How is SMN overall dps?

[ShinryuReishiki]

T10, Spike Flail doesn't hit pets so it can always be safely behind. It will get hit by Crackle Hiss after charge, but this won't kill it; it will be fine before the next charge even without Sustain. For adds, just stick it on whatever is the last in kill priority to minimize movement.

T11, can just sit on the boss the entire time which is the best situation for Ifrit. Stick it on the sphere to help soak damage. Garuda is better if single caster, though.

T12, again, just leave it on the boss the entire time. No reason to have it chasing down Bennus. In Bennu phase, I just make sure it's staying in the clump of birds.

For what it's worth, world first T11 and world second T12 were with Ifrit-egi.

[Judge_Xero]

You wont want Ifrit chasing down Bennus. You want him on Phoenix, where the Blunt/Slashing debuffs are.

Even swapping to Bennus with Garuda I found that on occasion she would simply stop attacking. I believe it's due to getting hit by a White Fire while targeting another mob, the AI won't have her switch to Phoenix after the Bennu dies, because she is now looking for the thing that hit her, which doesn't exist. So then you have to Heel + Obey back on Phoenix or else there goes 30% of your DPS staring into space.

[ShaolinMike]

You wont want Ifrit chasing down Bennus. You want him on Phoenix, where the Blunt/Slashing debuffs are.

Even swapping to Bennus with Garuda I found that on occasion she would simply stop attacking. I believe it's due to getting hit by a White Fire while targeting another mob, the AI won't have her switch to Phoenix after the Bennu dies, because she is now looking for the thing that hit her, which doesn't exist. So then you have to Heel + Obey back on Phoenix or else there goes 30% of your DPS staring into space.

Stupid bird-woman.

[Sunako]

Do you use that ifrits radiant shield in any case? I see it kinda useless special skill. Should i use it during earth shakers or something?

Would be nice 2 see numbers how much difference it is between garuda and ifrit in t13 with same gear.

[Autobalance]

Do you use that ifrits radiant shield in any case? I see it kinda useless special skill. Should i use it during earth shakers or something?

Normally yes, if you're using Ifrit, any physical attacks done to ifrit would cause ifrit to attack back. However, most of the attacks, specificially AOE attacks, in FCOB don't actually damage the pet. In the case of Earthshakers, the AOE will not damage the pet at all. You can easily test this out by putting Garuda, Ifrit, Eos, or Selene in the Line of Sight of Earthshakers.

[Sunako]

Normally yes, if you're using Ifrit, any physical attacks done to ifrit would cause ifrit to attack back. However, most of the attacks, specificially AOE attacks, in FCOB don't actually damage the pet. In the case of Earthshakers, the AOE will not damage the pet at all. You can easily test this out by putting Garuda, Ifrit, Eos, or Selene in the Line of Sight of Earthshakers.

Are you sure? I thought if it is similiar as lunar dynamo in t9 but have not test it. That radiant shield would have lot more utility if it would be magical damage rather than physical. Even tail swipe is not doing any damage against pet t10.

[Autobalance]

snip.

Yeah, I believe pets are immune to most fcob attacks because of how aoe heavy fcob is. The Electric Field outside of the arena in t10, Tail Swipe, Nerve Cloud, Barofield, Earthshakers, all these aoe attacks don't damage the pets at all, which in turn means that none of these attacks will cause ifrit to attack back with radiant shield. I imagine if any of these aoe attacks did damage the pet, Summoners and Scholars would have a rough time keeping their pet alive (which would make the Summoner situation in fcob even worse).

Don't get me wrong though, there are aoe attacks like Crackle Hiss, Resonance, Revelation, Fire Breaths in t13, and Akh Morn that will damage and kill the pet but those types of aoe are meant for a tank to soak.

In the case of scob and t9, there are attacks like Lunar Dynamo that will damage the pet but just like in fcob, there are attacks that simply won't harm the pet as well such as Briars, Being in a tower in t8, etc.

[Judge_Xero]

One thing I'm curious about Ifrit as well is what his AA damage is based off. I suspect it's X potency every 2.5s and doesn't change due to SMN weapon delay and AA value.

Then you can get Ifrit's full potency/time for AA Damage

I don't thing comparing Garuda's and Ifrit's potencies directly is a good idea since Ifrit AA + BS is a higher potency, but due to enemies having lower MDEF Garuda's single Wind Blade does higher damage/potency.

Example
Ifrit - 100 Potency @ 2.5s + 120 Potency @ 3s
Garuda - 100 Potency @ 3s

[Judge_Xero]

Comparing Garuda and Ifrit Damage

Garuda's Wind Blade does about 1/3 more damage than Ifrit's Burning Strike and Ifrit's AA does about half of his Burning Strike

Garuda's Potency is comparable to 160 Potency VS Ifrit 120 Potency for Burning Strike and 60 Potency for his AA

160 VS 180 (13%) - 164 VS 197 (25% Foes VS 80% Blunt/Slash - 10% Resistance is ~ 12% Damage increase)

So on average you should see Ifrit do 20% more Damage than Garuda or 13% more if you're not using a Monk/WarNIN

Pet DPS 100
Garuda 100
Ifrit 120

Pet DPS 200
Garuda 200
Ifrit 240


Edit:
I didn't factor in using Ifrit's other CD skills - which is greater DPS.
I didn't factor in Garuda's Contagion which is a DPS loss

[ShinryuReishiki]

So on average you should see Ifrit do 20% more Damage than Garuda or 13% more if you're not using a Monk/WarNIN

Should be around 20% even without the debuffs, though it's completely possible that my numbers have been skewed in some way. I just did some 10 minute tests with both pets, with different levels of micro on pet skills. That's not nearly enough data to give a concrete relationship, but it at least illustrates the general differences.

I'm 11 Int short of what I would have at full i130, so the numbers can still go up a little bit; debuffs also need to be considered, but it would be widening the gap rather than closing it. Wind Blade's 1s cast time seems to reduce the effectiveness of using Garuda-egi's other attacks on cooldown compared to doing the same with Ifrit-egi, though it still remains a DPS increase.