Unlocking SMN potential in abyssea.

[Garota]

Unlocking my potential... Well it hasn't been much of dealing damage as of recently. I just felt like tossing on Ducal Guard along with Vicissitude to go with my Minikin Monstrosity and it's been going great. Soloing NMs although long at time feels rewarding when I have time to spare and want to see what these atmas are capable of.

Started off going back to pay back a visit to Bakka, although I already have the Goetia Chain, I promised a friend he could have it. Personally preferred to use Ifrit for his Inferno Howl. Ifrit's HP never seemed to drop bellow 95%. Decided to play with Tonberry Lieje as well, tossed a Leviathan at it and went just as well. Managed to get his key item and I already had his belt.

Ok so I decide to play with Iron Giants, I've always enjoyed fighting these. Made use of Leviathan for his Spring Water and water elemental superiority over fire. Same atmas, I'd knock out anywhere between 3% to 6% per Grand Fall, offered some LS buddies to come out for free accessories since I was fighting the Iron Giants anyway. For Misareaux's Severer, some buddies showed up and well... They tended to die... Just seems more reliable to not have to cure bomb somebody. An avatar healing itself and dropping damage doesn't always seem to keep hate off of an actual player, at least not with the current atma combination. Did give away 3 SMN pendants and 3 BLM capes, all PUP belts dropped to the floor... I did get a Taranis's Harness though! So hell, decided to take on Pulverizer, soloed Abyssic Cluster with no problem, some buddies there for Red !! then off to Observer, tougher fight to tank as SMN due to hate reset. Still managed to kill it. All goes well til the NIN and WAR draw hate, nevertheless manageable, no Bustle Dirs even with Blue !!. Only big problem soloing Iron Giants is getting your avatar's bloodpact stunned, terrorized or amnesiad which could lead to a longer fight. My personal favorite fight was duoing an Iron Giant with another SMN, his avatar dealt damage and died and mine kept hate and main tanked.

So I got bored yet again and decided to solo build a Rani pop, after two long fights with Smiter and Long-Barreled Chariot, I luckily managed to get key items with no Red !!. So here's the deal boys and girls... I'm thinking about unlocking my SMN's potential in another manner... I'm heavily considering brewing her as SMN, simple plan of popping her, popping a Brew, Megalixir, Odin and a wave of Garland of Blisses. Has anybody here tried something similar yet? If so do share your experience.

[Papesse]

Save your 2H for Alexander to be protected from her Charm and Amnesia attacks. Odin, like Atonement or Nether Blast does almost nothing on NMs in Abyssea anyway.

Beyond/Griffon's Claw/Ultimate for Garland of Bliss and don't forget your Ascetic potion.

[Korpg]

How is Fay Crozier a better weapon while meleeing if you can melee and use myrkr to recover MP I don't even understand that one... Smn's best melee weapons are Nirvana and Hvelgirmir (although for purely meleeing, that is, mp isn't an issue, Hvelgirmir is behind due to Myrkr dealing no damage and at 300% Nirvana gives approximately 45% OaT effect to both Smn and Avatar), there isn't better melee weapons for Smn aside from Claustum due to its higher base damage compared to the other to, not to mention the added Refresh effect on GoT and the 25% WS dmg boost at level 90.

Your Pup comparison is flawed because the Pup either did as much damage as the Puppet on melee friendly mobs, or post level cap easily outdamages it.

It is a better weapon because you don't need the MP if you pack on avatar perp gear. A summoner with good staff skill won't miss often on stuff in Abyssea anyway. So what's keeping you from using Spirit Taker for MP recover?

If you use a Fay Crozier and use Garland of Bliss, you would do more damage over time than using a Hvelgirmir and using Myrkr. But even you have admitted that.

My point is that it is not the summoner who does the majority of the damage, it is the avatar. As for your retort on PUP, only an equipped PUP using a WHM frame would do more damage than its automation. I have seen many times before that the automation doing more damage than the master. But then again, I am not a puppetmaster, you might for all I know.

If you are going to get a good weapon, get Nirvana. It is much better than Hvergelmir and you don't need the Refresh from GoT if you gear up right.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Yea inside if the master is losing to the auto they're doing something horribly wrong. Outside unless the master was not meleeing and only nuking from when I parsed it their damage was about equal aside from rng frame on birds in which case the puppet was getting piercing bonus.

There isn't anything stopping you from using Garland with Hvelgirmir, not to mention Hvelgirmir is still the better melee weapon than Fay. You only need to Myrkr to recover mp, as with Twashtar iirc you're better off using your most damaging WS rather than a weaker one and relying on the ODD effect.

Agreed Nirvana with 300% TP opening Garland is probably the best melee weapon for smn period.

[Evilvivi]

Ok, if you are meleeing in SMN you shouldnt have much perp- gear on and Myrkr is a better MP recovery tool than Spirit Taker plus the aftermath effect. Of course Nirvana is outright better, but we've already come to that conclusion.

As for PUP, I knew and know PUPs that were out damaging entire LSs, including their own automaton, all frames. Inside abyssea with Stringing Pummel and atma a PUP should be at worst doing the same damage as their automaton.

[Garota]

Went ahead and did it... Was bored and hoping for an Epona's Ring Went as SMN/BLM, had to settle for whichever atmas I had at the time, Ultimate, Holy Mountain and Baying Moon. Felt like trying Zantetsuken which only did 4.5k damage, each Garland of Bliss hit for 14,939. I wore as much MAB & MND gear that I could find in my inventory for other mage jobs. Sadly the Blue !! was hand-to-hand. I'll try building another Rani st some other time if I ever get bored enough again.

[Malamasala]

In theory you should do more damage as /WHM and Cataclysm. Unless of course Rani is darkness resistant. I believe the base damage of the new WS outweighs the MAB from /BLM, but I have not tested it.

[Kaych]

only time a SMN should melee is when they are soloing NMs and want to proc blue during blunt time, or maybe that odd chance the red proc is earth crusher and you have the right subjob for it.

Lol... just lol >_>

If you mele + WS, thats Avatar dammage + Summoner dammage. Why people cant see that this is more effective than standing in back line "watcing", I just dont understand o.o

The only time I dont mele as a SMN (or as a WHM or RDM) is when there is a AoE bad enough to oneshot me^_-

And to all of you who say "But, MP, butbut..". That has never been a problem for me, inside or outside of Abyssea.

Dont judge others just cos you dont play like them^_-

[Dallas]

Why people cant see that this is more effective than standing in back line "watcing", I just dont understand o.o

More than likely, we are simply witnessing the evolution of the "backup healer."

[Korpg]

Lol... just lol >_>

If you mele + WS, thats Avatar dammage + Summoner dammage. Why people cant see that this is more effective than standing in back line "watcing", I just dont understand o.o

The only time I dont mele as a SMN (or as a WHM or RDM) is when there is a AoE bad enough to oneshot me^_-

And to all of you who say "But, MP, butbut..". That has never been a problem for me, inside or outside of Abyssea.

Dont judge others just cos you dont play like them^_-

There is a trade off in meleeing. Its called feeding the mob TP.

Are you really doing enough damage to offset the TP feed you give to the mob by whacking on it? More TP means more higher damaging moves means more likely your avatar will die. IF your avatar is about to die, what then? Can you run away and shed enmity enough to summon and have the new avatar take hate off of you?

I used to melee as a SMN while my avatar tanked, but then I learned that sometimes, if something goes wrong, and you have to resummon quickly, you gained way too much hate (because the mob hasn't been beating on you and you accumulated too much hate for one BP to take away) and die because of it.

I find that the extra minute it takes to kill a mob is much better than the chances of a damaging back-to-back TP move that ends up doing too much damage and gets me killed.