Summoner & Turn 5

So I can't find a thread specifically about the summoner and turn 5 (if there is one please show me!) so I thought I'd post my own.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to bump up my DPS to the next level with this class. I'm struggling to fully understand it even though I've been playing this class since I picked up this game. I'm realizing now that I've started trying T5 that I've no clue what a properly played SMN should be doing.

Anyway, this is more about what I should be doing in T5 specifically. I'm being told I'm parsing below what SMN should there, and it infuriates me because I'm not sure what to do to bump it up.

In T5 I've been opening with the RS > dots > contagion > bane etc on the scourges. Should I continue with the ruin spam on them after this or should I be moving onto attacking twin at this point? And how do I keep my dps on Twintania up at all times during conflags? I find myself trying to sit on aether stacks during conflag phase trying to make sure I have bane/fester up for fast conflags, but I feel like that hurts my dps on Twin by a lot.

I'm looking for any advice on keeping good dps up on all phases if possible. I'm pretty distraught about this, I thought I knew what I was doing but now I know I haven't a clue. So I'm wiping what I know and trying to re-learn from the ground-up now.

Firstly make sure your parsing member is adding Garuda's damage to yours.
Don't use RS in the opening.

Dots - Contagion - Bane - Wind blade while ruining/festering tab order. If your healers didn't E4E your MT with Twin to start try and throw it in at some point, they'll appreciate it.
Move to twin when the last is dead or nearly dead and start applying dots again, keep saving RS, if your dps is slow you could use contagion now but there's not much reason to. Place garuda where she needs to be while you were getting into position (any party with smn/sch should be having pets eating fireballs). Right click while applying dots so you start auto attacking, drop shadow flare after dots and cycle in festers/rouse/spur whenever you can (This applies for the whole fight)

After 85%'s fireball move Garuda up and reapply dots, you should have fresh aether. From now on save your aether stacks for conflags. First conflag bane onto it, if aetherflow is going to be off CD soon go ahead and fester. When its down use RS and apply dots again, use contagion and drop a shadow flare. Bane onto this conflag again, Ruin 2 and fester it immediately and hit obey so garuda attacks it. aether should be back up by now. 3rd conflag just bane, after 3rd I use a mega-int before applying dots but it isn't necessary. Basically you want contagion and SC-shadowflare ready for each dps conflag. You'll get 3-4 conflags depending on dps, 5 if your group's damage is really slow (which means the whole group has shit to work on, not just you)

Divebombs and snakes do whatever your party does. I drop the LB instead of our BLM and we only really hit the asclepius. Myself and the bard drop dots onto the smaller snakes and thats it, even LB2 will kill them at that point.

After Asclepius has 4 stacks use RS and apply dots, contagion if you like and pop festers/ED as you need. If you have a BRD they should have foes up before LB finishes imo.

When you jump in the neurolink and twin pops, if nobody was already doing so virus immediately. It'll lower the damage everyone takes a bit and help the healers/tank deal with the very soon to come plummet and auto attack.

Move to your twister spot and apply dots on Twin. If you keep twin in the middle Bane onto each dread, sometimes you have to wait a second or else bane won't land. If it doesn't tab and cast miasma immediately. I target garuda onto them each time and use fester if I feel someone is too close, but sometimes you can get away with only baning depending on where everyone else is in their rotation. Remember you have Ruin 2 when dodging twisters, and try to keep shadow flare up at all times in a spot that will hit Twin and the spawning dread.
If your group pulls Twin to the edge remember to tab and immediately drop 3 dots on the dreads. Also if your group keeps twin on the edge this is cutting into your dps directly and making dreads more dangerous than they need to be.

After the 2nd dread or so your RS should be back up and mega-int might be close behind it. If they're close use them together and drop 3 dots+SF and contagion after a twister. If they aren't just use whichever is up then use the other when those dots wear off. Or you can wait til hatch phase so you don't have to worry about dodging a twister or getting dreadstunned but this will help you push into it faster.

At hatches/LH just stand far enough back that you won't trap a melee or healer with the hells. I tend to just go back in a staggered straight line while ruin2ing if I can and our other dps tend to make straight lines too that overlap. If you want you can sprint and book it to the edge if you dont want to use ruin 2.

My RS usage gives me 3 uses at very good times, and 2 mega ints as well. You'll only get 4 RS uses if your fight actually lasts 12 minutes going first on the scourges and if the fight is less than 12 you're only using it twice on Twin. And I'm sure you already have most of the groove down for playing SMN if you're doing T5 but could maybe work on weaving off GCD skills into your instant cast downtime. and auto attacking the first half. And of course this is just what I do, your mileage may vary. I'm usually either right next to our MNK or topping slightly in T5 though, depending on conflags.

Good tips, especially on managing Aetherflow stacks.

A few tips to add:

1. When conflags or dreadknights spawn, you can have Garuda use Aerial Slash to hit both.
2. Even when you are the one stunned, you can bane your dots onto the dreadknight if you time it right.
3. Use Enkindle early as soon as the tank gets ago to hit all 3 of the Scourges. Enkindle is up again in time to use it on Asclepius. Then it is up again in phase5 to finish the fight.

Also make sure your parser is right. I was doing 250 dps (me + pet on my parser). However, when I studied it more, it was reporting zero damage from dots on the conflag and dreadknight (which is funny because it had the fester damage, and there is no way to do fester damage without dots running). So somehow the parser was missing my bane dots. When I got a different parser I was over 300 dps. And as far as I know, no parser will record shadowflare damage, so they will always under report your damage.

Thanks guys. I didn't have a parser running, but our raid leader did and was reporting me as being low. :< He definitely said he specifically didn't understand SMN so it's possible that he was not adding my pet damage to my own making my damage look no so good. I do feel like I could be doing better regardless and I really appreciate the write-ups. I really like the really detailed one Madoka. Gonna have to read that a bunch.

Also, yeah...the tank was keeping Twintania on the edge of the stage to the NE, so there was no way I could bane to the dreads.

Report your raid leader, he will get banned for using a parser.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Apinaheebo

Report your raid leader, he will get banned for using a parser.

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I wish you could report bad advice.

Depending on your other DDs you could probably get away with just spreading your DoTs on the adds and then getting Twin dotted up, then go back and mop up the adds if they're not down far enough. I save Contagion in Phase 1 for when i'm focusing specifically on Twin.

My damage in Phase 2 drops because I have to keep 2 Aetherflows up for Bane + Fester for Conflags.

Phase 3 I get spread Contagion DoTs to the small snakes then focus on the big one. Same repeats when the next adds are all together. You may have to LB if you don't have another caster or the other one is dead for some reason.

Sadly I haven't gotten past Twister phase yet so I don't have any tips for past Phase 3.