Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Havenchild]

Hello Summoners

I started leveling SCH when I first started, got to 50 and realized that healing wasn't for me. After the BRD changes I am looking to start SMN as a main.

My problem is starting straight from 50 as a SMN I don't want to do dungeons until I have a good idea of how to play one effectively.

I have been doing fates and reading this (and many others) guide but am having troubles with what I should macro and not macro and controlling the pets like
do I leave them to do their own thing or have their moves macro'd in with some of my spells?

Basically I want to learn in a step by step kind of way if anyone could be so helpful?

On a side note I wish these summons looked more like FFXI's summons

Now I know this guide has a lot of information all over (largely because this class has a lot of tools to utilize) but don't feel overwhelmed.

For dungeons exclusively (starting at level 50), your main tools will be Bio II, Miasma, Bio, Shadowflare, Bane, Miasma II and Contagion. Essentially each pull, you will use the three main DoTs, Bio II, Miasma and Bio and then use the Bane skill on that mob to spread those skills (free of charge) to all nearby mobs. Now if you have Contagion available (Garuda skill) you want to make sure you are able to use it when you want to, so you basically press a pet command called Obey.

This makes it so pets cannot use skills whenever and just use a normal attack. When you use Contagion on a set of DoTs, it will extend the duration of those DoTs for 15 seconds, this will work alongside the Bane skill to spread those longer duration DoTs onto nearby monsters.

From then on you have skills like Miasma II and Shadowflare which are AoE spells you will use to place DoT damage on the pile of mobs. Rinse and repeat in a dungeon.

Another AoE skill you have is the job skill you have , Enkindle, which tells the pet to use its signature AoE attack (damage boosted by rouse and spur).
Blizzard II from BLM is also pretty handy.

Macros, you can use of course in the form of tying pet skills with some of your abilities like Bane for example. Overall you shouldn't use Macros because they can bug out or just cause overall DPS loss but things like Bane + Aerial Slash ( Garuda skill) is ok to combine.

If you are using Garuda, you will want to make sure after you summon her to put her on the Obey command, so she doesn't use Contagion on her own. With Ifrit, you will also want him on Obey, but you will need to manually press his skills to achieve higher gains then Garuda. So often people use the Sic Command (fires off pet skills as they become available) with Ifrit for less hassle.

That's pretty much it. Now when you get to more raiding scenarios, essentially its the same thing but it ramps up with more proper time management on the DoT skills and fitting every possible skilll you can every single second of the fight. That's when you should really start to read through guides such as this one and piece together what it takes to accomplish that.

Hope that helps a little.

[RosaAtra]

Wow thank you so much! That's exactly what I was looking for

[Allyrion]

Now I know this guide has a lot of information all over (largely because this class has a lot of tools to utilize) but don't feel overwhelmed.

For dungeons exclusively (starting at level 50), your main tools will be Bio II, Miasma, Bio, Shadowflare, Bane, Miasma II and Contagion. Essentially each pull, you will use the three main DoTs, Bio II, Miasma and Bio and then use the Bane skill on that mob to spread those skills (free of charge) to all nearby mobs. Now if you have Contagion available (Garuda skill) you want to make sure you are able to use it when you want to, so you basically press a pet command called Obey.

This makes it so pets cannot use skills whenever and just use a normal attack. When you use Contagion on a set of DoTs, it will extend the duration of those DoTs for 15 seconds, this will work alongside the Bane skill to spread those longer duration DoTs onto nearby monsters.

From then on you have skills like Miasma II and Shadowflare which are AoE spells you will use to place DoT damage on the pile of mobs. Rinse and repeat in a dungeon.

Another AoE skill you have is the job skill you have , Enkindle, which tells the pet to use its signature AoE attack (damage boosted by rouse and spur).
Blizzard II from BLM is also pretty handy.

Macros, you can use of course in the form of tying pet skills with some of your abilities like Bane for example. Overall you shouldn't use Macros because they can bug out or just cause overall DPS loss but things like Bane + Aerial Slash ( Garuda skill) is ok to combine.

If you are using Garuda, you will want to make sure after you summon her to put her on the Obey command, so she doesn't use Contagion on her own. With Ifrit, you will also want him on Obey, but you will need to manually press his skills to achieve higher gains then Garuda. So often people use the Sic Command (fires off pet skills as they become available) with Ifrit for less hassle.

That's pretty much it. Now when you get to more raiding scenarios, essentially its the same thing but it ramps up with more proper time management on the DoT skills and fitting every possible skilll you can every single second of the fight. That's when you should really start to read through guides such as this one and piece together what it takes to accomplish that.

Hope that helps a little.

Thanks for that.
I'm levelling SMN again from 50 just to have a caster alt.

It's been a while since I played though.
It seems Ruin II is the default filler now. Do you ever use Ruin?
You mentioned getting "trying to get free Ruin III's when Tri-Disaster is on cool down", in the DWT description.
Maybe I'm thinking too far ahead since I'm still only 50, but is there some kind of Ruin III proc that makes it free?
Or are you talking about how cheap it is while in DWT, that it's practically free?

It'd be nice if those acceptable AoE macros were in the OP.
Do you have a link? Though it doesn't seem hard to figure out.

[Havenchild]

Thanks for that.
I'm levelling SMN again from 50 just to have a caster alt.

It's been a while since I played though.
It seems Ruin II is the default filler now. Do you ever use Ruin?
You mentioned getting "trying to get free Ruin III's when Tri-Disaster is on cool down", in the DWT description.
Maybe I'm thinking too far ahead since I'm still only 50, but is there some kind of Ruin III proc that makes it free?
Or are you talking about how cheap it is while in DWT, that it's practically free?

It'd be nice if those acceptable AoE macros were in the OP.
Do you have a link? Though it doesn't seem hard to figure out.

I said that Tri-Disaster works well with DWT and allows you to focus on more Ruin III usage instead of having to spend GCDs to recast DoTs. (Not including Shadowflare or Miasma II (Contagion).
Ruin III in DWT just reduces the cost of it to a regular Ruin I cost while adding 40 more potency. Overall, you can get away with a few more Ruin II's than before but you will have to get into Ruin I's eventually.

As for macros:

/micon "Painflare"
/ac "Painflare" <t>
/pac "Aerial Slash" <t> -or- /pac "Radiant Shield" <t> -or- /pac "Flaming Crush" <t>


/micon "Bane"
/ac "Bane" <t>
/pac "Aerial Slash" <t> -or- /pac "Radiant Shield" <t> -or- /pac "Flaming Crush" <t>

/micon "Blizzard II"
/ac "Blizzard II"
/pac "Aerial Slash" <t> -or- /pac "Radiant Shield" <t> -or- /pac "Flaming Crush" <t>


Something like those should work.

Evening (or morning), fellow summoners.

Having hit level 60 a week ago, I've been playing with—and thoroughly enjoying—the full repertoire of summoner skills, gathering my thoughts for the lengthly general 3.0 feedback thread I've been considering setting up for the EN and JP boards. With that said, there's one thing I'd like to get some opinions on: Aethertrail Attunement.

This pertains more so to casual romps through dungeons than primal battles, but in building and maintaining stacks of Aethertrail Attunement, jumping from one group of enemies to the next, I can't help but sometimes feel a certain sense of urgency (if that's the appropriate term) in trying to prevent accumulated stacks of Aethertrail Attuenemnt from going to waste. There's nothing worse than having to warp from one area to the next in the Fractal Continuum and seeing your buff fall off just before you reach the next set of enemies.

I'd like to hear how other summoners handle maintaining it in regular dungeon runs. Do you hold off on using stacks of Aetherflow all together in certain situations? Or perhaps finish off that last enemy with an Energy Drain or Fester, hoping that refreshed 30 seconds will last until the next group?

So what I've been doing is largely,

Raging -> DoTs -> Painflare -> Contagion + Swiftcast Shadowflare -> Bane -> Blizzard II spam -> Painflare ->

At this point: Mobs still got HP? DWT -> Blizzard II spam -> Deathflare
Still have HP? Tri - D + Bane -> Blizzard II spam some more.
Mobs about to die? Hold onto DWT for its full timer and pop it at 1 second while moving towards the next group, now if you were on a bad timer then you will need to Painflare/ Fester something before it dies to refresh the timer.

Basically refresh the timer before the current pull finishes, and if something is taking too long to die or the timer is about to fall off, use DWT and make the best of the situation.