The 6th Ministry's Secret: A Summoner's Guide (v2)

I managed to snag a +1 SMN earring so I'm burning out a new SMN. I'm looking at the Empy +2 as actually good for starting up. The body and feet have avatar perp -15 combined, is that all you need for reduction usually?

Refresh +3 on head instead of making AF +3 head. The rest of the pieces can be used for BP damage/tp bonus and at least a little bp wards with the summoning skill pieces.

I can do precast for BP with Epitaph, Mastered SMN, and +3 AF body for the 30 seconds? Past that it's the +2 empy head and skill.

I really don't have a feel for SMN gearing. I can see AF being made for Acc sets, are they very necessary for HELMs? Relic looks like you just skip it?
I'm saving my money for +1s of Baayami and Apogee?

I built my summoner for just doing Aeonic smn burn. I'm not sure what path to go with for my current summoner gear on Espiritus.

ItemSet 388716

Apogee Slacks Path D, Apogee Feet Path A, missing 1 ear, cape isn't fully augmented (missing 5 pet accuracy), and summoner's collar is just rank 8: MP+16, Avatar Attr +8, BP Damage +3.

Should I go with path A, or path C?

Path A: Enmity-6, Pet: "Magic Attack Bonus"+30, Pet: Damage Taken-4%
Path C: MP+50, Pet: "Magic Attack Bonus"+20, Pet: Magic Accuracy+20

And, about how much magic accuracy do you need for your pet against those iLVL150 mobs?

Need more information like what BPs you're doing, which enemy you're facing.

I don't believe any guide recommends Espiritus for physical or magic BP. I would recommend Grioavalr/Gridovar for Magic/Physical BP. Pet Macc is not important for any AFAC BPs with the possible exception of Flaming Crush, but in that case I think the debuffs from your alliance should help cover any macc issues.

Espiritus is Ok (not great) for magical BPs, if you can augment a Grio it's going to be better. Wotasu has a helpful list under the Pet Macc set (in this thread) that shows what augments you need on Grio to beat Espiritus. Gridarvor definitely the go to choice for physical if no Nirvana w/ AM3.

I'm sorry, ty Male. I thought I had all the bases covered.

I guess I'm just using the staff against Zerde for Flaming Crush? I've read a lot that Grio needs certain augments to be Espiritus for that. I had an extra 400 domain points, so thought I'd use this staff tomorrow.

I'll eventually get a Grio, but for right now, was just wondering.

We will have cor rolls, but just going in with RUN or PLD, SMN, SMN, SMN, SMN, GEO and WHM. Maybe a bard threnody also.

I've been told my LS mates, magic accuracy is really not needed with a cor buff, as well as vorseals and threnody, so I went with full-on MAB. That post info is handy however, ty!

BRD Threnody will be a huge help, especially with SV, it's around -400 meva for fire. Definitely bring a RUN over a PLD if you can for Rayke and you should destroy him. Do you have JP? SMN gets a lot of good stuff from JP

I seem to be at a 20 second recast with 670 skill, capped -BPD, and Empy Head +3. Am I wrong?

I have a question about the claustrum aftermatch at 119 iii!

Does the damage taken only affect the master or the pet too?

Is it in the 50 cap or can go over the 50 caps?

Master only, does not bypass cap

You're probably looking at Timers instead of the menu? By the time Timers shows it, usually 1 second has already passed. With 20 sec BP, Timers will often show 19.

I was looking at the menu timer...

Hmm you're right, I'm well under 735 with weapons locked and still 20 sec timer. I swear I tested it before and couldn't hit 20 until 735 with +3 but apparently I was wrong...

Nice! I am done with Baayami +1 then, haha

I seem recalling someone in here saying that Beckoner's Earring +1 is better than Gelos, even if you get shitty aug?
Currently I have Acc/Macc+11, and it's -1% BPD compared to Gelos.
But has Avatar Level+1 of course.

Slightly better maybe?

it is better, tested with Diabolos nether blast. stick with the beckoner's +1

I don't know anything about SMN, but that's cool to know, thanks.

Silly question, but would the beckoners+1 also beat Gelos for physical pacts based on the level boost?

Papesse answered all of this here https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/53593/a-summoners-gear-guide/17/#3649293

Please someone buy my Sroda Earring! It's BiS!
Send me a /tell in-game!

Anyone got a feel for how the updates to pets affected us? Good? Bad? Meh?

Well, I will guess this based on BST testing. Crit pdif cap get boosted from 4.0 to 5.0. Since afaik Avatars can crit on every physical and hybrid BP, it boosts spike damage potential on all of them. Gear wise it's definitely improve value of Relic+3 body.

The defensive boost is absolutely massive. I feel like my avatars survive things they never would've survived before.

The PDIF update seems nice but I think it'll rarely have any impact unless they add more pet:attack gear or something.

I did an Aeonic SMN burn this weekend and did some testing. There aren't many places avatars get attack-boosted like in Aeonics so if the changes are visible anywhere it should be there. Hysteric Assaults were consistently landing for 70k+ on some mobs where I don't remember it hitting that hard. Others it was the same as before. Volt Strike also had a few more 70k/80k hits than I recall seeing in the past, on certain mobs it seemed, though I can't recall specific examples. Overall I wasn't too impressed, but I don't think it was their intent to buff SMN's offense with this change anyway.

The defensive stuff though, I'm loving it. Meteors from ArkAngel TT and Neak don't obliterate my avatar anymore. Same with Bashmu's Chainspell. SMN got a real treat in that side of the update.

The MEVA boost is quite massive. I just duo'd VD Lilith twice with SMN+BST and SMN+GEO/DRK. Siren was constantly resisting Lilith's attacks and taking literally 0 damage with Wind's Blessing. The fight only took 5 min w/o SPs.
I'm glad the devs have finally acknowledged the issue with pets having 0 MDB and no access to Shell.

Good to hear. Does this change anything with gear sets, or just stay the same, but Avatar dies less?

Curious to know the setup for the bst. Wondering if 2 smn or 2 bst would work in setting something up. Really exciting to hear there might be so.e reason to potentially put some more work into my smn again. I rarely find myself in it these days outside of ody things from time to time.

The BST was doing TP Drainkiss while Siren was tanking Lilith with Hysteric Assault/Wind's Blessing/Bitter Elegy pacts. Siren wasn't meleeing (Retreat command) so I was in range of the aoe/knockback hits but Lilith doesn't get TP even if I takes damage as long her main target (Siren) is taking 0. I used Sylvie, Moogle, Ygnas and Monberaux trusts. The fight takes 2-3 times longer than with GEO though and the second form will have the time to do Trance.
It went much faster with a GEO, Hysteric Assault was averaging 55-85k on both forms, Absorb-TP can replace TP Drainkiss.

i would love to see a quick video of this personally. was this ignoring the adds?

If she never gets TP there are no adds, they're linked to her TP moves just like the gyves/fetters