SMNs, Contagion, and You

[lordparanoia]

Just macro 5 contagions and press the button once!

[Alexandros_Hanarak]

Noticed this in SCoB today. My Aerial Slash tied to Bane would usually always get queued up with 1 press of my Bane macro. Today it would get ignored, and now I have to spam my Contagion hotkey to get it to go. This makes SMN feel a little clunky now

I had the reverse, my macro with Bane and Aerial Slash works fine, it's the Contagion click until you get arthritis that bothers me to no end now. What I am forced to do now is place Garuda in steady, cast the dots, click contagion once and then place Garuda back on guard so it spams Windblades to it's heart content until I need contagion once more.

[Fainto]

They have removed the ability queueing system for summons with this (steath?) change. There are two safe ways to use Enkindle now, either steadying before giving the Enkindle command (will cancel any current ability being used and wait for a command, such as Wind Blade) or to watch the pet cast bar and make sure to input the ability when there is nothing being cast.

Basically, what was once a one input command is now a three input command. It went from just [Ability] to [Steady > Ability > Obey] for the same effect and even a slight DPS loss if you cut an ability cast off with the Steady command. This makes the class a little harder to play as effectively but shouldn't be too bad with some practise.

[IceSpear]

Not just SMN I have Eos on obey and now when I want her to use whispering Dawn I have to spam the button.

[Marianno]

I thought that this problem would get addressed after the maintenance on 11 July but its still there. It's really tough to play with garuda but when I use Ifrit all of his attacks minus his signature attack goes off when he is on sic. When I put him on steady, I have to spam press the button especially if I want him to stun something to interrupt their cast. Same with titan, his signature attack is going off but now I have to spam the stun button to get him to interrupt something. I have lost two treasure maps to this nonsense today because of it. I really hope this issue gets addressed quickly because having the pet set to steady then use signature attack or contagion or stun then set to obey or guard is a DPS loss.

[Ryuko]

Garuda's abilities have behaved oddly for a while. And by that I mean sometimes you will hit Contagion and it just won't happen. You really have to WATCH to make sure it goes off (and I tend to hit the button many times for good measure... although that probably doesn't help). It's especially annoying if you're throwing off your burst rotation (int pot+rs+miasma2+poison) and you don't realize Contagion never went off before it's too late. So, I just try to watch it and spam it between other casts. The recent change to Aerial Slash (instant as opposed to a 3 second cast) was very welcomed, and super helpful, although now I notice Garuda-Egi will delay using Aerial Slash as well. I'll hit it several times in a row and sometimes it just won't go off. Sooooooo frustrating.

[BloodPact]

Garuda's AoE was changed to be instant cast now instead of the 2ish second cast it previously had; though that shouldn't make a difference on ability queuing. Contagion has been working fine for me after patch. I have it in a macro, though I admit I usually press it a couple of times just to make sure it goes off. What I'm having a problem with (and been having it prior to the patch) is Enkindle on Garuda. The game apparently doesn't do more than one pet ability on queue so hitting Contagion and then queuing Enkindle is an instant loss of the 5 min. cooldown. On top of this, sometimes activating it without any other commands have been issued in over 5 seconds spends it but doesn't go off. And this is on Obey so there's no possibilty of Garuda readying anything else but autoattacks.

[tOnni3]

Isn't it same thing before patched ? you have to spam until the skill get casted.

I just find myself getting this problem also.
Tried to Contagion 2nd golem in T9 but it does not go off until I hit Ruin II.
and sometime Aerial Blast gone to waste.

[KilluaSupertramp]

Same here. It requires a thousand presses of a single button for casting the contagion successfully...........................................................

[Buff_Archer]

Knowing that when I use contagion it's pretty much always following a cast of Bio, what I'm going to try when I get back on is a contagion macro that does this-
1) Places pet in steady
2) Has me casting Bio (by the time Bio is done casting, Garuda-egi should be on standby and ready to go). Needs a 2 sec wait because a macro with our action followed immediately by a pet action will cast both at practically same time. Since the Bio dot hits at the front end of the cast I don't think it should be necessary to wait until my full cast is over.
3) Casts contagion
4) Sets Garuda-egi back to Obey

I'll use Contagion as macro icon so I can see when it's off cooldown, and when I'm doing the RS -> DOT's combo I'll skip the regular Bio button and use the new Contagion macro since it has bio built on