Eirene Snow's Comprehensive Thoughts on 4.0 SMN

[MoonEclipse]

Thanks for your post Eirene it has helped me greatly!

One thing I am struggling to understand is your flow chart says use Bahamut 40 secs before the AF cd is ready, however phase 6 and general rotation shows Bahamut used right after AF for the subsequent 11 WW's.

Are you waiting before using your charges to align Bahamut with up the 40 sec gap ? This is all I can think off but its not reflected in your rotation.

I am sure I'm missing something any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Red

Hi Red!

The flowchart is meant to show you the latest possible time to use Bahamut/DWT, etc. Therefore, it is trying to inform you of the maximum amount of delay that you can afford before using Bahamut/DWT, of which if you fail to follow the guidelines, will result in the flow getting disrupted. This is important as it gives you a guideline to follow when fight downtime,deaths or other factors messes up your cooldown alignments.


On the other hand, the rotation teaches you the optimal way to use your various phases. This is different from the flow chart as it is showing you the particular order that you should execute the phases to ensure that you get the most out of your abilities.

You can think of it as having the rotation as your go-to guide. When things go south and not as planned, you refer to the flowchart instead to re-find your bearings and adjust for the fight.

Hope that clarify your doubts!

Cheers,

Eirene Snow

[Taika]

Thank you so much for this, great work and really helpful!

[Titch_Farstrider]

Eirene,

That makes good sense.

Thanks again for your work, it is much appreciated. (enough to get me to post!)

Red

[ShaolinMike]

This guide really lined things up and made 4.0 SMN much less of a chore for me to play. Thanks a lot!

[aldoteng]

I've been using your guide to practise on the Lochs striking dummies. SMN has a 2-minute rotation which is best based on our Aetherflow timer clock:

http://imgur.com/RXShVTW
First rotation follows our Deathflare in the opener. The pale blue slice represents Dreadwyrm Trance and its associated R3s and Deathflare.

http://imgur.com/AqEajcj
Second rotation follows our first rotation. The pink slice represents Summon Bahamut and its associated Festers, Addle, Tri-Disaster and Akh Morns. The pale blue slice represents the same as before.

I understand your guide rotation section stopped just after Summon Bahamut, so I took the liberty to fill in the rest of the blanks.

I'm starting to develop the following muscle memories:
- Contagion when the clock is at 11:00; or nearing to AF refresh. Because Contagion is clunky AF, however it will get delayed along our rotation sadly.
- All DOT refreshing takes place either at 3:30 or 9:30. TD always follows every DT. One TD is towards the end of Summon Bahamut. The manual Bio+Miasma application is the one I still struggle to muscle-memory.
- I realized from making these pies that we might as well pop Rouse anytime from 06:00 to 08:00, so I develop a habit of checking Rouse CD at this point.
- I simply lump Shadow Flare, Aetherpact, Pet AOE, Lucid Dream and Enkindle into one cluster of my hotbars so my eyes can dart to them to refresh whenever I'm free during my busy rotation backbone.

Next step is to try SMN on Omega Normal this week to have a feel on how to adjust these rotations for downtime, and more interestingly, on multi-target / AOE situations.

[alphamax112]

/bow to best SMN in Tonberry

[Lilyth]

Posting this just to remind myself to look at this later! Thx for the info!

[VorpalSpork]

So, do you ever use Bane? I wonder if the math has been done, but it feels like Painflare is better in every situation.

[Neela]

I think Eirene mentioned something like if the mobs last long enough to gain all the ticks it is slightly better to use bane - but I'm not sure if I remember the context right nor on how many mobs this would be more effective than painflare to be honest.

[soslinky]

Can someone provide a tl:dr version of what the SMN community hates about the 4.0 rework? I'm lacking experience with SMN and I can't fully understand what a lot of people are complaining about.

What's even more confusing is that over the past few days of 'SMN is bad', OP suddenly pops up, announces that SMN is still a pretty fun and functional class, shows non-balance DPS scores that exceed 4k, then proceeds to explain how to actually do it.

Edit:
A little less than 4k.