Trying to enhance the SMN. Questions.

[Kuinu]

Hello there, fellows.

I'm here to ask for help to build a decent SMN equip. I'm not going to buy a Vanya with everything melded, neither a clean HQ vanya set; I mean, that is way too expensive, and surely, it'll be obsolete in some months (Then again, that's my two cents). As I see it, a SMN should go in the following build order: Intelligence -> Determination -> Accuracy -> Critical Chance -> Spell Speed -> Piety. My reasoning is that the SMN doesn't really do direct damage, so Spell Speed is not THAT useful; Don't think I'm saying it's useless. Then again, I set Critical Chance as the 4th stat, due to that we SMN, as I see it, have a natural low critical rate, and even if we mained such stat, we'd still be overwhelmed by the other DPS classes in terms of critical. Determination, though, I'm not sure; I've heard +8 Determination, in the case of a mage, equals +1 Intelligence, so maybe is not that good.

[Kuinu]

(Continuation of the post. Please forgive me and the letter cap.)
If I were to focus on Accuracy, though (I've seen that a SMN's accuracy is rather low), my planned BiS would be: Any of the level 90 heads, allagan or summoner; Summoner chest, summoner legs, summoner gloves, hero belt, allagan feet. Since the rest of the items do not give any accuracy at all, I'd gain a total of 431 accuracy, reaching almost the cap for Coil. Though I don't know how my damage would end.

What I'm asking here, to fellow SMNs with experience, is what should I priorize: I saw that our DoTs deal critical damage, yet I lack a lot of accuracy (380 right now), and it seems that, when my static coil group tried T4 wihout me, they managed to defeat the first soldiers faster than they did with me (Though I was DoTing both soldiers, and using Bane on them to affect Knights too, while switching my pet attacks on both soldiers).

[Kuinu]

(Another continuation. This is the last one, promise. :< )

If it helps, my current rotation is Shadow Flare -> Spur(If neccesary) -> Enkindle(If neccesary) -> Bio II -> Miasma -> Bio -> Fester -> Bane(If neccesary) -> Thunder -> Ruin&RuinII -> Recast DoTs -> Fester.

Thank you very much for your attention and tips.

[Kevee]

380 Accuracy is very low.

You want, at a minimum, ~430-435. Once you have access to more gear, you're going to want 442~450. Food will not close this gap.

Crit > Det. Everyone has the same base crit(341 - 5%), and then everyone scales the same after (~14.5 crit = 1%).
Acc > All until personal cap(which is 430-435), and then there needs to be more testing to see what value we need between 442-450 for out pet. When I first went into coil, I was wearing 2 pieces of Warlock gear from WP for the accuracy, and was able to clear turn 1-4.


Don't start with Shadow Flare unless you pre-cast it with Swiftcast, move it to before Thunder in your rotation if you don't. Always use Spur/Rouse together, you'll get 2 Rouse'/Spur(60s/120s CD).

Don't use Ruin II unless necessary. It costs a lot of MP, which we don't have to spare.

[Kuinu]

I see, thank you. Based on this, all DPS must main Critical and Accuracy, correct?

The solution, then, would be to hoard all the accuracy I can get? Most of the summoner gear gives both, I think...

[Roy_M]

Keep in mind Crit applies to DoTs as well and you will landing a lot of hits/dmg on DoTs so the more you get to crit the better until cap as Kevee mentioned.

There is a trick to call your summon with acc gear then switch to INT>DET>Crit set.

For me Acc it s pretty useless unless you go to Coil where you need Acc for sure.

Shadowflare it s a must as long the mob stands to it keep in mind it s 250 dmg based (and has the same casting time as ruin) so Shadowflare UP>Ruin.

Thunder Rotation to each mob after your General DoT rotation helps a lot on AoE DoT DPS but never forget Shadow Flare

I Agree with Ruin 2 part altho keep in mind that you can use 2 skills at the same time by using ruin 2 (through skills that ignore general cooldown= Virus-Fester-Energy Drain and others) than just ruin 1 if you have mp to spare of course

[T0rin]

There is a trick to call your summon with acc gear then switch to INT>DET>Crit set.

This doesn't work too well, as most buffs that affect pets will reset the Pet accuracy back to whatever you are wearing after said buff expires.

[Thorauku]

Instead of creating a new thread, I'll ask here instead,

Anyone knows an optimal rotation for single targets and AoE?

[Karnage720]

Instead of creating a new thread, I'll ask here instead,

Anyone knows an optimal rotation for single targets and AoE?

For Single Target
Bio 2-Miasma-Bio-Fester-Thunder-Contagion (I've starting weeving SF in after Contagion) Ruin 1 etc

For AoE

Shadow Flare-Bio2-Miasma-Bio-Contagion-Miasma 2-Bane- Thunder tab Ruin 1 etc

[T0rin]

Instead of creating a new thread, I'll ask here instead,

Anyone knows an optimal rotation for single targets and AoE?

Unlike BLM and AoE, it very much depends on how many targets you are facing and how soon you expect them to die.

On 4 targets, I'd go something like this: Swiftcast->Shadow Flare->Aerial Blast->Steady->Bio2->Miasma->Bio1->Contagion->Obey->Bane->Miasma2->Tri-Disaster Spam and keep going on Tri-Disaster until a) You have 2 or less targets left or b) Need to re-cast Shadow Flare and/or DoTs. Once you get down to 2 targets or less, just spam Ruin1.

On 5-7 targets I would just Bane one of the DoT'd mobs during the Tri-Disaster spam, as soon as the Bane CD came up.

On 8 targets or more, I would do another set of Bio2->Miasma->Bio->Bane->Tri-Disaster->Shadow Flare after the first Tri-Disaster in the 4 target spam, then resume Tri-Disaster and switch to Ruin1 under the same circumstances. (2 or less targets left)

If you have more than 8 targets, you would end up not DoT'ing one of them, and just rely on direct AoE damage. You usually want to keep Shadow Flare up if it will hit 2 or more targets for at least 10 seconds after being cast. You want to weave in Miasma2 against 2 or more targets under the same circumstances. Don't bother getting Miasma2 into a Contagion unless you are doing it against a single target. (boss)

On 1 target (boss), I'd do something like Swiftcast->Shadow Flare->Bio2->Miasma->Bio1->Fester during GCD->Thunder->Miasma2->Contagion->Ruin1->Ruin1->Ruin2->Fester during GCD->Ruin1->Ruin1->Ruin1->Ruin2->Fester during GCD->Aetherflow, repeating Ruin/Fester until you run out of Aetherflow charges or need to start re-casting DoTs. You can weave Energy Drain into the Ruin/Fester spam if you need more burst DPS, but usually you only want to do this if you have Aetherflow ready to go and the fight would end before you could cast 6 consecutive Fester.

But, unlike BLM, SMN needs to factor in the opportunity window for Fester, Aetherflow charges, DoT timers, window until mobs are dead, etc. There is a lot of analysis required during an encounter to determine what is worth casting and what isn't. If you fully DoT a mob and then it dies as you are casting Bio1, you probably wasted your time DoTing in the first place. If DoTs are fading as Fester is coming off of CD, you have to weigh the DPS loss of using Energy Drain instead of Fester, for the potential of having to re-DoT and then wait to Fester after, against the potential of making the re-DoTs wasted by using Fester and killing the mob before they've had sufficient time to tick through.

Short answer: there is no concrete answer.