Combining SMN Pet Spells

Am I the only one that thinks they should combine the SMN pet spells and group all the spells for each pet that share the same cd to a single spell. If you want to alternate between Ifrit and Garuda you need to either write a macro, or have each spell on your action bars. Playing on PS4 i don't like to have more than 2 action bars for quick switching back and forth. Any more than that and it slows you down and I don't like having to use a macro simply because of the error message every time you use it showing that your pet can't use that ability.

Honestly I don't blame you for that,

I can't even imagine playing the SMN on a controller. I have 3 hot bars and almost everything in them gets used (Granted I have two mounts, and Gysahl Greens in slots).

And I will admit the pet control interface responsiveness is horrid, and makes controlling pets a serious chore. I can honestly say I've waited upwards of a full 10 seconds for the pet to actually perform the command I gave it.

That said for balance reasons I'm pretty sure they won't be able to do that, because some of their abilities are stronger than other ones. So are adjusted by recast timer.

I am talking about having Aerial Slash and the equivalent actions for Titan and Ifrit being all in the same spell, and depending on which pet you have out , having it perform that action in the same manner that Enkindle works

The most comfortable way so far are macros like these:

/ac "Summon"
/hotbar pet "Contagion" "Garuda-Egi" 1 1
/hotbar pet "Aerial Slash" "Garuda-Egi" 1 2
[...]

/ac "Summon II"
/hotbar pet "Mountain buster" "Titan-Egi" 1 1
/hotbar pet "Earthen Ward" "Titan-Egi" 1 2
[...]

etc.

Those switch out the abilites on your hotbar (first number) in the named slot (second number), whenever you summon an egi.

Since you don't summon mid-fight very often they're not very 'dangerous' in terms of losing those fractions of a second because they don't queue as normal GCDS do. If you have to, you propably died half a minute before and your rotation is screwed anyway. :3



Since pet abilities have their own "queue" alongside the players ability-queue, I also tried macros like this to let the game do the "triggering":

/micon "Contagion" pet Garuda-Egi
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
[...]


They work absolutly fine, it acts like you are clicking x times on the skill yourself while doing your normal rotation without delays or problems. That is, as long as you fight one target. Switching targets when the macro runs leads to you not knowing on which target Garuda will use its skill eventually.
So, in the end a funny (and button preserving) experiment, but nothing you wanna really use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Neophyte

/micon "Contagion" pet Garuda-Egi
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
/pac "Contation" <t>
[...]


They work absolutly fine, it acts like you are clicking x times on the skill yourself while doing your normal rotation without delays or problems. That is, as long as you fight one target. Switching targets when the macro runs leads to you not knowing on which target Garuda will use its skill eventually.

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Now that i'll have to add. I use copy chotbar and need to re-do it like my other jobs, but I am not fond of having to click that move 20 times....and that's the only one that wants to do that for me.

you'll never get Garuda to do contagion with contation lol just yankin yer chain. seriously i'm tired of spamming the button only for her to do it after the dots fall off :(

if you really run out of spots you can either macro things like raging strike & trance, tri-disisaster & contagion/blazing shield and bane or painflare with areal slash.... I play on ps4 as well and just need 2 hot bars without dbl cross feature. the only thing which is missing is ice 2 but since I haven't used it for a while I don't miss it nowadays ^^

Whether you're on PC or PS4, you have a few options. I've played on both and this is what I found to be the easiest.
On PC you can keybind the pet hotbar, I set mine to use the numpad, so you can hit those and it corresponds the ability depending on the egi you have summoned.
On PS4, I think by default, when you have them summoned, tapping R1 means you can quick switch between you currently select hotbar and the pet hotbar where you can execute pet actions.
I also use the double trigger hotbar on top of all this (holding down L2 + R2 brings up half a cross hotbar) so I have one and a half bars of regular spells and then quick switch to pet hotbar.
If it works for you, macros are a good way to work it too.

I'm hoping for some good changes to SMN come 4.0, but I'm not holding my breath for anything drastic. Good luck :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Neela

snip

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You should avoid combining multiple abilities into one macro since that means you won't be able to use them separately at will. A good example from your post is Painflare and Aerial Slash. If you want to use Aerial Slash but not Painflare you either have to make sure you have no AF stacks or make sure Painflare is on CD.

I can currently manage SMN with one crossbar along with one Expanded Hold Crossbar, meaning both L2>R2 and R2>L2 go to the same bar, and WXHB. I don't have a picture of my Set up due to the maintenance but after the 48 hours I'll try to remember to take a picture.

I play very well on controller as SMN. Turns into muscle memory after awhile :)

Yea the pet lag is real, but I just adjust for it. I can tell Garuda-egi to cast contagion when I am finishing casting miasma, and by time I throw bio on the target see us using contagion. It works perfectly most of time. Sometimes its a fail, so its a win/fail type of relationship. I currently have 3 hotbar setup for summoner, this also includes pvp abilities as well. I have gotten pretty use to playing on with the ps4 controller, even after switching to pc I still prefer to use it over mouse and keyboard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dyslexic

I am talking about having Aerial Slash and the equivalent actions for Titan and Ifrit being all in the same spell, and depending on which pet you have out , having it perform that action in the same manner that Enkindle works

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I think I understand and pets do act this way. A few years ago I tried to swap them out after using an ability but found them linked. For example I summoned Garuda to use Contagion then swft cast Ifrit and found his Flaming crush was on cooldown too. I'll test this again when servers are back up but I want to say they are simply group together by pet slot 1, 2, 3, 4 .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jefforbean

Yea the pet lag is real, but I just adjust for it. I can tell Garuda-egi to cast contagion when I am finishing casting miasma, and by time I throw bio on the target see us using contagion. It works perfectly most of time. Sometimes its a fail, so its a win/fail type of relationship. I currently have 3 hotbar setup for summoner, this also includes pvp abilities as well. I have gotten pretty use to playing on with the ps4 controller, even after switching to pc I still prefer to use it over mouse and keyboard.

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I think server lag has something to do with it too. I macro'ed Tri-Disaster with Contagion and it works well 90% of the time but every so often I have to do a manual command.

Ok I finally remembered to get on my SMN. Here's the set-up I use for my Crossbar. Apologies for poor Camera Quality, didn't have access to my computer at the time.

http://imgur.com/e2ApNKl. This is my Main Crossbar. I use macros for summoning the Egi's on a different crossbar to replace Garuda's abilities with the proper pet actions. I put most of my lesser used skills on the WXHB. The Hotbar at the bottom is simply for monitoring the Recast timer for my buffs.

http://imgur.com/E9JIuo6. This is my Hold Crossbar. I mainly put main cooldowns on this for a majority of my classes. Not much really needs to be said.

How I set up my Crossbars is probably inefficient, this is because I set them up myself without looking at other people's setups for suggestions or ideas. But I hope this helps.

This is my macro for Shadow flare. It simply places it down super fast when I target an enemy. If I don't have anything targeted it lets me do it manually.

/micon "Shadow Flare"
/ac "Shadow Flare" <t>
/ac "Shadow Flare"