Eirene Snow's Comprehensive Thoughts on 4.0 SMN

[MoonEclipse]

Hi!

I am Eirene Snow from Tonberry, an end-game raider(SMN main till the double ranged meta happened) who has been involved in server progression races and speed runs.

As there has been a dearth of SMN-related information / guides and a general dissent among the community about SMN in 4.0, I thought it would be really helpful to share with everyone about my comprehensive thoughts on 4.0 SMN after extensive research and analysis. Hopefully it will help to provide an overview of what 4.0 SMN entails, a greater understanding of the general play style for SMN & the possible optimization options available if you are interested in end-game raiding.

One of my main goals that I hope to achieve with this document is to alleviate the concerns that people have with the class's clunkiness and boring playstyle. The clunkiness can be eased once you understand how the job mechanics interact and flow with one another.

In addition, the flexibility and dynamic play style for SMN provides an immense amount of room for optimization that is very interesting and rewarding when done well. I hope to bring to light how fun SMN can be when you "think out of the box" to alter your rotations for any encounter and be rewarded for doing so.

Here is an example of how rewarding it can be when you "think out of the box" as a SMN.

[4.0] FFXIV SMN SSS Dummy 2:21 [4653.09 DPS]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0cnnZkK8Zo

Please do read through the document and give me your thoughts/feedback about it too!

Here are my "credentials" for those who are not familiar with me or are doubtful about me as a player (It's normal to be suspicious).

FF Logs (No AST ST card cheese):
4.0 Primals: https://www.fflogs.com/rankings/character/7953/15/
Creator(Refer to the SMN tab): https://www.fflogs.com/rankings/character/7953/13/

Link to Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...hts_on_40_smn/

Link to the document:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...xzqXd3LQBPy1E/

Changelog:

V1.0: 30th June 2017
Creation of the original document

V1.1: 13th July 2017
Completed the Rotation section with improvements to the readability of the detailed breakdown of phases; improved the formatting of the guide and included a changelog to enable readers to keep track of updates!


Please follow/subscribe to me on Twitter/Youtube to keep in touch with my new videos / updates!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Eirene_Snow
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC1...CeEZJdW309sfUw

For more SMN related discussions, we are usually hanging out at the SMN discussion channel in the job discord~ link to discord: https://discord.gg/CjQkEn3

[Neela]

just great thx for sharing your thoughts :3

[Ronove]

Thank you for this! It's helped me figure out what to do in terms of rotation since everything I knew before 4.0 kinda doesn't work as well anymore.

[CecMiller]

Thanks for your great work. Will take a good read of this!

[Koyuki38]

Thx, i'll give it a try

[giantslayer]

What if you moved Rouse to be after Bahamut instead of before it? Rouse can run simultaneous with DWT, and you could Contagion both. The biggest benefit is it would add about 20 seconds of leeway into the rotation, reducing the possibility of AF being delayed by boss mechanics. Pattern would look like this:

Aetherflow
Bahamut
DWT / Rouse
~20 seconds free time

[MoonEclipse]

What if you moved Rouse to be after Bahamut instead of before it? Rouse can run simultaneous with DWT, and you could Contagion both. The biggest benefit is it would add about 20 seconds of leeway into the rotation, reducing the possibility of AF being delayed by boss mechanics. Pattern would look like this:

Aetherflow
Bahamut
DWT / Rouse
~20 seconds free time

Hi!
If you were to use rouse after Bahamut, you would be sitting with rouse on cd for 40 seconds(bahamut ends at about 1 min 30-40 sec) which is more than half of its cool down. It is highly likely that you will lose another cast of rouse. Also, contagion is used together with Bahamut, thus rouse + dwt won't be up with contagion unless you will till 2 mins 15-20 sec(your 3rd rouse would be up and used by then if you used it before Bahamut) .

[giantslayer]

Hi!
If you were to use rouse after Bahamut, you would be sitting with rouse on cd for 40 seconds(bahamut ends at about 1 min 30-40 sec) which is more than half of its cool down. It is highly likely that you will lose another cast of rouse. Also, contagion is used together with Bahamut, thus rouse + dwt won't be up with contagion unless you will till 2 mins 15-20 sec(your 3rd rouse would be up and used by then if you used it before Bahamut) .

Under ideal conditions, your rotation seems optimal. The idea behind moving Rouse is to give more leeway for problems, like a phase change or invulnerable period. Having to delay Aetherflow in a worst case scenario would be a bigger loss than delaying Rouse.

Is Bahamut's potency gimped like regular pets (approx 75% of advertised value)? I haven't gotten to 70 yet but am curious to crunch some numbers on Contagion.

[Myon88]

Tonberry hype

[Titch_Farstrider]

Thanks for your post Eirene it has helped me greatly!

One thing I am struggling to understand is your flow chart says use Bahamut 40 secs before the AF cd is ready, however phase 6 and general rotation shows Bahamut used right after AF for the subsequent 11 WW's.

Are you waiting before using your charges to align Bahamut with up the 40 sec gap ? This is all I can think off but its not reflected in your rotation.

I am sure I'm missing something any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Red