[dev1058] SMN Two-hour abilities

[Badieh]

The original Astral Flow abilities (Diamond Dust, Searing light etc.) were originally scaled to the first level cap in the game, which was level 50. They haven't been touched since.

Wow!.... I have been playing this game for over 8 years and just learned this today....

[Arcon]

The original Astral Flow abilities (Diamond Dust, Searing light etc.) were originally scaled to the first level cap in the game, which was level 50. They haven't been touched since.

Do you mean it was implemented at level 50 or that it was actually adjusted and balanced for level 50?

[Chimerawizard]

ALL pet jobs 2 hours look downright trash, except SMN - at least on paper.

Guess you don't know a Mythic toting PUP. pet gets 500 fists permanently and w/ current 2hr gets 100 fists. stack on top of that mighty strikes and you got some crazy dmg.

just posted this on another topic but w/e.

back in the day; people used SMN in Dynamis a LOT.
someone pulled the group of mobs, 45-60 mobs. BLMs did ES-sleepga.
couple SMN's astral flow'd and guess what? 3-5k DMG to each mob on each BP. (obv. not all mobs got hit each time)
back then it was kinda broken. Now, that's close to what I should be expecting my astral flow BP to do every 45 seconds.

augmented 2hr dmg equation:
BASE=(smn skill)/10 X (Avatar's Level)
DMG=(BASE)X(day/weather bonus)X(resist?)X(MAB/MDB)X(Mythic weapon proc 2-3 hit proc?)

I have seen avatars petrified by lv5 petrify against Akvan w/ me SMN99. So, they can definately spawn lower level than the master.(if anyone didn't know)

[Arcon]

I have seen avatars petrified by lv5 petrify against Akvan w/ me SMN99. So, they can definately spawn lower level than the master.(if anyone didn't know)

That's news to me, and I'm not entirely sure whether or not to believe it, as every level-dependant formula I've come across so far used 99 for the level value.

[Teraniku]

Do you mean it was implemented at level 50 or that it was actually adjusted and balanced for level 50?

Was balanced / implemented for level 50 ish (I say 50 ish since SMN was added after original release but before Rise of the Zilart was released in Japan. Level cap was increased through the use of the limit break quests over a period of time, but the original Astral Flow abilities were balanced for whichever cap was at hand when SMN was added to the game. between lvl 50-60) which is why the original Astral Flow abilities start sucking hard on anything over lvl 60.

-The main problem is , I'm not sure the abilities can be scaled, which is why they gave us Alex and Odin as astral Flow Avatars. A Shame really, because it would open up a lot more options instead of the one trick pony of Astral Flow---> Perfect Defense. Since Odin is just about useless on most high level mobs , unless you get really lucky.

[Arciel]

i posted this in June

Alternatively, we have the possibility of the 2nd 2HR ability which allows SMN to work outside the constraints of BP timer, for 3 minute. That is to say, for 3 minutes, Blood Pact recast timer is 0. Once again, this is balanced out by the MP limiter. It'd be like a SMN Tabula Rasa.

I hope the duration is good. Anything less than 1 minute would be sad.. and anything more than that would be awesome. Granted we most likely won't need 30s to spend all our MP on BP rages, it would be a wasted 2hr if the enemy can get in a TP move that requires you to resummon and reposition avatar.

This is a most welcome change to have an alternate use for zerging than PD. Some potential strategies involving chain-Squall would be interesting too

[Luvbunny]

They need a minimum of 3 mnts on this since avatar can be slept, or one shotted, and it takes time to resummon and bring it to the NM - not to mention our MPs is not unlimited so being able to land 3-4 hits would be great. But watching the developer bros trying to come up with ideas and figuring out what the players want is like Comedy of Errors. They often fail spectacularly. If the new 2 hours ideas are a sign to come for 2012-2013 we probably would save us some money and headache by taking a year off since everything will hit a total low before they can be saved again.

[Arcon]

They need a minimum of 3 mnts on this since avatar can be slept, or one shotted, and it takes time to resummon and bring it to the NM - not to mention our MPs is not unlimited so being able to land 3-4 hits would be great.

Every job's 2hr can be completely fucked up if they're killed, slept, terrorized, petrified and sometimes even silenced or paralyzed, depending on the case. SMN even has a massive advantage (even over other pet jobs) in that they can respawn avatars immediately at no cost other than some time. 30 seconds is already enough to be a great 2 hour ability, one minute would be amazing (it would be enough to empty your entire MP pool including Convert), three minutes would be massively overpowered. Anything more than one minute is seriously unrealistic. I realize SMN's desire for some love (and it is well-deserved after the years of abuse), but that's just being greedy after already getting a great offer (and possibly the best new 2 hour ability out of the pool).

[Dreamin]

SMN, the new Chainstun job (well at least for 30s). Go!

[Badieh]

So... what is the duration of the new 2h?