Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Silverquick]

Well I admit I am not interested in breaking things down to the 1% mark like some... but I do see the full SMN at this point. Minus Deathflare... but its coming...

Tactically from my perspective the largest change comes at level 58 in this class.


From level 1-29:
Most of your skills are solo based and you don't have any good AoEs unless you Sub Blizzard 2 and spam it as an AoE. Generally tactics at this level for me were Bio 2, Miasma, and Bio on single targets along with the using Life Steal from Aetherstacks during boss mob battles simply for the damage... I found it near impossible to run out of MP on single targets even prior to that...
For the level 15-20th level dungeons... standard tactics for multiple mobs... were... Bio... one on each mob, (quick cast time on it made it doable)... then stepping in and spamming Bliz 2, and using Life Steal on the last target. Early on if they didn't drop too fast you could actually do Bio and Miasma on each and then step in with the Bliz 2 spam, but rarely was this the case. Then on the last target using Life Steal to suck your mana back and using Aetherflow to instantly have you back up to nearly full.

Level 30-45: Things change at this level... now you're using Bane... which spreads your DoTs to all targets for an AoE... Now you can start using all of your DoTs... Bio, Miasma, and Bio 2... then you hit Bane and spread the DoT when against multiple enemies in Dungeons. Then... step in and Spam Bliz 2 on multiple mobs... (which adds about 25% more damage to your already spread DoT, taking down large groups of enemies fast).
Plus you can Use Rouse on your pet at level 40 for a nice boost in damage.
On Single Targets and Boss Mobs, you now add Fester to your rotation of Bio, Miasma, Bio2, when combined with Rouse, you can kick in major damage, especially if you've got Archer to level 15 and have Raging Strikes... this combo alone on Boss Mobs at that level can be very damaging. You no longer need to waste Life Steal when you don't need any MP or HP just (Simply because you needed to do damage on a single target boss mob).
Fester works much better.

Obviously here, I've broken it down into Single Target scenario, and Multi-target scenario. Because you use different tactics for one vs the other.

Level 46-58: Here you gain two more DoTs in Miasma II and ShadowFlare. Both of which are great... when stacked with your other DoTs, though I admit due to the mobile nature of combat Shadowflare can end up Situational as its a placed effect. But when all of your DoTs are stacked togather AND you're spamming Bliz 2, the AoE damage you start to put out is pretty sizable. I remember reading on another site that its actually close to an 860 Potency with all ticks. Add Bliz 2 to this and it gets pretty nasty on Large Groups of trash mobs. Throw in Painflare and Garuda AoE Wind attack and you start to do some serious AoE damage.
(Note though... DoTs do not appear in the chat log, you'll have to test it on equal level Mobs and watch them directly to see the numbers pop on what your stacked DoTs tick for, luckily it does combine it into one single number rather than show them all)

Not much changes with regard to single target and Boss Mobs... with the exception of Rouse and Spur... and kicking in Enkindle allows your pet to make a 1000+ damage attack, so its about like an Extra Fester. Not to mention mine (Garuda) at these levels was generally hitting for about 500+ damage per normal attack under the influence.

Here's the BIG change...

Level 58: Prior to this your entire game was stacking as many DoTs as possible and tending to them BUT minding your Aetherflow recast time... so if you knew you had 2 large trash battles before your recast timer on Aetherflow was up... you'd be without the Stack to BANE your DoTs... which is a problem when having to AoE... as you have nothing else nearly as good. CONSERVATION was the key word for Aetherflow stacks, since running out at a crucial time for an AoE mob pack was bad news....

Then came Dreadwyrm Trance...

And everything you were used to at this point is gone...

Now the trick is... TO Blow your Aetherflow stacks TO get into Dreadwyrm Trance... which the opposite of the conservative approach you used up to this point... but its aweful hard to argue with 1000+ damage Ruin 3 Spam (I remember critting on one of these for around 2000). I haven't even attempted Raging Strikes alongside it but I can only imagine how Nasty it will be.

Its completely backwards from what you're used to.

And the timing is screwy... you have 30 seconds per Bane/Fester/Painflare/LifeSteal to use up another Aether Stack... or you lose your Aethertrail Stacks and CANT go into DreadWyrm and have to start all over...

So all tactics you learned up to this point will be out the window... for something a LOT more powerful than what you've done up to this point.

Its quite the adjustment.

EDIT: The Short Version of how it works.
https://acflory.wordpress.com/2016/1...nce-available/