Contagion is way too overrated!

[Sunako]

I have seen in many treads how players think garuda is some kind of super pet only because of contagion and that is the only reason why players are using garuda. But why contagion is that special? Because it will extend your dots 15 seconds? Yah that is nice in the fights with lot of downtime and if dots tick during that downtime. But in the fights where there is 100% uptime or almost 100% uptime all of the time? You will win 50% duration of bio2, 62.5% duration of miasma and 83.33% duration of bio. In that time you can cast 2 more ruins than normal? Have you ever think about it, garuda will lose like one of her auto attack that is doing almost same damage than that ruin? I have seen players that use contagion during spur and rouse in their youtube videos. It is almost same than wasting 2 ruins from your pet in order extend your own dots while, you are winning 2 ruins yourself? In the end you do not win anything with your contagion if you do that(may only save a little mana). Ok important thing of contagion is that you will save mana. 50% of bio2, 62.5% of miasma and 83.33% bio = 80 bio2 + 83 miasma + 88 bio - 79 ruin - 79 ruin = 93 mana saved. That is 35% worth of energy drain = 52.5 worth of potency.

Okey there is few things how you can abuse your contagion utility like using miasma2/poison potion/xpotion/raging strikes

-miasma 2
This ability is really expensive cost 186 mana. Ruin cost 79 mana. It will cost 107 more mana than ruin. If you run out from the mana it is 40% worth of energy drain gain. 40% of energy drain = you will lose 60 potency in order you gain 40 potency more than ruin. In the end not worth use at all

-rs and x pot
Both will give you around 20% damage boost(not sure how much x pot will give 2 you). If your normal dots tick like 430~ with rs up 430 x 20% = 86 with 5 extra ticks is 430 more damage with few crits probably 500~ more damage every 3min. In 3 minute 500 / 180 seconds = 2.7 more dps and with x pots 500 / 270 seconds = 1.85 more dps

-Poison potion
Poison potion will do around 250 damage normaly and with contagion double of that. Normaly 250 / 108 seconds = 2.3 dps with contagion 500 / 120 seconds = 4.17 dps, you will win 1.85 dps

Now after all, what is our total gain of dps from contagion if we ignore our pet damage.
2x ruins 600~ / 60 = 10 dps
from mana gain 200~ / 60 = 3.33 dps
rs + xp pot 2.7 + 1.85
poison pot 1.85

total = 19.73 more dps

If Ifrit can himself do 35 - 40~ dps more than garuda even without dragon kick or slashing debuff, is that contagion really that superior anymore? And ifrit will give you more mobility since you can cast bio lot more often.

[Dyvid]

What is the mana saved by using Contagion versus mana spent though? Not disagreeing with you, just think this should be a factor too when choosing the right Egi.

[ShinryuReishiki]

What is the mana saved by using Contagion versus mana spent though? Not disagreeing with you, just think this should be a factor too when choosing the right Egi.

It really depends on what you do with the GCDs Contagion allows you. If you use Miasma II with Contagion, you're essentially not saving any MP.

[Eloah]

While I normally use Garuda, mostly because i like the caster type pets, I personally don't care about contagion all that much. While MP is important, I don't think a Summoner needs to watch it as much as the other magic classes. Normally when i use contagin I use it after I used Raging Strikes to increase my attack power, that way the added 15seconds are more beneficial, this is mosty on bosses. For trash I usually use it and then use bane to spread the extended dots to all the enemies.

Also, since no one probably used it after they got summoner, did anyone notice that Emerald Carbuncle has contagion too, lol, different name but same move.

[Viviza]

It's neat to think about.

Assuming you're just using your main three dots, and assuming you can somehow time them to never clip or fall off, you'll recast bio 3.33x a minute, miasma 2.5x a minute, and bioII 2x a minute. With contagion these decrease to 2.5x, 1.88x, and 1.5x a minute. Assuming (again) your casts are 2.35s, this saves you about 4.6s. So about two casts, which you'll probably use to cast ruin twice at 80 potency, but at the cost of garuda losing a 100 potency wind blade, so your net gain is about 60 potency.

On the other hand, you can't really perfectly line up your casts like that, so the real benefit is higher. Also the above assumes you'll spend the extra time spamming ruin, which you might not. Also you can time contagion to take advantage of buffs.

[Kuwagami]

While MP is important, I don't think a Summoner needs to watch it as much as the other magic classes.

Huh ? SMN is currently the only magic job with heavy MP management problems even when everything goes smooth.

[Sanguisio]

SMNs are already MP starved so using garuda helps.


I've parsed this a few times and where the buffed DOTs can run their full duration(which means near perfect clipping) Garuda does better but only when you use pots +ppp. As soon as those dots are off, ifrit catches up dps wise until you can get a full buffed set of DOTs back up. Not to mention ifrit has 2 chances each attack to crit.

TBH dps wise there is little between them, now when you factor in ifrit + melee buffs etc he will do more, however in fights like t12 t13 garuda can switch and dps instantly ifrit has to spend time going from target to target.

I agree contagion is over hyped.

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

The reason you use Garuda mainly, is because Ifrit spends time travelling to the target. Garuda has no problem just attacking.

As for Contagion, people really don't seem to think about how strong it is with buffs.

Example.

You've just put your DoTs on the target. A few seconds later, Raging Strikes come off CD and Contagion comes off CD. Now, you have two scenarios here depending on your Egi.

Ifrit: Wait until your DoTs are just about to fall off to before popping Raging Strikes to re-DoT, which is a net loss since you've held a CD you should have used instantly as it came off CD.

Garuda: Pop Raging Strikes and at the end of the buff timer when your DoTs are just about to drop, reDoT and use Contagion to get a huge DPS boost.

The second scenario would yield a much higher DPS gain than you would with Ifrit.

[mvenom]

Its not even that contagion would add up DPS, it just saves MP. T13 I'm ok on MP up to first Dive phase with garuda, usually there bard plays Ballad because nothing to attack anyway and then plays at the start of last phase so I just switch out ifrit while sitting on Neurolink because Mp wont be issue for the rest of the fight. First phases it will be issue, just because of multidotting. You can barely dps dummy for 3-4min, and p1+2 usually tends to take 5min ish so cutting out miasma2, even w contagion, and few ruin2's to save MP.

I'd use ifrit on every fight but so far its just UGH. T11 kinda need garuda on add phase, usually swiftcasting ifrit for the last add and last phase. T12 I'm dpsing bennus so the amount of running around with ifrit is just silly so I prefer garuda, who can start dps asap.

[ShinryuReishiki]

There's no reason to make Ifrit run around. Stick it on the biggest, baddest enemy and leave it there. You don't need it to go chasing birds.

now when you factor in ifrit + melee buffs etc he will do more.

Even without slashing and blunt debuffs, Ifrit still comes out well ahead.

As for Contagion, people really don't seem to think about how strong it is with buffs.

No, it's definitely been considered. Without buffs, Contagion's DPS would be completely insignificant. The problem is, buffs are only up so often. In a 10 minute fight, Contagion would give you 60s of 20% buffed DoTs that you would not have had without it, but Ifrit would give you 10 minutes of 20% stronger pet DPS.