Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Havenchild]

This reminds me that Pets need special attention as far as being able to help soak mechanics. (Repelling Shot, Fireball in T5)

Like your example of using Ifrit on T11. Even if SMN is the only mage for the Cube, using Ifrit for the melee damage on the Sphere doubles to help soak Repelling Cannons making the healing requirement trivial. Thus both healers could Clerics/Dot up the Cube for more potential damage on the Cube, where Ifrit has higher potential damage on the Sphere.

After considering the various cases, there is still the case when Ifrit can reliably die due to soaking, in which case you lose more DPS from having to resummon the Pet again. That would depend mainly on your healers AoE game.

I realize optimal time usage to using pets is a nasty grey area to describe.