes (add effect Paralyze) now last about 3:00 while pre-patch were about 1:00. You can easily add buffs one on the top of the other AND deal minor/major damages, depending on your mp.

Pre-patch a lot of BP were junk, Hastega being the first followed by Noctoshield. damn, now even Fenrir Dispel is sweet.


can't wait to test Rage BP on next Dynamis run!

[Racn]

293 skill i got a 2:43 hastega and crimson howl was +26 attack.

SMNs can AA PLDs and still PC so RDMs and BRDs dont have to /SMN (idk why but i die a little inside everytime i see this). Should make those tough battles go a little smoother.With COR BRD RDM {dream} mp shouldn't be an issue.

Im surprised no one has mentioned TP and skill yet, its a little late but ill so some investigating tomorrow.

[Tomino]

tested it out, Hastega is now 15% Haste.

AoE Haste (at least 4 targets) for 110mp, duration 3:00

[Rescue]

Ran a few test last night with a 295 smn skill
hastega lasted 2 mins 45 secs
crimson howl lasted 50 sec
earthward lasted 15 mins
aerial armor lasted 15 mins

[Karinastar]

tested it out, Hastega is now 15% Haste.

AoE Haste (at least 4 targets) for 110mp, duration 3:00

That's pretty hot. I could see BRD+SMN working for merit parties now if the SMN had capped skill and good equipment, since generally all most RDMs do in merits is haste and cure anyway. A SMN can now Hastega and do something like Fenrir ACC buff and still probably have enough MP to handle the healing.

[rithridan]

tested it out, Hastega is now 15% Haste.

AoE Haste (at least 4 targets) for 110mp, duration 3:00

That's pretty hot. I could see BRD+SMN working for merit parties now if the SMN had capped skill and good equipment, since generally all most RDMs do in merits is haste and cure anyway. A SMN can now Hastega and do something like Fenrir ACC buff and still probably have enough MP to handle the healing.

You know that means you'll have to invite ryo on his smn instead of brd This is definately good good news.. Can't wait to try out the new invite++ buff smn got, or so I hope.

[Faranim]

There's no way SMN is ever going to find their way into a Merit PT. There's really nothing out there that can top RDM BRD BRD Meleex3.

[Delekii]

smn with hastega that is better than whm haste will get merit pts... you cant always get a rdm..

smn cor brd 3melee would be really strong if the mp limitations arent too much.. earthen ward, hastega, fenrir buffs, evokers, ballads, auto+sanction+equip mp refresh...

whm does use the occasional cure4/5 in merit, but in a good party I would prefer to have a smn under the above conditions than a whm..

[Karinastar]

smn cor brd 3melee would be really strong if the mp limitations arent too much.. earthen ward, hastega, fenrir buffs, evokers, ballads, auto+sanction+equip mp refresh...

SMN could potentially get like 10 mp/tick in that setup with sanction refresh, YY Robe, 2x Ballad and a decent roll on Evoker's... I can't imagine they'd have any trouble with keeping buffs up and handling the healing, the COR could probably sub RNG to help the damage a little more in that setup as well.

Previously when forming a merit party if I was playing WAR I'd look for a RDM first, if no RDMs then I'd try and find a WHM, and if no WHMs I MIGHT have grabbed a SMN if I knew they were a really good one and I was fiending for exp. Now, in a decent setup SMN does bring something to the table. It might not be as good as RDM BRD BRD (realistically nothing is as was stated), but I think you could get some really solid exp with a SMN in the party now and they might end up favored over WHM as well.

[Kyreth]

My LS was getting the summoners through the last ToAU storyline BC to catch up, and the basic description was that they'd gotten more skillups in one night than they had in the past three months.

Happy, happy Summoners. More pacts + skillboosted pacts + comboability = good day for Summoners, no matter how you look at it.

...they are MP hungry as heck now. BFD, it's effective. They could buff the PT with something and still put out damage. I was juggling three SMN's and a WHM on Refresh cycles and loving it.

[SephYuyX]

I like how the Torque went from 10k to 400k.

[safer]

There's no way SMN is ever going to find their way into a Merit PT. There's really nothing out there that can top RDM BRD BRD Meleex3.

thats a dumb thing to say.. i didnt know the other 15 jobs werent allowed to get merits

before patch i never merited on smn and would never take it anywhere over my whm or cor... but now playing smn in a party situation looks more fun and i wanna try it out

smn used to be just for solo for me... but this opens up huge changes in party dynamics which is nice because using the same jobs over and over again gets boring...

variation is good

now time to go cap smn skill =(

[Ruffles]

I like how the Torque went from 10k to 400k.

Lol on sylph the torque jumped from 15k to 1mil.

Ill give it a week till the torque dies down from all the "Gotta have it now" ppl

[Raineer]

I like how the Torque went from 10k to 400k.

Took too damn long to get this update out, i had 10 of them stacked on mule before i got tired of waiting to dump the game lol

[Jeryhn]

So far that I've noticed, my Bloodpact accuracy, especially with the new merited Bloodpacts, has increased dramatically. Before Palace Aerns would generally evade one of my Predator Claws hits, and almost completely resist any magical attack I threw at them, and after farming close to 50 aerns for a HQ Aern Organ (lolCoP), I only ever missed one hit on a single Claws.

But overall, damage hasn't seemed to improve other than the whole missing less thing.

Separating the Bloodpacts into Wards and Rages deifnitely has MP burning potential, however, it could be beneficial in certain fights. One case was last night, I nearly forgot that I now had two separate timers while fighting Aerns while our healer went afk... Used Predator Claws, Aern used Biotic Boomerang, and I simply followed it up with a quick Spring Water. Utility factor for a summoner has pretty much went through the roof.

I can also forsee situations like when the Summoner party just happens to get hit by a Tebbad Wing at Tiamat. Have one summoner pop off Spring Water for Curaga + Viruna and another pop off Earthen Ward. Would require a little more corrdination between summoners, but could definitely be a good thing.

[divisortheory]

Maybe I'm missing something, so feel free to make a fool out of me if necessary, but if SMN can now

a) Guarantee Haste to every single person in the party all the time, while WHMs or RDMs sometimes don't have time to keep Haste up on everyone and/or forget
b) Boost stats like STR or Acc
c) Give AoE Stoneskin which will in turn require less healing

What can a RDM or WHM bring to the table that a SMN can't?

[Aodh]

What can a RDM or WHM bring to the table that a SMN can't?

Cure IV/V, Convert, Slow, Para and RIII. But... a creative SMN can cure in other way AND still toss a 1k damage on the side. As long as the SMN learns how to do buffs and damage and not run out of MP, then generally just as good or better.

[divisortheory]

If you're killing shit fast enough, debuffs are kind of pointless. Now instead of BRD/WHM/RDM + 3 melee, do BRD/BRD/SMN + 3 melee.

[layoneil]

What can a RDM or WHM bring to the table that a SMN can't?

for RDM, the biggest thing is Refresh and Convert, if the SMN expends MP faster than he can get back eventually you lose chain due to lack of MP.

WHM, pretty much just Raise III when something goes wrong.