Summoner: A Guide

[Sol_Aureus]

Your Egi and You: Everything you need to know about Summoner

Hello there! I'm Sol Aureus. You might remember me from such guides as "How do I shot cure? Everything you need to know about healing" [1.0 WHM guide] and "This other link to the same guide because it's the only one I did." I said for a while now that I'd like to make a guide similar to that for Summoner once 2.0 hits and I've had time to experiment around with it. And here it is! It's not quite as in-depth as my previous guide since the stat weights aren't as straightforward as they were in 1.0 for WHM, however I will be working on and updating this guide whenever I discover new information.

On to the guide!

Stats and how they affect Summoner:

• Weapon Damage
  
  Weapon Damage is the single most important stat you'll have as a SMN. Because of how much weight the damage formula puts on your weapon damage, this is your top priority for gear. Get the best weapon you can as quickly as you can!

• Intelligence [INT]
  
  INT is only second to Weapon Damage for increasing your damage output. As SMN is a damage dealer, you definitely want to get as much INT as you can. There's linear progression in terms of iLVL to INT on gear, so it makes getting INT very simple: find the highest iLVL piece of gear for SMN that you can get. If something that drops is a higher iLVL than whatever you currently have equipped, the vast majority of the time it will be better than whatever you currently have due to the increase in INT.
  
  INT also affects how much damage our pets deal with all of their attacks, including physical-based pets like Ifrit and Titan.I personally recommend allocating all 30 of your stat points into INT.

• Vitality [VIT]
  
  VIT is a nice bonus stat as more survivability is always good, however it should not be a focus when looking at gear progression. Left-slot gear (Weapon / Head / Body / Hands / Belt / Pants / Feet) all have VIT tied to iLVL, so you'll be getting VIT through your normal progression anyway, just make sure you're not wearing VIT accessories or slotting VIT materia over something like INT accessories or Crit materia.
  
  VIT also increases the amount of HP our pets have.

• Mind [MND]
  MND affects how much HP we cure with Physick. That's it. It is not worth going after as a Summoner, as you see very little use from Physick.

• Piety [PIE]
  PIE increases our Maximum MP at a rate of 7.25 MP per point at level 50. SMN's maximum MP affects how much MP we get back through Aetherflow, as Aetherflow restores MP equal to 20% of our max MP. Basically this means you get slightly less than 1.5 more MP from Aetherflow per point of PIE. Max MP also affects MP refresh rates inside and outside of battle, roughly 2% per tic in battle. Normally as a SMN you will not have much in the way of MP trouble, so I would not personally recommend going after PIE specifically.

• Accuracy
  If you're planning on getting heavily into endgame, you'll need to start worrying about Accuracy. Without enough Accuracy, you will start missing your spells, which includes DoT applications and also affects your pet's ability to hit things. There are caps on accuracy where you have a 100% hit rate and any Accuracy over this cap is useless to you since you already hit 100% of the time. Please note that this accuracy cap will change with content, as whatever enemy you are fighting determines how much accuracy you need in order to have a 100% hit rate against that enemy.
  
  As of now, the accuracy caps for Summoner on the boss of Turn 5 of coil (harshest Acc cap in the game right now) are:
  
  Summoner & Pet 100%: 435 (the pet cap used to be 447, however some players have reported that 2.1 fixed this so that the pet cap is the same as the Summoner's. I have not tested this myself, so I cannot say for certain if that is correct.)
  
  Please note that these caps are not exact, but are an approximation. The actual caps may be lower, however testing for these caps is not easy and being a few points off is acceptable to me as long as I'm still hitting 100% of the time.

• Critical Hit Rate
  Crit rate affects how often your spells and your pet will land a Critical Hit for 150% damage. I have not personally done a lot of crit rate testing in terms of how much crit rate there is to a percentage, however it is generally accepted that 14 ≈ 1% increase in Crit rate with the current formulas. For reference, I conducted most of my testing at 497 Crit (341 base +156 from gear) and after thousands of spells I can say with confidence that my crit rate falls close to 18%.
  
  I personally recommend Crit as the secondary stat to go for as SMN. At any given moment there are usually 6 things from a Summoner that can crit: Bio, Bio II, Miasma, Shadow Flare, Pet attack, Ruin. Because Summoner has so many attacks going on at once and each one has its own individual crit proc, you'll see crits pretty consistently as a Summoner, which makes them a very viable way to increase your damage output. In addition, you have a trait (Enhanced Pet Actions) that gives you a 20% chance to increase your spell speed by 20% for 8 seconds whenever your pet crits, which is a nice bonus.

• Determination: Increases the damage dealt by your spells and pet and also increases the amount you heal with via physick. Again, I have not done much testing in the field of damage formulae specifically, however from the limited testing that I have done, Determination does not seem to affect damage very heavily. As an example:
  
  244 Determination:
  Bio Damage: 95-106/tic
  
  281 Determination:
  Bio Damage: 98-108/tic
  
  It does provide an increase in damage, however it is slight and I would not recommend stacking Determination over Crit. However, an increase is still an increase, so Determination is still a decent stat to have.
  
  NOTE: As some people have pointed out, Determination's damage boost may be more effective than what I had originally thought. I'm going to be doing some more heavy testing on crit vs det once I get some more gear to swap out for testing, but for now you'll be fine if you consider WD > INT > Det = Crit > Spell Speed.

• Spell Speed
  
  Spell Speed affects how quickly you cast your spells, your GCD after using a spell, and Garuda's cast time on Wind Blade and Aerial Slash and their respective cooldown timers. Unfortunately, it requires a ridiculous amount of spell speed to see any sort of decent returns when it comes to damage. At 527 Spell Speed (186 from gear), 2.50 second casts/recasts become 2.32 seconds. Garuda's Wind Blade gets knocked down to 0.93 second cast time with a 2.79 second recast, and Aerial Slash gets the biggest benefit with a 2.79 second cast time and 27.90 second recast.
  
  The problem with Spell Speed as a Summoner is that it does not make our DoTs tic faster, our DoTs will always tic every 3 seconds. So the only benefit we gain from Spell speed is very slightly faster reapplication of DoTs and cast times for various spells. Overall it does not provide much of a return when it comes to damage and only serves to make us run out of MP faster, so I recommend stacking both Crit and Determination over Spell Speed.

Knowing your abilities:

• Ability [Cast Time | Recast | MP Cost at 50]
  • Description
    
    Information
  
  
• Bio [Instant | GCD | 106]
  • Deals unaspected damage over time.
    Potency: 40
    Duration: 18 seconds
    
    One of your main 3 DoTs. Bio has the benefit of being instant cast, so you can cast it while moving and it triggers the GCD so it's perfect to follow with an off-GCD ability like Fester.
• Bio II [2.50s | GCD | 186]
  • Deals unaspected damage over time.
    Potency: 35
    Duration: 30 seconds
    
    One of your main 3 DoTs. Bio II lasts the longest of the 3 main dots and costs the most MP to cast. No additional effects.
• Miasma [2.50s | GCD | 133]
  • Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 20. Also deals Unaspected damage over time.
    Potency: 35
    Duration: 24 seconds
    Additional Effect: Disease (40% movement speed reduction in PVE and 20% reduced healing via curing spells)
    Duration: 24 seconds
    
    One of your main 3 DoTs. Miasma has the interesting quirk of dealing damage on cast as well as the additional effect of Disease. Disease can be useful during situations like turn 5 dreadknights where you need to slow an enemy down. However, as it is one of your main DoTs, the diminishing returns for disease kicks in pretty quickly on something you've been fighting for a long period of time, so keep that in mind.
• Aetherflow [Instant | 60.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Restores 20% of maximum MP and provides 3 stacks of Aetherflow.
    
    Aetherflow is one of the cornerstones of Summoner's arsenal. Properly utilizing stacks of Aetherflow is one of the keys to being a good Summoner [only 3 abilities use stacks of Aetherflow: Energy Drain, Fester, and Bane]. As an example, let's look at Turn 5
    
    during phase 2: conflagrations. For those who don't know, the boss will trap a party member in a jail of sorts called a conflagration where they take damage over time and cannot perform any actions until the conflag is killed. If the conflag is not killed fast enough, it explodes, killing anyone within its area of effect. For the shorter conflags, you only have 10-12 seconds to kill it. Summoners don't really have a lot of heavy spike damage that we can call on whenever we please, we need a bit of a windup by applying our DoTs, however in this situation we don't have that luxury of time. So what do you do? Reapply your DoTs on the boss before conflag drops and then Bane them on to the conflag. This lets you instantly apply your DoTs so you can spend the conflag's duration hitting it as hard as you can. However, what happens if a conflag drops and you don't have stacks of Aetherflow with which to use Bane and Aetherflow is still on cooldown? You wouldn't be able to pull your weight on the conflag, so it might not die fast enough. You don't want to be in that situation, so planning ahead of time to make sure that you have enough Aetherflow stacks so that it isn't a problem is ideal. That being said, don't overplan for things, your Aetherflow stacks do you no good if you're not using them. You should almost never be in a situation where you're mid-battle and you have 3 Aetherflow stacks and Aetherflow is off cooldown, it's a waste.
    
    Most of the time, you'll want to use Aetherflow stacks on Fester, your hardest hitting ability. Energy Drain is mostly used as an MP recovery tool, and Bane is used when there are multiple enemies. Knowing what kind of fight you're getting yourself into will be the best way to know how to properly use your Aetherflow stacks.
• Fester [Instant | 10.0s | 1 Aetherflow Charge] [Off GCD]
  • Causes wounds inflicted by Bio, Bio II, and Miasma for fester, dealing damage with a potency of 100 for each effect. Is only
    
    affected by DoTs cast by you.
    Potency: 0, 100, 200, or 300
    
    Fester is an awesome source of damage, and your most common use of Aetherflow stacks. Weighing in at 300 potency if all 3 of your DoTs are active (which they should be), it can hit real hard. Be wary of throwing Fester too quickly after applying your 3rd DoT, as it takes the server a second to register that the DoT has been applied. If you do it too fast, you will lose out on that 100 potency for that DoT.
• Energy Drain [Instant | 3.0s | 1 Aetherflow Charge] [Off GCD]
  • Deals unaspected Damage with a Potency of 150.
    Additional Effect: Absorbs 50% of the damage dealt as HP and restores 266 MP.
    
    You won't often run into MP problems as a SMN, but when you do Energy Drain is a great way to get that MP back. Energy Drain will always restore 266 MP at level 50, so say after getting Raised you might want to throw an Aetherflow and 3x Energy Drain to get back ≈ 1,400 MP. At 150 potency, it hits decently hard as well.
• Bane [Instant | 10.0s | 1 Aetherflow Charge] [Off GCD]
  • Spreads a target's Bio, Bio II, and Miasma to up to 3 enemies within an 8y radius.
    Additional Effect: 15% chance that Bio, Bio II, and Miasma duration resets if shorter than original effect duration.
    
    Bane is your go-to Aetherflow charge use for AoE fights, and can also be utilized to instantly apply your DoTs to another target when you're short on time (such as conflags in turn 5). Bane is incredibly useful, as being able to spread your DoTs to multiple enemies saves you a lot of time and MP. If you're fighting more than 1 enemy, even if it's only 2, bane gives a higher damage return than Fester will since your DoTs will deal about as much as your fester will in 3-5 tics.
• Shadow Flare [3.00s | GCD | 212]
  • Envelops a designated area in shadows dealing damage over time to any enemies inside the area.
    Potency 25
    Duration: 30 seconds
    Additional Effect: Slow 5% (only affects certain enemies)
    
    I see a surprising amount of Summoners not use Shadow Flare. Shadow Flare is essentially your 4th DoT. While weaker in potency and more expensive in MP than the rest of your DoT spells, it has a 30 second duration, is an AoE, and the 5% slow effect make it a worthwhile spell to keep active whenever you can. I often pair Shadow Flare with Swiftcast due to its 3 second cast time.
• Miasma II [Instant | GCD | 186]
  • Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 20 to all nearby enemies. Also deals unaspected damage over time.
    Potency: 10
    Duration: 15 seconds
    Additional Effect: Disease (40% movement speed reduction in PVE and 20% reduced healing via curing spells)
    Duration: 15 seconds
    
    Miasma II is a very situational spell due to its low potency and high MP cost. It has the benefit of being instant cast, so it's a good way to instantly apply Disease to a target, however most of the time you'll be a good distance away from anything you're fighting so by the time you get to the enemy you want to slow down you could have fired off a normal Miasma. In terms of mp cost to damage returns, Miasma II becomes worthwhile if you're fighting 4 or more enemies.
• Ruin [2.50s | GCD | 79]
  • Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 80.
    
    Ruin is your basic filler spell, with its low MP cost and decent potency making it the obvious choice. If your 3 DoTs are up plus shadow flare and you don't have the immediate need to weave an off-GCD ability, you should be casting Ruin.
• Ruin II [Instant | GCD | 133]
  • Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 80.
    Additional Effect: Blind
    Duration: 10 seconds
    
    Ruin II is an awesome utility spell, however you should NOT be using Ruin II over Ruin as your basic filler spell in the majority of situations. It costs nearly double the MP of Ruin, does the same amount of damage, and will drive the enemy's diminishing returns for blind into the ground very quickly. Ruin II is used primarily as an instant-cast spell to trigger the GCD so that you can weave off-GCD abilities such as Fester. Ruin II is also used as your running spell; since it's instant cast you can cast it while moving, so while you are dodging enemy attacks you can use Ruin II to keep doing damage while you're moving.
• Virus [Instant | 90.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Reduces target's STR, DEX, INT, and MND by 15%.
    Duration: 10 seconds
    Grants target immunity to the same effect for 1 minute after effect ends.
    
    Virus is a great off-GCD utility spell, serving to reduce your target's offensive capabilities by 15% for 10 seconds. Very useful during healing-intensive parts of fights, so communicate with your healers to find out what point in the fight would be best to use it. A couple examples are just before Titan's Stomps and during Turn 4 2x dreadnought phase.
    
    With the changes in 2.1, Virus now gives the enemy immunity to Virus for 1 minute after its use:
    
    As Virus is a cross-class ability for both White Mage and Black Mage, look for this icon on the enemy you're fighting before you cast so you don't waste your Virus.
• Eye for an Eye [Instant | 120.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Gives a single party member or your pet a barrier that may provide a debuff to an enemy attacking that party member or pet.
    Barrier Duration: 30 seconds
    Additional Effect: When the party member with this barrier is struck, there is a 20% chance that the attacker will get a debuff reducing their damage by 10%.
    Debuff Duration: 20 seconds
    
    Like Virus, Eye for an Eye is a great off-GCD utility spell. It's awesome for situations where you tank is being attacked by multiple enemies at once, as every attacker has the 20% chance per hit that they will get the debuff, and reducing incoming damage on tanks by 10% can help take some stress off of the healers.For those curious, a player named Valk ran probabilities of what chance an enemy has of contracting the debuff based on how many times they hit a party member with Eye for an Eye. You can see a more in-depth analysis by clicking here, but for simplicity's sake here's the table: (n = how many times an enemy hit the player while the player is under the effect of Eye for an Eye.)
    
    
    This is pretty much the only macro that I use as SMN, since switching targets to the tank can be a pain. The macro is simply:
    
    

    /macroicon "Eye for an Eye"
    /ac "Eye for an Eye" <tt>
    This uses Eye for an Eye on the target of your target (You're targeting an enemy who is in all likelihood targeting the tank, so it will use Eye on the tank your enemy is hitting). I keep the standard unmacroed ability off to the side in case I need to use it on a tank that's prepping for swaps or something, but 90% of the time I can just use this macro and it's a lot more convenient since I don't have to switch targets off of the enemy.
• Tri-Disaster [3.00s | GCD | 266]
  • Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 30 to target and all targets within 5y of it.
    Additional Effect: Bind
    Duration: 20s
    
    Tri-disaster is Summoner's form of crowd control. It's an AoE bind that lasts for 20 seconds, however it has a hefty MP cost and there aren't very many situations where you'd rather bind over sleep. That being said, there are situations where it can definitely be useful, so don't forget that you have it!
• Physick [2.00s | GCD | 133]
  • Restores target's HP
    Cure Potency: 400
    
    Arcanist's basic heal. You won't often use Physick due to your low MND, however it does have situational uses, such as healing your pet or healing a small amount of HP after taking damage (after something like Aerial Blast or Hellfire). Unless both your healers are dead or they're having a lot of trouble, you shouldn't have to use Physick on any other party members. Let the healers do the healing, you're there for damage!
• Resurrection [8.00s | GCD | 798]
  • Having the ability to raise as a damage dealer is a great boon while learning fights. Often paired with Swiftcast, you can help your healers out a lot by raising fallen party members so that they don't have to use a large chunk of their MP to do so. It carries a hefty MP cost at almost 800 MP, but as a Summoner you can use your MP sparingly if you're running low, but a healer doesn't have that luxury. They have to keep everyone alive, and if they run out of MP it could easily spell disaster. If you're not on a VOIP program with your healers, I would recommend making a macro for raise that lets the healers know that you are raising a target. Something like:
    

    /macroicon "Resurrection"
    /ac "Resurrection" <t>
    /p Resurrection → [<t>] <se.10>
    That way your healers know that you've raised that target and they don't have to worry about raising them.
    
    As a side note, as of patch 2.15, Summoners can no longer use Resurrection during PVP.
• Sustain [1.00s | GCD | 133]
  • Puts a healing over time effect on your pet, restoring 12.5% of its HP per tic.
    Duration: 10 seconds
    
    Sustain is a great tool for just that: sustaining your pet. During events like Ifrit Extreme, your pet may be hit by stray AoEs. Most of the time they deal negligible damage, but it can add up quickly and your pet can definitely reach 0 HP if you're not paying attention. While that isn't the end of the world, the summon spells cost a hefty 532 MP and 6 seconds to cast, so if you're not careful you can end up without a pet and without the means to resummon it quickly. Your pet is at least ¼ of your damage, so you definitely want to keep it alive. Throwing Sustain is a great way to do so and is a quick cast, so watch your pet's HP and throw a sustain if it's under half.
• Rouse [Instant | 60.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Increases damage dealt by pet by 40%. While roused, pet will be immune to stun, sleep, bind, heavy, paralysis, and disease.
    Duration: 20 seconds
    
    Rouse is a REALLY nice ability and is also often where I see Summoner's losing efficiency. One of the traits we get reduces Rouse's recast time from 90→60 seconds, and yet a lot of Summoners I see don't take advantage of this by keeping Rouse on cooldown, instead opting to save it for specific situations. The vast majority of the time, you don't need to save Rouse. The only situation where I do is when I need a lot of AoE damage very quickly like Turn 4 in coil, so I'll save my second use of Rouse for the first set of spinner rooks so that I can pair it with Spur and Enkindle for a lot of damage quickly. But that is a very specific situation where we need as much AoE damage as we can as fast as we can, so in every other situation your best course of action is to use Rouse whenever it is up for that boost to your pet's damage. The immunity to status effects is also worth noting and has uses in PVP, however I have not found a reason to use it in PVE as of yet, but it is worth keeping in mind for future content (entire party gets hit by an unavoidable sleep? your pet can stay awake and keep doing damage!).
    
    As a side note, you have to be able to see your pet and be within 25y of it in order to use Rouse.
• Spur [Instant | 120.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Increases a pet's physical and magical attack power by 40%.
    Duration: 20 seconds
    
    Spur is the Summoner-specific pet damage buff and it synergizes with Rouse extremely well. It has exactly 2x the cooldown duration as Rouse, so every other Rouse you can pair with Spur. Much like Rouse, I often see Summoners saving Spur for specific situations, which is unnecessary in the vast majority of situations. Keep Spur on cooldown to get the most out of your pet's damage!
    
    As a side note, you have to be able to see your pet and be within 30y of it in order to use Spur.
• Enkindle [Instant | 300.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Commands pet to use its signature attack.
    
    Garuda:
    Aerial Blast
    Deals Wind damage with a potency of 250 to target and all enemies within a 5y radius of the target.
    
    Ifrit:
    Inferno
    Deals fire damage with a potency of 200 to all enemies in a cone before it.
    Additional effect: Fire damage over time
    Potency: 20
    Duration: 15 seconds
    
    Titan:
    Earthen Fury
    Deals Earth Damage with a potency of 200 to all targets within a 5y radius of Titan.
    Additional effect: Razed earth (GTAoE similar to Shadow Flare which deals damage over time with a potency ˜ 15. Possibly increases Titan's enmity every damage tic.)
    Duration: 15 seconds
    
    The Enkindle abilities are a bit lackluster overall due to the 5 minute recast, but can still be used to output a good amount of AoE damage once or twice during an encounter. Garuda's is the most potent spike damage-wise of all of them and is an AoE centered on the target which can be used at a range. Ifrit's is the best overall damage due to the DoT effect, but isn't much better than Garuda's and is more difficult to use due to it being a cone in front of Ifrit. Titan's is the worst damage-wise, but may have an additional effect of further increasing Titan's enmity every tic from Razed earth.
    If there isn't any part of the encounter that you're in that requires AoE damage, it's still worthwhile to use Enkindle while Rouse and Spur are up for some spike damage.
  
  Pet Abilities
  
  Generic:
  
• Heel
  • Orders your pet to follow behind you.
    
    I most commonly use this when I need to get my pet out of danger, such as during Ifrit extreme's dashes.
• Place
  • Orders your pet to move to a specified location within 30y of you.
    
    This is one of the most important actions for proper micromanagement of your pets. Place will move your pet to a specified location, and your pet will not move from that location unless it is out of range of whatever you tell it to attack. This can be used to put your pet in an ideal spot where it is not being hit by any AoEs so you don't have to waste MP using Sustain or Physick to keep your pet alive. There are often times that moving pets to strategic locations can be very beneficial, such as during Turn 5 during fireballs or hatch.
• Stay
  • Orders your pet to remain where it is.
    
    Very straightforward. I almost always use place over this since I find it easier to be more precise with place, but it comes down to preference.
• Guard
  • Pet refrains from attacking until you attack or are attacked.
    
    This is your pet's default stance. Pretty straightforward: if you're attacked or you attack something, your pet engages it as well. However, this will automatically put your pet into Sic, so your pet will begin using its abilities as soon as it can. Make sure that you use Obey as an opener whenever attacking something so that your pet doesn't accidentally use an ability you didn't want it to use yet.
• Steady
  • Pet refrains from attacking until ordered to do so.
    
    Another important aspect of micromanaging your pets. Steady will stop your pet from attacking until you order it to do so, meaning if you tell your pet to Sic or Obey, they will begin attacking and switch back to Guard stance. If your pet is already attacking something and you switch to Steady, your pet will stop attacking. If you're ever in a fight where you have to stop damage for whatever reason, Steady is very useful.
• Sic
  • Orders your pet to attack with the pet choosing when to use its actions.
    
    Sic is something that I will rarely use. The vast majority of the time, you want to micromanage your pet using Obey, since your pet choosing when to use its abilities can be inefficient. Garuda using contagion when you have no DoTs up on the enemy, for example. In addition, your pet will want to use all of its abilities, so if you are using Ifrit for example, he'll stop occasionally and use Radiant Shield, which doesn't do you much good. Your pets will also use their AoE attacks as soon as they are up, which can be inefficient and cause you to actually lose damage because of the way they work.
• Obey
  • Orders your pet to attack with you choosing when your pet uses its actions.
    
    This is pretty much required for proper pet micromanagement. You want to be telling your pet when to use its abilities. Timing Contagion so that it's used when you have full Raging Strike DoTs on, using an AoE ability after Rouse and Spur to deal a lot of damage to a group of enemies...these things will help you increase your damage output and be as efficient as you can be.
  
  
  Garuda:
  
• Wind Blade [1.00s | 3.0s]
  • Deals wind damage with a potency of 100.
    
    Garuda's basic attack. 25y range, decent potency, all-around good attack. Garuda will automatically cast Wind Blade whenever she can even while in Obey.
• Shockwave [1.00s | 90.0s]
  • Deals wind damage with a potency of 90 and knocks target back 15 yalms.
    
    I very rarely ever use Shockwave. The knockback can cause problems for the tank, Wind Blade is more potent anyway, and Shockwave only has a 5y range so Garuda has to get right next to an enemy to use it. The only time I ever use it is if some stray mob runs to you and Garuda is lined up perfectly to knock it back to the tank. Even then, the tank will usually pick it back up before it gets to you.
• Aerial Slash [3.00s | 30.0s]
  • Deals wind damage with a potency of 90 to target and all enemies within a 5y radius of the target.
    
    Garuda's AoE. This is the ability that gets the most benefit from Spell Speed as its 30 second recast is affected by spell speed. The 3 second cast time makes it only really worthwhile if you're fighting more than 3 enemies.
• Contagion [Instant | 60.0s]
  • Extends duration of damage over time effects already cast by master by 15 seconds.
    
    An incredible pet ability. Since DoT potency is set when they're cast, extending a set of Raging Strike / INT Potion DoTs can be a lot of extra damage. It also opens you up for more casts of Ruin and other filler during that additional 15 seconds you have before you have to reapply your DoTs. This is most effectively used after buffed DoT application, however due to it being a 40 second recast and with Raging Strikes having a 180 second recast, it is beneficial to use Contagion multiple times while waiting for Raging Strikes to come back up.
  
  
  Ifrit:
  
• Crimson Cyclone [Instant | 40.0s]
  • Delivers an attack with a potency of 105.
    Additional Effect: Stun
    Duration: 2s
    
    Crimson Cyclone has potential to be useful, however due to the lack of pet responsiveness when giving commands Ifrit can't be a reliable stun. In addition, during any fight that you want a stun on, if Ifrit uses his stun it will trigger the diminishing returns on stun which can easily spell disaster for your group. Because of this, I very rarely ever use this ability.
• Burning Strike [Instant | 3.0s]
  • Delivers an attack with a potency of 120.
    
    Ifrit's basic ability. Unlike Garuda, Ifrit actually has an auto-attack that he uses seperately from this ability. Instead of 230 damage all at once like Wind Blade, Ifrit will deal 75 with his Auto-attack and 155 with Burning Strike, for example. This gives Ifrit's basic attack a couple benefits over Garudas: More attacks means more Crits which can proc Enhanced Pet Actions' spell speed increase, and during PVP having more attacks means more interrupts on casters.
• Radiant Shield [Instant | 60.0s]
  • Delivers an attack with a potency of 50 every time physical damage is suffered.
    Duration: 20s
    
    Ifrit's damage spikes which he can only apply to himself. Unfortunately, Ifrit is never hit with a physical attack (or he shouldn't be getting hit by one, at any rate), so this ability is largely useless.
• Flaming Crush [Instant | 30.0s]
  • Delivers an attack with a potency of 105 to all enemies within a 3y radius.
    
    Ifrit's AoE. A PBAoE (point-blank AoE, meaning centered around the caster) which has a smaller range than Aerial Blast, and even though it is a higher potency than Aerial Slash, it doesn't hit as hard (130 Ifrit vs 200 Garuda). It has the benefit of being instant cast though unlike Garuda's 3 second cast time for Aerial Blast, so that's nice.
  
  
  Titan:
  
• Rock Buster [Instant | 30.0s]
  • Delivers an attack with a potency of 85.
    Additional Effect: Increased enmity
    
    Titan's basic ability. Similar to Ifrit, Titan also has an auto-attack that he uses separately from this ability. Titan has the benefit of being able to hold hate on a single target decently well with this ability.
• Mountain Buster [Instant | 15.0s]
  • Delivers an attack with a potency of 70 to all enemies within a 4y radius.
    Additional Effect: Increased enmity
    
    Titan's AoE. A PBAoE which doesn't deal much damage, but the increased enmity is decently potent and it only has a 15 second cooldown. Titan has trouble holding hate on multiple enemies because of the cooldown on this ability, but it can be nice for an initial grab or if your party is only using single-target abilities.
• Earthen Ward [Instant | 120.0s]
  • Decreases damage suffered by Titan by 20%.
    Duration: 20s
    
    Damage reduction is always nice and Titan really needs it if he's tanking. He takes a LOT more damage than normal tanks do due to his lack of defense. Because of the 120 second cooldown it isn't a reliable ability that you can pop in response to enemy moves, however it's a nice bonus whenever it's up.
• Landslide [Instant | 40.0s]
  • Delivers an attack with a potency of 70.
    Additional Effect: Stun
    Duration: 2s
    
    Like Crimson Cyclone, Landslide's usefulness suffers greatly from the lack of responsiveness when using pet abilities. Unfortunate, but I rarely use this ability because of it.

Cross class abilities:

• Swiftcast - THM Lv.26 [Instant | 60.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Next Spell is cast immediately.
    Duration: 10s
    
    One of the most important cross-class abilities you can have. Very useful to pair with Resurrection, resummoning a pet, Shadow Flare, or any other situational spell that has a cast time.
• Surecast - THM Lv. 8 [Instant | 30.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Next spell is cast without interruption.
    Duration: 10s
    
    Situationally useful. I most often use it when I'm going to be hit by something that usually will interrupt but I still want to get a cast off, such as Turn 5 fireballs or a Primal's special ability. Not required, but you'll get it on the way to Swiftcast anyway so you might as well use it.
• Blizzard II - THM Lv.12 [2.0s | GCD | 212]
  • Deals ice damage with a potency of 50 to all enemies within a 5y radius.
    Additional Effect: Bind
    Duration: 8s
    
    If you're attacking more than 4 enemies, this will be your hardest-hitting AoE. I would still recommend using Bane to get your DoTs on at least 4 of those enemies, however Blizzard II is usable to deal some damage while your DoTs tic. However, at only 50 potency and an MP cost of 212, it isn't something I would use excessively. The Bind effect is OK, however Summoner has access to Tri-Disaster which is a longer bind that you can cast at a range, so you shouldn't be using Blizzard II for bind.
• Raging Strikes - ARC Lv.4 [Instant | 180.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Increases damage dealt by 20%
    Duration: 20s
    
    Along with Swiftcast, this is one of the most important cross-class abilities you can have. Because DoT potency is set when the DoT is cast, Raging Strikes can make your DoTs hit harder for their entire duration (including the extended duration from Contagion). Not to mention the boost to Fester and Ruin. It's long cooldown is unfortunate, but with a 20 second duration you can get a really nice damage boost out of Raging Strikes while it's up. Keep it on cooldown!
• Quelling Strikes - ARC Lv.34 [Instant | 120.0s | -] [Off GCD]
  • Reduces enmity generation.
    Duration: 15s
    
    Quelling Strikes is a nice ability to have, however most of the time Summoners don't have to worry about enmity generation. With about ¼ of our damage coming from our pets, any good tank will be able to hold hate off of you as long as you don't go crazy (like Bane/Fester as soon as an add pops). Nice to have, but not necessary.

DoT Mechanics:

The mechanics of Damage over Time spells in this game are a bit unique, and due to the fact that a large chunk of Summoner's damage is based around our DoT spells, it is very beneficial to know exactly how they work.

When an enemy has a damage over time effect on it, it will take damage every 3 seconds from the DoT. However, all DoTs tic based on server time, not application time. This means if the server decides that the tics are at :03, :06, and :09, if you apply a DoT at :01 and another person applies a DoT at :02, both of your DoTs will tic for the first time at :03. This doesn't affect gameplay that much, however it is worth noting.

The most important aspect of DoTs in FFXIV is that their potency is set when they are cast. This means that if you use Raging Strikes and then cast Bio II, even after Raging Strikes wears off, that Bio II will tic for more damage for the entire duration of the DoT (until you reapply it) due to being enhanced by Raging Strikes at the moment it was cast. This can be used to create some seriously powerful DoT effects under the right circumstances. For example, if you used Raging Strikes, a Mega-potion of Intelligence, a BRD had Foe Requiem up on the enemy, you apply your DoTs and then use Contagion, you'll have some incredibly powerful DoT effects that last for well past when those buff effects wore off. It is worth noting that as of 2.1, Shadow Flare's potency is now also set when it is cast, so it acts like every other DoT in that respect.

Playing the Role:

Here are the key points you need to remember as a Summoner:

• Keep your DoTs up
  
  Bio, Bio II, Miasma, and Shadow Flare will make up quite a lot of your damage. You don't want them falling off of whatever you're fighting, so always make sure that you're reapplying your DoTs before they wear off. You'll want to reapply them when they have about 5 seconds left on their timer in order to get the most use out of it. If you reapply your DoTs too aggressively, you'll end up wasting MP and lower your damage because you could have spent that time casting another Ruin. Keep them up, but be smart about it.

• Weave off-GCD abilities
  
  This is probably one of the most important aspects of being efficient on Summoner. We have a lot of off-GCD abilities that we can utilize: Aetherflow, Rouse, Spur, Energy Drain, Fester, Bane, Enkindle, Virus, Swiftcast, Raging Strikes, Quelling Strikes, Eye for ana Eye, Surecast, Sprint, and any pet-based commands. Because you're just standing there during the GCD, you'll want to use 1-2 of these abilities while waiting for the GCD to come up in order to make the most out of your job. It may not seem like much, but if you're not doing this, over the course of the fight that extra time you spend using the off-GCD ability when GCD is ready will add up quickly.
  
  We only have a few ways to trigger the GCD without being trapped in casting: Bio, Ruin II, Miasma II, and any spells cast under the effect of swiftcast. Ruin II is the most common ability used to trigger the GCD for these abilities.

• Micromanage your pets
  
  Being able to use your pet's abilities at just the right moment, moving your pet so they're out of danger, making sure your pet is kept alive...micromanaging your pet is a very important aspect of being efficient as a Summoner. You don't want Garuda using Contagion when you have no DoTs up, do you? Conversely, you most definitely WOULD want her to use Contagion when you have just popped Raging Strikes and an HQ Mega-Potion of Intelligence and then applied your DoTs. Summoners often dismiss their pet's damage as negligible, however if you break down our damage output our pets end up being about ¼ of our damage at least. Because of this, it is very important to keep your pet out and attacking during the entire duration of the fight. During fights like Ifrit Extreme where eruptions can cause a lot of damage to your pet and potentially kill them, moving them out of harm's way can save you a lot of MP. If your pet does gets hit, using Sustain or physick to keep them alive or just placing them next to a healer who uses AoE heals often is a good idea as having to resummon them will cost 532 MP and either your Swiftcast cooldown or 6 seconds of casting time.
  
  Experiment around with your pet's skills and see how quickly they react to commands and buffs and you'll end up getting the most out of your pets. For example, Garuda's Aerial Slash doesn't calculate damage until the 3 second cast finishes. This gives you enough time to use both Rouse and Spur while Garuda is casting Aerial Slash instead of using Rouse and Spur and then commanding her to use Aerial Slash, which would cause you to wait an additional 3-4 seconds for Garuda to use Aerial Slash which wastes that time of your Rouse and Spur buffs.

And here are some other tips that aren't as important as the key points, but are important nonetheless:

• Use your defensive spells
  
  It's easy to get caught up in trying to deal the most damage that you can, after all, Summoner is a damage dealer. However, some Summoners forget that we also have access to a few great defensive abilities that are often overlooked in favor of the rush to do more damage. Virus and Eye for an Eye are both off-GCD abilities that can help take some stress off of the healers, so be sure to use them! (but communicate with your party about Virus, there may be a specific time during the fight that is best to use it, such as during Titan's stomps.) A quick method that I've found for applying Eye for an Eye is to use the "target of target" shortcut key (by default it is "T"). You're targeting an enemy which should be attacking a tank, so pressing T will target the tank the enemy is attacking. Use Eye for an Eye on the tank, then press T again which will switch your target to whatever the tank you just used Eye for an Eye on is targeting, which in all likelihood will be the enemy you were just attacking. T - Eye - T. Quick and easy!

• Use the right pet for the right situation
  
  (Originally I put this under key points, but to be perfectly honest it's so rarely needed that I couldn't justify it.)
  The vast majority of the time, you'll want to use Garuda as your pet due to her high damage output, low risk of getting hit, and contagion. However, keep in mind that each one of your pets has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, and playing those strengths to help turn the tide of a battle that is going poorly or make a battle easier is the mark of a great Summoner. For example, during Turn 5's hatch phase, instead of having the off tank take the hatches, you can just put Titan under Twintania and he can take them. Due to his high HP pool and pet damage mitigation, he can easily take the hits (which you can easily heal as Titan's HP pool is so large that Sustain heals for a lot of HP per tic). As another example, I was in a Garuda Extreme run where the off tank died just before sisters. I Swiftcast summoned Titan and used him to pick up the sister that the off tank was supposed to get in order to hold her while the healers slow raised the tank.
  
  Make use of Summoner's versatility and you can potentially save runs that would otherwise be wipes!

Items you want and why:

• Mega-potion of Intelligence
  
  You won't often need to use your consumables cooldown, so why not use it to increase your damage? It only lasts for 15 seconds, however a boost of 61 (HQ) to your INT is really substantial and you can get 2 festers and a full set of DoTs off before it wears off. Due to the fact that DoT potency is set when it is cast, these potions are incredibly useful as a Summoner.

• Hi-Elixir or X-Ether
  
  I don't often use these, however there have been times where I have needed MP immediately and these were the only way I could get it. They're useful to have on hand just in case.

• Stuffed Cabbage or Deviled Eggs
  
  Food is awesome. A lot of players overlook how good it is, but it's essentially like having another piece of gear for free. Only use Stuffed cabbage if you need the extra 11 accuracy it gives over Deviled Eggs in order to reach the Accuracy cap. Always try to buy HQ food if you can afford it, it is worth the extra price due to the increases in percentage that the food gives, making it easier to reach the Max value on the food.
  
  Why not Apkallu Omelette you ask? Because you're not getting the max bonuses from it. An HQ Apkallu Omelette gives 4% Crit (Max 27), 3% VIT (Max 19), and 2% Accuracy (Max 11). This means you'd need Minimum 675 Crit, 634 VIT, and 550 Accuracy to get the full effects of the Omelette. Obviously these numbers are way out of reach given the current gear in the game, so you end up getting more bonuses by using Deviled Eggs.

And that's about it! Know your abilities and utilize everything that this guide has taught you and you should be well on your way to becoming a great Summoner!

[YuriRamona]

I made a post in the healer thread for SCH DPS spell selection. I think this is important for SMN to know as well. Obviously, all your DoTs should be up all the time, but there are situations such as when there is high movement or you need to re-start the rotation (when you first start, or after some long mechanic)

Total potency

• Bio II: 0 initial potency + 350 potency over 30 seconds = 350
• Miasma: 20 initial potency + 280 potency over 24 seconds = 300
• Bio: 0 initial potency + 240 potency over 18 seconds = 240
• Thunder: 30 initial potency + 210 potency over 18 seconds = 240
• Shadow Flare: (0 initial potency + 250 potency over 30 seconds) / (3.0/2.5 corrective for cast time) = 208
• Aero: 50 initial potency + 150 potency over 18 seconds = 200
• Miasma II: 20 initial potency + 50 potency over 15 seconds = 70
• Energy Drain: 150
• Ruin II/Ruin: 80

DoT's damage per second

• Bio: 240 / (18 sec duration + 2.5 sec cooldown) = 11.7
• Thunder: 240 / 20.5 = 11.7
• Miasma: 300 / 26.5 = 11.3
• Bio II: 350 / 32.5 = 9.9
• Aero: 200/20.5 = 9.8
• Shadow Flare: 300 / 30.5 = 7.5
• Miasma II: 70 / 17.5 = 4

Considerations:

• Bio, Aero, Miasma II, and Ruin II have instant cast times on the global cooldown.
• Miasma II is AoE across 5y, so it beats Ruin spam at 2 targets and is a viable DoT at 3 targets.
• Shadow Flare can inflict a Slow effect, and will replace Sacred Soil if it is in effect.
• Bane will generally yield higher damage for your aetherflow charge than Energy Drain as long as Bio/Miasma/Bio II have more than 6 seconds remaining.

When you don't have global cooldowns to spare, use the total potency chart to pick your spell.

When you can afford to apply DoTs back-to-back and time is an issue, use the damage per second chart.

Obviously Thunder is no longer relevant. Sorry to bring up that painful memory. And Aero is not usable by SMN.

[Sol_Aureus]

A few people have asked me to put in a "Rotation" section in the guide. Honestly I'm reluctant to because Summoner doesn't really lend itself to the basic "Use Ability A → Ability B → Ability C → repeat" tactic.

Summoner has a lot of versatility in what it can be doing at any given time and should change based around the situation at hand, and I encourage players to use the information in the guide to come up with their own ideas of what they should be using. Also given the multitude of off GCD abilities that we have and their differing cooldowns, it is difficult to have a set rotation since it's more of a "use it when it's off CD" kind of thing.

However, a baseline to build off of couldn't hurt so I'll post what I usually open with:

Raging Strikes → Bio II → Miasma → Bio → Fester [off GCD] / Contagion → Ruin II → Swiftcast [off GCD] → Shadow Flare → Rouse [off GCD] → Spur [off GCD] → Ruin II → Fester → Ruin → Ruin → etc.

[T0rin]

I agree, there should not be a Rotation section, because there isn't a rotation. Or there shouldn't be.

Raging Strikes → Bio II → Miasma → Bio → Fester [off GCD] / Contagion → Ruin II → Swiftcast [off GCD] → Shadow Flare → Ruin II → Rouse [off GCD] → Spur [off GCD] → Ruin II → Fester → Ruin → Ruin → etc.

If in melee range (should be, auto-attacks), you should fit in Miasma 2 before Contagion.

Ruin II → Swiftcast [off GCD] → Shadow Flare → Ruin II → Rouse [off GCD]

You can swiftcast during the Ruin II GCD, but you cannot actually cast the Shadow Flare until the Ruin II GCD ends, and then it prompts another GCD when you cast Shadow Flare. The only real reason to do it this way is to fit an off-GCD skill after the Shadow Flare, during its GCD. So the above rotation would become:

Ruin II → Swiftcast [off GCD] → Shadow Flare → Rouse [off GCD]

But given how convoluted things become when DoTs start to fall off, encouraging the idea of a rotation is just asinine. Some good additions would be all the tips and tricks that make up a good spell order.

Making sure to fit off-GCDs in after instants, when it is worth it to cast 2 off-GCDs back to back for damage stacking purposes, when it is better to cast off-GCDs (like RS) by themselves, how Swiftcast actually works in that it doesn't create an off-GCD ability, but it lets you fit one in, when to Enkindle vs Contagion (in what order), how to fit two Festers into a single cast of RS, etc.

[Davechan]

Great guide. I main a summoner and I learnt alot from it.

Thank you for taking the time to write it.

[Maye]

Honest question.

Has anyone done parsing to find if there is any relevant difference between using Ruin2 over Ruin1 to fit in a single off the gcd ability at no time loss? As is, unless I want to fit 2 or more off gcd abilities together I just use Ruin1. ie RS > Bio 2 > Miasma > Bio (fester) > Shadowflare > Miasma 2 (contagion) > Ruin > Ruin > Fester > Ruin instead of using RS > Bio 2 > Miasma > Bio (fester) > Shadowflare > Miasma 2 (contagion) > Ruin > Ruin2 > Fester > Ruin -- I don't feel like the DPS difference is significant enough to warrant the extra mana spent (obviously this isn't an issue in short fights, but in longer fights where i spend more mana on dots or need to rez it can become an issue)

[Nolan_Summers]

awesome, I will definitely keep this post for future use.

[Kikosho]

One thing that I didn't notice in the guide (unless I just completely missed it), Rouse and Spur requires your pet to be within a certain distance next to you or the skill will not activate. On a related note, it's possible to get LOS by your pet as well causing the skills not to activate (Pet hiding behind the rocks in Garuda or the statues in AK for example).

[Sol_Aureus]

One thing that I didn't notice in the guide (unless I just completely missed it), Rouse and Spur requires your pet to be within a certain distance next to you or the skill will not activate. On a related note, it's possible to get LOS by your pet as well causing the skills not to activate (Pet hiding behind the rocks in Garuda or the statues in AK for example).

True!

Sometimes I overlook stuff like this because I'm so used to it that I forget it's not obvious to everyone. I'll add that information to the guide!

[OmegaNovaios]

Honest question.

Has anyone done parsing to find if there is any relevant difference between using Ruin2 over Ruin1 to fit in a single off the gcd ability at no time loss? I don't feel like the DPS difference is significant enough to warrant the extra mana spent (obviously this isn't an issue in short fights, but in longer fights where i spend more mana on dots or need to rez it can become an issue)

Yes, Ruin II is more optimal for using oGCD actions between the GCD. Also, if in melee range using Ruin II allows for more AA procs as opposed to using Ruin. The ratio for AA is about 9 out of 10 Ruin II casts will proc an AA while the ratio for AA is about 1 out of 5 Ruin casts.