Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Kona_Nightwind]

Hey, I'm fairly new to SMN and I'm also a fairly fresh 60 SMN. I didn't really play SMN before the expansion, and I'm wondering if any of the info in the main post is out of date.

What pet is best to use now? The OP seems to make Ifrit sound the best in most situations, but is that true now with Dreadwyrm Trance and the ability to extend the 10% increased DoT duration?

Can someone give me a good opener? I'm having trouble figuring out when to use Raging Strikes and Tri-Disaster. I assume we hold both back for Trance.

Do you ever Trance without Tri-Disaster? If so, what do you cast during the duration?

What's the optimal Trance rotation? I'm trying to fit two Festers in, but I always mess up and am not sure on the timing.

Start off by reading this
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...vU/mobilebasic

[AriaEnia]

Guys I have a problem with Ruin III. I am being in the fence, whether I use it outside of Dreadwyrm Trance instead of Ruin I and II and deplete your MP in a minute, or use it only when in Dreadwyrm Trance.
When in Dreadwyrm trance, what I always do is using tri-disaster (I dont use tri-disaster as an opener) and probably refreshing Shadowflare, while in raging strike (I also don't use raging strike as an opener), and then contagion, then one Fester. I usually get to cast 2 Ruin IIIs in the uptime before I'm ending it with the Deathflare. Sometimes, I don't even have time to use Ruin III at all, because I have to dodge things. Am I doing it right? What do you guys think about Ruin III?

[pandabearcat]

Hoping they add a pestilence like effect. Pestilence is a WoW (all classes) passive which allows dots to refresh up to 130% of their maximum duration, aka you can refresh at 6 seconds and not lose any uptime.

Its a nice QoL change that made every class much better.

[ArcturusMar]

Almost every time you said the word "then" it should have been a "than" sorry, this was bugging me lol. Nice guide though!

[Havenchild]

Almost every time you said the word "then" it should have been a "than" sorry, this was bugging me lol.

You don't know how many corrections I've been making regarding minor things like this. It's been killing me too haha.

EDIT: I think I got all of them. Feel free to cross check me on it.

I read this entirely, and as a SMN main, this is really good. The only thing I would change is the 1 - 4 seconds part. I would elaborate and say start recast of Bio II and Miasma at 2 or 3 seconds depending on Spell Speed, and Bio at 1 or 0 seconds left on the timer because it's instant. Future Summoners have to make the refresh as close as ever possible to the final tick but at the same time, not wait too long and have it fall off. For Shadowflare, I would try to recast at 4 seconds because of it's slightly longer cast time. Squeeeeeeze that refresh Summoners! Of course, if dealing with mechanics, recast slightly earlier so that it doesn't fall off.

I knew I left out critical things I wanted to talk about. Somewhere, I realized there was so many things to cover and I knew I would forget some things. Thanks for the recommendations. I will be sure to add them to the post.

One thing I want to tackle right here is in fact the 1-4 seconds I stated. On average the best, time to replenish one of your 3 main DoTs I will agree, should be located in a 1 - 3 second window subject to SS. However if you are at base SS or even at the minimum I recommend of 370, you will in fact run into many problems where DoTs have the same timers, a noticeable issue I find with Ifrit more then Garuda. If you choose to wait till 3 seconds to begin recasting a DoT when you have multiple DoTs at 3 seconds, you can likely lose a tick of potency.

Using base GCD of 2.5, at 3 Seconds on two DoTs, if a DoT tick occurred at precisely 2 seconds, you would be midcast for another 1.5 seconds. This leaves a remaining 1.5 seconds to recast a skill with a 2.5 GCD which will ultimately cost you potency at that precise moment.

[Aeromat]

Great work, Avalen. Wondered when you'd finally make a proper thread for SMN :P

[Sunako]

Casting ruin 2 at the moment mechanics happen like after megaflare cast in t13 can be possible dps increase so you may do not need interrupt your casting during mechanic.

[pandabearcat]

If every dot is refreshed at 1 second (instead of "best case" 0 seconds) you end up losing 1 GCD every...

Bio II - 30 minutes =D
Miasma - ~10 minutes
Bio - 5.4 minutes

So realistically, if you run into the problem Haven described, you should feel free to refresh bio II at any point <5 sec in order to get a miasma at 0 sec, to avoid missing ticks, and you will not actually lose any dps.

Since Bio is instant, its probably best to wait until the last second for that.

[Judge_Xero]

Great Guide!!!!

Maybe post some of your videos too - Give other SMN some real insight into practical uses.

I couldn't find the thread anymore where this was stated. Sometime ago iirc, Xero and another user had ran these calculations. I never tried to run this entirely on my own.

I'm still currently trying to find it.

I was mostly just looking at pet stat weights. Never got into Pet damage algorithms, that's a bit above me lolz.