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

Keep the helios band, it will beat apogee +1. Trash the rest (except the legs)
Immediate goals. Convokers +2 body and feet. Merlinic hands. Enticers spats. Espiritus or griovalr. Sachet +1

Cap your bp recast set, build a decent magic pact set, cap your jp,

I've got capped BP1 recast, but only -7 BP2 recast. Seraphicaller -5 and -2 on Adoulin JSE Cape. I'll probably have to get Apogee Body to get the -3 there which should give me enough for when I get JP 100 to cap. The only AF3 I can +1 is head. I haven't won any of the other Vagaries.

thank you both for your input. I think I can work on most of this. Grio staff may be out of reach for me for now, so I'll work on Espiritus in the meantime.

Relic 119, espiritus, conveyance cape (wkr jse capes) all have bp2. You also get -10 that can apply to either thru gifts.

I have a conveyance cape with -2 BP II, my question is if using it during precast means that you lose the +1 Avatar Level from Campetres's on the BP itself?

It was my understanding that +x Avatar level functions similar to Wyvern HP +x% for drg, where they don't take effect immediately. If that is the case, is it detrimental to use Conveyance for the BP II aug?

Ok, I am just making sure I am reading this right. I have a 2 month old at home so I am sleep deprived and not sure my comprehension is all there. So what is the minimum recast delay on BP?

I literally have like 3 JP into Smn at the moment and with my current gear I have a recast of 30sec. I know it will go down another 10 sec with the JP Gifts so that brings it to 20. Is that the actual lowest? From videos I have seen that seems long. Can someone put up the best BP -delay and what the actual lowest recast can be?

Much thanks.

The first 15 is bp timer I. The second 15 is timer II. The last 10 (really 8-9) is favor tiers. The two gifts count towards either gear timer stat tier.

Current achievable recast limit is 21s. This requires all bp timer I and II, favor active and charged, 670 skill (baayami set and perfect gear), and convokers horn +1 and the +1 favor gift.

Its nore reasonable to hit 22s recast.

So the lowest is like 21-22 sec recast?

21 Seconds with 670 Summoning Magic + EMP+1 Head, I believe. Which takes some serious gil to get there currently.

22 Seconds with 575 skill and Emp+1 head which is much more reasonable.

Thank you for the explanation. I was missing the skill/empy +1 head
My brain hurts less now. :)

Hello everyone! I'm helping my friend finish his Nirvana today, and I am trying to put together a melee build for trials. I have a few pieces picked out, and my eye on the onca suit. Can anyone give me a little guidance on this one. I would just brew them, but I don't have smn built, and he was on break through most of abyssea and voidwatch. Any help is appreciated.

How do you post gearsets on here? I want to put up two gearsets for opinions but I don't know how to do it.

Anyone else having an issue with gearswap where it *** missed BP rage gear on thunderspark close to 50% of the time?

actually yes, I thought it was just my lua though but all seemed fine to me, maybe post or pm me yours ill look at it.

from what i've heard it's more tied into how gearswap handles pets.

I have been extremely happy with my SMN performance lately, but am still tinkering around the edges on my physical BP set to improve it further. In terms of planning out my next upgrades, am I missing anything? I believe a Sancus Sachet +1 to be the next logical get in terms of bang for the buck upgrade (performance: gil ratio). My Merlinic hands are pretty weak too, but i just can't seem to get anything better with that perfect BP roll.

ItemSet 351852

Helios Band: BP+7/DA+7/Att+27
Merlinic Hands: BP+10/Acc+11/Str+3
Helios Boots: BP+7/DA+8/Att+25

For upgrade order I am thinking:
Sancus+1 > Elan +1 > Merlinic Hands upgrade > BP+8 on the Helios Band

My non food non Escha Pet: Acc is 1291. I perform great on WoC but have not attempted any HELMS on SMN. Is that enough, or should I look into something like AF+2/3 Hands as a swap to add more? Re-augmenting the feet and head for acc instead of att is also an option.

For buffs duration I am considering adding the new crafted Baayami feet. They'd be replacing Empy - so 29 more seconds, but less chance for the duration bonus to go off. Thoughts?

Upgrade in this order: Sancus Sachet +1, Gelos Earring, elan +1, Apogee slacks and feet +1, Nirvana, Varar +1s.

About the only way you can go on merlinic is 10 bpd and the proper stat modifier for the BP rage.

Should be fine on helms, assuming you're job master, Shiro and dual crooked card 11s

Sidra that's a really solid set, although honestly I would say Apogee Slacks path D should be your first upgrade. Even if you can't +1 them, they'll be an upgrade over Enticers for Volt Strike.

TP Bonus actually benefits magic BPs more than physical BPs. This seems backwards to most peoples' intuition so it's a common mistake to make. Enticers are more for magic BPs, or single-hit physical BPs like Spinning Dive.

Also, Gelos is so easy to get, I'd rank that pretty high too to replace the Domesticator's. In terms of money-spending, I think your priority is right, and I also think you're right in the T4 territory. It may be good enough for T4s now, if not it will be after Apogee Slacks and Sancus+1.

As for wards, I replaced every single piece of Empy with Baayami. I gave up on the empy set bonus. I'd rather have a 9 minute Hastega2 every time than a 12-16 minute Hastega2 3% of the time and 8 minutes the rest of the time.

I can easily do nq apogee pants and probably the hq. I was worried that losing the combo of 5 percent crit rate plus whatever that tp bonus will have on crit rate as well for volt and pc would eat up the gains from the additional bp damage. My build now has so much da that it feel like 4 hits are more common than 3 hits and 5 hits which are massive are actually fairly common. Thus I have been delaying gelos.

I am with ya on baayami...gonna start with the feet and go from there.

In order to break the 21s tier at 670 skill and put a real use into baayami, you need one hq piece or a stikini +1 as well.

Right now just going for 29 more seconds on haste 2 and crystal blessing :)

Yeah, even I'm finding it hard to justify the cost on a hq piece, if it wasnt for the refresh on either ring or hq feet, i wouldn't have bothered until relic +2/3 rears its head.

Hey Smn people. I'm looking to get back into playing smn again, and tbh, I haven't touched it since 75 sky farming days, so I'm looking for some guidance as far as where to focus on sets.

Lets assume I have hundreds of millions of gil to throw at this job to be completely dedicated, and I'm already in process of building Nirvana. Are bp's more focused on physical or mab these days, is apogee+1 worth it, or have other sets surpassed? Which HQ items are highest > lowest priority to obtain? What are most important things for a 99 i119 smn of 2017 to know? etc etc

Sorry for super generalized post, I know a lot is already talked about, and I'm trying to page through it all and read, but was hoping for the tldr version if anyone was willing.

much love.

Welcome back! Generally speaking, the first things you'll want to get are a Sancus Sachet (+1) from the AH and a Campestres's Cape from Ambuscade for the avatar ilvl bonuses. You'll also want to get to 1200 JPs to minimize your BP timer. BP Delay caps at -15, BP Delay II caps at -15, and your JP Gifts count towards either, so make sure you have a total of -30 between the three.

As far as priority on other items, look for the highest BP Damage and go from there. Pet: MAB is next-most important for magical BPs, with Pet: Acc and Pet: Atk being next-most for physical, obv.

With recent adjustments, physical BPs are more widely used, particularly Volt Strike and Predator Claws. For a physical set, Apogee Slacks +1 (augmented on path D) and Apogee Pumps +1 (path B) are still BiS as far as I know. I personally use the Apogee Crown +1 (B) in my set, but I hear that a perfectly augmented Helios Crown will beat it.

For magical BPs, I use Apogee +1 head, body, and feet augmented on path A.

Apogee Mitts +1 are BiS for magic accuracy whenever you get around to building a debuff BP set. If you need Summoning Skill, the new Baayami set is BiS after you get to 500 JPs.

Other than that, look into getting your artifact armor upgraded to i119, quest for a Gelos Earring in Adoulin, and start farming Escha, Reisenjima, and Omen for other upgrades.

Thanx, very helpful. Specifically, am I going to get more mileage out of choosing physical or mab paths for apogee+1? As much as I'd like to have both, for the moment I'll probably only be able to afford 1 set of +1 since I'll be sinking so much gil into mythic and accessories. Is it worth to go path C, which has a bit of both, or just a waste, and should focus on one?


P.S. I'm also looking for a quality smn gearswap lua to plug sets into. The guy that I usually get all my luas from apparently doesn't do pet jobs, so any suggestions or references would be great.

TinyAttorney, thank you for that.

I've also just come back and I've been reading through as many forums as possible. Jack, there are a few good luas I've found for smn, depending on your preferences; I pulled one from reddit, one from here, and one from kinematics' sets.

The one here is Verda's, and it's really crazy detailed and very thought-out; Verda's

The one I pulled from reddit I've just started customizing and trying to teach myself lua as I go. Pastebin link

My own questions:

I'm not in the Nirvana/tons of money group, but I've got a solid start with some convoker's +1 and all glyphic sans pants. I've not upgraded any empy yet. I'm looking at building a Gridarvor for the here-and-now; is it worth it? I'm about halfway through the RoV missions; my understanding is that one should finish them before beginning to CP farm, but where's a good solo spot for a no-JP summoner to start getting a pool of that going?

Gridavor is a great weapon. You lose some of the high end potential of Nirvana, primarily with AM3 in use. But Double Attack + 15 is a nice consolation prize and you have basically the same amount of ACC and ATT.

For early CPs, I really like Woh Gates worms on the west side of the map. You pretty much make a trust hold party, engage, and BP on your timer.

For a good idea of a very effective SMN without spending much gil and not having Nirvana, take a look at my post a few up from here.

Much appreciated. I'd like to get some JP under my belt and reacquaint myself with macros and battle-flow before I go chase endgame.

I'm a little lost on 'hold party' - is that different from a typical Trust exp setup?

Gridarvor is a must-have for physical pacts, the only thing better is nirvana(arguably was+1, but depends on other equipment and it's marginal). It's also a good idle-perp stand-in.

You'll also want a grioavolr for magical pacts, and an Espiritus for buff pacts eventually.

As far as a 'hold party', I'm assuming he means a defensive composition of trusts. Tank, refresh npc, couple healers, while you do the actual damage. Unfortunately, solo JP with SMN are going to be painstakingly slow. Maybe try to team up with someone or even compose a party through shout, you're talking about a speed difference that could be as much as 4-5x.

Don't be shy about asking for help either. LS isn't as active as it used to be, but if you feel stuck on anything I'm sure people would be willing to join in(myself included).

Just a party to keep the mob occupied and get a Dia on it. Your BPs will pretty much one shot the mobs, but there are a lot of worms around so you don't just wanna stand there. Engaging keeps heals going and refresh on you, while providing a tad more damage in case your new BPs aren't quite strong enough yet for a 1 shots.

with that as you said, What augments are a bare min to get for that?