Summoner Gameplay

[MartaDemireux]

It's been forever since I played SMN but I'm pretty sure they were referring to Contagion which just adds some time to all the DoT's you placed on the target.

And I'm not so sure. RIFT mage's had some souls that were crazy. Pyromancer had like 6 proc abilities that worked in a similar fashion to Firestarter on BLM. Warlock (I think that was the soul) had about 7 DoT's to maintain on top of a regular nuke or two (although they did have an ability or 3 to refresh the durations of their DoT's). Never really played mages in other games except FFXI but that game had much less to keep track of (unless you were a RDM).

[Victros]

Yeah, I guess Contagion adds 15 seconds to the DOTs' durations. Can you keep them up indefinitely that way?

[Tsuwu]

Yeah, I guess Contagion adds 15 seconds to the DOTs' durations. Can you keep them up indefinitely that way?

You cannot.
Contagion has a rather long cool down. You get it about once every other or every third cycle of DoT maintenance. Picking when to extend your DoTs is crucial in some fights (Leviathan Extreme comes to mind).

My rotation for SMN in Turn 8:

Aetherflow/Obey > Raging Strikes > X-Potion of Int > Miasma > Bio II > Bio > Fester/Contagion (both of these are during cool down) > Spur/Rouse > Swiftcast > Shadowflare > Fester (during cool down) > Enkindle > Ruin Spam > Fester.
Rinse and repeat as able and time everything with Battle Voice/Foe's Requiem.

SMN is more involved than BLM, generally. But the payoff is better.

[Raldo]

Can you keep them up indefinitely that way?

No, you can only use that a maximum of once every 60(?) seconds.

[MartaDemireux]

Nope you'll always have to recast your DoTs. Contagion has a 60s recast and your longest DoT, Bio II, lasts 30s. You'll want to cast our DoTs in order of longest duration to shortest. This means Bio II will be down to about 18s remaining if memory serves by the time all DoTs are placed and ready for a 15s extension.

[Estellios]

Well... you will want to get Thaumaturge to 26 for Swiftcast for all casting jobs and Arcanist gets the very useful Eye for an Eye at 34 so if you want you can level both up for cross-class skills and to see which you like better. I feel that by level 35 both SMN and BLM will have enough of their tools for you to get a good idea how they will play and which you like better.

[Victros]

So is it my imagination or does this game have more complicated rotations or priority systems than most MMO's?

[NintenPyjak64]

So is it my imagination or does this game have more complicated rotations or priority systems than most MMO's?

Honestly I find WoW "rotations and priority" systems more complex then here, and those systems are already easy enough to understand (example would be Frost DK Dual Wield VS 2H rotations). It's all about getting used to it. Playing SMN becomes second nature once you get the hang of the gameplay. I'd recommend just beating on a training dummy until you get the hang of things

Good luck

[Niwashi]

So is it my imagination or does this game have more complicated rotations or priority systems than most MMO's?

The rotations/priorities sound complicated if you're still at the beginning and hear what they'll be at endgame, but the game introduces you to it gradually, adding a skill each few levels, so you get a chance to experiment with how they work together. (It's one reason I actually don't always like getting too many XP boosts at once. I want a while at each level range to get used to one set before it changes again.)

But anyway, if you do decide they're too complicated, you could also consider Archer/Bard. True, it's not a magic casting class, but it's still ranged DPS, so in many ways plays similarly to a caster. It's got a pretty simple main rotation with a few cooldown buffs to add in whenever available, and (when getting to the Bard job) a few support songs to play as needed.

[Bixby]

So is it my imagination or does this game have more complicated rotations or priority systems than most MMO's?

I don't think they're any more complex, it's just a matter of what you're watching. WoW has varying resources (runes, energy, rage, etc.) and a lot of procs/short CDs to watch for, not as much emphasis on buffs/debuffs. Here, there aren't that many extra resources (Wrath stacks and Aether stacks), and only a few procs. There's more emphasis on maintaining buffs/debuffs.

It also depends on which class you're talking about. I don't think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything as (mechanically) simple as FFXIV's PLD out there.

But in the end, to me, it boils down to the same sort of priority system. If X is true, use A. If X is not true, but Y is, use B, otherwise use C. It's just a matter of which part(s) of the screen your eyes are on.

It'd also help to compare classes via their actual mechanics instead of their class names. BLM here is more like Moonkin than anything else. SMN is more like a Shadow Priest with a pet. BRD is closer to the WoW mage model, where you're watching for procs and CDs more than buffs/debuffs (though you are still watching for those).