Summoner Rotations / Dps tips all around help

[Sincerely]

So ive been playing for about 3 weeks now, i havent had a chance to raid in FF14 so im not sure how summoners play out in that role, but so far i play it like any other "DoT" / Pet class, Focus on keeping 100% uptime on DoTs is a common thing, then filling in with DPS abilities as they come off CD.

So basically keep dots up, use pet abilities, use aetherflow abilities etc.

But is there a solid or set rotation you guys are using at 60 with the new abilities?

Before all the new stuff it seemed to just be as i said, keep dots up 100% of the time, then fill in with DPS abilities as you see fit, how are you guys currently playing the class?

[Andres_Lonegrief]

I would like to know this as well.
On top of keeping DOTs up, it seems that now you are supposed to keep up also the aethertrail attunement and to learn a new way of managing your aetherflow stacks /cooldown time... meh

[Zenaku]

I have no idea of yet all i been doing is

Dots do my normal 2.0 stuff once i have trance up use Ruin III spam i try to time it so raging strikes still up. Ruin III would do a lot of DMG then deathflare would do even more. Then put dots back up.

I always save my tri-disaster when doing into trance so i can spam more ruin III without worrying about reapplying dots. I'm sure someone would come up with a good way of doing this and we can follow that. But for now i been doing this and my DPS just fine for now

[Schondetta]

The best way to understand SMN rotation is to not look at it like a rotation. there isnt really a set order to do things unless your attacking a dummy the whole time. its about prioritization. there is a very well written and thorough guide here that goes in depth i would suggest taking the time to read through it

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...de_by_hai_hai/

what i use and when is different for every fight and depending on where damage is needed the most, thats why its difficult to answer your last question

[Shayuki]

I just think of it as 2 phases. The first is the dreadwyrm phase where you get contagioned dots up and preferably 2 festers. The rest is maintenance. Your 60s cooldowns line up nicely for this playstyle.

[pandabearcat]

Aside from normal dot maintenance, here are some tips:

1. Unless adds need to die immediately, or will die immediately, save at least 1 AF for bane instead of blowing it all on painflare.
2. Never use your last stack of AF unless there is <15 sec left on AF, in order to have a full set of AF ready for DT.
3. If a boss is about to enter a transition phase, either save up all your AF, or blow it as it goes invulnerable to pad out your aethertrail timer.
4. If you will not need Tri-D for adds or phase transitions, use it right after DT for a full set of dots.
5. Do not refresh dots for 6 seconds prior to DT (if you're using Tri-D. Otherwise, make sure they're at least 15 sec left), and try to have at least 15 sec on Shadowflare before going into DT. You want to spend all your time on DT doing only Ruin III and festerx2.

[Tonberrian]

General Aetherflow question that might fight in here:

Do you burn all of your AF stacks on anything and everything to pump out max DPS or do you pace yourself to line up timers? I tend to pace myself but had a SMN that was burning AF stacks seemingly anytime she could including Painflare on the boss presumably to get into trance faster. Which method is preferred?

[Koyuki38]

i prefer keep stack and use Transe when AF is ready up

[pandabearcat]

General Aetherflow question that might fight in here:

Do you burn all of your AF stacks on anything and everything to pump out max DPS or do you pace yourself to line up timers? I tend to pace myself but had a SMN that was burning AF stacks seemingly anytime she could including Painflare on the boss presumably to get into trance faster. Which method is preferred?

Deathwyrm Trance has a hard cooldown with Aetherflow...it is impossible over the course of a fight to average more than once a minute.

Outside of the opener where you should pop everything to get AF and DT earlier (and barring any phase transitions), what you should do is always DT after a AF, then use 2 Festers during DT.

Since you use 2 festers during DT (essentially at ~1 sec and 11 sec past AF), you will have to space out your last AF use to last you the whole minute.

This means using it around at 35-40 sec, to make Aethertrails last long enough until the next AF, where you begin the cycle again.

At any fight where you will disconnect for more than 10 seconds or so (like Bismark trash transition) you need to blow your stacks to hit AT3, then blow trance at 1 sec left on AT3 to maximize and make sure you don't waste stacks.

The motivations are basically:

1. Never waste any AT stacks. It is a large dps loss (at least ~80-100 dps per target just from Deathflare alone) to waste a 2 or 3 stack.
2. Try to have 2 AF stacks for every DT.
3. Try to never to have to refresh dots during DT. If you do need to refresh dots, make sure you do so instead of Ruin III. Otherwise it will be a dps loss too.

The best way to ensure 1 and 2 is to try to never use your last AF stack without a plan - either use it for a bane on multiple targets, or save it to refresh AT to 3 when needed.