Do Relic, Mythic, and Empyrean staves lack utility?

[Alhanelem]

I wouldn't party with a melee SMN just like I would avoid a melee SCH, BLM etc. but to each thier own

I hope you wouldn't party with any summoner at all then, because being a melee SMN doesn't prevent you from using your support abilities (in fact, it encourages it), and allows you to do more damage than you could otherwise- BP and release is terrible, spamming crappy cures when other jobs can do better is terrible. Unless you are putting yourself or someone else in serious jepoardy, this setup benefits everyone. SMN is useful to have. The melee strategy expands on its capabilities, allowing it to do more unless the situation prohibits it. And those situations do exist- I'm not about to tell you you can do it on everything. But where it can be done, it works very well. So be a little more open minded.

A SMN meleeing is totally different from a SCH meleeing. SCH has no pet doing damage with it, has to stop attacking to cast spells with lengthy cast times, and has the worst skill in its highest weapon of any job. A SCH also has the most powerful DoT spells in the game- it doesn't need to add more to its DoT.

What Zumi fails to mention about WoW is that many wands and staves in WoW deal respectable, ranged elemental (not physical) damage. It's usually not the best thing you can do, but you can often obtain wands that inflict a different damage type than you are usually capable of.

BOTTOM LINE: Open your bleepin' minds, think outside the box, and realize your potential, no matter what you're playing!

[Khiinroye]

crappy cures

Someone is too preoccupied with LOOKING OUTSIDE THE BOX to look back in it and see what you're capable of.

[Alhanelem]

Capable of tossing crappy cures to support someone tossing real ones. Yeah, I know we're capable of that. But so isn't anyone else who subs WHM. It helps, mind you, but it shouldn't be seen as a defining part of the job, since it's not actually part of the job. This is a PROBLEM, not a good thing that should be encouraged. If a cure needs giving, I'm more than happy to give it. I'm just not going to go in there with it being my primary role, because other people, whom you almost always have with you, will do it better. If there's no other choice, it works in a pinch, but having cures from WHM sub is hardly SMN's greatest strength.

So no, i'm not too busy "looking outside the box" to know what it is capable of inside of it. Someone instead is too busy ignoring the outside of the box to realize the box has an outside.

[Azagthoth]

Summoner is the only job aside from WHM that can cap cure potency.

[Leonlionheart]

Summoner is the only job aside from WHM that can cap cure potency.

I count 49%
22 Surayas
14 facio
5 roundel
3 fylga+1
5 serpentes set

Roundel alone is nearing 10mil with the decline of all Campaign.

[Alhanelem]

Summoner is the only job aside from WHM that can cap cure potency.

great. So I can cure 5xx HP instead of <400 with cure IV, where it still takes like 6 cures to bring a dying MNK back to full health in abyssea. Or I could go scholar and cure IV for more than that with strategems, or I could use WHM and cure way more than that even without cure potency gear. And don't you dare bring max MP into this. With Minikin, anyone can cure forever in abyssea.

For the same reason you can argue against the melee strategy, I can argue against the curing strategy- Just because gear exists, that doesn't mean you should or have to do it.

There are many possibilities for summoner. Curing is one, even though I don't agree with it on a personal level because the curing comes basically entirely from the subjob and not native abilities. What other job in the game plays their subjob more than the main they have the subjob on? I can't discount that it can be put to good use, I just consider it far from the most ideal use. Melee DDing is another. Pet kiting is another. Support buffing is another. SMN can do many things, and you should not attack or rule out any one of them.

[Bumbeen]

Roundel alone is nearing 10mil with the decline of all Campaign.

Sold mine recently as I expect the price to drop as more jobs are able to solo the fight.

[Leonlionheart]

Sold mine recently as I expect the price to drop as more jobs are able to solo the fight.

Not really about soloing the fight, but rather the fight's access. No one seems to EVER do Campaign, other than the rare need for a rose strap, and that's sandy.

You can't even enter the fight on Asura, and that's why the price is going up. That and you need it to cap cure potency while using +2 body on WHM, for optimal curing output.

[Azagthoth]

Augmented Zenith Pumps + Augur's Gloves.

Inside Abyssea: There are quite a number of mobs you can kill with just /WHM healing support. For mobs that you need a white mage to Cure you're not going to bring a melee SMN + WHM -- you're going to bring a MNK, WAR, NIN, etc, and a WHM + procs.

Outisde Abyssea: Cure IV will be more helpful. On higher level NMs you'll need to be more careful about feeding them TP, because you'll have normal HP and even the tanks won't have the AGI TP reduction they were getting in Abyssea.

Summoner is decent for meleeing garbage mobs. End of discussion.

[Korpg]

LOL @ perp staves with full +2 gear. "It's a pretty blue box, so I have to wear it!" Avatars are free without any weapon, if you know how to identify macro gear.

Congratulations, your 20mp/minute will match the MP recovery of a single 300% Myrkr in approximately a hour. Utility!

How long would it take for you to get enough TP to do a decent Myrkr? Oh yeah, your mp wouldn't last long enough to keep that avatar out while you are wiffing at EP mobs with your pathetic DD skill. While we are at it, not only will you lose all your mp before you get your 300% TP, but once the avatar leaves you, all of the sudden the you will die (if you aren't already dead beforehand that is) because there is nothing keeping the mob off of you.

But then again, you will probably spout some nonsense like "But I always get in a group of people who like me for who I am, even though I'm a complete jerk to them all 100% of the time" or something to that effect.

The particular person bragging about 1mp refresh outside of Abyssea deserves what he gets, and I'm more than happy to give. I am a generous leader.

Better to have 1 mp per tick back (4 with refresh on, 11 in abyssea) and can keep avatars out forever with no risk to me than to have a cost of 14 mp per tick to keep an avatar out and have to risk getting killed just to try to get mp to sustain the avatar, much less using blood pacts. But only in abyssea. Outside of abyssea you got no chance at all. Neither can you solo anything at all.

At least Al doesn't limit himself to one type of Summoner.