Summoner solo/duo/small group vs Abysea NM Compendium

Lusca - Abyssea Attohwa (Tier III VNM)
Avatar: Leviathan
BPs of note: Grand Fall, Spinning Dive
Atmas: Ducal Guard, Mounted Champion, Voracious Violet, or Ultimate, can also use Noxious Fang for water damage
Notes: Lusca has two mode, magical and physical, if it is on magical mode - you have to kite and your avatar should not melee, run around and use Grand Fall, if it is on physical mode, have it attack and use Spinning Dive. Pretty straight forward but be careful not to kite around Agressor Antlion spawn area. I suppose you can use Garuda or Shiva as well, but Leviathan is the better tank overall. Bring your friend to yellow proc this thing since it drops rather nice collection of plus 2. Do be careful of its conal attack, Siphon Discharge, and make sure your buffs are all up and barwartera as well.

I have mixed results to report about Dragua. I knew the fight wouldn't be easy, for exactly the reasons Luvbunny listed. Still, the siren call of being able to say, "Yeah, I solo'ed that," drove me onward! (I curse my hubris!) Sadly, the short version is that he seems to be rather impossible for a Summoner to solo. On the other hand, a duo should be more than easy.

Here's the setup:

Dragua - Abyssea Altepa
Avatar Used: Garuda, for earth resistance
Atma: Ducal Guard, Stronghold, Gales
Blood Pacts of Note: Windblade and Whispering Wind
Notes:
The fight started well. I could honestly have probably held Dragua for ages, so long as I remembered to only move in to give commands with a fresh Stone Skin up. However, after about five minutes I noticed that, other than my initial Windblade, Dragua's HP wasn't really going down. I asked our team's Monk and Whitemage (standing by in case I messed up) to look Dragua up on the wiki. And sure enough...

I must have fought this guy over thirty times by now, and never once did I realize he has a passive Regen... It is fairly impressive, in fact!

Set for tanking, a single Garuda just can't deal the kind of damage needed to overcome that Regen in a feasible time frame. I was barely staying ahead of it. Adding another Garuda to the mix should tip the scales. If I were to set to tank Dragua again, I would also take out Atma of the Gales. I would probably consider running Minikin (Windblade and Whispering Winds both every 45 seconds is a big drain on mp reserves) or Razed Ruin (for a stronger melee DoT to counter his Regen).

Yeah I would not solo Dragua, it is very hard, almost impossible. You need a minimum of summoner duo with high summon magic skills so that Predator Claw will lands all multi hits. Between his AOE wings move and petrify, it is extremely deadly. As much as I love summoner jobs, some NMs are just not solo able :) Also is your wind blade at maxed merit plus magic attack merit as well? Summoner with a set of AF3+2 may have easier time due to Blood Boon proc more often. Overall Dragua not recommended to solo summoner. All those Wyrm NM in each of the Heroes zone pose myriad of problems :)

Hi!

Can I just say that as a new summoner (finally hit 99 last week after much grinding!) that this thread is so helpful :-)

I'll hopefully be able to report back on some solo/low man adventures soon

Art.

Thanks Art, hope you get to enjoy playing as summoner, it is not the fastest job to kill solo, but sometimes it is the safest, less headache, and more relaxing, especially if you like dual boxing. There are tons of issues with summoner job still, but so far, it is playable. Happy NM hunting!! And start collecting those plus 2!!

Thank you too, Luvbunny. The thread and it's contributions have helped enlighten me to solo gearing my SMN and other jobs.

Thanks Taruina, there are quite a few harder NMs in the Heroes areas that I have not yet to tackle with a small group of pet jobs, would probably try to test them soon. You probably can duo trio all your plus 2 gear sets, and a few empyrean NMs as well if you so choose. The nice thing about summoner is no need for buying pet foods and jug pets, just 3-5 dawn mulsum for emergency. Happy hunting!! Still on the list to hunt and kill as pet jobs brigade:

Abyssea - Altepa: Amarok, Ansherekh, Cuijatender, Emperador de Altepa, Hazhdiha, Ironclad Smiter, Orthrus.
Abyssea - Uleguerand: Apademak, Blanga, Dhorme Khimaira, Empousa, Indrik, Ironclad Triturator, Kur, Pantokrator, Sisyphus, Yaguarogui
Abyssea - Grauberg: Alfard, Amphitrite, Azdaja, Bomblix Flamefinger, Deelgeed, Fleshflayer Killakriq, Fuath, Ironclad Sunderer, Jaculus, Melo Melo, Ningishzida, Teugghia, Xibalba

Granted some of those on the list seems quite daunting to tackle as pet jobs due to controlling the pet when the mobs change mode and their annoying auras.

Alkonost - Abyssea Konschtat
Avatar: Shiva
BPs of note: Rush, Frost Armor
Atmas: Ducal Guard, Mounted Champion, Minikin Monstrosity
Notes: Started with a fairly straightforward NM that I've beaten before on MNK.
With the somewhat defensive setup above Shiva rarely dipped below full health. Alkonost did very little damage, even with special moves. Frost Armor caused paralysis on him quite well.
Back Heel and Hoof Volley both reset hate, so he heads for you after these moves, but with Aquaveil, Blink and Stoneskin up there wasn't any concern and Shiva quickly gained hate back.
So far I'm 0/6 on the Atma, so bringing a friend for red procs is highly recommended!

Additional note - tried this with Garuda, with much the same effect; Shiva was possibly slightly faster.

Art.

Well done, Art. And welcome to the Summoner's Club!

Atma of the Gales is well worth the effort for Garuda. Taru HP pools always make me think twice about trying to solo anything that has a hate reset move. I've always slightly envied Galka in that regard.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Also is your wind blade at maxed merit plus magic attack merit as well? Summoner with a set of AF3+2 may have easier time due to Blood Boon proc more often.

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Long ago I set my Tier 2 merits as 3 into Windblade, 3 into Geocrush, and 1 into everything else. My Tier 1s are, indeed, maxed Magic Attack, and the fancy new casting time reduction.

I'm only 4/5 on the +2 set of gear (hands are only +1), and I haven't really seen the need to finish. So far as I can tell, the chance of the set bonus procing is abysmally low, since it is only a low percentage chance of it happening each time Blood Boon kicks in (itself only a low percentage chance). I maybe notice the 4/5 set bonus kick in once a month or so. Fun when it happens (11k Predator Claws is my record so far!), but not worth trying to count on.

If anyone out there with 5/5 is willing to weigh in on this, I can certainly be swayed to change my mind, however.

OK this one is not Abyssea related but it's worth sharing.

BCNM - Early Bird Catches the Wyrm
Balga's Dais - Orb: Themis Orb (99 Kindred's Seals) VS Wyrm
This is the BCNM for one of the Black Belt items.

Avatar: Leviathan
BPs of note: Grand Fall, Spinning Dive, Spring Water
What to bring: Tavnazian Tacos, eat it, reraise items.
What to cast: Earthen Ward, Noctoshield, Blink, Fenrir Buffs, Earthen Armor.
Recommended set up: 3 Smns or 2 Smns + Beastmaster (use slug's pet)

Notes: The Wyrm has two modes, while on the ground, use Grand Fall, Spring Water, he is weak to water, Leviathan can dish 1700-2500 ish damage. The same strategy goes while he is up in the air as well. Take care when you first sending in your pets + avatar since it can open with massive AOE so run out of range ASAP and reapply buffs.

Extreme caution: You need to always have your stoneskin, blink, phalanx up at all times, non negotiable for taru especially - very deadly. Barfira must be up at all times. Take care before you go in and do BP or if you are about to send a fresh Leviathan to summon. For safety, 2 Smns + Beastmaster is recommended since if both summoners got caught and end up dead, Beastmaster can finish it as long as it is not in the air. You have to use magic damage to bring it back down, hence Grand Fall is needed.

BCNM - Horns of War
Horlais Peak - Orb: Themis Orb (99 Kindred's Seals) VS Behemoth
This is the BCNM for one of the Black Belt items.

Avatar: Fenrir
BPs of note: Eclipse Bite
What to bring: Tavnazian Tacos, eat it, reraise items.
What to cast: Earthen Ward, Noctoshield, Blink, Fenrir Buffs, Earthen Armor.
Recommended set up: 3 Smns or 2 Smns + Beastmaster (use slug's pet)

Notes: The Behemoth is one nasty piece when you get caught in its AOE Meteor. Have Beastmaster attack first then send your avatar and take caution of Meteor.

Extreme caution: You need to always have your stoneskin, blink, phalanx up at all times, non negotiable for taru especially - very deadly. Take care before you go in and do BP or if you are about to send a fresh Fenrir to summon. For safety, 2 Smns + Beastmaster is recommended since if both summoners got caught and end up dead, Beastmaster can finish it the battle rather easily. This is the easiest BCNM as long as you are not caught in AOE Meteor.

BCNM - The Hills Are Alive
Waughroon Shrine - Orb: Themis Orb (99 Kindred's Seals) VS Tartaruga Gigante
This is the BCNM for one of the Black Belt items.

Avatar: Shiva, Fenrir for Dispelga, Leviathan for tanking.
BPs of note: Heavenly Strike when he is inside shell, Spinning Dive when he is outside shell.
What to bring: Tavnazian Tacos, eat it, reraise items, 2 stacks of echo drops, elixirs, high elixirs, dawn mulsums x 6
What to subs: white mage and red mage
What to cast: Earthen Ward, Noctoshield, Blink, Fenrir Buffs, Earthen Armor, Barwatera
Recommended set up: 6 Summoners

Notes: This battle cannot be done with small group, for safety you need your 6 summoners with Shiva. The reason being this turtle when it is inside the shell, it will regen so fast, and the only way you can force it out is to dish out your Heavenly Strike damage. If you want to be on the super safe side, bring 4 summoners and BLM/RDM x 2. You need massive ice magic damage to kill it while it is inside the shell. It will not move but casting water based spells, and dispelling buffs.

Summoner Notes: If you are so inclined to go all summoners for this, one summoner will use Leviathan and should be able to tank the entire battle, another summoner use Fenrir for dispelling his buffs, and the other 4 use Shiva for Heavenly Strike when it is inside shell. Toward the end use 5 Shivas.

Extreme caution: You need to always have your stoneskin, blink, barwatera, phalanx up at all times, non negotiable for taru especially - very deadly when you get caught in the floodga. Make sure you come and do BP from behind and not going forward facing it since if it casting, you will get hit with dispelga, silence and then big water spells. Don't have all Shivas attacking from front either have a couple from behind so that not all Shivas will be hit with water spells.

Alternate strategy: you can always come with standard party if you want, 2 melee DD, 1 healer and 3 magic damage :) 2 x Samurais and Beastmaster are great for this, with Whm/Rdm or Whm/Sch or Sch/Whm (can embrava) and Rdm + 2 Blms

BCNM - The Palborough Project
Waughroon Shrine - Orb: Phobos Orb (30 Kindred Crest) VS Bomb
This is the BCNM for Fervor Ring and Fracas Grenade

Avatar: Ifrit
BPs of note: Flaming Crush, Inferno Howl
What to bring: Tavnazian Tacos, eat it, reraise items.
What to cast: Barfira, Earthen Ward, Blink, Pro + Shell
Recommended set up: 2 Smns - you can solo but it is dangerous if you want to just do it alone.

Notes: Straight forward BCNM, send Ifrit, use Flaming Crush when it is up, run back far far away. Make sure Inferno Howl is used since it adds 20-40 damage per hits. Resummon Ifrit and run back in to send it to attack, time it so that not both Ifrit are dead at the same time.

Extreme caution: You need to always have your stoneskin, blink, barfira and phalanx up at all times, non negotiable for taru especially - very deadly. Take care before you go in and do BP or if you are about to send a fresh Ifrit to summon. WATCH when he resummon mini adds, because these will self destruct and will kill you if you get caught during the self destruct phase. Hence soloing is tricky and if you duo make sure not both avatars are dead within seconds of each other.

Lots of references in the BCNM battles to 'take care when you run in' and 'always keep up phalanx, barspell and stoneskin'...

I therefore recommend using Twilight torque, 2 dark rings (or defending if you have it), 2 merman's earrings, colossus' mantle and any other -mdt gear you can whilst maintaining BP timer -15. You should be able to hit BP in this gear then decide if it's safe to swap into BP damage gear before it hits.

Thanks for the advice, some of these mobs can still hurt summoner at 99 with our paper thin defense, especially taru summoners out there :)

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Thanks for the advice, some of these mobs can still hurt summoner at 99 with our paper thin defense, especially taru summoners out there :)

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Lol you don't have to tell me that! It always annoys me how a well-geared Galka SMN has ~500 HP more than me and ~1-200 mp less than me, especially since it's practically impossible to run out of MP on SMN. Plus they get more mp back from convert, too!

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Originally Posted by Babekeke

It always annoys me how a well-geared Galka SMN has ~500 HP more than me and ~1-200 mp less than me, especially since it's practically impossible to run out of MP on SMN. Plus they get more mp back from convert, too!

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I'm right there with, ya! Low max MP has never mattered as much as how quickly you could get it back. Low max HP on the other hand, just gets Tarus dead. :mad:

To force-ably shift myself away from one of my favorite gripes about life as a Taru, I'd like to report a successful solo on a fellow that's been giving my group trouble lately:


Glavoid - Abyssea Tahrongi
Avatar: Garuda, for the earth resistance.
Blood Pacts of Note: Predator Claws and Whispering Wind
Atmas: Ducal Guard, Mounted Champion, Razed Ruins
Notes: (I apologize for the copious notes here, but the trouble Glavoid can cause has prompted me to be thorough in attempting to address concerns.)

This turned out to be surprisingly easy, if a bit slow. Ducal Guard + Garuda's natural earth resistance takes the sting out of this fellow's most dangerous move. Disgorge likes to one-shot monks, making him very risky for small groups, even at 99. Garuda, on the other hand, never took more than half her HP from it. (I was out of range recasting buffs, so I'm afraid I can't report the exact number!) More often than not, Garuda stayed well above 80% of her HP, and keeping her alive with just Whispering Wind was never an issue.

I was able to plant myself to the side of the mob at max BP distance and be safely out of AoE range. With only Razed ruins backing it, Predator Claws had a lot of variation, but still managed to sit between 1,800 and 4,500 damage.

Glavoid can heal back damage for a few seconds during and after using a TP move. For once, our avatar's high attack delay works in our favor, as Garuda would never get in more than two auto-attacks during this time. I made a personal choice to hold Predator Claws until after his TP moves just to be sure not to heal him.

One other tricky factor to note is Blood Weapon. Glavoid can do this randomly, multiple times, at any point after it is under 75% of its HP. Firstly, this has a chance of resetting hate! Just sit tight until Garuda pulls it off of you again, then move back to your position at max BP distance. Ducal Guard slows down Garuda's movement speed, so do not run away, or she won't be able to pull hate from you. Towards this end: always keep up Blink and Stoneskin (and Phalanx if you're /rdm).

Secondly, Glavoid randomly becomes immune to either Weapon Skills (including Predator Claws) or magic (including Wind Blade) during the 30 seconds Blood Weapon is up. Again, I made the personal choice to hold Predator Claws until after Blood Weapon wore off, but it you're feeling lucky, go for it!

All-in-all this fight took around 20 minutes, and could potentially have been sped up by not holding back on Predator Claws. I never needed to re-summon or use an item to heal Garuda. I will admit that my MP was starting to get down to the Under 1,000 range by this time, however.

So, a bit slow to solo it, but it also avoids the, "Oh the humanity, he's eating us all!" kind of moment you can get with a more traditional setup. Also works very well as part of a traditional group, letting Garuda function as an excellent backup tank for when (not "if") your actual tank eats Disgorge.

Kharon - Abyssea Attohwa
Avatar: Ifrit, Fenrir
BPs of note: Flaming Crush, Eclipse Bite, Lunar Roar
Atmas: Ducal Guard, Minikin Monstrosity, Razed Ruin
Notes: Opened with Ifrit and pulled around the corner to the Martello. Ifrit's Flaming Crush did reasonable damage, however once Kharon cast Dread Spikes the drain effect swung the battle so switched to Fenrir. Lunar Roar dispelled spikes and we continued from there. Eclipse Bite did reasonable damage ~ 1.5k, but when I needed to resummon Fenrir Kharon quickly cut through blink and stoneskin, making the Martello very useful.

Art.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

BCNM - The Hills Are Alive
Waughroon Shrine - Orb: Themis Orb (99 Kindred's Seals) VS Tartaruga Gigante
This is the BCNM for one of the Black Belt items.

Avatar: Shiva, Fenrir for Dispelga, Leviathan for tanking.
BPs of note: Heavenly Strike when he is inside shell, Spinning Dive when he is outside shell.
What to bring: Tavnazian Tacos, eat it, reraise items, 2 stacks of echo drops, elixirs, high elixirs, dawn mulsums x 6
What to subs: white mage and red mage
What to cast: Earthen Ward, Noctoshield, Blink, Fenrir Buffs, Earthen Armor, Barwatera
Recommended set up: 6 Summoners

Notes: This battle cannot be done with small group, for safety you need your 6 summoners with Shiva. The reason being this turtle when it is inside the shell, it will regen so fast, and the only way you can force it out is to dish out your Heavenly Strike damage. If you want to be on the super safe side, bring 4 summoners and BLM/RDM x 2. You need massive ice magic damage to kill it while it is inside the shell. It will not move but casting water based spells, and dispelling buffs.

Summoner Notes: If you are so inclined to go all summoners for this, one summoner will use Leviathan and should be able to tank the entire battle, another summoner use Fenrir for dispelling his buffs, and the other 4 use Shiva for Heavenly Strike when it is inside shell. Toward the end use 5 Shivas.

Extreme caution: You need to always have your stoneskin, blink, barwatera, phalanx up at all times, non negotiable for taru especially - very deadly when you get caught in the floodga. Make sure you come and do BP from behind and not going forward facing it since if it casting, you will get hit with dispelga, silence and then big water spells. Don't have all Shivas attacking from front either have a couple from behind so that not all Shivas will be hit with water spells.

Alternate strategy: you can always come with standard party if you want, 2 melee DD, 1 healer and 3 magic damage :) 2 x Samurais and Beastmaster are great for this, with Whm/Rdm or Whm/Sch or Sch/Whm (can embrava) and Rdm + 2 Blms

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For alt setup, 4x decently geared (and SKILLED near or at cap) BLM would make this very easy too. Gravity/Bind/DoTs and all Ice nukes make this pretty easy and fast BC.

I admit there are far more efficient ways to kill some of these NMs without using SMN job in the process, but the thread is for people who love SMN job despite its many weaknesses and the fact that the job is the bastard child of pet jobs :) A lot of these NMs can be killed with Heavily geared empy DD + whm combo, lol. Or your main and a cure bot works fine too.

Mielikki - Abyssea Attohwa
Avatar: Garuda
BPs of note: Predator Claws, Whispering Wind
Atmas: Ducal Guard, Minikin Monstrosity, Razed Ruin
Notes: Fairly slow solo with Garuda's Predator Claws doing reasonable damage. I went with Garuda for the earth resistance. Ifrit deals more damage, but Mielikki casts many earth based spells - with Whispering Wind there was no need to resummon, just kept my MP topped up with temporary items.

Thanks again Luvbunny - opened my eyes to the possibilities of solo SMN! :-)

Art.

Another thing that I've done in the past is instead of using Minikin, I would switch it to using Perfect Attendance since the +5MP refresh along with /RDM for refresh would usually keep my MP sufficiently high (and then there's always convert if needed). The +10HP regen and +1 regain are also good for the avatars.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

BCNM - The Palborough Project
Waughroon Shrine - Orb: Phobos Orb (30 Kindred Crest) VS Bomb
This is the BCNM for Fervor Ring and Fracas Grenade

Avatar: Ifrit
BPs of note: Flaming Crush, Inferno Howl
What to bring: Tavnazian Tacos, eat it, reraise items.
What to cast: Barfira, Earthen Ward, Blink, Pro + Shell
Recommended set up: 2 Smns - you can solo but it is dangerous if you want to just do it alone.

Notes: Straight forward BCNM, send Ifrit, use Flaming Crush when it is up, run back far far away. Make sure Inferno Howl is used since it adds 20-40 damage per hits. Resummon Ifrit and run back in to send it to attack, time it so that not both Ifrit are dead at the same time.

Extreme caution: You need to always have your stoneskin, blink, barfira and phalanx up at all times, non negotiable for taru especially - very deadly. Take care before you go in and do BP or if you are about to send a fresh Ifrit to summon. WATCH when he resummon mini adds, because these will self destruct and will kill you if you get caught during the self destruct phase. Hence soloing is tricky and if you duo make sure not both avatars are dead within seconds of each other.

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Would you mind telling how much damage you usually do with Ifrit? :) I've always just used Garuda . It's crazy easy unless he decides to glitch his hate( only had this happen twice). I should use, but don't even bother with rr anymore lol. Guess I'm lazy :0 but I don't bother with recasting buffs beyond SS when I remember too lol. His AoE maxes out distance at like fourty yalms I think it is, not sure though, may be less.

Around 2-3k at high, around 1500-1900 at lows, using Ifrit since he seems to last longer and it is fire based. Does your Garuda stay alive the entire battle? or do you have to resummon? Another reason for Ifrit is that I only need to use BP Rage and minimize the chance of getting caught at the center of AOE. Just seen a few bad timing with the AOE hence I go for the safe route.

She usually stays alive with healing bp depends on what he explodes with but if you fight him at the circle and your at start you have enough time to resummon. PC does about same 2-3k at pretty steady . But I usually bp at 45 and not wait for more tp, so could probably do more. I just use her mostly cause of trial staff I made lol.

Also if you're at max casting range 20 yalms , 17 ish is for BP range, you have enough time to get away if he starts exploding :). I've had he freak out a few times and come after me randomly but for the most part it's cool :).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mokeil

Glavoid - Abyssea Tahrongi
Avatar: Garuda, for the earth resistance.
Blood Pacts of Note: Predator Claws and Whispering Wind
Atmas: Ducal Guard, Mounted Champion, Razed Ruins
Notes: (I apologize for the copious notes here, but the trouble Glavoid can cause has prompted me to be thorough in attempting to address concerns.)

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Trimmed the quote down to save on space (as I can't remember how to do spoiler).

Although thorugh in your notes, there were 2 things that I'd like to know (particularly on yours, but also goes for most of the other posts here):

1) Which support job are you using?

2) Which methods are you using to manage MP, particularly when not using a refresh atma. eg. if /rdm are you just using refresh? Or do you need to run out of range and pop convert?
If /sch are you just riding Sublimation, or are you casting Aspir too (particularly useful with the new all-in-one staff, as I no longer have to swap to Pluto's for drain/aspir^^).
Or do you pop monarch's or a wing and run in and use Spirit taker (or the new one if you have it). Using temps? Martello?

My apologies! I should have posted this sort of info back in my very first post...

TL;DR version first, since I know I can ramble - I run /sch, and I have a really solid -perp/Auto-Refresh set.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Babekeke

1) Which support job are you using?

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Unless I state otherwise, I will always be /sch. I find I prefer its set of benefits over those of /rdm. Since I have almost twice as much MP as I have HP, Convert is almost more effort than it's worth for me to make useful. Refresh and Sublimation are nearly equal in terms of MP recovery (with the MP cost to cast Refresh balancing out the 30 second window between Sublimation uses), so those are actually non-factors in my decision.

My strongest reasons are for Reraise, and the better Stoneskin and Aquaveil due to Light Arts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Babekeke

2) Which methods are you using to manage MP, particularly when not using a refresh atma.

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For those avatars which I have a completed -perp Magian Trial Staff for, I can have an avatar out and still get back a passive 4MP per tick in Auto-Refresh. This is a whopping 80MP per minute - outside Abyssea, without Favor up, and before getting into sublimation or the Refresh spell! (In fact, due to the way Favor works, I don't actually get any more MP back with it up, either.)

Having a max -perp set with some left over Auto-Refresh really changed the way I could approach fights, both inside and outside Abyssea.

This plus sublimation covers a lot of general use. As long as I'm not riding both of my Blood Pact timers to the second, I can maintain a single avatar for a rather long period of time without noticing a drop in my MP. Even just using the Rage commands every 45 seconds I can be fine. Throwing in constant Wards will start to drain on me rather quickly, though. This is why I like to use the +20 Auto-Regen from Mounted Champion to cover healing needs whenever possible.

When Soloing NMs, I have never used Aspir or Spirit Taker. Long habit keeps me in Addendum: White more often than not, for the buffs and -na Spells. (Paralyze can kill a Summoner as easily as Silence can!) I'm also trying to keep minimal hate gain in a longer fight. If something unexpected does happen and I need to resummon, my Taru HP pool needs my new avatar to get hate off of me ASAP!

In the case of Glavoid, he was one of the longer solo kills I've done. Holding back on my Rage BPs to avoid healing him really helped, and not just because it meant I wasn't healing him. The longer I wait between commands, the more my Auto-Refresh and Sublimation can cover me. Even so, I did actually find myself down to under half my MP. Another five or so minutes and I would have begun to consider using a temp item to get MP back. Using a Dawn Mulsum or two would also have spared me a few Whispering Winds, saving MP on those, too.

Speaking of, if I ever use an item for any reason - temp or otherwise - I will make sure to mention it in my notes of the fight. Likewise i will make sure to note if I do some sort of offensive action on the mob that is not purely avatar related - e.g. using Spirit Taker or casting Dispel/Drain/Aspir.

As a final note of caution, do not use a handy, nearby Martello in the middle of a fight! It is a fiendish trap tailor-made to catch innocent Summoners! Talking to the nice Martello will cause your avatar to go completely passive, shedding all hate, and not even moving to auto-attack the big, mean NM that is now moving over to introduce you to its teeth. Once you finish speaking to the Martello, your avatar will begin behaving as it should once more, but it will have to start over at 0 accrued hate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mokeil

As a final note of caution, do not use a handy, nearby Martello in the middle of a fight! It is a fiendish trap tailor-made to catch innocent Summoners! Talking to the nice Martello will cause your avatar to go completely passive, shedding all hate, and not even moving to auto-attack the big, mean NM that is now moving over to introduce you to its teeth. Once you finish speaking to the Martello, your avatar will begin behaving as it should once more, but it will have to start over at 0 accrued hate.

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Yeah I'm aware of this, but I would expect to be fighting ~100 yalms from the martello so avatar has time to grab NM again and get a bit of hate

The whole Martello/pet-hate thing caught me very off-guard early on, so I try to spread the knowledge around. I apologize if I sounded condescending or anything. It was certainly not my intent.

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Originally Posted by Mokeil

The whole Martello/pet-hate thing caught me very off-guard early on, so I try to spread the knowledge around. I apologize if I sounded condescending or anything. It was certainly not my intent.

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Applies to any NPC I thought too. Watch your back turning in them pages! Lol.

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Originally Posted by Mokeil

The whole Martello/pet-hate thing caught me very off-guard early on, so I try to spread the knowledge around. I apologize if I sounded condescending or anything. It was certainly not my intent.

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No worries, I first discovered it while opening chests.

Yannei - Abyssea Attohwa
Avatar: Garuda and Ramuh
BPs of note: Predator Claw, Chaotic Strike, Shock Squal to stun his casting.
Atmas: Ducal Guard, Mounted Champion, Minikin Monstrosity, Razed Ruin (one summoner do more damage set up, the other more defensive with Ramuh).
Notes: I decided to duo this since it is very tough to solo it. Please note that we brought a beastmaster - one of the summoner dual box - and put it on hold till Yannei hp is at 25%. The fight is not so bad, very straightforward, and communicating between summoners when their avatar is about to die to take turn resummoning. When Yannei's hp hit 25% he start doing that terror move which can be deadly, since he also do draw in and terror move + bio. If you get caught in it, you may die - hence the beast was used to buy some time in case this happen. Otherwise this is just a slightly harder version than the other 3 cature, but definitely not as hard as Rani and Raja.

Its been a while, but I finally have something of note to add, if only in a "How the Mighty Have Fallen" type manner.


Jailor of Faith - The Garden of Ru'Hmet
Avatar: Garuda, for the earth resistance.
BPs of Note: Predator Claws and Whispering Wind
Notes: This was a pretty easy duo. The tricky part was in spawning him, and then getting to the the large, square-shaped central room where we fought him without drawing aggro on the way. Watch out for the occasional Breakga! Other than that, just be sure to coordinate with your duo buddy to make sure there's always at least one Garuda out there on the NM.

(OK, technically it wasn't a complete Summoner duo, as our party did finally catch up to us when it was around the 20% HP remaining mark. We could have easily finished the fight on our own, though.)

A single Summoner could probably solo this by kiting it around the central room - which has a nice square-shaped hole in the middle to accommodate running in giant circles. :D

A sufficiently large quantity of Dawn Mulsums would also make it even easier, eliminating the need to even kite.


On a different (though relevant) note, is there any way that we can request that this thread be stickied? I feel it has a lot of useful information for anyone interested in seeing what Summoners can do, and I'd hate for this mine of information to get lost off the first page.

I feel the developers should take a look and perhaps get some ideas how to make this job better and adding more useful stuffs to summoner repertoire. Though I worried they would go the way of the RDMs and run the other way completely in shock whenever they see a job that become versatile in the hand of good players. Instead of embracing the positives and enhance it, they go with the negatives and utterly destroy said jobs, another good example is Beastmaster, taking away treasure hunter 3 and coming up with one of the worst new 2 hours in the game ever existed.

Does anyone of you have ever tried fighting Jaculus and Ironclad in Altepa/Grauberg/Uglyrange as summoner duo or solo? I found Jaculus is extremely hard to solo due to its hate reset and weight move. Have not yet try the trio of ironclads, anyone know if the damage resistance due to tp move will prolong the fights?

I've gone as Summoner to help my LS fight the Ironclad Smiter (Altepa) several times. Never as a pure pet kill party, though. I did notice a fairly solid decrease in damage dealt via magical BP Rages. I'm afraid I can't remember exact numbers, but I recall it being enough I noted the difference. I always thought it just had very hefty magic resistance. You will, indeed, be looking at a very long solo fight on that guy.

Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mokeil

I've gone as Summoner to help my LS fight the Ironclad Smiter (Altepa) several times. Never as a pure pet kill party, though. I did notice a fairly solid decrease in damage dealt via magical BP Rages. I'm afraid I can't remember exact numbers, but I recall it being enough I noted the difference. I always thought it just had very hefty magic resistance. You will, indeed, be looking at a very long solo fight on that guy.

Good luck!

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That mob changes the type of damage that it is weak to after each TP move. Blunt, piercing, Slashing or magical. If it's weak to piercing you might as well save your MP. Otherwise, swap to an avatar with appropriate BP.

Haven't tried any of the big three ICs, but I solo'ed scorpion what's-his-face in altep rather easily. I would assume the one in teh range would be the easiest. I would pull it back to the conflux for safety.

I was wondering if two summoners with blunt and slashing or impact can make it work.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Da...r_damage_types

Come one fellow summoners, we may be beaten once again with another "Adjustment" but there are still plenty of NMs in Abyssea and old FFXI that we can solo, duo, trio and whatnot, write all about it, no need to brag it, in case the job is deemed way too good......