Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Koyuki38]

Snip

Thanks for answer.

About pet swap, i was talking about switch DURING the fight, not between the 2 phases.
I was trying to get both Contagion from garuda AND ifrit master race DPS on the same monster. but I'm not sure if it's worth it since the GCD loss seems high.

[audi5000]

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

bv foes from 0s-25s ish
trick attack from 9s to 19s
litany from 1-21s

[Takaokami]

Somebody told me that a full SS meld was suggested for SMN. However, reading stuff here around the forum I've only ever seen people mostly recommend CRIT and DET.
Are full SS melds even a thing for SMN? thxkbai

[WyrahFhurrst]

Thanks for answer.

About pet swap, i was talking about switch DURING the fight, not between the 2 phases.
I was trying to get both Contagion from garuda AND ifrit master race DPS on the same monster. but I'm not sure if it's worth it since the GCD loss seems high.

It wouldn't seem terrible if you only used it when Swift-Cast was up, but then you'd miss out on using it for Shadow Flare.

[Keldion]

Somebody told me that a full SS meld was suggested for SMN. However, reading stuff here around the forum I've only ever seen people mostly recommend CRIT and DET.
Are full SS melds even a thing for SMN? thxkbai

DET is worth more than SS, but not by an overwhelming margin. It makes sense if every single item we picked up was CRIT/DET, which would leave little or no room for those melds. It may also be an observation of the fact that Savage Might IV materia only adds 6 DET, while Quicktongue IVs add 9 SS.

[Milkbeard]

ok so forgive me, but this is a lot to search through. What would be the strongest or different variations of an optimal sumn opener. Which page on this thread has the most modern written rotation. I notice Miah Maxwell has some good videos. The opener seems wonky but it looks like it works. The last time I played sumn was around 3.0 and the 3.0 extensive guide was my strongest resource. Things have no doubt changed since then with the ruin 3 buff. But yea...what do modern sumns do in their openers? what needs to happen in dread trance. What happened to 2pf1f? is it not as viable anymore? Why are people throwing out ED in their openers!?

[Koyuki38]

3.2 has brought some change on the rotation.

Before : In the 3.0, the best rotation was to use DW Trance 1 once evey minute. During this Trance we had to use Tri-disaster, Contagion, 2 festers and Ruine 3 fillers.
Now on 3.2 : Using fester is not needed anymore. In fact it might cause DPS loss.

DWT lasts 15 secondes. We are supposed to do 6 Ruines 3 in this, then we have 3 extra festers out of the DWT.
This means 6 x 220 + 3 x 300 potency => 2 220 potency over 1 min (+ the usual dots ands fillers)

If we use Fester, it's pretty impossible to get 6 Ruines 3 in 15 secs ;-;
The best we could have is 5 x Ruine 3 and 1 fester + 2 fester outside of the Trance.
This deals 5 x 220 + 1 x 330 + 2 x 300 => 2030

So, what we have to know is that any action that causes a GCD loss in DWT will leads to dps loss.

Now it's time for reality to strike back : http://f1.thejournal.ie/media/2013/1...6e-630x322.jpg
I tried it : Within 15 seconds, it was completly impossible for me to cast 6 DWT. I don't know how exactly, but's i found already hard to have 5 ruins in 5 seconds, 6 is barely impossible, even if theorically 15 sec = 6 GCD, moveover when the 'real' cast time is about 2.40s.

It already was hard to have 5 ruines 3 within the DWT T^T.
I was able to cast 1 fester only if i used Swift Cast

About the opener, we can say that SMN has an opener each minute (except for 1 pet buff, Enkidle and Ragin Strikes).
That opener really starts when we use the DW Trance.

Everything that happens before might be considered as extra time.
So 3 possible cases :
- Fester + Painflare + ED => low time + low damages
- Fester x2 + PainFlare => more time + more damages
- Fester x3 => maximum time + maximum damages

Since that everything is reseted right after once we enter the DW Trance, all we have to figure is which Damage/Time is the best.

[ShinryuReishiki]

I think unless you use Swiftcast on Ruin III, it's best only aiming for one Fester in Dreadwyrm Trance. Even using 0 Festers in Dreadwyrm Trance is better than swapping in a Ruin II to fit 2 in.

R2 (DWT), R2 (3D + F), R3 x4, R2 (F +DF) ... F = 2536
R2 (DWT, 3D), R3 x5, R2 (DF) ... F ... F ... F = 2608
R2 (DWT, 3D), R3 x5, R2 (F + DF) ... F ... F = 2638
R2 (Swift + DWT), R3 (3D + F), R3 x4, R2 (F + DF) ... F = 2668

[Takaokami]

Crit > Det melds will almost undoubtedly be the best on every piece.

I'm still so confused with these stats :/ everybody says CRIT > DET, but then someone comes and says I like DET more because of more linear scaling or smth. I see the same with people's gear in game. Particularly saw two SMNs who mostly differed in how they allocated their materia on these two.
First one had:
CRIT: 794+440 (1234)
DET: 610+392 (1002)

Second one had:
CRIT: 725+371 (1096)
DET: 664+446 (1110)

What's the rationale behind it? Is one better than the other? The second one balances CRIT and DET, while the first one seems to invest mostly in CRIT and little in DET. Why bother putting into DET in the first setup, and not just even more into CRIT?

x_x

[Semmi]

The correct way is to gear for crit while maintaining the accuracy cap. When it comes to meld, always meld crit unless the piece of gear is already capped on crit (if it's the higher secondary stat on a piece of gear), in which case you meld det if using grade 5 materia, or spell speed if you are using grade 1-4 due to the lower det value on grade 1-4 det materia.