summoning magic cap

[Sargent]

SE never said they expect us to hit 600+ skill, they only announced that there would be a cap on the duration of PD. Like how gear haste and BP delay had a cap at 75, for a long time you could not hit that cap.

I'm not even sure that they made it with intensions of making future gear, just so that if they do bring out new gear with +20 skill per piece, we won't be able to extend it past 1 min.

And right now, those extra 3 seconds aren't going to make a great difference.

I'm pretty sure that Marduk Legs/Feet will have at least +10 skill, Head will easily be more than +10 skill, but regardless I doubt we'll see a way to hit 560+ for a while, let alone 600.

Monks ability isn't effected by how high their H2H is.

Hate to be pedantic, but it kinda is. H2H skill affects the base damage. Either way, SMN is by far not the only 2hr based on skill. For melee based 2 hours, more skill = more acc & atk = more damage. For BLM/RDM, remove the atk and it's the same thing. And don't get me started on Tabula Rasa. Sure, combat/magic skill is gonna do squat for Invincble/Perfect Dodge/Familiar but it is for most 2 hours. Where I agree none of these examples (barring Tabula Rasa) demand nearly as much skill to maximize potential as Perfect Defense will (no one is disagreeing that 600 skill to cap is stupidly excessive), saying combat/magic skills don't affect other 2 hours is absolutely not true.

However, on topic....

i think its only fair to not request but DEMAND they rework how summoning magic effects our avatars and their attacks.

At level 75 most of my avatar buffs are the exact same as they are now and most attacks do the same damage (given i'm not wearing any new gear) so since they want to start singling us out i think our magic skill should reflect better with our avatars.

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:
- Earthen Ward; damage formula atm is: (Lv x2)+50, meaning at Lv.99 your looking at 248 from Stoneskin, which is around 80 less than capped Stoneskin (ignoring Stoneskin gear) from the spell (which can be accessioned). Simple fix, change the formula to (Skill x 0.66), capping at 500 skill like everything else, that's at least equal to Stoneskin from other jobs.
- Noctoshield; Caps at 13 (not sure if there's any sort of Lv/skill modifier). Make it equal to around -25~-30 at Lv.99, make it affected by skill if you want, but my gimp RDM mule with 140 enhancing can pump out better Phalanxes than my Main's SMN with 536 skill.
- Fenrir Blood Pacts; For the love of god, remove the moon phase modifier. It makes the Blood Pacts unreliable, so people don't use them instead make them something like;
-- Ecliptic Growl; Currently +1~7 stats, just make it something like +5 to all stats
-- Ecliptic Howl; Currently +1~25 Acc/Eva. Making it +15 would put it on par with Blade Madrigal, with the bonus of Evasion (Madrigal still being better due to Song+ gear, Marcato and Soul Voice)
-- Heavenward Howl; We really don't care about Enaspir. Really. Just get rid of that and make it purely Endrain, duration/potency based on skill or something.
- Dream Shroud; MAB/MDB +1~10 based on time of day. compare it to Wizard's Roll, +2~12, not based on time of day (however, based partially on luck). Remove the day modifier, make it +7~10
- Curative Blood Pacts; At least add some sort of modifier (other than TP) that will increase their potency to around 600~700 at least at Lv.99. Making them more potent than Cure IV is excessive, but atm they're pretty tame considering with a subjob that grants access to Cure IV and the gear for it, you can pump out more potent Cures (even if the Blood Pacts are AoE). Remove the TP modifier period.

Avatar's Favor is at the moment a waste of time other than an emergency Refresh for the backline. Having the damage penalty for the buff is fine (gotta sacrifice something to be fair), but I'd say remove the charge up time altogether. Make it so as soon as you hit Favor, it hits maximum potency. Also, have it so the potency does not reset when using a Blood Pact.
I've always wanted to see an "opposite" if you like to Avatar's Favor. Like how you have Berserk/Defender and whatnot. Not gonna waste my time on a cheesy name, but something like Saber Dance: "Increases perpetuation cost and locks Blood Pact: Ward, while increasing Blood Pact damage and reducing Blood Pact delay" Perp+4, BP damage+20%, BP delay-15 (or something like that). Maybe throw in Avatar Haste.

[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.