Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[NovaLevossida]

Hi

I wasn't sure where to post this but I have been suffering from tridisaster>fester registration where it says fester has no effect after tridisaster. This started ever since chaos moved to Europe and it is very frequent. Has anyone suffered from this because I keep losing my AA stacks or it gets all messed up.. Do I have to delay fester for 2-3 secs every time?

thanks

You're probably not lagging anymore so the DoTs take a brief moment to show up on the target before you can use Fester. Without the lag, you actually hit Fester before the DoTs land and that's what causes your problem. So either wait a moment or fill that downtime before the GCD with something like Swiftcast.

[OneWingedSora]

I think saving the CDs until after the add phase is good (including Aetherflow), but I usually don't wait until after Ferrofluid to start my opener.. the Ferrofluid generally goes off before you would get to DWT, so you mostly just have to delay the last bit of the opener before DWT, which includes RS, so it shouldn't make a substantial hit to your DPS. IMO this is better than waiting until after that to start using Aetherflow..

Now, I haven't done this fight on Summoner yet but, on my Blackmage, I had our Bard play BV'd foes right after Sluice/Digi which ensured that I hit a fully buffed Flare w/ convert on the Limb + Living Liquid as well as having zero mechanics to interrupt you during that part. I imagine it would even MORE effective on Summoner because you would have fully buffed DoTs ( RS + Pot + DWT ) bane'd onto the limb as well as buffed Deathflare & Painflare hitting both as well. I would personally just use a regular triple fester rotation and hold off your buffs until Sluice/Digi.

[Avia_Frost]

Now, I haven't done this fight on Summoner yet but, on my Blackmage, I had our Bard play BV'd foes right after Sluice/Digi which ensured that I hit a fully buffed Flare w/ convert on the Limb + Living Liquid as well as having zero mechanics to interrupt you during that part. I imagine it would even MORE effective on Summoner because you would have fully buffed DoTs ( RS + Pot + DWT ) bane'd onto the limb as well as buffed Deathflare & Painflare hitting both as well. I would personally just use a regular triple fester rotation and hold off your buffs until Sluice/Digi.

That's too long to hold. Also add doesn't last long especially the first one with LB. I usually get DWT right around the beginning of sluice protene, so I would wait for that then pop it. You get three stacks again just after you bane the dots on gaol, miasma, then lb. Add dies, then pop dwt and trisaster on boss like normal.

[Sleigh]

That's too long to hold. Also add doesn't last long especially the first one with LB. I usually get DWT right around the beginning of sluice protene, so I would wait for that then pop it. You get three stacks again just after you bane the dots on gaol, miasma, then lb. Add dies, then pop dwt and trisaster on boss like normal.

It's only too long if you'd lose your 2nd or 3rd Raging by doing that, you'd lose 2nd if you clear decently fast (sub 10m, though you might be able to fit it in close to the end in a DWT, not sure) or 3rd if it's very slow (enrage-ish).

I think it's pretty smart to save RS for the hand if you don't fall into either time limit, you can probably focus less DPS on the hand than ever with a RS Bane + Deathflare. Worst thing you can say about it is you'll miss Litany but lots of groups use Litany at a time when SMN doesn't exactly want to do DWT, which is the 20s before the Ferrofluid.

[Sunako]

I have one question from A4. I have watched few video from A4 SMN pov and SMN most of time sacrifice himself in the pentacle phase. I wonder how it is good idea sacrifice summoner since you lose pet and mana and you need swiftcast for the ress then hardcast pet? Do dots really do that much damage while you are dead that cover other sacrifices?

[Havenchild]

I have one question from A4. I have watched few video from A4 SMN pov and SMN most of time sacrifice himself in the pentacle phase. I wonder how it is good idea sacrifice summoner since you lose pet and mana and you need swiftcast for the ress then hardcast pet? Do dots really do that much damage while you are dead that cover other sacrifices?

No, they do not. Groups that sacrifice their SMNs and down the fight, only can do so because they are making up the DPS (in strides) elsewhere. Sacrificing a SMN might have the biggest Raid DPS loss of all the classes. Now in theory, you would without a doubt need to save Aetherflow for when you come back but you still need to put up DoTs and manual summon your Pet and the rev time for a SMNs DPS is decidedly longer than any other class. This goes double for groups that ignore Straf Dolls to meet the overall DPS check. You are crushing your SMNs DPS considerably. Mana Burns + Suicide, honestly that SMN should just go BLM at that point or just accept the carry cause that's literally what it is.

Now on another note, if the SMN was the lowest DPS to begin with, it potentially makes sense to sacrifice them also. You do want to keep your highest single target DPS members on the boss for as long as possible.

For my group, we sac the NIN/MCN/WAR for the first and second pentacles and the third would be healers and OT. With FC buff there's no double weakness and we are certainly on track to beating the enrage with no issue.

[ShinryuReishiki]

In my group we sac WAR, BRD, and WHM for first and second. WHM swift raises WAR, I swift raise BRD, and SCH swift raises WHM. It think it work pretty well; we don't seem to have any issues with healing unless we take unnecessary damage somehow. Our WHM isn't particularly happy about it, but our overall DPS leaves us at the point where the third Royal Pentacle exploding may as well be the enrage; we need that extra DPS without weakness.

On our final pull on Wednesday, they exploded with 3000 HP left on the boss. The LB gauge dinged LB1 as we died lol. We can't go again until next Sunday, so we get to dwell on that for a bit...

[OneWingedSora]

BRD/MCH , Heal and OT is undoublty the most effective sac to go with assuming all players in that group is on a similar skill level. But generally, groups will sac their lowest DPS and in some groups, BRDs/MCH don't fall in that category.

[Daws]

Can you make pets change targets while on sic mode or do they have to be on obey?

[Sleigh]

Sure, just Sic unto a new target and it will default to it. Only do this with Ifrit which suffers the least from going on Sic, Garuda is just terrible on Sic.