Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Starkbeaumont]

do our pets actually suffer the same scaling issue at 60 that sch's fairy has to deal with?

[Koyuki38]

Which scalling issue ?

[Spellbinder]

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?

[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.

[pandabearcat]

I don't think for long fights you can keep up ruin II forever.

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

Do apologise if this has been answered, but I need some help on Bismarck EX.

I'm currently ilvl 163 with ilvl 160 weapon, Full law right hand side cept Necklace, law helm and law chest piece. The rest of my gear is ilvl 150 white NQ gear.

I've been pulling 620 DPS on Bismarck EX last night and wondering how much more I can improve my DPS with my current gear. We didn't get passed the two sanuwa adds (always like 5% HP left on the last one).

Here's the laydown of what I do.

First two adds: (Ifrit Egi)

• SF Pre Pull
• DoT left add up - Fester/Ruin II
• DoT right add up - Ruin II
• Ruin spam first add while festering a second time, kill first add
• Switch to last add and ruin spam while Festering to get my third Aethertrail.
• Use Aetherflow and get ready for Bismarck's back.
  

Bismarcks Carapace

• RS - DWT - Jump on
• Tridisaster - Fester - Ruin II
• Rouse - Spur - Ruin II
• Enkindle - Ruin III
• Ruin III spam - Fester - Deathflare - Ruin II spam
  
  Back is dead, jump off and SC summon Garuda

Sanuwa Adds

• Instantly start casting DoTs on the Water one
• Pray to god you get the aspect that lets you attack the Wind one
• Grumble when that doesn't happen, and SF my add
• Ruin II spam while weaving in Festers to line up Tri Disaster, DWT and Aetherflow
• Once all three are very close, pop DWT turn to other add that reflects, Tridisaster + Contagion
• Fester my target (still 3 DoTs left on it before DWT) Re-DoT my target and apply SF and use fester until I have one Aetherflow left and finish off with Deathflare.
• Resume DPS and switch target if needed.
• Line up DWT + Contagion + Tri again and repeat the above. Always Tridisastering the reflected add, taking the 3k dmg and using contagion.
  

And continue with that, naturally using Ruin II since the fight isn't long enough to warrant trying to save mana with Ruin I and helps increase my DPS. Never letting SF really fall off for too long, nor any of my DoTs.

Always making sure to hold one Fester to the end of my Aethertrail so as to make sure I can use Aetherflows during my DWT phase for some good burst. Always making sure I have no downtime of Aetherflows nor DWT.

So with htis I pull 620ish DPS on Bismarck EX, with my gear. Is this good, I feel like it's somewhat low? But for the hell of me I have no idea how I would improve it. I already feel like I've stretched myself to the limit on that fight.

We would always wipe on like 5% left on the last add, that's the LB included. Also, to add a quick question. Does the LB dmg get added onto the class from ACT now?

[Koyuki38]

Use Ruin 3 even without DWT some time(but try to keep mana)
Anyway, if you wipe with 50% mana, it would be better to not wipe with 10% mana, then slow down dps for regen.

If you use Ruin 2 i hope you use auto attack too (just asking )

Does bard use magic defense debuff ?

Do you use food, potion, poison, saving Raging strike for Sanuwa, etc, etc
As long as enrage is not reached, it is often better to keep buffs for DPS check phase, even if it lower the average DPS, it increase the burst during this phase.

Also, if you think your rotation is near the perfection, maybe the parser is not correct and maybe you can't carry 3 other DPS if their roration sux
(just a possibility)


(I didn't try Bis Ex yet, can we kill the carapace in one row ?)

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

Koyuki:

Ruin III is definitely a possiblity and I'm sure I would weave it in a few spots. The main problem with Ruin III spam in Bismarck Ex is between all the Tornados and Water spouts that spawn on your face, it's best to keep it mobile as possible. Hence the Ruin II spam. And yes, I ofcourse auto attack.

As for saving the DPS CD's for the Sanuwa, I was told that if you cannot get down the Carapace in one go, then you'll struggle on the Sanuwa, hence why everyone pops their CDs on the Carapace.

I use food, though I wasn't using potions and poisons at the time, so naturally using artificial consumables, I could ofcourse improve my DPS in that aspect, but it's more so how my rotation during the fight itself.

I don't think my rptation is near perfection at all, but I feel like I've stretched it to it's limits. So unless I'm doing something glaringly wrong, I can't see a huge DPS increase in doing anything differently. (Aka, Ifrit may or may not increase my DPS in that phase due to radiant shield affecting both tanks and the adds not moving in the slightest. But would that DPS increase be worth dropping the Contagion on the second untouchable add that I cannot hit?)

[Valsh]

Do apologise if this has been answered, but I need some help on Bismarck EX.

I'm currently ilvl 163 with ilvl 160 weapon, Full law right hand side cept Necklace, law helm and law chest piece. The rest of my gear is ilvl 150 white NQ gear.

I've been pulling 620 DPS on Bismarck EX last night and wondering how much more I can improve my DPS with my current gear. We didn't get passed the two sanuwa adds (always like 5% HP left on the last one).

Upgrade your weapon asap, make sure your tank is stacking the adds together. Use painflare when they're together.

Depending on your group you might have to use raging strikes/enkindle on the carapace, I prefer to save raging strikes for the snakes. Tri-disaster the snake you're not attacking whenever it's up, I like to also do a Miasma -> Bio combo and just eat some reflect damage.

Bismark is a really good fight for summoners imo. The weather phase is just pure gravy.

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

Upgrade your weapon asap, make sure your tank is stacking the adds together. Use painflare when they're together.

Depending on your group you might have to use raging strikes/enkindle on the carapace, I prefer to save raging strikes for the snakes. Tri-disaster the snake you're not attacking whenever it's up, I like to also do a Miasma -> Bio combo and just eat some reflect damage.

Bismark is a really good fight for summoners imo. The weather phase is just pure gravy.

Sadly, if I don't use RS and Enkindle, the Carapace won't be broken to begin with.

Would upgrading my weapon to the law tomes realy be a better investment than upgrading my white belt, legs and gloves?

We started to bring the two adds together at the beginning, but it didn't make too much of a difference. From what I saw, it's the Sanuwas where my DPS can really plummet if I fuck up.