Endgame Summoner -- Garuda

[HiirNoivl]

Phase 1:

Use your Garuda Egi. When the tank pulls set your Egi to Obey. Set down your Shadowflare on Garuda. Load her up with Raging Strike then at least 4 DoTs. Use Contagion. She'll Jump. Go behind the pillar. Use Aetherflow. Set down your Shadowflare on one pillar. When the feathers appear, DoT them with Bane. While the feathers die, load her up with DoTs. By the time you're done, the feathers will be dead. Reset Shadowflare on the tank. Before she jumps the second time, load her with DoTs and set Shadowflare on a Pillar and slightly in the middle. She'll Jump to the center and get hit by Shadowflare. Use bane when the feathers appear. Use Spur on your Egi.

She should jump a third time again to the middle and use scattered feathers. But at this point most of the pillars should be at or near full health. Load her with DoTs and use Contagion if it's up.

Phase 2:

The party should be moving into position for Aerial Blast. Set your Shadow Flare on the Main Tank. Use Contagion now if you haven't already. It will work no matter where Garuda is. Garuda will Call her sisters. "Obey" your Egi to Suparna and be sure Garuda's DoTs on Garuda should still be ticking thanks to contagion. The tank should taunt Chirada into Shadow Flare. Use Bane on Garuda to spread the DoTs to Chirada. Use Limit Break on them all. Chirada will also die in seconds after Suparna.

If you're the only SMN in the group, you'll move into Phase 3, just wash, rinse and Repeat. If more than one, you'll kill her before Phase 3.

[HiirNoivl]

Gearing up as Summoner:

Summoner's Base Stat is Intelligence. But you also want to gear up a lot of Crit Rate. Each DoT has it's own Crit Rate. So when you increase your Crit Rate you increase the rate of every DoT you put on. Also when your Egi Crits, you'll have a chance of boosting your spell speed by 20%, so for SMN it should be INT>CritRate>Spell Speed. These three Stats work synergystically (word?) to increase your damage.


Skilling up as Summoner:

The toughest thing you will ever learn as SMN is to chill. Once you DoT up, you need to check your timers on your DoTs so you don't over write them. This is especially important if your DoTs are enhanced by Contagion and Raging Strike. Unless you used Raging Strike which makes it impossible to overwrite. It will even ruin your Limit Break meter contribution. Better to let them fall off than do that.

Don't kill yourself and your MP refreshing DoTs that don't need it. If the Enemy is running or jumping out of range, use Contagion. 15 secs is plenty of time to extend your DoT timers so you don't have to over write them. Sometimes, when you use Bane, the timers on the newly DoT'ed add or adds will be full. If that's the case, you're done. No enemy has ever survived this. Do something else, play with your Egi, or something. Anything but overwrite your DoTs.

Don't use Aetherflow unless you're no longer under the effect. I see this a lot. Someone uses Aetherflow still has a stack or two of the ability and then uses it again to "refill". Don't do this.

Chill out. This is the hardest thing to do as a SMN. I'm still learning to do this. WAR has given me a horrible trigger finger.

2) Learn your Egi:

Your Egi is part of you. Know its habits and its abilities. I found out that my Garuda Egi likes to use Contagion on one DoT. That's a terrible waste. She likes to Blow enemies far away. That's annoying. That's why I never let Garuda "Sic" unless I'm soloing and don't care. Did you know that Ifrit and Titan have a stun ability? If you're fighting say Chimera or Ifrit where stuns are of the utmost importance, Turn that ability OFF. I don't know how many poor Chimera Parties are wiping because people are giving their Egi's Free Range to do whatever they want and they're making the mob immune to Stun. Know what your beast is doing. Finally, I don't know what beef people have with Enkindle, but It's really nice to use on Adds. Try it! It's great for Demon Wall.

3) Learn to be Psychic. Once you've run a battle enough you pretty much know what's going to happen. Who cares that Shadowflare has a 3 second Cast time? If I'm not sure what's going to happen in a fight beyond my next breath, I have bigger problems. Knowlege is power. Use it.

[nimuniverse]

Agreed on all points. Nice posts.

[Mindcl0ud]

I would also like to add - make sure you are using Ruin, and only using Ruin II on the move. You'll be able to get a lot more festers off because the mana drain will not be nearly as bad.

[HiirNoivl]

I've taken the Ruins off my bar. Sadly, Ruin II gives a Blind Debuff that could be better used in a more measured way. It just doesn't do enough damage. I just use Rouse.

[Mindcl0ud]

If you aren't filling your time of not casting DoTs / while fester is on CD with Ruin, you are losing a good amount of DPS.

[Nemhy]

snip

Do you usually let them hit 0 instead of timing them to hit at the dot is about to wear off? between casting animations and GCD I find that I have to start casting thunder at about 5 seconds left to get it on the mob in time

[HiirNoivl]

Idling 2.5 secs for 80 potency attack is losing a good amount of DPS? Surely you jest. You're better off sparing yourself that GCD for a real attack.

You will not be able to use Ruin or Ruin II on Titan. 1. Because you're moving around too much and 2. You'll be needing the Tank to blind Titan with Flash.

Do you usually let them hit 0 instead of timing them to hit at the dot is about to wear off? between casting animations and GCD I find that I have to start casting thunder at about 5 seconds left to get it on the mob in time

I start recasting at 3 secs. Whatever latency that exists in the system will shave off fractions of a second, so I assume that 3 displayed = 2.5 realtime. If you see that your latency means you start casting at 5, by all means cast at 5.

[Nemhy]

Idling 2.5 secs for 80 potency attack is losing a good amount of DPS? Surely you jest.

You will not be able to use Ruin or Ruin II on Titan. 1. Because you're moving around too much and 2. You'll be needing the Tank to blind Titan with Flash.



I start recasting at 3 secs. Whatever latency that exists in the system will shave off fractions of a second, so I assume that 3 displayed = 2.5 realtime. If you see that your latency means you start casting at 5, by all means cast at 5.

I'll try doing it at 3, I need to learn to chill out. during Ifrit I'm constantly just refreshing DoTs when that time is probably better spent elsewhere. What would you be doing during mostly stationary bosses like this once your DoTs are up? I see that you don't throw in filler Ruins so I'm curious what you do if you have full free time

[HiirNoivl]

Usually Egi Management. Casting Sustain or Eye for an Eye, Rouse or Spur. Or Heel... if your Egi is out of place.

A Cool thing about Garuda Egi is that she'll cast as soon as she's in range. So she can be used to mark "Max Range".