Contagion isn't as good as it seems

A lot of Summoners seem to think Contagion is the end all be all of pet abilities, and it's quite easy to see why:

+15 seconds to dots = 5 extra ticks per dot
Tick of Bio II + Miasma + Thunder + Bio = 145 potency
145p x 5 = 725 potency per cast time

725ppct, that's a big number, far bigger than any other Summoner ability, but the math isn't quite that simple. Essentially, there's an opportunity cost for using Contagion: it delays when you would normally be able to recast your higher ppct spells (dots) and replaces that time with a period of casting lower ppct spells, 6 globals to be exact. So the ppct of Contagion isn't 725, but rather how much damage the Summoner can do in those 6 extra globals.

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How much damage can a Summoner do in 6 globals without dots? Not much, really. You basically have Ruin, maybe a Shadow Flare if it's appropriate to use. 6 Ruins = 480 potency per minute from Contagion. That's still decent, right? Well, no, because you're giving up 400 potency per minute in autoattacks using Garuda over Ifrit. So in conclusion, Contagion really isn't that good.

Now, having said all that, Garuda-Egi is still the superior pet vs. bosses for 2 reasons: a) Contagion can be used with Raging Strikes, and b) pet potency currently doesn't scale with gear, so the 400 extra potency you get with Ifrit can't be directly compared to the potency of player spells.

Just some food for thought...

You forgot the practical realities of extending your DoT's, like on a transition phase that might allow you to Bane off the bat whereas in any other case you would have not been able and the DoT's fall off so you have 7.5 seconds of ramp up to AoE. Extending those dots while starting with aetherflow and opening raging strikes also means you got 2 Banes in under raging strike at a 20% benefit.

More importantly, in any fight with any amount of target switching, you're not counting the DPS loss of Ifrit egi walking oh so ever slowly to its target while garuda is ranged.

Ifrit Egi's benefits are just too marginal, and that's kinda depressing considering Garuda egi isn't that great either. Of all pet skills, you've got a single one that's useful (Contagion). The rest are pretty garbage.

Most importantly, skills like Ifrit/Titan's stun or Garuda's knockback will never be that great because of the delay they take to unleash them due to waiting on their other animations.

Potency is not a great way to evaluate this, though. Shadow Flare is 25 potency but it ticks for the same damage as Bio, which is 40 potency.

Our pets suck, enough said. Even with Contagion which wow, we use a pet strictly based off an ability that elongates our dots an extra amount of time. Whoop dee friggin doo. This class NEEDS the damn pets to be stronger, hell with our own personal dmg. The class is named after whats its supposed to do! SUMMON!, the pets blow except for titan who does his role well; Tank. When I personally am doing 4 times the dmg my pet does yet the class revolves around pets, theres something wrong.

Garuda pet is fine except for that knock back which can't be turned off.

Garuda is providing an at range ability providing constant damage and contagion when used correctly is amazing during transitional period when you arent necesarily targeting the boss or have other issues to attend to.

I personally would like better control options for the pets, otherwise I really feel like the class is fine.

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Originally Posted by ReverendBaka

Potency is not a great way to evaluate this, though. Shadow Flare is 25 potency but it ticks for the same damage as Bio, which is 40 potency.

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The entire point of potency is to act as a 'lowest common denominator' so it can be evaluated like this. Shadow Flare is just an exception; the tooltip is either a typo or it's a separate damage source, which would make sense considering it isn't affected by Raging Strikes.


@Crescent_Dusk: Fair point about Bane, but was referring mostly to single-target fights.

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Originally Posted by Veis

Garuda pet is fine except for that knock back which can't be turned off.

Garuda is providing an at range ability providing constant damage and contagion when used correctly is amazing during transitional period when you arent necesarily targeting the boss or have other issues to attend to.

I personally would like better control options for the pets, otherwise I really feel like the class is fine.

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Do you not use the obey pet command? It forces Garuda to use wind blade only unless you order it to do another move. Personally the only issue I have with the pet controls is the inability to use pet commands during spellcasting.

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Originally Posted by dontcare

A lot of Summoners seem to think Contagion is the end all be all of pet abilities, and it's quite easy to see why:

+15 seconds to dots = 5 extra ticks per dot
Tick of Bio II + Miasma + Thunder + Bio = 145 potency
145p x 5 = 725 potency per cast time

725ppct, that's a big number, far bigger than any other Summoner ability, but the math isn't quite that simple. Essentially, there's an opportunity cost for using Contagion: it delays when you would normally be able to recast your higher ppct spells (dots) and replaces that time with a period of casting lower ppct spells, 6 globals to be exact. So the ppct of Contagion isn't 725, but rather how much damage the Summoner can do in those 6 extra globals.

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Contagion is good due to the below:-

1. Combine it with raging strike.
2. Timing with your Fester GCD.
3. When a boss is going through transition phase where you need the dots to be there first thing next phase. (eg: Garuda)

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Originally Posted by Ardan

Do you not use the obey pet command? It forces Garuda to use wind blade only unless you order it to do another move. Personally the only issue I have with the pet controls is the inability to use pet commands during spellcasting.

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Yes, although Obey is vital for Garuda egi as it will spam contagion at situation that does not call for it. But Obey also stop Garuda egi from using her AOE wind atk unless you manually click it. As SMN, i have tons of button to click and i always neglect the AOE wind atk.

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Originally Posted by Ardan

Do you not use the obey pet command? It forces Garuda to use wind blade only unless you order it to do another move. Personally the only issue I have with the pet controls is the inability to use pet commands during spellcasting.

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Right now though it seems after combat I always find my pet back on guard and its rather annoying and I seem to miss it at times. So its resetting for me and its annoying to always make sure its on obey.

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Originally Posted by Inosaska

Right now though it seems after combat I always find my pet back on guard and its rather annoying and I seem to miss it at times. So its resetting for me and its annoying to always make sure its on obey.

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Once a pet is on Obey, it will stay in Obey mode unless you re-summon.

Obey is not a stance like Guard (it should be,) it is an attack command, and to my knowledge, resets when the pet changes targets e.g. when current target dies unless reissued.

Marcusow86 is correct. Once you use obey once you don't need to use it again unless you resummon your egi. I'm quite sure obey is still active when zoning as well.

set pet to guard and open with obey

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Originally Posted by Yoohre_WildRiver

set pet to guard and open with obey

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Should set pet to steady. it will return to steady when the target dies. If you are attacking a different target however, you'll need to command it to attack again.