I am getting irritated with Summoner in endgame content

[xEscaflownex]

ACT does track shadowflare by reading through memory.

SMN still beats BLM even on T4. Shit on spiders so fast BLM gets little AoE time and SMN shines on the rest of the encounter with cleave.

http://i.imgur.com/1wt7D3n.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VpttB7I.jpg

Lol, BLM has no issues on T4.

http://i.imgur.com/3OLrCHq.png

That's without BIS, messing up rotation a bit, and encounter culling set at 16 seconds, so ticking after fight was over, lowering DPS tally. I've played both BLM and SMN, with the same player behind either, neither beats the other by much.

[Odd]

A SMN really really should have swiftcast, more than even a BLM needs it.

No issue with dead pets if you have swiftcast.

[Wrydas]

A SMN really really should have swiftcast, more than even a BLM needs it.

No issue with dead pets if you have swiftcast.

True but this is assuming no one has died, if you aren't in a full FC group or static group for primals (particularly titan X) chances are as a SMN you have ressed. Additionally I use SC for others thing during primals since I don't let my pet die but an inexperienced smn might make the fatal mistake of letting it die and not have instant cast.

[Hadeed]

Working (slowly, I'm a bad grinder) on progressing through content and I am seeing some pretty big drawbakcs to Summoner in some aspects. Specifically, if my pet dies to aoe damage I lose a lot of DPS because Garuda's gone and I can't always stop to re-summon without dying myself. Plus aoe scenarios like Garuda's Razor Plumes are giving me trouble because I don't seem to have much effective AOE ability unless I am missing something. I can dump three dots then Bane but that still leaves them alive and doing damage while the dots eat them. Can spam Blizzard 2 or Miasma 2 but they're not that strong damage wise.

Kind of feeling like I should have leveled Black Mage; no pet reliance, and stronger AOE. :\ Advice?

Sustain is ur best friend <3

[spizsam]

My biggest drawback on summoner is that sometimes I don't feel like working so hard to maximize dps on anything that isn't twintania. That is where blm comes in where its just easy mode to maximize dps.

Once you start playing with people who are i80+, there isnt much of a dps race for anything(aside from dread and conflag). It is more about people making mistakes creating wipes.

[OmegaSinX]

Plus aoe scenarios like Garuda's Razor Plumes are giving me trouble because I don't seem to have much effective AOE ability unless I am missing something. I can dump three dots then Bane but that still leaves them alive and doing damage while the dots eat them. Can spam Blizzard 2 or Miasma 2 but they're not that strong damage wise.

Kind of feeling like I should have leveled Black Mage; no pet reliance, and stronger AOE. :\ Advice?

SMN can go toe to toe with blm AoE. I think the reason you think SMN AoE isnt that good is because your looking at BLM big numbers and ignoring SMN substained damage.

SMN dots are nothing to underwrite. With just Shadow Flare & your 3 main Dots alone are 120 Potency per tick total Guranteed. You can go grab a soda real quick and still be dpsing. Add Miasma II and Spam Blizzard II that will bring it up to 190 Pontency on each enemy. ( Spamming Blizzard II is not very MP effecient, but you could always get it back with Energy Drain)

You could also save Rouse + Spur + Aerial Blast (490 Potency Attack with both Spur and Rouse up) , and Aerial Slash (176 Potency with Both Rouse and Spur) . For when you know you will need AOE Burn targets quickly. Energy Drain is also a Very Good (Under Rated) single target burst move SMN has in there aresenal when there is not enough time to Dot + Fester.

Not to forget your dots can crit.

- Standing Still, SMN Does better single target DPS than BLM.
- While Moving SMN does better single target DPS than BLM (Dots tick while your moving and Garuda will attack if you have her on place)

Only advantage BLM has is that it is easy to play and outshines SMN when there are 5+ targets, and even then a good SMN will be on their heels.

[Akeda]

Controlling your pet manually makes a huge difference too.

[Miah_Polaali]

...Specifically, if my pet dies to aoe damage I lose a lot of DPS because Garuda's gone and I can't always stop to re-summon without dying myself...

Quick Cast. It is a very useful cross skill ability in situations like this. You will be able to resummon your pet in an instant even while moving.

[Eriatarka12]

Posting this on behalf of a friend who can't post:

Hitome says hi. He rarely saves parses from turn 4 because of how skewed they are in BLM's favor but here are a few. Neither done before obtaining his weapon. Last night's (3/24/14) Turn 4 was easily 400+ EnDPS.

Turn 4:

2/10/14 Turn 4 - http://i.imgur.com/LDGml0J.png (not in BiS gear, no Allagan weapon)
2/24/14 Turn 4 - http://i.imgur.com/P4t6P7C.jpg (not in BiS gear, no Allagan weapon)

Your MNK is interesting, Wrydas…doing 50k damage below you. Inflates your DPS quite a bit. But thank you for pointing out the fact that BLM > SMN as far as T4 is concerned with your lovely 400 DPS parse.


As for T5…

Turn 5:

2/10/14 Twin - http://i.imgur.com/UWw8yu6.png (not in BiS gear, no Allagan weapon)
2/17/14 Twin - http://i.imgur.com/n0l58GV.png (not in BiS gear, no Allagan weapon)
2/24/14 Twin - http://i.imgur.com/ySRf9yj.jpg (not in BiS gear, no Allagan weapon)
3/3/14 Twin - http://i.imgur.com/iRUHT2m.jpg (not in BiS gear, no Allagan weapon)
3/24/14 Twin - http://i.imgur.com/qTGGZtR.png (not in BIS gear, Allagan weapon)


You'll notice, I do much better than you even before I obtain my weapon. Not even a competition after. BTW: I am in charge of LB and not the SMN which detracts quite a bit from my DPS on the snake phase.

My apologies that you did not understand that I picked random parses to only demonstrate that BLM has no problem keeping up with SMN: not that my DPS is super leety. You'll notice that the SMN in the T4/T5 group competes with me several times and he, too, does not have BiS gear but did have his weapon in all of these parses.

Also, the Titan EX parse was some random PF group. I have no relation to the SMN. I rarely get to run Titan EX on BLM now days since I use my MNK instead. You can go take a look at Amon's parses for more realistic data. He also runs circles around your SMN it seems.

Here's some Titan DF HM parses against a SMN with BiS gear for you though, QT. (^ム^)

http://i.imgur.com/gyBQ3ol.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uK4nwzh.jpg