SMN 4.1 patch notes

[Ash_]

The only things missing is fixing the flow to aetherflow and making bahamut stick to do a dam spot without moving. I'm going to have find somewhere on my crossbar for tri-bind depending on how useful it is.

[Cherub]

In theory, the Ruin changes made SMN even harder to play. Ruin III is now the new Ruin (FINALLY we get rid of Ruin), while it did get lower potency it is now our filler spell and still 30 potency higher than normal ruin. This change itself will have you use Ruin III(Or Ruin if you will) over Ruin II. This becomes more of an apparent problem when you have CD's to use. If you use Ruin II, you effectively lose out on potency unless you weave CD's and they make up for those 30 potency lost.

Now you not only have to manage your tight CD management with the crazy 60 second window in which you have to Rouse, Bahamut and DWT for max DPS, but you also lose out on DPS if you use Ruin II over Ruin III :^)
Summoning Bahamut should have made Ruin III instant too.
Devotions 2% is a meme. CD should have been 60 seconds or 120secs with 5%. At least it's a party buff now \o/
SMN is without a doubt the hardest job to play BUT I am happy we finally got rid of fucking Ruin 1 after 2 expansions.

[Dualgunner]

Just to be sure Cherub, you're accounting for the fact that Ruin 3 is instant cast in DWT and pets can proc Ruin 2 into Ruin 4?

[Cherub]

Just to be sure Cherub, you're accounting for the fact that Ruin 3 is instant cast in DWT and pets can proc Ruin 2 into Ruin 4?

Yes, both are accounted into it. The problem with DWT and instant casts is, that you usually can't use many CDs within DWT anyway since Aetherflow is locked. It definitely eases Tri-D and SF usage tho.
The problem with the Ruin IV proc is that it is a proc and outside of controll. Some of your CD's need to be used exactly at one certain point, having no Ruin IV proc ready for that or even delaying your proc so long until you are at that point might most certainly end up in a DPS loss.
Sometimes, like for fester, you have a more lax window but even then, you'll need multiple Ruin IV procs as to not end up losing DPS.
So not only do you have to plan your CDs to fit the fight on the spot anymore but also how you will have to effectively accompany them with the right Ruin as to maximise DPS.

[RLofOBFL]

The way 70 SMN plays, almost none of the changes fix its issues. Your general rotation will still be ruin 3 > ruin 2 > ogcd repeat. At the very least, now you won't run out of mp. Ruin 3 being insta in Dreadwyrm effectively does almost nothing since you won't be using ogcds in DWT most of the time, but it will at least prevent you from losing a R3 in DWT from AOEs or mechanics. Ruin 4 being instant only helps the need ro swiffcast it if you got a proc during baha phase so you wouldn't lose a Wyrm wave...which I didn't do anyway bc screw that noise xD


At least Aoe will feel significantly less awful.

[Karshan]

In theory, the Ruin changes made SMN even harder to play. Ruin III is now the new Ruin (FINALLY we get rid of Ruin), while it did get lower potency it is now our filler spell and still 30 potency higher than normal ruin. This change itself will have you use Ruin III(Or Ruin if you will) over Ruin II. This becomes more of an apparent problem when you have CD's to use. If you use Ruin II, you effectively lose out on potency unless you weave CD's and they make up for those 30 potency lost.

I don't get it. It was already the case. You spammed ruin 3 (150) unless you had to weave ruin II. Go watch fflogs reports to see how much ruin 3 was used over ruin I. Ruin 3 has been our filler spell since HS, only going back to ruin when the uptime was long and didn't have time to regen.

on the contrary you lose now less when you have to use ruin II instead of ruin 3 to weave in some oGCD. In transe you don't have to revert to ruin II, you can weave with ruin 3. And mana management will be less of an issue.
Plus now you can weave with ruin 4 when available, so can use it asap.

I did a little study of the impact here : http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/346721-Live-Letter-4.1-SMN-Changes?p=4426504&viewfull=1#post4426504

[Cherub]

Snip

That's not true, you weren't able to sustain Ruin III spam over a 10 minute fight no matter how you turn it. You could spam until low MP and inside trance but that's it. MP restoration is limited. Your to go spell was still Ruin II, which in Top parses sees about three times as much use as Ruin III. It's very simple, really. Now you have the ability to sustain Ruin III spam over the whole course of a 10 minute fight. No drawbacks attached beside a cast time.

[Llugen]

I find it hilarious that the proposed fixes address literally none of the issues that the class actually has, that is, the annoying timing during bahamut and requirement to use role pool addle, the finicky timing/nature of tri-disaster during DWT, and the counterintiutive nature of the pet abilities and how they interact with ruin IV procs, but hey!

[ShaolinMike]

Ruin 3 being insta in Dreadwyrm effectively does almost nothing

except make you more mobile than a RDM for 16 seconds every minute.

[Senliten]

Everything but Pet AI was addressed. Hopefully the full notes make some mention of it, because Bahamut has shown that there is an issue with the Pet AI more than it has already been spoken on about since 2.0.

Why can't it just be like temporary bard turret, let me just <t> place it for god sakes and get rid of the absurd ogcd attacking. It's a summon, the pets are summons, treat it like a legit pet with an auto attack that does not need to follow up with what I do except for Ahk Mourn triggering and i'll be happy.