Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Neophyte]

I am pretty sure RS and DWT don't apply to pet damage. If that is the case, taking time to pop oGCDs for your pet may actually make you lose DPS elsewhere, especially in DWT.

Enkindle should generally be used with both Rouse and Spur since those do stack for 96% additional damage. It's a little trickier later in the fight since Spur and Enkindle won't be ready at the same time.

You're right. D:

And of course, with RS+DWT+Rouse+Spour I didn't mean to pop them all at once. In Hai Hai's 1f2p-opener all those buffs are up when he (and myself) uses Enkindle so I assumed it will affect it. Guess I'll use Enkindle somehow before DWT now.

[Brinzy]

While putting my nose to the grindstone for maximizing damage on A1S and A2S, I stumbled across Kakashe's opener which utilizes ED to initiate DWT faster. He arranges a confluence of active cooldowns (RS, DWT, Drac Potion, raid buffs) to frontload exceptionally hard hitting attacks.

http://angered.guildwork.com/forum/t...ide-by-kakashe

I have difficulty following his opener with 100% precision, but it helped me realize that delaying the first Aetherflow was an actual loss of damage.

I was just thinking about that myself. I think that getting your Aetherflow up and running 8-10 seconds sooner again is worth the 50 - 150 potency loss of damage. That was likely common knowledge here, but I learned something.

Once I get some melds in, I think I'm going to give the A7S dummy some more tries. I may have been very far off from just weaker execution, since I did not use ED in the opener.

[Havenchild]

While putting my nose to the grindstone for maximizing damage on A1S and A2S, I stumbled across Kakashe's opener which utilizes ED to initiate DWT faster. He arranges a confluence of active cooldowns (RS, DWT, Drac Potion, raid buffs) to frontload exceptionally hard hitting attacks.

http://angered.guildwork.com/forum/t...ide-by-kakashe

I have difficulty following his opener with 100% precision, but it helped me realize that delaying the first Aetherflow was an actual loss of damage.

I read most of his reasoning for his opener but, not following the line where he says essentially other Summoners are wasting damage for not blowing all their cooldowns when "all buffs are up", when in actuality most of the current openers are manufactured with the mindset of maximum efficiency over a 60 second or so period that takes full advantage of all of these said buffs.

Now, it is not impossible to believe that a more bursty opener might apply better to certain encounters. (EX: Where a boss goes invincible at a certain part of your opener/encounter that causes you to have only two Aetherial Stacks when they become invincible, thus you don't have to ability to drag out the DWT timer for when a mob might be able to get targeted again.) However, I've never seen some dynamic difference in damage over the course of an encounter for doing so. Ultimately, any Summoner should be tailoring their openers for maximum efficiency for the ENCOUNTER at hand.

No dummy test opener can properly be translated into a fight for maximum efficiency over an encounter. A Dummy stands there. A Boss does not.

[Keldion]

No dummy test opener can properly be translated into a fight for maximum efficiency over an encounter. A Dummy stands there. A Boss does not.

Kakashe has stated the same thing in his guide.

Summoners will need to adapt and learn every fight they encounter and frankly speaking , no guide will show you a perfect rotation on a dummy that you can use in every fight, however this will be just an idea of what you will be looking forward to do on a single target fight.

I am not representing his suggested opener as gospel or the 'only true way' to doing summoner DPS. What it did do was challenge me to approach openers differently and think about how they applied to the nuances of specific encounters.

I will state that the frontloaded approach has made it easier for me to manage DPS during encounters with heavy movement, such as Sephirot EX. There are specific moments in the fight where you can plant your feet and do several seconds' worth of hard casting, while others demand that you focus on proper positioning.

[tomitoteles]

can anyone tell me hows the standard rotation? please !

[Miah_Maxwell]

Hey you! I'm Miah Maxwell and i will help you, I propose a new opener for the 3.2 and Ruin III change

Here > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha3Y7whQfIM

No food and no pot, i'm 219 with 210 weapon ^-^
if u have a question about this opener, i'm glad to help you :3

[Koyuki38]

Without regarding any party and synergie buff, what is the best for opener :
- burning 3 stacks to enter transe after 10 seconds
or
- casting 3 fester and enter transe after 30 seconds ?

also, i guess the number of ruin 3 used is related to how long the fight is, and if we have to move or not (in spehi ex for example i might have mana problem due to too much ruin 2 cast)


I also have a question about the ifrit damage vs Garuda over 1 min fight.

I'm currently training on A5S with my FC. We just killed faust before stopping.
During this fight i tried something special :
I swaped pets during the fight using swift cast.

That's exactly what I did : 1st i kept every CD for the wild monster that appears, so it's like my true opener starts on him.
Then i do my classic opener, except that Transe is already up with bahamut aether stacked previously.
-> transe -> tri-D -> contagion->spam ruin 3 ->DF
and then i used swift caft, swap to ifrit, used double pet buff + Enkidle and continue with ifrit in Automatic mode.

By doing this, i lost 1 gcd : based on the mana cost of Ifrit sumon, let's say this GCD might be a Ruin 3.
I so lose 200 potency GCD.
Due to the fact that summoning Ifrit costs more MP than Ruin 3, that also means that one of my Ruin 1 would be a Ruin 3 if i didn't summon ifrit.
So, let's say that by Sumonning ifrit i lose 320 potency.

At this point, i have about 1 rotation to perform, then 1 transe again, then it's almost over. Let's say Ifrit stands for 1 min.
Is the DPS of Ifrit over 1 min enough to do more damages that the 320 loss potency ?
And moreover, maybe Ifrit's DPS high enought to output more damage that what garuda provides with contagion + buffed dots (+30%), so i don't even have to try this swap trick ?

Thanx for any tips.

[audi5000]

snip

in a solo scenario, an opener with 2 festers +1 painflare seems to have the best balance between the speed at which you burn aetherflow stacks and how quickly you go into dreadwyrm trance. however, in a party scenario, it's imperative that your opener is quick enough to fit tridisaster and enkindle inside any or all of trick attack, bv foes, and/or litany. i personally have started using a 2 painflare + 1fester opener to achieve this, but many people advocate either a 1fester + 1energydrain + 1 painflare opener or a 2fester + 1 painflare opener.

as for switching pets in a5s faust, you can swiftcast ifrit during the downtime you have after you kill the first 2 small fausts: this will ensure you do not waste a gcd resummoning while dpsing hummelfaust. however, i personally just stick with garuda the entire fight so i can use the extra mana to spam ruin 3 outside of dreamwymr trance.

speaking of openers, im pretty upset about the amount of gcd clipping openers have now for the sake of using ruin 3; makes figuring out whats best on single target a pain

[giantslayer]

What are the normal timeframes to expect Foes, Trick Attack, and Battle Litany to be up and running?

[Miah_Maxwell]

Hi, I finalized my new opener, currently 1732 DPS at ilvl 219.
Here > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYUd8ol3Lc8