Records of Eminence - SMN seems to be left out

[Camate]

Hello everyone,

In a future version update we will be making it so that all types of attacks count towards objectives, which of course includes avatars.

[Demonjustin]

Thats great to hear!



Also, welcome back to you and everyone else on the community team! I hope you all had a great time over the holidays! ^_^

[Mnejing]

We miss Okipuit already..

[Demonjustin]

Wait, what happened to Okipuit?!

[MDenham]

Wait, what happened to Okipuit?!

We're not supposed to talk about that. From the footage I've seen, though, it seemed to have involved a tragic accident involving a truckload of Ulbuconuts and [DATA EXPUNGED]

[Aoisa]

Hello everyone,

In a future version update we will be making it so that all types of attacks count towards objectives, which of course includes avatars.

Thanks very much for the speedy response, Camate! Hope your holiday break was enjoyable. =)

[Goldfish]

A bit late to the party but on the page 1-2 discussion about SMN meleeing, I'm surprised not much mention of SMN nuking.

[Edit - This is a big post. I bolded any major points.
Here is the tl;dr version: I can do 600+ damage as SMN/SCH (with Dark Arts up) against fodder mobs in Kamihr Drifts WKR. And as SMN/GEO in Abyssea Misareaux Conflux 7, I managed to do 900+ damage Blizzara on a decent amount of mobs too (2.7k+ Blizzara on a single mob).

So SMN can still do the RoE 500+ damage quest decently (in terms of Abyssea Misareaux AoE farming, I got interrupted a lot, so it made pulling a lot of mobs much harder but it still doable at a decent speed in terms of getting those RoE 500+ damage credits).

For nearly all pre-adoulin content, you can get away with /RDM (single target) or /GEO (for AoE in Abyssea for example) as long as you have the item level nuking staves as they will boost magic accuracy high enough that you'll likely be capped on most pre-adoulin stuff (Eminent Staff is probably the easiest one to get if you don't have any yet). Also I recommend /GEO over /BLM since the -ra spells cast much faster than the -ga spells (the -ra T1 spells are between -ga T1 and T2 in terms of damage but they still do at least 500+ damage even on a train of mobs, which is enough for the RoE 500+ damage quest).]

Here's my budget nuking set for SMN (it's not the best but it still works decently enough):
1. Baqil Staff + Tzacab Grip (I use it mainly for the HP and because I don't have a good nuking grip yet; if you have a good nuking grip, you can use that instead)
2. *Convoker's Horn + Convoker's Pigaches (mainly for refresh and the -4 avatar perp cost)
3. Otomi Gloves (if you had Hagondes Cuffs with good magic attack bonus augments, replace Otomi with those instead).
4. Hagondes Coat and Hagondes Pants (I have one with +22 magic attack bonus).
5. Moldavite Earring + Hecate's earring. Obviously replace these with Friomisi + Novio earring if you have them.
6. Rings I just had a +4 INT ring and just used evoker's in the other slot. I just kept using Caller's Pendant (if you have something better, you can use that instead). (Regain on avatar does mean that Healing Ruby IIs, Spring Waters, or Whispering Winds will heal a bit more.)
You can probably switch to Twilight Necklace (if there aren't that many other people there or if you are farming).
7. For back, I usually keep Repulse mantle on with Moepapa Stone. Obviously if you have a better belt for nuking, use it. (I usually just use Moepapa when meleeing with my Avatar on pre-adoulin content. On newer content, since avatar's auto attacks aren't that great especially compared to nukes, you could probably just Cetl Belt over Moepapa for the +4% double attack while meleeing or just use a belt for nuking.)

*Also about Convoker's Horn and Pigaches, you can probably replace them with Hagondes Hat and Hagondes Sabots in WKR, especially if you're meleeing a bit too for Spirit Taker.

(Take note Hagondes Sabots doesn't have any magic accuracy or attack on it unless augmented, so if you don't have those, you can feel free to use Convoker's Pigaches instead.)

As you can see, a very budget build (the only good augments I have is the pants with +22 magic attack bonus).

With this set, in Kamihr Drifts WKR, (as SMN/SCH with Dark Arts) my stone 1s manage to do 600+ damage to fodder mobs with almost no resists (seems capped magic accuracy on fodder mobs at least). Enough to get the 500+ damage RoE credit.

Though, I haven't had good results nuking the Naakual itself but the fodder mobs I have no problem with getting 600+ damage Stone 1s.

Not only that, I have Carbuncle out all the time (If you run out of MP or want the regen, keep avatar's favor up) and use Healing Ruby II for extra heals.

Later, I changed to Leviathan to spice things up (Leviathan can still heal decently and Spinning Dive does decent damage). You can macro in your SMN set when using Blood Pacts (I make one macro for a nuking set and another for the SMN set).

I capped bayld fairly easily and never really ran out of MP (thanks to reive momentum bonuses and spirit taker usage if needed) even with avatars up full time (I used Carbuncle for most of it, Healing Ruby II does heal the most at 0% TP but I switched to Leviathan to spice things up later and still had no issues with MP).

If you don't have staff skill up for spirit taker, you can probably still keep MP up (just keep avatar's favor up). Worse case, only summon between blood pacts and resummon but I don't think there are that many MP problems.

Carbuncle with avatar's favor (-4) Convoker's Pigaches (-4) (at this point you are already capped on perpetuation cost reduction on Carbuncle) and Auto Refresh +4 from Hagondes Coat and Convoker's Horn and the auto refresh trait SMN has (+2) means even with carbuncle out, you still regain 5 MP per tick.

I don't have any screens but you can just try it out yourself.

(Besides Hagondes set, most of those gears can easily be obtained. Hagondes set, if you don't have them yet, you can try shouting for a PT and the pieces for yorcia are really cheap nowadays.
Verdigris Stones are still wanted and if you shout you're doing a T3 (and at least on Fenrir, torso, and legs all cost only 10k each right now), you should be able to get some people (though I haven't tried myself). At least during JP hours, I have seen a decent amount of yorcia shouts regularly still.

Also even before Baqil Staff, SMN could also either use Lehbrailg +1 or Soothsayer Staff.
And if you don't have any of those, Summoner can also use Eminent Staff (the nuking staff) which is also a great (and I didn't actually check the stats before writing this but they're actually superior to Baqil Staff aside from the melee damage).

On any old content (Walk of Echoes bosses for example), you don't even need to go /SCH. /RDM can do as well. On the bosses and stuff, I did decent damage with nukes in between my avatar's blood pacts (I forgot the exact numbers since I haven't done them in a while though).

As for Abyssea - I haven't tried it yet but I wouldn't be surprised if I could just go as SMN/BLM or SMN/GEO (Ra spells cast much faster than ga spells and are a bit stronger too, and if the mobs are east from your position, you get magic attack bonus +13 as Geomancer thanks to Cardinal Chant) and use Atma of the Beyond, Atma of the Minikin Monstrosity and Atma of the Mounted Champion and just leave Carbuncle up (for regen) and go with a full nuking set and -ga or -ra everything.

(Also if you want to leave Carbuncle up for the regen, take off the Item Level Avatar Sachet and start the pull by nuking the mob. That way, even if Carby auto attacks, it will be unlikely he will take hate away from you.)

Edit #1 - I ended up trying out SMN in Abyssea AoE farming. Abyssea Misareaux Conflux 7. I let Light Spirit cast Protect V on me. I used Atma of Beyond, Minikin Monstrosity and Atma of the Mounted Champion.
Went as SMN/GEO (Geo has Blizzara and the Ra spells cast much faster than the ga spells and they're between ga I and II in terms of damage).

(Also for RoE, the Ra spells are the best since you just want to spam as much as possible as long as the AoE does 500 or more damage requirement is met. That's why I use /GEO over /BLM.)

I pulled all the mobs but I ended up having to use two potions as I kept getting interrupted (though I managed to wipe out all the mobs as some casts still managed to get through).

So without innate elemental skill, pulling all the mobs is probably a bad idea (you will get interrupted a lot) but pulling 10-15 mobs at a time is doable.
I didn't have anything except Carbuncle's Favor and Protect V from Light Spirit.

You can probably use Noctoshield for Phalanx but it's probably not needed unless you're trying to pull the whole zone (which at least from the one try I did, I ended up getting interrupted a lot). For 10-15 mobs, between both atma of the mounted champion and Carbuncle's Favor, you will likely always be at full health most of the time, so Noctoshield isn't needed unless you want to try for more mobs.

My Blizzara with the atmas and the gear same set above (I used Twilight Torque and a Dark Ring with -5% physical damage taken in place of Caller's Pendant and the +4 INT ring), my Blizzara against the whole zone dealt 900+ damage each. (Against a single mob 2276 damage.)

(Also this was without Ascentic's tonic. Though in case of RoE farming, you may not want to use Ascentic's tonic as long as you do at least 500+ damage. In that case, you can just keep a decent amount of mobs on you then keep nuking them all with Blizzara to get RoE credit each time.)

Now I haven't tested it on the leveled up mobs yet but I wouldn't be surprised if 10 mobs or less are still doable. While the lack of the skill does mean that you can't pull the whole zone (you get interrupted a lot), you can still probably pull 10-15 mobs without much issue as SMN/GEO spamming Blizzara.

So if you don't have any nuking jobs, SMN can still be a solid nuker since they have access to almost the same set of gears nuking jobs can use (Hagondes set + the nuking staves).

/GEO for AoE farming in Abyssea, /RDM for single target nuking (on old content), and /SCH for Adoulin related stuff.

Edit #2 - I ended up leveling them up for a bit. It does get noticeably more difficult once they're leveled up as it seems they interrupted me a lot more and were more accurate (more they ended up interrupting me a lot). I wonder if switching to Eminent Staff may make enough of a noticeable difference. My GEO/RDM has no problem casting phalanx and ice spikes even when I pulled all the mobs and even when they were leveled up (As GEO/RDM, I only have 160 enhancing). The only difference is I use Atinian Staff (item level 117) compared to SMN with Baqil Staff (115) and I do have 8 merits in enhancing while I have none in elemental.

You can probably also change Atma of the Beyond to Atma of the Merciless Matriarch (for the fast cast bonus) as long as Blizzara still does 500+ damage even after the change.

Overall:
1. In WKR (Kamihr Drifts) - SMN/SCH with Dark Arts up can land 600+ Stone 1s on the fodder mobs (which will give you credit for the 500+ damage RoE). You can continue to use blood pacts on top of that (for evaluations).

I haven't really tried SMN nuking on the other Naakuals but assuming the fodder mobs are the same level, there shouldn't be any difference.

2. In almost all pre-adoulin content (Walk of Echoes and Abyssea), you don't even need to use /sch sub. /RDM (for single target spells) and /GEO (for AoE) can work (even with just 144 elemental skill, you will probably be capped on magic accuracy just from the item level staves alone).

Also if you can get it, Summoner can also use Venabulum, which is the new item level 119 nuking staff.

So if you don't have any traditional nuking jobs, SMN can still do decently.