SMN DPS for T8?

[loreleidiangelo]

Recently did a T8 farm for some people in the FC; we had two healers in the group already (my main is WHM) so I swapped to SMN to see how much damage I could do. No MNK, and I'm terrible with Ifrit's skills anyway, so I used Garuda the whole time. On what I felt was my best attempt, I did 365 DPS without Foe Requiem, pots, or food... Is that a good number? I'm a 110 SMN, no HA book but have a 120 bracelet thanks to Shiva.

Long story short, SMN is the job I want to play, rather than WHM, and a DPS opening in our raid group might be happening soon. So I'm trying to figure out if my skills are up to snuff. If 365 is a bit low, any suggestions on how to optimize would be great. I follow the threads on SMN pretty actively (minus the ones QQing about egis), so I feel like my understanding of the job is decent, I just think there might be some "tricks" I'm missing.

[Shizuna]

It could be a little better honestly. I pull 420 dps on a dummy in a 5-minute parse so I would estimate that you should be doing around 380-390 dps without Foe Requiem. I have pulled around 410-415 dps with Foe Req, food, pots, and no i115 weapon.

What I would suggest to you, is to keep auto-attacking the boss, especially when you switch targets, cause that's around 5-10 dps right there you're missing (my estimation might be a bit off). You can also place garuda-egi on the tower spot so that it won't get pushed around by the mines. I would also suggest saving 1 stack of aetherflow to bane onto dread and make sure to put up shadowflare and miasma II for when dread is about to spawn or has spawned. Use miasma II when you also have contagion, so put your pet on obey. And clip your dots at around 2-4 seconds and use ruin II sparingly. That's about it.

[Madoka]

I averaged 360 at i99-102, if I pushed I'd do 380-400. haven't been in since those ilvls tho

[sackm]

shiva bracelet is worse than evenstar fyi

[loreleidiangelo]

snip

5-min parse on a dummy...? Was that with two Enkindle, then? I was pretty bad about getting the second one in.

I think the issue I'm having is that I'm not clipping my dots as you've described. You should reapply them at ~4 seconds or so? I was trying for 1-2 seconds. I also don't auto-attack, either... I always forget since I'm so rarely in melee range for other fights. ^^;; Same with Shadowflare/Miasma II on dread - I'll work on that.

Other than that, I seem to be doing the things you describe. I only use Ruin II while moving to my tower and always save a Bane for the dread. I wasn't having MP problems like I hear some SMN do on T8, so I think I have that aspect under control. Miasma II is only used if Contagion is up, though I might have missed a few.

Seems like I just need to tighten up my rotation, then? Maybe I'll try some tests on a dummy today with a Foe's bot and see if I can't get the numbers listed here.

[loreleidiangelo]

shiva bracelet is worse than evenstar fyi

I confess to not looking closely at the stats. I figured the det on Evenstar would be offset by the increase in int. I'll do proper stat weight calcs when I get home. Thanks for letting me know.

[Judge_Xero]

I do 400-420 while doing Towers and popping Mines. That's with HQ Buttons and Foes at the beginning.

Because it's a long fight you have to pace yourself to not go out of MP or having to substitute Energy Drain for Fester.

So that means. Limit use of M2 unless it's with Raging/Contagion (Not really worth it on Dreads due to MP cost)

Bane DOTS to Dread + 1 Fester. Try to time them to be almost new.
Aerial Slash/Enkindle for Dreads.

Keep Rouse/Spur on CD. - Do not save it for Dread Spawn.
Keep Shadow Flare up. Ideally Swift Cast.

Try to limit use of R2. Even if you have duties.

I'm sure that SMN could do a lot more in this fight if they don't have any duties and if they are getting a lot of ballad (460 DPS). But unless Healers need Ballad you shouldn't depend on it and if you have BLM in your party, then Foe is better for the party. Also it's nice to give Paeon to any Monks in the party.

[loreleidiangelo]

snip

Our only BRD is swapping to NIN for the 2.4 raid cycle and beyond, so unfortunately any sort of BRD song (whether it's Foe's or Ballad) can't be relied upon to buff my DPS.

At any rate, the universal consensus seems to be that Shadow Flare and Contagion'd Miasma II might constitute the bulk of my missing DPS... I'm glad that an unbuffed 365 is only about 15-20 DPS off from estimated unbuffed numbers, though... Not bad for someone who is a healer main.

The immediate crisis in my raid group has passed, but I'll work on a better DoT rhythm and on possibly getting a HA book, just in case I need to switch for Final Coil.

[Shizuna]

5-min parse on a dummy...? Was that with two Enkindle, then? I was pretty bad about getting the second one in.

1 enkindle I think. Maybe 2. I only parse myself once in a while, when I feel like it and a lot of times when I parse I don't have party buff and such either.

shiva bracelet is worse than evenstar fyi

You should never consider secondary stats to be worse than the primary stat gain. 13 det equals like less than 3 int that you're getting from the Shiva bracelet. That's why they're called secondary stats. Keep the Shiva bracelet on until you can get the i130 ones.

[loreleidiangelo]

A slight update: we cleared T10 last night, after many hours of wiping and frustration. Our raid SMN parsed 321 DPS on our clear attempt...almost 100 below our raid BLM. This is as a 110 SMN, and we had no deaths on our clear except our OT at like 4%, so I don't think anyone even bothered raising until afterward lol.

Any tips on how he can improve his numbers? He starts out strongish (we had a wipe at like 1 minute in and he was 353, so not the best but not bleeding terrible), but the longer the fight goes the more his numbers dwindle. If this keeps up, we may have to ask him to go back to BRD, which was his job at the start of the 2.2 raid cycle.

More specifically, how should SMN handle the first and second add phases? He drops Meteor on the second set but only after dots are up.