smn hotbar set up/rotaion and lvling

[yuroko66]

Hey guys, I'm just wondering what's a good set up and rotation, I'm 35, and I feel like my set up wrong, I tend to try and put everything in the main hot bar but I feel like other things should be there instead. I'm on ps4 can anyone give me a good layout

Also at lvl 35 any good suggestions to quickly lvling my character

[Sanguisio]

Apply DOTs in longest to shortest duration,

Use the time between casts to use rouse or off GCD moves like e4ae etc

Ruin spam and use fester when it is up with all 3 main DOTs active.

As a SMN you can pretty much solo fates as you do not need to be stationary to deal damage, dot things up and run around

Also make full use of low lvl duty roulette.

[Havenchild]

Leveling: The best solution to quickly leveling up a SMN, is unlocking SCH and queing for dungeons as a healer. Since ACN shares level ups with both of them this will give you access to a DPS and a Healer essentially both at level 50. The slower alternative is trying to get into whatever Duty Finder gives you and spam leve quests/ FATEs of current level.

Rotation: Your DPS for any encounter is all about your Opener. Your goal is to burst really high in the opener then retain as much as possible. Your opener does NOT end until you use Aetherflow again at which point priority order takes over. (Make sure pet is always on Obey, before batttle begins)

Single Target Traditional Opener (Garuda): Raging Strikes -> Int Pot (If using) -> Bio 2 (Setup Auto Attack, X button by Default when mob is highlighted) -> Miasma (Start moving towards mob when this is about 75-80% complete)-> Bio -> Fester -> Miasma 2 -> Potent Poisoning Potion (If using) -> Contagion / Swiftcast (Press at same time, Contagion first) -> Shadowflare -> Rouse -> Ruin 2 -> Spur -> Ruin 2 -> Enkindle -> Fester -> Ruin 2 (Raging Strikes falls off) -> Ruin 2 -> Ruin 2 -> Ruin 2 -> Fester -> Ruin 2 -> Aetherflow -> Priority system application

Single Target Traditional Opener (Ifrit): Raging Strikes -> Int Pot (If using) -> Bio 2 (Setup Auto Attack)-> Miasma (Movement)-> Bio -> Fester -> Ruin 2 -> Potent Poisoning Potion (If using) -> Swiftcast -> Shadowflare -> Rouse -> Ruin 2 -> Spur -> Ruin 2 -> Enkindle -> Fester -> Ruin 2 (Raging Falls off) -> Ruin 2 -> Bio -> Miasma -> Ruin 2 -> Fester -> Aetherflow -> Bio 2 -> Ruin I -> Shadowflare -> Bio -> Fester -> Priority system application

Multiple Targets: Same opener except you will want to use Bane after Miasma 2 (Garuda) or the first Ruin 2 if using Ifrit (Miasma 2 instead of first Ruin 2 if 3 or more targets. You will have to use Aetherflow after Ruin 2 when Raging Strikes falls off.


What I changed slightly is when Rouse and Spur are used.

My opener till the end of Raging Strikes (Garuda / Ifrit ): Raging Strikes -> Int Pot (If using) -> Bio 2 (Setup AA) -> Miasma (Movement) -> Bio -> Rouse ->Fester -> Miasma 2 -> Potent Poisoning Potion (If using) -> Contagion / Swiftcast (Press at same time, Contagion first) -> Shadowflare -> Spur -> Ruin 2 -> Enkindle -> Ruin 2 -> Fester -> Ruin 2 (Raging Strikes falls off)

The reason I made this adjustment is as follows, DPS between openers essentially the same:

1) After casting Bio, you are forced to wait at least until the debuff becomes present on the mob before you cast Fester, otherwise if you press Fester immediately, you have a high chance of not getting the full potency of Fester as it will only register 2 DoT on the mob instead of 3. By adding Rouse immediately after Bio right before you Fester, you alleviate this issue all together because animation will delay you just enough that if you press Fester right after Rouse you are guaranteed to always register 3 DoTs.

2) Animation plays a bigger part in your opener when you decide to use both a Int Pot AND a Potent Poisoning Pot. You want to make sure you are able to get that last Ruin 2 off before Raging Strikes falls off. At 371 SS, this is just barely possible with my rotation. However the traditional opener will potentially lead you to not getting the last Ruin II in time, if you even slightly delay the Fester longer then what is needed, slowing your entire opener down.

Layout: As for controller setup, it is imperative imo, that you setup Expanded Hold Controls. This allows you to hold L2 then R2 or R2 then L2, to refocus another bar altogether and gives you 8 - 16 additional hotkeys without having to toggle hotbars.
This option is location in Character Confirguration -> Hotbar Settings -> Cross Tab.

Recommendation: While having access to 16 hotkeys on the fly is cool, it is easy to mess up in battle do to sometimes your fingers may not push R2 before L2 and vice versa. What I recommend in this situation is forgoing the 8 additional expanded hotkeys, and simply set it up to have pressing L2 -> R2 and R2 -> L2 to focus the exact same bar. This way regardless of which you press first you will always get the same abilities. Then hop over to the hotbar you selected and setup the keys as you like.

Currently I play with a Controller and Keyboard setup on PC.

I open with this setup:


I switch soon after to this:


Expanded Hotkey setup:


Emergency Default Bar (Mainly for Ress / Resummon):



Setup your skills how you like but essentially some personal recommendations you may want to apply to your hotkey setup are as follows:

1) Swiftcast / Contagion (Garuda) / Shadowflare should all be on roughly the same side close to each other. When placing Resurrection, make a none combat hotbar to switch into if it's ever needed. Align Resurrection with Shadowflare hotkey, since you are likely to Swiftcast Raise people when you do actually choose to raise people.

2) Rouse and Spur also close together since those are pressed soon after each other.

3) Ruin I and Ruin II near each other to switch on the fly.

4) Bio II, Bio I and Miasma I near each other.

5) A familiar key to your fingers to Bane and Fester.

That's about all the recommendations I can make on everything you asked.

[Judge_Xero]

I assume you are using Mouse/Keyboard on the PS4? (Hotbar vs Cross-Hotbar)

If you are, this is my preferred skill layout



The bar with Ruin II, Fester, Energy Drain etc is my #1 Bar so that it is keybound automatically. These are instant skills that you can use while mobile.
Make sure to make good use of Sprint as a mage, as well as it's a good idea to have the Auto Attack button when using SMN. (Get those book whacks in)
I find it much easier to click this, instead of right clicking on the mob, due to miss clicks making you un-target the mob.
Dots are in order of execution, either B2, M, B or the reverse order if using Ifrit. Spur, Rouse, Enkindle I group in order of execution.

Useful Macros are
/macroicon "Eye For An Eye"
/ac "Eye For An Eye" <tt> (this is target of target which will typically be the tank)
/ac "Eye For An Eye" <t>

I use the normal rotation with Garuda, but with Ifrit I do it a bit different.

Ifrit
Raging Strikes -> Bio -> Int Pot (If using) -> Miasma -> Bio 2 -> Ruin II -> Fester -> Rouse -> Swiftcast -> Shadowflare -> Spur ->Enkindle -> Ruin 2 -> Potent Poisoning Potion (If using) -> Ruin -> *** Ruin till you have to re-apply Bio which you will also want to Fester, which should be just before both Raging Strike (20s) and INT Pot (15s) wear off.

This lets you get Bio under Raging Strikes for the full duration as well as another Bio under Raging Strikes and the INT-Pot as well as 2 X Fester under both Raging Strikes and the INT Pot.

[Sanguisio]

Leveling: snip.

I agree with this.

But you can squeeze the rouse and spur in between the casts with stutterstep, if you get the timing right the skill goes off with an animation. So you get more time in Rouse and spur for the fight

[Bigcat9715]

So, I guess Ruin 1 has become obsolete.

[Havenchild]

So, I guess Ruin 1 has become obsolete.

It is still viable just not in the opener.

The rest of the fight you will be doing:

Ruin I, Ruin I, Ruin I, Ruin II Fester

Ruin I, Ruin I, Shadowflare, Bio, Fester

Miasma, Ruin I, Ruin I, Bio, Fester

Basically you replace a Ruin I with whatever needs to be refreshed post opener. Some things get thrown in a priority order when Contagion is coming up like Potent Poison Potions and Miasma 2.

Always Ruin II between oGCDs. The shorter the encounter is however, feel free to spam more Ruin II

[Akiza]

There is no good setup for Summoner just go Black Mage when you start procing and hitting that Triple Flare it''l be much more satisfying than Dots and a 5min cd Enkindle.

[Alex_Lenderson]

Why is ruin II superior to ruin 1? I don't see the blind making a huge deal and GCD would be the same for these.

[Judge_Xero]

Why is ruin II superior to ruin 1? I don't see the blind making a huge deal and GCD would be the same for these.

Its Instant Cast. So it is good for CD weaving and movement at the cost of more MP