summoning magic cap

[Mokeil]

Summoning Magic Skill and Summoners have always had an interesting relationship...
I can still remember the days when all it really did was influence our spell interruption rate. (OK, it affected Spirits, too, but not many people cared about those.) We were never really penalized for having nonexistent skill, since all our avatar's skills and stats were based solely upon level. However, we were never really rewarded for having capped skill, either.

When they added that bit about Skill over the cap enhancing accuracy and durations it was really as a kind of cool bonus. Finally, a reward for having high skill! Still not a penalty for no skill, but just a bonus for high skill. And then an LS mate pointed out the rather asinine case wherein I could level up and instantly become less powerful, because my skill was no longer as high above the cap as it used to be...

It made me realize that higher skill should affect things like accuracy, potency, and duration, but that whole "only skill above the cap for your level" thing was BS. We are long overdue for an overhaul on this.

Main problem regarding Summoner is DoT, aka the Blood Pact timer. With capped gear you're looking at 45 seconds between each Pact. This obviously needs reducing. More Blood Pacts over time = more damage, damage per pact is fine if you gear correctly for it (i.e. don't use Full AF3+2).

Blood Pact Wards.... the newer stuff they've thought through, even if some of their effects are useless (Heavenward Howl anyone?). So, I think the following needs to be changed...

I'd like to take a second to most emphatically second these ideas! Our older wards are pretty much a joke, since the potency of them stopped scaling up back at 75 (and even then, a few were iffy). I'd really only put Hastega and the curative ones up as worth using most of the time these days.

And as for our BP delay? A 45 second hard delay cap is holding us back so much right now. Damage dealers are a lot faster now than they used to be, but we're still stuck with the same, old timer. The gear options are already there - no need to add anything else. All SE has to do is ease up on their restriction.

[Arcon]

It made me realize that higher skill should affect things like accuracy, potency, and duration, but that whole "only skill above the cap for your level" thing was BS. We are long overdue for an overhaul on this.

I thought that wasn't the case any longer? It's hard to prove, but they changed the effect for defensive BPs, so I always figured they changed it for both to follow the unique formula (bonus for every skill point between 300 and 500).

[Mokeil]

I thought that wasn't the case any longer? It's hard to prove, but they changed the effect for defensive BPs, so I always figured they changed it for both to follow the unique formula (bonus for every skill point between 300 and 500).

Hmm... I pulled the following right off of the Update History page on the PoL website:

The following blood pacts have had their effect duration lengthened:
Hastega / Crimson Howl / Frost Armor / Rolling Thunder / Lightning Armor

The following blood pacts have had their effect duration lengthened commensurate with summoning magic skill, regardless of whether or not the skill has been increased to its maximum:
Shining Ruby / Glittering Ruby / Hastega / Crimson Howl / Frost Armor / Rolling Thunder / Lightning Armor / Ecliptic Growl / Ecliptic Howl / Noctoshield / Dream Shroud

That particular bit of that update went right by me somehow. I hate saying this, but I was wrong about that. Score one for SE for taking care of it. Can we get those guys from 2010 back? They seemed to be really on top of things for Summoner.

Still these changes only effect duration. What needs pumping up now is the potency.

[Sargent]

A complete overhaul of BP:W to make skill affect Potency rather than duration would put buffs more on par with other jobs. Throw "balance" in there and SE might even consider it.

One thing I'd still like to see most is a message in my chat log when debuffs inflicted by the avatar wear off. Tidal Roar is an amazing debuff, shame you kinda have to guess when to put it back on.