Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Israacf]

As a new Summoner, when you guys have to burst kill an add, how do you do it? Do you use your aether stacks?

I'm kind of confused with that because whenever I use a cooldown that's normally used within Dreadwyrm Trance I feel like I mess up a lot.
I'd like a little help on CD management and all that.

[Sleigh]

As a new Summoner, when you guys have to burst kill an add, how do you do it? Do you use your aether stacks?

I'm kind of confused with that because whenever I use a cooldown that's normally used within Dreadwyrm Trance I feel like I mess up a lot.
I'd like a little help on CD management and all that.

For adds as SMN you have to evaluate how long the add can stay alive, and more importantly, how long WILL the add stay alive with your current group? What's the rest of your group going to do? I mean in a coordinated group, if an add spawns that has to die within 20s and a set of DoTs from you will single-handedly kill it, you'd DoT it and milk it for all it's worth and gain a lot of personal and group DPS, but in a PUG, you're best off completely ignoring it because there will probably be half or more of the party blitzing it and you might as well have done a Ruin on the boss instead. But yes, if you have to burst something down with urgency, Fester into Painflare and if you MUST, Energy Drain, with Ruin IIIs. Usually someone messed up if this is the case, or your group is a PUG.

DWT stacks are actually exceedingly easy unless you're very unsure when a boss will go invulnerable/disappear, as long as you know the fight. Core usage is 2 Festers in DWT, final Fester around your Bio reapplication. You adjust to Bane or Painflare or timer needs, usually just taking out one of the DWT Festers but sometimes doing no Festers in DWT, sometimes doing 2 and having one Bane for later as long as you hold up your Aethertrail.

[Israacf]

Tips!

Thank you! But the bigger issue is, for example A4n or A1S where you have to kill your own in a short time, well I think A1S is enough with dots, but for A4 for example, do I sacrifice my stacks and, as you said DWT usually has 2 festers, do I just sacrifice that and go into DWT? I don't know how to explain myself. I'm usually nervous about not having the stacks to fester twice during DWT.

[Sleigh]

A1S first adds, Bane + pet AoE is almost all of the add's HP, usually Painflare/Deathflare are just milky and should be avoided. The adds afterwards, Bane + Obey will kill one enemy by itself, you don't have to touch your add - if you do two adds it gets hairier but that's probably not something you'll be asked to do.

A4N, I would not change Tri-Disaster around for those Jagd Dolls. There is no urgency to burn them, and usually your DoTs won't even live that long on them. Let other people do them, or just put your core DoTs up and Obey.

[IceSpear]

Hey there fellow summoners... I have a question, does anyone know the accuracy cap for A1? Also which summon should I use for Faust? I was thinking Ifrit since on the first page it's mentioned that he's better to use on single target enemies opposed to Garuda.

[OneWingedSora]

Hey there fellow summoners... I have a question, does anyone know the accuracy cap for A1? Also which summon should I use for Faust? I was thinking Ifrit since on the first page it's mentioned that he's better to use on single target enemies opposed to Garuda.

Accuracy cap for Oppressor/Faust is 490 but you can miss on the adds so I would aim for 500 just to be safe.

[Sleigh]

Accuracy cap for Oppressor/Faust is 490 but you can miss on the adds so I would aim for 500 just to be safe.

Hmm, I've never seen a raid instance where there are multiple accuracy caps. Anecdotally, the raids people have said there are multiple caps on different enemies, usually involve adds that melee/BRD/MCH attack potentially to the face and get tricked into thinking they have higher ACC caps than the actual boss that they've geared for flank against. While I have no proof they are not separate, because I am (and pretty much have always been) naturally over 500 ACC naturally on both casters and do not have the capability to miss in A1S, are you sure of this? Maybe your were Mini'd, or had the wrong gear set on, or most of your attacks against the bosses have Rain of Death applied, or you just got incredibly lucky to not miss on the boss?

[OneWingedSora]

Hmm, I've never seen a raid instance where there are multiple accuracy caps. Anecdotally, the raids people have said there are multiple caps on different enemies, usually involve adds that melee/BRD/MCH attack potentially to the face and get tricked into thinking they have higher ACC caps than the actual boss that they've geared for flank against. While I have no proof they are not separate, because I am (and pretty much have always been) naturally over 500 ACC naturally on both casters and do not have the capability to miss in A1S, are you sure of this? Maybe your were Mini'd, or had the wrong gear set on, or most of your attacks against the bosses have Rain of Death applied, or you just got incredibly lucky to not miss on the boss?

I wasn't mini'd nope. I guess maybe I did have the wrong gear set on as that miss only happened once so that might've been it.

[IceSpear]

I have 504 with my gear set-up I'll probably get some cheap food, thanks for the help tho.

[Yoaz]

Hi. Just looking to get some feedback. I'm a fairly casual player just starting my post-60 gear-up and after reading this guide I thought I had a basic understanding of when to use certain egis in non-raid content. That said, a couple guys in my last instance claiming to be "high-end summoners" said I was using my summons incorrectly. Rather than blindly take their word, I thought I'd see what other people have to say. So, in short, as of the current patch, is the general consensus to use Ifrit on single-target boss fights with limited movement and bring out Garuda for bosses who run around and have add phases? Also, is it still best to use Garuda to clear trash mobs who take longer than 18 seconds to down? Or should I be doing the exact opposite, which my party members were claiming?

I know this is probably pretty basic stuff, but I'm not the most analytical player. I at least want to make sure I'm playing my role correctly and not developing bad habits for higher-end content.