Lrn2SMN?

Not a rant despite the title XD

I'm a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to learning the basic tactics on my Summoner. Despite this I've done fairly well up until Titan HM where the blame fell on me for not producing enough Damage as a Summoner (by a bard no less...only one complaining)

This has provoked me to the point that I really do need to focus on maximizing my DPS as a Summoner. Currently my stats are blitzed because I sub as a Scholar as well and I know this hurts me as a DPS. I can and will respec my guy when I can, though needing to respec everytime I want to switch is going to be a pain in the butt.

Stats on the side, I fall short with knowing anything beyond the basic Bio2, Miasma, Bio, Contagion, Fester combo.

I'm working on getting Swift Cast so I can Swift Cast Summon and possibly Swift Cast Rez when I need too, though I hardly ever have trouble keeping my pets alive XD

Are there many other tactics or combinations I need to learn? Are there different Macro commands I should look into?

There are numerous posts already on these forums theorycrafting SMN rotation - I would look at those. Pet management can be key to maximizing your DPS as they are a good percentage of your damage. Make the most of your use of Rouse and Spur to assist in this and always micromanage Garuda to ensure your Contagions go off when you want them to.

Get Swiftcast before you try end-game content - it's pretty much a necessity.

Marcos are a personal choice - I use them but can see where they might not be the best options at times. At minimum, marco Swiftcast (once you acquire it) into Resurrection.
Make the most out of Rouse and Spur to

Hi there, do you have raging strikes? its wonderful on upping your damage.

It sounds like you're doing the right things when it comes to doing 3 dots, contagion and festers, so thumbs up there
with garuda on obey. ('.')b

For titan, I can usually get 2-3 full rotations of festers (depending on damage by the party) before heart phase, since
i'll save some fester power for the heart. you can also get 2 rouse and a spur off before heart pops and still have them
come back for heart. i save the first use of raging strikes for heart.

For heart, I usually rouse/spur right as he is falling, target heart and immediately enkindle. followed by raging strikes 3
dots, then fester, (bane if the gaol is right next to titan), starts shadow flare, then mash contagion while shadowflare
is casting. Then fester again before raging strikes is up. (of course weaving in ruin)

If anyone has other ideas, I'm always willing to listen. Also titan is not a dps race except for heart, while faster is always
better, as long as youre dodging and putting out good damage, don't worry too much :)

What Volsung said is very true. Raging strikes, and using garuda on obey are extremely important. It might take a while to get used to giving orders to gardua if she's usually on sic, but it's well worth the effort to master it. Raging strikes is also incredibly easy to get because you don't need to lvl your archer very much. However, if you intend to keep your SMN as your main, investing in quelling strikes will also be a blessing. your rotation of dots aren't bad, but try to get shadow flare and miasma 2 in there as often as possible. In some cases you can skip the miasma 2 if it's too risky to get close, but as dot class, the more you have going the better. There is also a thread above this talking about using cooldowns and the person who posted knows their stuff. Additionally, if the person who was complaining was using a parser, he might have been a idiot who forgot to count your pet's damage as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by XanderOlivieri

Stats on the side, I fall short with knowing anything beyond the basic Bio2, Miasma, Bio, Contagion, Fester combo.

I'm working on getting Swift Cast so I can Swift Cast Summon and possibly Swift Cast Rez when I need too, though I hardly ever have trouble keeping my pets alive XD

Are there many other tactics or combinations I need to learn? Are there different Macro commands I should look into?

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"Raging Strikes" is the first obvious one - the duration should let you get up all the DoTs, plus Contagion, plus two festers and a Rouse/Spur/Enkindle. See here.

Miasma II is worth using right before Contagion. And always try to drop a Shadow Flare (Swiftcast is your friend if no Raising is needed!)

And don't forget 'Ruin II' if you need to move whilst casting... :)

I’d say throw 30 into intel unless you’re maining sch, swapping every time you switch chars would be highly impractical. There’s no such thing as too much dps, but there is such a thing as too much healing. Also, I’ve healed t5 with my sch while I had 30 points in intel and pretty mediocre gear, so it’s not like not having 30 mind means you can’t do end-game content on your sch.