A Summoners Bag of tricks

[Neonii]

I was wondering if the long time summoners out there would like to share some of their tricks of the trade. For example, if you are planning to solo a mob in abyssea what do you do for procs? If you want to cover all the procs how do you handle that? What are some of the more uncommon things that work for you. I just wanted to make a topic where we can focus on networking with each other. I would like this one to stay positive and us not rain on a persons parade. One of the things I and I'm sure most smn do is get the light spirit to buff me if I'm Planning to solo something. Another thing I like to do is use Burning Circles to try out stuff. Anyone else care to share?

[Zanoza]

summon avatar > assult target > BP > run to safe distance till aavatar dies > then repeat. this is for NM's and normal mobs if staff skill is to low to hit. for normal mobs inside or outside of aby. Avatar Tank Spirit Taker is your friend. for mage mobs that use -GA's run out of range while avatar takes the hit resummon if needed. For procing on NM's unless you are going for blu proc you dont proc at all, But if you want gear from an aby NM best thing to do is wait till blunt time (22:00-08:00) and hope its staff, if you have staff to 250+.

[Tannlore]

This is not for soloing btw:

Smn Bag-o-trick # 387

Yellow procs: Spirits can proc yellow! Lots of people don't know this, but it is true. I've done this a lot myself. It is by far not easy and hard. But when all else fails and you're left with nothing else, it's better than nothing. It takes a fair bit of smn skill and the gear to cet your spirit to cast often, and remember that your spirit casts what it wants. But it will cast T3, T4, and AM. That's three potential procs there.


SMN Bag-o-trick #1245

Tricking your light spirit into buffing you: Once your light spirit is into it's casting mode you can trick it into buffing you if your skill is at a certain level. I'm not sure what that level is exactly, I learned how to do this myself back when my skill was capped at 75. I put pro/shell 1 on myself, summoned my light spirit. Once it cast it's first spell (usually regen) I clicked off protect... the next spell it almost always cast on me was protect IV because the AI saw it "wore" off, I did this with Shell next and it cast shell IV. I played this game once before Einherjar once. Did it with a light spirit for about twenty minutes and accurately predicted it's buff cycle with this method of canceling it's buffs. I haven't tried this in a very long time. Interested to see if it still works. I should give this a shot again and see.

I have lots more, but I have to think about them lol will post more as they come to mind.

[Dallas]

Regain is 3 to 5 times as effective as refresh.

[Razushu]

Regain is 3 to 5 times as effective as refresh.

Now now lets not start the MP argument again, no one with decent gear will have any problem with MP ever

[Neonii]

Now now lets not start the MP argument again, no one with decent gear will have any problem with MP ever

I am going to try it out and see how it fits into my personal playing style. I hope folks sharing here are not going to have their parade rained on. Maybe I need a big umbrella cause I plan to explore anything posted that I find interesting. I need to save up some Abyssea stones so I have plenty of time for exploration.

[Razushu]

I am going to try it out and see how it fits into my personal playing style. I hope folks sharing here are not going to have their parade rained on. Maybe I need a big umbrella cause I plan to explore anything posted that I find interesting. I need to save up some Abyssea stones so I have plenty of time for exploration.

SMN melee has applications in places like most playstyles, but I'd avoid listening to Dallas he's full of Dhalmel dung. There's one or two reasonable advocates of SMN melee out there that can give you advice on it(like Alhanelem) who will hopefully stumble upon this thread sooner or later. Dallas does nothing but make wild claims, throw the word gimp around if you disagree and will refuse to post any data or evidence to support his claims.

Sorry if I looked like I was raining on anyone's parade not what I was trying to do, I was just pointing out(a discussion I thought had been settled ages ago) that longevity is not a plus point of SMN melee as if your gear is in any way decent at 90 you should have unlimited MP frontline or backline.

examples of Dallas claims:

An Empyrean SMN can match an empyrean WAR

He discovered Atma of the Ducal Guard

He's the reason SMN was #10 in the census this year

[Dallas]

Now now lets not start the MP argument again, no one with decent gear will have any problem with MP ever

If by decent gear you mean Hvergelmir and the WOTG regain earring, you are correct.

The OP did ask for tricks, and trolling me isn't much of a trick. Post your refresh gear that recovers that MP.

[Arciel]

This is not for soloing btw:

Smn Bag-o-trick # 387

Yellow procs: Spirits can proc yellow! Lots of people don't know this, but it is true. I've done this a lot myself. It is by far not easy and hard. But when all else fails and you're left with nothing else, it's better than nothing. It takes a fair bit of smn skill and the gear to cet your spirit to cast often, and remember that your spirit casts what it wants. But it will cast T3, T4, and AM. That's three potential procs there.

SMN Bag-o-trick #1245

Tricking your light spirit into buffing you: Once your light spirit is into it's casting mode you can trick it into buffing you if your skill is at a certain level. I'm not sure what that level is exactly, I learned how to do this myself back when my skill was capped at 75. I put pro/shell 1 on myself, summoned my light spirit. Once it cast it's first spell (usually regen) I clicked off protect... the next spell it almost always cast on me was protect IV because the AI saw it "wore" off, I did this with Shell next and it cast shell IV. I played this game once before Einherjar once. Did it with a light spirit for about twenty minutes and accurately predicted it's buff cycle with this method of canceling it's buffs. I haven't tried this in a very long time. Interested to see if it still works. I should give this a shot again and see.

I have lots more, but I have to think about them lol will post more as they come to mind.

To be exact, elemental spirits only have 2 spells they can proc each. tier IV and AM. They no longer cast tier III the moment they have access to IV (which is true for all elemental wheel spirits by 75). At our level, Elemental Spirits only have 3-5 spells in their repertoire, depending on the element, with Thunder and Fire being the best in terms of getting a T4 or nuke because thats 2/3s of what they can cast.

Light Spirit can do Holy and Flash too but its rather unreliable because its repertoire is slightly bigger.
Dark Spirit, I wouldn't bother with that at all for proccing - too random.

Using Light Spirit to buff is a useful tool. Have it face you for higher chances of it buffing you. Cast regen and haste on yourself to increase the chances of it casting Prot and Shell.

...

Other random tricks.

You can always use avatar's defense instinct to your advantage. Avatars always automatically attack a monster that has you at the top of its hate list (unless it's already attacking something else), so keep your avatar out when you pop or clain NMs for safety.

If you're using SMN to fight for claim, your best claim tool is you + your avatar. NEVER use Assault, because it is too slow and by itself generates 0 hate.
Hate is important in getting claim, and if you're able to get 1 move as a SMN on the mob/NM, use a BP:Rage. Any will do, but preferably the strongest you have.

Here's how it works - NM pops, you use BP:Rage on it, it generates hate. If others take an action on it as well, there may be what i call 'hate dispute' and the mob will still remain yellow for a while. If someone else can claim it with a high hate move, then maybe they've got the mob for good, but if not, the beauty of BP:Rage is that the initial Rage is there to create a 'hate dispute' and your avatars Rage pact, which should do a good amount of damage, will solidify hate resulting in you getting claim.
I've managed to do this many times without fail, and really I think most jobs cannot compete with the kind of hate a BP can pull unless they claim with like EES or something that can instantly generate very high VE.

...

In Abyssea, if you're with a group and could use a hand on procs, then SMN is able to provide decently for staff and club, but you'll need to have /WHM, which is usually the case inside Abyssea for me. Whilst you won't be able to do your max potential on damage, picking a slightly balanced setup of atmas will help you boost efficacy... In these situations I'd prefer to go with AoA, MM and either VV or Sea Daughter, depending how badly you need TP regeneration.

AoA is both for death-protection (especially when you run into range for proc) and the triple attack for physical BPs, which will spike your damage up a little.
MM for your MP needs - also slightly useful for nuke BPs.
VV or SD for regain, mainly so you can have enough TP to proc the mobs. This TP can also be used to give avatar nuke BPs a slight boost as well.

Speaking of TP, a lot of people seem to overlook this, but Mana Cede can be used defensively to boost avatar's healing pacts because they rely on TP.
And if you're using physical BP for damage and need to heal using pact, do be mindful to BP first (for the significant TP gain, more so with Garuda than Leviathan) before using your healing pact.

...

more very basic stuff.

if you're trying to claim a sneak-aggro mob amongst other sneak aggro mobs, feel free to do so with avatar because assault doesn't generate hate, so only invis drops. (BSTs have it lucky, doesn't even drop invis)

for carby pulling, if you have a bunch of mobs that will link along the way back from the pull site, you must be mindful to link them BEFORE your avatar dies or is dismissed, otherwise they will link on you instead. You can do this by retreating before dismissing. Also, when you're pulling a mob that can cast spells, make sure it follows and isn't casting when you do the retreat / dismiss thing, otherwise you'l end up linking to yourself too.
Technically this applies to BST and PUP pulling as well.

[Razushu]

If by decent gear you mean Hvergelmir and the WOTG regain earring, you are correct.

The OP did ask for tricks, and trolling me isn't much of a trick. Post your refresh gear that recovers that MP.

Well here we go again you troll. I don't need to post gear the math backs me up here. If you get enough -perp to negate perpetuation(thats 12 in the case of a celestial inlcuding +2 auto refresh) cost you get a return of 280MP saved per minute. Id you add another -1 perp you start getting MP back so that's another +20MP returned per minute and after that another +20MP pm for any more +refresh. With the game as it stands today any SMN can attain a perp/refresh set enough to get +2 MP per tick back a minute with avatars out which is a net return of 320MP per minute, before siphon, refresh etc. there's more refresh gear out there to a max of around +7mp per tick.

Let's not rehash a fulblown argument of which style gives the most MP back as both styles give more than you can ever use, when it's a case of more MP than you could ever use vs. extra more than you could ever use the point of which gives more is invalid. I aqgree with you the moonshade is a great idle refresh piece and am working on it atm. Now lets please drop this and let the thread get back on track