SMN DPS: Pushing it to the limit

[T0rin]

I honestly don't think 400 is feasible in T5 unless you lump in LB damage. Even on my best days when I'm hitting my stride, have all my cooldowns available at the right times, have battle voiced foes at the right times, etc... I'm still only maxing out around 340-350 at most. BiS, popping hq mega int, getting fester crits on Asceplius, Baning mega int + RS + Contagion'd DoTs onto everything in phase 1, etc.

The only time you can semi-reliably break 400 DPS is on AoE encounters, like turn 4.

[Wrydas]

I agree with you, I didn't say I pulled 400+ t5 that's not feasible.

[Aphrini]

I think it is rude and un-necessary to put others down even if you in your view consider them absolutely wrong. So many better ways it could have been handled. Ryu, I found it so mean spirited the way it was handled, a simple I see why you feel that was let me explain why what you said is not the case would have been more than enough. We are all team SMN here folks being constructive is the far better choice to make us all better.

[Cookar]

You can reapply RS'd SF after but imo during the time you are going thru your spurrouseenkindle + throwing up RS & dots you want something to be doing constant damage instead of letting that time going to waste. Your initial SF will be going off the whole time this is happening. I'm certainly not the best SMN, as I main WHM and offspec SMN but what I posted is what a good friend of mine taught me and he is by and far the best SMN I have ever seen on any server. I've left a comment on your youtube video w/ a question if you don't mind answering it .

Getting a shadow flare out pre-pull if possible is great. But you will want to replace it with a RS shadow flare before RS goes down.

Something like:

Shadow Flare > Tank Pulls > Raging Strikes > Bio II > Miasma > Bio > Fester > Miasma II > Contagion > Ruin II > Energy Drain > Ruin II > Swiftcast > Shadow Flare > Fester > Ruin II > Aetherflow...

Also Miasma II is better than Ruin when you have contagion available.

[AzucenaC]

I'm curious about the Miasma II on initial pull. As a caster don't you want to be at max casting range? Aren't you wasting more time running in for Miasma II and then running out? For Garuda EX I know that I don't want to be near her between slipstream and all her other attacks. Actaually there are a lot of fights that I don't want to be anywhere near the boss haha.

I'm just curious as I am always looking to better myself. I wouldn't call myself the best, but I'm definitely not horrible either.

[T0rin]

I'm curious about the Miasma II on initial pull. As a caster don't you want to be at max casting range? Aren't you wasting more time running in for Miasma II and then running out? For Garuda EX I know that I don't want to be near her between slipstream and all her other attacks. Actaually there are a lot of fights that I don't want to be anywhere near the boss haha.

I'm just curious as I am always looking to better myself. I wouldn't call myself the best, but I'm definitely not horrible either.

Depends on the fight, and the phase of the fight. You can generally always Contagion a Miasma II against Ex Titan or Ex Ifrit. You can do it against Twintania in the first two phases. You can do it against Ex Garuda at various points in the fight.

Aside from Miasma II, you want to be in melee range, if you can, to get melee attacks.

There are some fights, like Caduceus or ADS, that I'd stay back, but a lot of fights (longer fights especially), there is plenty of opportunity to hang out in melee range for a grand majority of the fight. This is of course end-game content, not some wanky level 32 dungeon or something.

[Bead]

New player here I have a few questions about dots I was hoping someone could clarify.
Is the potency listed on a dot the potency of the Ticks or the Duration?
How do I know how often a dot will Tick during its duration?
Can dots crits, I'm assuming if they can then they would crit on Ticks and just be a crit dot for the Duration?

[T0rin]

Potency on dots is the potency of the tick. But some dots deal initial damage, like Miasma... it deals 20 potency on casting, then 35 every tick.

DoT ticks happen every 3 seconds, but on a 'server clock', meaning it is not 3 seconds after casting, but every 3 seconds of every minute according to the time on the server's clock. So if you cast a DoT at 12:10:02, it will tick at 12:10:03, 12:10:06, 12:10:09, etc. So you can expect, at a minimum, (duration/3) DoT ticks per casting.

DoT ticks can crit, and they have a chance to crit each tick. There is no such thing as a 'crit dot' that crits every tick, because it crit when it was cast.

[Altimis]

Hi, I want to ask a question here please

I do feel like I am not sastisfied with my SMN DPS, I did rotation like this threads suggest

My item level is 88 with Allagan SMN book, INT is around 502-504 with PT, DTR is 298 and CRT is 529 something

Its normal SMN DPS will always lose DRG? (that DRG is full 90 armor but decent accs 70 mixed with 80) I just wonder, I feel like I never ever able to catch up awesomeness of DRG big dmg

Feel disadvantage here, anyone please help me sort this, appreciated it

[Cons]