Live Letter 4.1 SMN Changes

[FaeBalder]

Once you have no mana problems and pet cast time become 3 seconds. Swapping pets around whole match is probably gonna be optimal.

This will never happen for 2 reasons:

1) Opportunity cost on lost GCDs swapping pets. You're losing at least 100 potency each GCD you "swap" pets.

2) Pet autos account for at least 15% of a Summoner's damage. The more you swap, the more autos you miss. While Radiant Shield and Contagion don't share cooldowns, it's not really feasible to swap them twice a minute so you can get maximum usage from both because you'll end up having to miss out on a load of pet autos. Likewise, you'll also have to intentionally not use pet oGCDs since they're what's tied to the other pets "utility". I think Shockwave is tied to Radiant Shield, and one of the two oGCDs on Ifrit is tied to Contagion, albeit I don't remember which

[dinnertime]

Finally, official word.
These are good changes actually, some are not what I actually hoped for, but good nonetheless.

Although...I hope they actually thought of reducing the MP cost of Ruin III outside Dreadwyrm Trance now that Ruin is gone, or else SMNs will have no MP after a couple minutes.

Also I wish Tri-Bind's MP cost gets reduced significantly, too. I don't know why it costs so much and Bind isn't even that useful.

[Sunako]

This will never happen for 2 reasons:

That is true you lose little dps, but dps you gain from contagion may cover the loss of swapping pets. And it is not only buff for you, it is buff for whole party.

Like example if you use contagion before bahamut you can do like 1k+ potency with wyrmwaves 1k tri disaster dots dots 650 from akh morn 900 potency from festers + some ruins that is overall like 4k potency and you gain like 400 potency while having contagion on target. That may cover the dps loss from summoning pets.

[FaeBalder]

That may cover the dps loss from summoning pets.

Uh... no. I'll pick apart a few issues with this, again.

1) Contagion doesn't last long enough to fit in both Akh Morns.

2) Akh Morn isn't 650 potency. It's 680, but it's 680 "pet potency", which has historically been about 20%~ weaker.

You could gain a few-hundred potency, for sure, but that won't make up for the loss of your Ruin I/III/IV missed to summon the pet and the lost autos of said pet. Again, you'll also be gating yourself out of using your pet's oGCDs, since they're what's tied to the other pet's "utility" skill. This means you're losing damage from them, since you'll be unable to use them. For reference, Flaming Crush and Crimson Cyclone hit for about 2k on average and make up 2-3% of my damage. This isn't even taking into account the Ruin IVs you'll be losing since your pets will undeniably be using less actions, but I'm not really sure what's going on with Ruin IV in 4.1.

[Neophyte]

Even if it's a minor dps loss in the general fight doesn't mean that swapping pets will not be a lot more common now.
There are downtimes, counterattack-buffs... 3s of not be able to attack is enough.


One use of Contagion is worth at least 10k damage

1xHoly Spirit (7k) + 5x Ruin2 (3.5k) + 2x Fester (10k) + 3x Wyrmwave (3k) + Akh Morn (18k) + 3x Stone4 (7.5k) + 3x Broil (6.5k)

already ammounts to about 11k extra damage and there are a lot of things missing (only 3 Wyrmwave, 1 Holy Spirit, 3 healer GCD and 5 own GCDs, no Tri-Disaster).

So it might be pretty close and for example starting with Radiant Shield pre-pull, summon Garuda for Contagion on TA+group buffs, summon Ifrit for rest of fight/phase might become a thing.
Esp. if Swiftcast is less important for dps in either DWT (because lf R3 being instant) and with Bahamut out (due to R2 being upgraded to R4).

But only under assumption that mp wise SMN now works like RDM (constant rather low mp drain and you use LD to fill up again) and Ruin Mastery not involving pet actions and with R3 and R4 being just stronger versions of R1/R2 and always available.


Wouldn't that be a great, a SMN actually summoning stuff in a fight? xD

[zuzu-bq]

Wouldn't that be a great, a SMN actually summoning stuff in a fight? xD

We have a Summon to do mid fight. And people just complain it's too big.

[Leukka]

The good:
-Devotion being AoE is fantastic and is certainly a good bulwark for any caster main to hold onto when asked to pick up a bow or gun for their raid.
-Ruin 2 -> Ruin 4 is fantastic for managing Greater Ruin procs to keep our Enkindle sync'd somewhat to our Rouse's second use.
-Tribind is a good change out of seemingly left field, I just hope there is an MP reduction
-MP cost and cast time reduction on pets is 4 years late but still appreciated.

Issues:
-Ruin 4 is still largely dictated by RNG that incentivizes Sicfrit or anal attention to Garuda's Shockwave and Aerial Slash
-The Ruin 3 change needs clarification. I don't want to live in a world where we lose our low MP cost filler spell (Ruin 1) entirely or to live in a world where we can't use Ruin 3 outside of DWT. I can wait for patchnotes / patch day to clarify.
-Bahamut still has a very short leash and loves interrupting Wyrmwave in favor of following you around despite having a range of 100 yalms.
-Bahamut still requires the use of Addle to maximize his damage output.
-Summoner is still heavily punished by losing Aetherflow, Aethertrail, and DWT->Bahamut progress on death

Overall I'm happy with the changes though I don't think that SE has managed to correct any jankiness associated with Summoner. The death penalties are still high as before, Pet AI is still a crapshoot, and Bahamut still makes me yearn for a dragon-shaped Rook Autoturret to replace him. This is a good first step, but our core mechanical issues remain intact and looking at the ongoing BRD/MCH arms race in the patchnotes still leaves me worried. Furthermore, something desperately needs to be done to RDM and BLM to help compete. As it stands, SMN isn't competing with casters - it's competing with a third melee spot or a ranged physical job.

[Ametrine]

Patch notes are up. http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...73c979ba32ec2d

There is a lot going on here...
But firstly Ruin 3 has had it's MP cost and potency reduced, but overwrites Ruin 1, and does so at level 54. Instead of being super cheap to cast in DWT, it's an instant cast.
All Summons confirmed to be 3 seconds and less MP.

Not entirely sure what's up with Ruin IV. It's not the "Mastery" trait anymore, but I guess it's still a kind of proc? All that's written is it's instant now.

EDIT: NVM found it in another section below. Enhanced Ruin 2. Level 62, 15% chance pet skill converts Ruin 2 to Ruin 4.

[Neela]

I guess reducing Ruin lll's pot again but making it instant in dwt means our dmg is going to be even more spikey than yet?

[Zhamkyong]

Not only that, in Demi-Bahamut phase we can use RuinIV (also out of bahamut phase) instantly when it procs as an instant cast. That's... It's rng yeah, but it's a lot better than before. Also now we have a 2.5 cast AOE in Dw trance.

...Me likes this.

EDIT: Also, Ruin Iii is now our filler. We will have to test it out to see if the damage reduction of the ability it's too much or works well with all the changes.