Aurum Vale - A Rant

[Shrade]

Are summons -that- usefull for SMN? I know they're one of the top DPS but i was under the impression that it was because of how many dots they have, not their summons.

[GameGeeks]

Are summons -that- usefull for SMN? I know they're one of the top DPS but i was under the impression that it was because of how many dots they have, not their summons.

They are. They're about 40% of our DPS.

EDIT: Don't use Ifrit at all since right now it's dps is hampered since there's a .5 second delay between auto attack and it's basic ability. Meaning Garuda will always do more damage.

[RyuujinZERO]

Are summons -that- usefull for SMN? I know they're one of the top DPS but i was under the impression that it was because of how many dots they have, not their summons.

Correct. People over-estimate the importance of the pets, a SMN's pet typically doesn't make up much more than 20% of their total DPS output; this is why SCH DPS (in cleric stance and using Aero/Thunder) is actually quite comparable to a SMN's DPS even though a SCH's pet does not attack.

However; a more pressing issue for a SCH in aurum vale is that their pet is responsible for a significant amount of party heals. A SCH's direct heals are NOT very strong (Comparable to Cure 1!), their pet does a lot of the drudge-work dolling out heals every few seconds, if their pet is dead they will struggle to keep up the team and burn their mana relatively quickly.

All this said though, I've never done Aurum vale, and I've heard similar statements about other fights (ie. the first boss of qarn, who applies doom to your fairy) and a little awareness and a bit of micromanagement made the fight entirely winnable.