SUMMONER - The Aethers Resting Home

[KaosPrimeZero]

Hi all,

I see a lot of people complaining about damage and roles of our class. And yes its a shame as someone that was a main SMN in FFXI that its so different but hey FFXIV isnt any other FF and has a right to try something different. So i figured, rather than moaning, there seems to be people who are extremely good at their role as SMN. So why dont we collate information here for everyone to use and maximise their potential?

As a main DoT class we have the general rotation of:

Bio 2 > Misama > Bio > Fester > Contagion (if pet is set to OBEY)

As another member said (Kevee) SMN is a very active role and though in FATE's its almost impossible to keep track of your DoT's in Raids this shouldnt be the case, at least for now anyway.

But we still have many other skills on the table:

Aetherflow - Your bread and butter. Recovers a huge amount of MP and provides 3 charges for use with Fester, and Energy Drain. This should be used religiously to maintain a high level of DPS.
Miasma 2 - Instant cast and is AoE with a lower DoT time and a lower potency of Miasma.
Thunder - Another nice DoT that can and should be added to your rotation of DoT's. Ruin 1 and 2 - Though with the high mana cost of Ruin 2, Ruin 2 should be secondary to Ruin 1 (i.e on the run). Add to that they have the same potency and GCD its just more efficient.
Energy Drain - This one as an ACN is godly and in a pinch for SMN its nice but your main charges should always be used for Fester for maximum dps.
Shadow Flare - Always nice as additional damage plus the chance of adding slow.
Bane - Another nice ability that turns the spell cast i.e. Bio 2 into an AoE. Also has a chance of resetting the timer to get even more out of your DoT.s

Rous/Spur/Raging Strikes/Enkindle - I tend to use this combo to maximise the damage for Enkindle, and while RS is active i start my DoT cycle again to take advantage of RS.

Pets
This is a tricky one. Many struggle to manually control pets and manouver at the same time being such an active role and leave it on auto attack. Using the command OBEY the pet will still attack with Wind blade which is the highest potency attack next to Enkindle. The benefit of OBEY is the ability to manually Contagion. This is to be used AFTER you cast your rotation to extend the DoT's for a additional 15 seconds. Very important ability for SMN. Means you can add a second rotation once contagion is used in the form of:

Virus > Ruin 1 or 2 > Fester > Thunder > Fester before starting your cycle again

Least used abilities:

Miasma 2 - Miasma gives a better potency. You can mis it in for additional DoT but mana then may become an issue....
Tri-Disaster - In a pinch if you have to leg it yeah this is handy but other than that, i see no real reason to use it
Bane - I placed this here as im usually asked while on SMN to not use Bane as to avoid getting hate...

So are these the rotations used regularly by you guys or do you use a different rotation? Post below and lets get discussing to get the most out of our jobs!

If course if you feel any of the above can be better done post below and ill update!

Deleted posts below as i didnt know you had to post first then edit your post to add all content. A bit silly but now i know....

Thanks
Chaosprime

[Nux]

About tri disaster, i have some thought

In garuda HM, it's obvious that SMN can do pretty much nothing about razor plumes at earlier phase, it seems that bane sometimes can't/unable to spread through all plumes, but to my experiment you're able to tri-disaster binding about 80% of them which prevents them to move near any of the pillars and we have about 20 sec or less to destroy the plumes before they detonate which is within the duration of tri-disaster

so why don't SMN just bind the plumes while all available dps obliterate the remaining 20%, and leave the remaining plumes to their doom ? it should be more effective that way

Haven't tried that though as it just crossed my mind just now, any thoughts ?

For bane it is viable to tone down the dps by reducing DoT by 1 (either miasma or bio its up to you) to avoid getting hate (assuming the tank have decent aggro for each mobs hitting him) not that effective for aetherflow usage but you can do that if you want and also it was kind of waste to have stacking cooldown on aetherflow so sometimes i just do that one thing.

as for starter rotation that end with fester you can use Bio II - Miasma - Thunder - Bio - fester (inbetween GCD cooldown) - ruin/SF and you can also use SF duration as base time to recast your DoT

and ruin II should only be used when you're on the move or if any mobs tries to hitting anyone except for tank else just use ruin

Aetherflow is like an ammunition which must be preserved but its sometime a better option to not have stacking cooldown (ie: not using it for 1 or 2 min while still have some stack left, kind of rare though)

you can also make macro for aether flow

/ac "Aetherflow" <me>
/recast "Aetherflow"

so you know when your Aetherflow will be available, you can click it while channeling if you just want to check the timer.

[KaosPrimeZero]

Hey Nux, thats some great input and thank you. Yeah me personally i only use Aetherflow when i run out of charges. I like the way you put in Thunder before bio, makes sense and the duration from the previous 2 will carry it forward for bio > fester to add more damage.

As for the plumes, my only thought is that once attacked bind wears (as it should). Would they start moving into position or stay in place of getting obliterated? Though regardless of which way you look at it if they are bindable, its easier to pick them off that way

What would the macro be for your pet to OBEY and then use contagion?

/ac "Obey"
/ac "Contagion"
/recast "Contagion"

recast just for good measure, but does that look right?

[Elizabeth]

Really nice content here, guys.

My current rotation is: Spur > Bio II > Miasma > Virus > Fester

But i need to test with Bio and Thunder, never did that before. About Ruin II, i'm used to only finish mobs with this skill, because the mp is an issue.

I'll try this one asap: Bio II > Miasma > Thunder > Bio > fester This might be the best way to deal tons of DoT right now IMHO.

Also, what about your builds. Can you guys share your current SMN build and based atribute or should i create a new post?

For example, my current build is based on these atributes:

Inteligence > Critical Hit Chance > Determination

Any thoughts?

[pandabearcat]

Bio2 (35) states it has less potency than bio1 (40), why is it ahead in rotation?

Also I am not convinced crit does anything for us (as a dps stat, it is ~39 CHC for ~1% dps increase), so I'm stacking determination.

[KaosPrimeZero]

I currently have 2 builds. Defense based for fights like Titan hard so VIT main. For normal and everything else, i go INT > CRIT. Never considered determination. What does that add?

[KaosPrimeZero]

Bio2 (35) states it has less potency than bio1 (40), why is it ahead in rotation?

Also I am not convinced crit does anything for us (as a dps stat, it is ~39 CHC for ~1% dps increase), so I'm stacking determination.

Bio is used last due to it having the shortest timer pretty much

[Makototoki]

So guys do you think Enkindle is worth a slot on your hotbar? I kept it on there as a kinda oh crap moment when getting swarmed by adds.

[Mindcl0ud]

Bio is used last due to it having the shortest timer pretty much

In addition to this, you can use fester right after while you are waiting to cast a spell, so you don't waste a GCD at all. Also please make sure you are using Shadowflare + thunder in your rotation or you are losing tons of DPS. Shadowflare you need to make sure that the boss is going to be standing in a place for awhile to make sure you get the full duration since it costs a good bit of mana.

[Mindcl0ud]

So guys do you think Enkindle is worth a slot on your hotbar? I kept it on there as a kinda oh crap moment when getting swarmed by adds.

Most certainly. It is a very strong DPs move from the pet. Good to save it since it's 5 minutes for something like heart on Titan. It does a lot of damage... and is off GCD too.