SMN - knowing the class (part 1)

[Sacerdos]

I have a question.

How do people keep Ifrit egi alive in heavy aoe fights like the ones in Stone Vigil and Garuda? I find on every attempt I've done, my egi dies partway through the fight.

Now I know it's my responsibility to monitor its health but between focusing on my rotation and avoiding the aoe's myself, I often only notice when it is nearly dead and have not enough time to get in range/react.

How are folks managing this as they are a chunk of our damage?

Cast Sustain once in a while. If that isn't enough for a specific fight, then you'll need Swiftcast from THM to resummon it.

Generally, Garuda-Egi is much better since you can leave it in a safe place in most fights, and Contagion is really good.

[Shamirah]

Rover1983, you are so clueless. ShadowFlare is an aoe "dot" that is really good for ST and AOE. You cast it, it lasts 30 seconds. You can then cast your dots, use bane to dot all the other adds. You will do far more damage than everyone else 'cause your AOE damage are still going while you do your ST rotation. We are not about BURST. We are a DPS class.

Ofc if the adds die in 2 sec, shadowflare is useless and you'd better off using something else but you just forgot how good it is. Just look at every fight when you have to move a lot : while you are moving, your dots, your pet and your shadowflare are still hurting the boss hard. Meanwhile the BLM can't do shit except some instant, the melee class can't do shit either since they are not in melee. Only the bards are doing something.

[Rover1983]

Shamirah,How am I clueless when Im clearly stating a fact. It would take multiple casts of Shadow Flare to equal 1 or 2 AoE's from other classes. Tell me where the logic is in that if were talking about "balance". It takes me 13 seconds for all my dots, not including shadow flare to finally start ticking. 13 seconds. Thats 13 seconds other dps classes can dish out lots of dmg. I feel with how "slow" our class is right now, we wont ever be cometitive in dmg. I know were a dot class but it takes us too long right now to start doing dmg. We need our GCD's on our dots lower, or cast time to be instant so that our dots can start rolling. If we were given the ability to throw our dots quicker it would be great, but it currently takes way too long to get our abilities up.

[Kevee]

Lol? You are clueless.

No, shadow flare is a 250 potency AoE. Besides 3 stacks of AF BLM, name one other AoE that is that strong and not on a huge timer(Dragonfire Dive).

It doesn't take 13 seconds for them to start ticking. They're still ticking while you're setting up.

Slow? After 3 GCDs we can use an off-GCD 300 potency attack.

[Shamirah]

Lol? You are clueless.

No, shadow flare is a 250 potency AoE. Besides 3 stacks of AF BLM, name one other AoE that is that strong and not on a huge timer(Dragonfire Dive).

It doesn't take 13 seconds for them to start ticking. They're still ticking while you're setting up.

Slow? After 3 GCDs we can use an off-GCD 300 potency attack.

I think some people just want to see big numbers to make their e-peen grow. Shadowflare should tick for 400 damage every second for them.

[Dixa]

Lol? You are clueless.

No, shadow flare is a 250 potency AoE. Besides 3 stacks of AF BLM, name one other AoE that is that strong and not on a huge timer(Dragonfire Dive).

It doesn't take 13 seconds for them to start ticking. They're still ticking while you're setting up.

Slow? After 3 GCDs we can use an off-GCD 300 potency attack.

why is math so hard for you?

it takes 30 seconds for shadow flare to do that 250 potency.

in 30 seconds, how many 100 potency aoe's can other classes spit out?

[Kevee]

why is math so hard for you?

it takes 30 seconds for shadow flare to do that 250 potency.

in 30 seconds, how many 100 potency aoe's can other classes spit out?

In that 30s, what else is the SMN doing? Certainly it's not just sitting there twiddling their thumbs.

[Sacerdos]

Summoners have to stand to cast for at least 11 GCDs out of 24 GCDs a minute (2 Bio 2, 2 Shadow Flare, 3 Miasma, 4 Thunder). Better than a Black Mage, but we're still vulnerable to having to move when a DoT falls off.

[Shamirah]

Summoners have to stand to cast for at least 11 GCDs out of 24 GCDs a minute (2 Bio 2, 2 Shadow Flare, 3 Miasma, 4 Thunder). Better than a Black Mage, but we're still vulnerable to having to move when a DoT falls off.

Yeah, but I generally ask the tank to pull just before I finish the cast of my first dot. And Garuda helps with that. I was talking in general. And when you are used to a fight, you know when you will have to move etc so you can time your dots/garuda's "refresh"

[Sacerdos]

Something I'd like is for bind to disable threat gain like sleep does. You can't actually use Tri-disaster as CC for melee mobs in a dungeon since the healer will get massive amounts of aggro on bound enemies.