Quote Originally Posted by RosaAtra View Post
Hello Summoners

I started leveling SCH when I first started, got to 50 and realized that healing wasn't for me. After the BRD changes I am looking to start SMN as a main.

My problem is starting straight from 50 as a SMN I don't want to do dungeons until I have a good idea of how to play one effectively.

I have been doing fates and reading this (and many others) guide but am having troubles with what I should macro and not macro and controlling the pets like
do I leave them to do their own thing or have their moves macro'd in with some of my spells?

Basically I want to learn in a step by step kind of way if anyone could be so helpful?

On a side note I wish these summons looked more like FFXI's summons
Now I know this guide has a lot of information all over (largely because this class has a lot of tools to utilize) but don't feel overwhelmed.

For dungeons exclusively (starting at level 50), your main tools will be Bio II, Miasma, Bio, Shadowflare, Bane, Miasma II and Contagion. Essentially each pull, you will use the three main DoTs, Bio II, Miasma and Bio and then use the Bane skill on that mob to spread those skills (free of charge) to all nearby mobs. Now if you have Contagion available (Garuda skill) you want to make sure you are able to use it when you want to, so you basically press a pet command called Obey.

This makes it so pets cannot use skills whenever and just use a normal attack. When you use Contagion on a set of DoTs, it will extend the duration of those DoTs for 15 seconds, this will work alongside the Bane skill to spread those longer duration DoTs onto nearby monsters.

From then on you have skills like Miasma II and Shadowflare which are AoE spells you will use to place DoT damage on the pile of mobs. Rinse and repeat in a dungeon.

Another AoE skill you have is the job skill you have , Enkindle, which tells the pet to use its signature AoE attack (damage boosted by rouse and spur).
Blizzard II from BLM is also pretty handy.

Macros, you can use of course in the form of tying pet skills with some of your abilities like Bane for example. Overall you shouldn't use Macros because they can bug out or just cause overall DPS loss but things like Bane + Aerial Slash ( Garuda skill) is ok to combine.

If you are using Garuda, you will want to make sure after you summon her to put her on the Obey command, so she doesn't use Contagion on her own. With Ifrit, you will also want him on Obey, but you will need to manually press his skills to achieve higher gains then Garuda. So often people use the Sic Command (fires off pet skills as they become available) with Ifrit for less hassle.

That's pretty much it. Now when you get to more raiding scenarios, essentially its the same thing but it ramps up with more proper time management on the DoT skills and fitting every possible skilll you can every single second of the fight. That's when you should really start to read through guides such as this one and piece together what it takes to accomplish that.

Hope that helps a little.