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

Congrats man, you even double posted on the FFXI Facebook Group too! XD But yeah, enjoy your trials! :D

We need this stickied! XD

Well deserved Shira!

good info and very nice presentation.

small note tho. i think all the avatar TP rates are based on the 100% system? new one doesn't have decimal points.

useful to make a note somewhere on Odin/Alex that they're Astral Flow only? if its there sorry i didn't see it XD

gonna use this for updating my gear and macros.

OT maybe, but has anybody tried to develop a suitable SMN strategy (similar to the Yorcia one) for Kamihr Delve?

I think the Ram will be the big blocker here, and perhaps the gnole too.
The lion at the end however...

Don't forget the Raaz.

Still, if you can bead those 3, SMN strategy should work perfectly fine on the Coeurl, the Yztarg and the MB himself, no?
Now... this wouldn't be a full run of course, just looking for a quick and original way to get Kamihr win for a friend.



Thoughs on Marjami instead?
I can see Colibri being slow/annoying.
Bats and Bird should be a joke.
Not sure on the Apkallu though...
Harpy should go down fast, and I think the same applies to Calimh?

Sure, if you bead out the ones with the quirky mechanics it'll be a faceroll.
Just be sure to also bring a person that can keep them in one place.

I read the thread and saw the numerous demands for a GS file for smn .I recently made a SMN lua file for my old character that doesn't use any mote related files. Everything seem to be working fine so far.

Please keep in mind that my old character is very outdated gear wise so some things may be missing. I can add as many things as people request, so don't be shy to send me a PM of what you want added or any issues and I will fix it, reload it on paste bin and send you a PM warning when I did so. That offer is also valuable for all my other lua files as well.

My pastebin


Edit: Also Holy wow to who made the page, it's gorgeous and so complete! Good job!

Shattersoul → Flaming Crush → Flaming Crush = Light
This will not wok for me.
Shattersoul =Gravitation which is on the dark element side.
Flaming Crush → Flaming Crush = Fusion which is on the Light element side.

@Sechs

Lion strat is (with little change) similar to the bird run.
raaz was easy in that we used frailty/malaise, dia + light shot x2, beast/puppet rolls and then reso > FC x2. Obviously that requires the use of apogee and the run using sekkanoki.

Gnole is simple as well: follow same strat except that you wont need 2 sc.

Coeurl is just as easy. Use the same strat as last two, and just have the run target unlocked and turn quickly for the death move, but it really shouldnt last that long.

Ram can be tricky, but easily manageable if you dont waste the first 10%. The first 10% has no specific resistance so use that time to get all your buffs set up same as the last 3 nms. You (most likely) wont kill it with one sc, but ive gotten it to the last 10% each time. You have all the dmg types there with you to make the last of its hp melt.

Monkey is handled just like the rest. Set up quickly and do sc. Two sc should be sufficient to kill monkey.

Lion is a joke with this strat.

Absolutely no need in beading any of them unless you are short on time, but you should be able to finish in about 20 mins give or take.

Actually this does work.
Shattersoul also has Induration properties and Flaming Crush has Reverberation properties besides Fusion.
That's why Shattersoul (Induration) and Flaming Crush (Reverberation) do make Fragmentation, and for the second Flaming Crush it's the Fusion property that makes light off the Fragmentation skillchain.


And this by itself does not skillchain, because the properties of Flaming Crush do not skillchain with each other.

Did Kamir yesterday. Easy peasy.
T4 took us a fair amount of time though I have to say.

You guys tried same strat in Marjami too?

SCing is hard for most people.
I'm fairly confident that you are jumping the gun with your FCs.
Because it DOES work (was literally doing it the yesterday).
Like this:

Shattersoul > Flaming Crush = Fragmentation
Fragmentation > Flaming Crush = Light

You have to time everything right or it won't count.


EDIT: Sechs, the only thing annoying in Marjami is the nigh constant sleep shuffle spam from the Appalku.
Though that could just be my experience with it... Constantly sleeping my avatar... So annoying.

SMN SC'ing has been a viable solid strategy for many Escha NM's. It's almost ridiculous how fast some of these NM's go down with Predator Claws > Flaming Crush > MB'ing Meteor Strike + BLM/GEO nukes.

And yes - Shattersoul > Apogee > Flaming Crush > Flaming Crush does work.

This, when using Shattersoul (or Garlands of Bliss) wait for the WS animation to completely finish before sending the BP command. Should be just enough time to get it just right all the time.

Reposting because I changed servers and unlinked Asura.Krystela from my account. In case people are having difficulties to enter in contact with me.

Hey guys!

I am slowly leveling up my SMN and I fully expect to be 99 this next week. I currently have a few other 99s (BLU, RUN and RNG) but none of them are really well geared and I haven't touched foot in any real end game content yet.

So far I really enjoy SMN and it is a completely different pace than everything else that I am really comfortable with, so I want to focus on gearing up SMN first and see where I can go with that.

With that being said, where do I start?

Should I try to focus on getting a Perpetuation/Refresh set first or should I focus on another set (Summoning Skill, Blood pact damage, BP Delay) ?

Any advice or tips are welcome.

baylid or spark staff, af and relic upgrade, then start tossing gil at allu skirmish augments. finally to be awesome get mythic. as for skill up, use other jobs to farm spark and buy sskipp up scrolls or just buy it with gil from others.

Don't forget to get eminent sachet too for the 115 avatar and make replacing it with Seraphicaller a high priority goal once you get some solid gearsets together.

Ideally you want to get basic perpetuation, BP delay and BP rage/ward sets created around the same time since they're all essential to playing the job well.

Reforging AF and relic pieces to 109 is high priority and will be the backbone of a lot of your gearsets, and work on AF3 and eventually reforge those too since all of the pieces have a use still. AF3+2 head/body/legs/feet can also be used in your gearsets until you're able to reforge af/relic to replace them.

Awesome thanks for the tips!

Any pieces that I should prioritize first?

Also should I invest some time in the UNM's that offer good pieces for SMN (Intuilia and the Weapon)?

Also how do people play SMN in endgame these days?

I do have the Wayfarer set, but it looks extremely lackluster for SMN.


Kind of surprised that people don't seem to like SMN they appear to have a lot of support in their kit while still being able to deal good damage. I will have COR leveled up in the event that I have trouble getting into groups as SMN.

because there like huge number of player cant even play a job as simple rolling two dice, and smn is more complicated to be effective. so instead risking a complicated job ppl would perfer the less risk buffers.

as for spark armor dont bother, see my posr above never mention spark or bayld armors. only the staff and sachter is what u need from it.

as for smn being a powerful dd, it'll require geo,cor boost and ppl dont like build that kind of party for events.

I see some good suggestions, and some which I find a step too far for starting summoners.
Especially for one that mentions not having done any endgame content.

First off:
Don't even start considering Skirmish gear until you're ready to take Summoner to the next level.
Yes, the gear is amazing and comes with incredible stats but it's also insanely luck based due to the random augmenting system behind it.
Getting Skirmish gear the right balance of augments can become extremely expensive and frustrating, so really save that for when you really want to take summoner to the next level.

Now for a starting Summoner you'll want the following items:
evoker's ring <- I see this one fantastic item being overlooked so much lately.
eminent pole
eminent sachet
Upgrade the Empyrian set to at least 109, this set alone already offers a really nice balance between perpetuation cost reduction, summoning magic skill as well as a little bit of extra Blood Pact Damage.
Add to this a pair of Assiduity pants (+1) and you'll cap perpetuation cost without a weapon and have an extra source of refresh in your perpetuation set.
Really basic stuff, but enough to get you started.

From here on out you can start building further with gathering and upgrading the Relic set for Blood Pact Ability delay reduction and the Artifact body if you want the extra 2% Blood pact damage.
And not to forget, the Artifact feet which will do great as Blood Pact piece until you get to Helios.

Optional items:
Gridarvor With the perpetuation reduction you get from the Beckoner's gear this isn't a vital piece but it comes with a couple of nice to have extra avatar stats.
shomonjijoe +1 Nice idle piece because of the +3 refresh but the NM can be an absolute pain.
seraphicaller Upgrade to this from Eminent Sachet as soon as you can.
conveyance cape The cape itself is easy to get, spam reives until you get this or 3 other JSE capes and trade those in for this one. Try to get a few good augments through refractive crystals.
mujin obi and moepapa stone
fervor ring

If you want to take Summoner even further after that I'd suggest you go back to the first page and start aiming for the sets Lunareticc posted.
But if you do, prepare to bleed gil.

As for practical endgame uses for summoner, quite a lot but to be brutally honest don't count on being picked up for those a lot.
As damage dealer the incredible damage numbers we can push require very specific party setups on which most pick ups don't burn themselves as well as gear.

It has its uses as a buffing job too, but on that department there are other jobs most pick up parties prefer to have in that spot. Like Corsairs, bards, Red Mages and Geomancers.