SMN opener

Hi everyone
I would like to know from my HL SMN fellows if they all use pet swap in their opener. Is it a real dps increase ? Is it absolutely worthwhile ? I play with a controller and i find it hard to sqeeze more abilities in my cast bars... Thank you

It was my understanding that the pet swap opener was only for EXTREME min-maxing, and had such a low margin for error that it generally wasn't worth it unless you manage to pull it off PERFECTLY.

But I'm still a relatively new player, and not really a SMN main, so take my word with a grain of salt to rival the Dead Sea.

It's more a raid DPS gain than a personal one IIRC. So in that sense, yes, it's worthwhile.

I attempted the pet swap openings for a short time, but found it was a bit of a nuisance handling it while playing on a PS4 controller. If you can get the hang of it though, it's pretty great, really. It also probably depends on the fight and party composition too, as well.

Yes and yes.

Controller can make it finicky, but there's merits to performing it for a minor personal gain as well as a general party gain for that time window. It is always worth performing correctly. Even Japanese controller players have started picking it up now :D

If you want a more seamless and more hassle-free version of the swap, I recommend my comfy pet swap shown here.

However, it is important to note that an opener is only but a small portion of a larger fight total. While they matter, keeping play clean and your foundations correct is far more significant overall for squeezing as much as possible out of the job. There's generally a lot, if not too much focus, on just the openers by players.

I just learned the pet swap opener two days ago. I've had no issues with it on a controller. It's just a matter retraining your muscle memory to adapt to the first few GCDs. After that, it's about the same as the "regular" openers.

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Originally Posted by ShaolinMike

I just learned the pet swap opener two days ago. I've had no issues with it on a controller. It's just a matter retraining your muscle memory to adapt to the first few GCDs. After that, it's about the same as the "regular" openers.

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It was nice to see when it clicked for you in the Discord. It really isn't so bad, just a little different!

It's worth while but not something that you absolutely need to do, you can try other openers there are plenty on YouTube that have viability...the thing I like about SMN is I've seen alot of different openers achieve some of the same results. Good Luck

Many thanks for all your messages guys. I will practice then.
Nemekh, Can you explain the reason of flaming crush before summoning Garuda ? Thank you

Flaming Crush before summon is to enforce Garuda to use Contagion first, so you can swap early. That way you can keep the pet on sic and don't need obey.

I see many top logs that don't petswap. That's the reason why I asked too about the petswap opener.
At Kefka for example I prefer a non petswap opener that uses enkindle very fast. That way I can use enkindle a second time right before the first graven image (it runs about 12 seconds then). It is no problem that not the whole duration is used because after graven image you will directly use bahamut and enkindle will be off cd after that.

If you use petswap you won't be able to use that enkindle before graven.

In general for me it feels like petswap is some kind of minimalistic optimization that needs a lot of additional work.
I think the overall gain for raiddps is somewhere between 10-50 if you have no second caster.
(And if you have a second caster then you can stick with Garuda)

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Originally Posted by TelosNox

Flaming Crush before summon is to enforce Garuda to use Contagion first, so you can swap early. That way you can keep the pet on sic and don't need obey.

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Right, the idea is that the pets share corresponding cds, and that simply swapping a pet won't automatically refresh everything since that could probably be abused quite easily. Therefore, using up Flaming Crush before swapping for Garuda ensures she won't use her usual starting move before Contagion because the other move will still be on cd.

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Originally Posted by Rakith

Many thanks for all your messages guys. I will practice then.
Nemekh, Can you explain the reason of flaming crush before summoning Garuda ? Thank you

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Sure! There's two main reasons:

1. The big one is to put Aerial Slash on cooldown as while in Sic Garuda follows a priority system where she will perform Wind Blade -> Aerial Slash -> (Shockwave if in range) -> Contagion -> Wind Blade. Given that Garuda should not be in melee range for the pre pull action, it will be Wind Blade -> Contagion due to Aerial not being available. This is using the annoying pet AI to our advantage as the Obey method can have her ignore Contagion requests, especially at higher ping. Playing at >200ms I find the sic opener method very comfy and always reliable.
2. It's a pre-pull action attempt for a Ruin 4 proc. 15% of the time you'll have that value extra damage to convert the opening R2 into an R4.

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Originally Posted by TelosNox

I see many top logs that don't petswap. That's the reason why I asked too about the petswap opener.
At Kefka for example I prefer a non petswap opener that uses enkindle very fast. That way I can use enkindle a second time right before the first graven image (it runs about 12 seconds then). It is no problem that not the whole duration is used because after graven image you will directly use bahamut and enkindle will be off cd after that.

If you use petswap you won't be able to use that enkindle before graven.

In general for me it feels like petswap is some kind of minimalistic optimization that needs a lot of additional work.
I think the overall gain for raiddps is somewhere between 10-50 if you have no second caster.
(And if you have a second caster then you can stick with Garuda)

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There's a lot of strange things one can find in the top logs for every job. This doesn't make what they do or don't do correctly in every case, or perhaps only valid with a specific kill time in mind. Often it's due to not knowing any better or simply choosing not to whether it's laziness or otherwise.

Enkindle on Kefka's not something you can really bank on because of R4 variance. The trait is annoying. However, the fight is designed in such a way that not only is a swap opener perfectly fine - you can swap for every major intermission at a minor personal and more important party gain. The buffed enkindle count will be fine.

Naturally, something specific for an opener when fights are considerably longer will make it be smaller change vs just playing a fight clean. This doesn't mean that it's significantly more work.

I put it simply as follows:

If you care about damage, you'll do what's not only good for you but good for your party.

I have to correct something: I didn't mean enkindle, I meant rouse (have german client so I am not that familiar with english skill names). If you use rouse very soon after pull at kefka then you can get about additional 10sec uptime before first graven image. If you use petswap you will be 2 gcd later with rouse, so only 5sec uptime left.
It is some specific usecase. In general it is not relevant if we use rouse a bit later.

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Originally Posted by ChaoticCrimson

Right, the idea is that the pets share corresponding cds, and that simply swapping a pet won't automatically refresh everything since that could probably be abused quite easily. Therefore, using up Flaming Crush before swapping for Garuda ensures she won't use her usual starting move before Contagion because the other move will still be on cd.

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Yeah Eos infinity reg is a nice melancholy... miss those pet abuses somehow : /

the egi flip at the start make sense if your team wants speedkills or all other damage dealers are not good enough at there jobs.

egis on sic. oh man. my old amiga/atari/c64 heart is crying at all this automatic and macro stuff for lazy/bad players. i know some players who work with so many macros that i ask myself: why do they play at all? they almost just watch an interactiv movie. xD

For those with controllers use a macro to swap your summon and pet skills:

/ac "Summon"
/crosshotbar pet "Shockwave" "Garuda-Egi" 2 RA4
/crosshotbar pet "Contagion" "Garuda-Egi" 2 RA1
/crosshotbar pet "Aerial Slash" "Garuda-Egi" 2 RA3

Do one with the same above for Ifrit, just swap out the skill names. "2 RA4" puts the skill on crossbar 2 circle for DS4 users. You can change this to suit you.