SMN As A Third Job

Full disclosure: I'm a career BLM, and a part-time RDM, but I've always been interested in Summoner and my LS suggested I level a pet job, so I've come here asking for some advice, specifically about gear.

What is considered the absolutely Must-Have gear for SMN? Obviously I will get the Artifact and Empyrean and pieces of Relic. It's more the stuff that I will need to find on the AH or from NMs that I am curious about. I've tried putting together sets on here but I keep coming away from them feeling like I don't really understand what's involved.

For example, I was going to put the Dual Wield and Acc on my Royal Reddingote for Red Mage LOLMelee because it seemed there was enough other -perp cost gear out there but not much DW Body for RDM. Is my understanding incorrect? Also, is the YY robe still worth getting? What about the hobo set?

I'm not looking for super hard-to-find items that require fifty VW Jeuno T6 runs to get, as I'd rather spend that time upgrading BLM or RDM or any number of other things. This includes things like Salvage gear. Also, I'm trying to optimize storage space.

Thank you for any advice you can provide!

PS - Merits seem to be Tier 1: Attack/M. Atk, Tier 2: one in each for proc purposes and then max out one of them. Correct?

Perpetuation gear is most important. I still use YYR in my idle (since it has refresh) and -bp delay sets, its worth getting until you ge af3 body I suppose. I imagine the nm isnt as camped as it used to be.

You will want to get a -bp delay set (caps at 15 seconds (I think)), and any smn skill+ and avatar affecting gear you can to macro in for blood pacts (ie. avatar matk)

Soulscourge is also very good for macroing in for things, at least until you make some magian staves, but even then you could still macro it in for wards and siphon. I'd suggest actual gear but, its 6.30am and Im not really awake enough yet -.-

Must-Haves for SMN would be:
-15 bloodpact timer gear to macro in when using a bloodpact.
summoning magic+ gear for bloodpact: wards and siphons. (increases duration of wards, and adds more MP gained with siphon)
Avatar: MAB set for the merited bloodpacts, and Avatar: Attack+ set for physical bloodpacts.
A refresh idle set never hurts, +2 horn, yinyang or pluviale, serpentes cuff's and sabots, and moonshade earring augmented with refresh, ect...

As far as yinyang goes, summoner's doublet +2 gives more -bloodpact time now, and there are plenty of refresh bodies SMN can use, so no it's not all that important anymore.

Merited bloodpacts are just as you said. At least stick one merit in each, I personally did 5/5 heavenly strike for abyssea.

Edit: /SCH is also a very nice subjob for SMN offering weathers to trigger af3+2 hands to half perp cost on avatars, sublimation to keep MP up. Aspir is also a nice thing to have since almost everything these days has MP, and helix spells.

AF3 does a lot of work for you, removing perp cost and such.

YYR is becoming less and less useful these days, since theres a load of -BP delay gear you can use to reach the -15 second cap and there's quite a few refresh bodies out for smn now like Pluviale. It's starting to be more a trophy piece from the old days like oracle's braconi and evoker's pigaches +1. On that note, you can use austere robe as both a starter -perp body as well as part of a BP delay set if you don't have YYR, same goes for austere hat and cuffs.

AF3 body is better than royal redingote, and it's not worth putting -4BP delay aug on it when you can use the body for something unique or for another job.

The only piece of AF1 that's somewhat worth holding onto now is the legs, which gives the avatar +14 melee accuracy, the horn is a good starter skill+ piece for siphon and BPs.

A few good pieces off the AH off the top of my head:
Sacrifice torque Can macro in for physical BPs, but more importantly if you put it on while slept and with an avatar out, its HP drain will wake you up.

Eidolon pendant hMP and magic BPs, pretty straightforward.

Tiresias' cape BP delay and magic BPs.

Can use things with MP like bifrost ring, graiai earring, even hierarch belt is good for idling in, although I tend to not go crazy with MP+ gear, since most of my slots get swapped out for BPs and other actions, but it's nice to have a little extra MP to start with for prebuffs and stuff.

Thank you for the information so far! Learning is fun.

Purely fooling around here, I found this for the -Bloodpact Delay set:



Obviously that puts me over the -15 cap, and doesn't take into account anything that might have less delay but be multifunctional (I'm not going to lie, I really just like the way the YY Robe looks on us Taru). I'm just sort of stumbling about here, like I said.

Then for Avatar Perp Cost I found the following, plus the appropriate staff. I would probably stick with the elemental staves just because I'm dragging my feet on the BLM Damage staves already.



With the exception of the staves, I was trying to avoid anything that would be used for just one avatar, as space can be an issue. Obviously a lot of those are dependent on weather, so I'd go /sch.

I'm less clear on what's needed for bloodpacts and summoning skill. I'll go putz around in the item lists.

If you can get a fay crozier augmented with -3 perpetuation that's the best staff other than bahamut's to save inventory space while keeping -perp capped.
As for using summoner's horn in your perp set, caller's horns refresh is better if your capping your -perpetuation( which you can easily with /sch and weathers). Allowing you to have refresh with your avatars out.

this is my current perpetuation set:
moonshade earring augmented with refresh+1 and mp+25 and the fay crozier has -3 perpetuation on it.
/sch and weathers this set gives 4/tic refresh with avatars out.

Is upgrading the Relic a time-consuming process? it's part of why I didn't include them in my builds because I thought it would take more effort than I wanted to put in for my #3 job.

The af3 body will do just fine, af2 is just slightly better to idle in because of the crit rate +6% I wouldn't bother doing it if your not going to use SMN all that much.

All avatars are free as smn/sch, ramuh cost the most because we lack thunderstorm as /sch. fenrir/diabolos/carby cost less than the others so they are the easiest to get for free. for ramuh I usually throw af3 body on since there is no weather and that gives me 1/tic refresh back, 2/tic if I throw on augur's legs.

with weathers: summoner's doublet+2 and caller's doublet+2 give me the same amount of refresh back(4/tic) so its the best body to let avatars TP in.

Well for magic BPs, this is what I use currently



And this is what I would consider a perfect setup (Excluding nirvana lol)



2x Diamond earring with pet: mab +2 each (from an ACP key), altius mantle with pet mab +2 (ASA behemoth key) zenith pumps with pet mab+5 and Swap the shareeravadi with the full upgraded version. AF3 hands for the small boost to the set proc rate.

For a physical BP set it gets a bit tricky, since enhancing your avatar's attack does very little, and critrate without crit damage is the same, so the only pieces that make a noticable difference are Caller's doublet +2 and summoner's pigaches +2 with the BP: increases crit damage aug, then AF3+2 in the other slots for the set bonus. I would put sacrifice torque and mujin obi in as well but don't expect them to do much. Soulscourge is nice for physical as well if nothing else but for the blood boon on it.

You would have to alter certain pieces if your avatar's accuracy was low (newer content) such as evoker's spats, summoner's bracers +1/+2 and throwing in more skill+.

For skill+ gear, use pure skill+ for wards and put on as much blood boon+ as you can. For siphon you want as much skill+ as possible with the exception of AF3 +2 feet, which give a +50 boost to siphon and tatsumaki sitagoromo with +20 ele siphon if you have/get it.

The bonus of the Af3+2 hands gets added after everything's been calculated. The description makes it seem like its a lot but depending on ur current -perp setup it may only be like like -1 perp for u.

I tested it recently and nashira gages and and af3+2 were giving me the same total -perp.

Also mujin obi is worth it bps if u can afford it. Reports show its ~10% bonus in dmg to ur bps.

The af3 hands only make a noticable difference if your /sch due to weathers capping your -perp for the most part, and allowing your refresh items to directly give you refresh instead of counting as more -perp on your avatars.

ex. caller's horn +2 without capping -perp just counts as -2 perp, not +2 refresh.

With weathers you only need -9 perp to hit the cap.
af2+2 body(-3 perp) af3+2 feet(-3 perp) fay crozier(-3 perp) evoker's ring(-1 perp) caller's pendant (-1 perp during weather) is already overcapping. After that it's better to just use refresh gear where you can.

With trial of magian weapons it becomes even easier to cap, but I'm already limited in inventory as it is so I just use fay crozier for all avatars.

And then I put together two more item sets of things from what people are suggesting:

Summoning skill


Avatar Magic Attack


Again, trying to avoid things that cost a million gil or seem difficult to get, I know there's better stuff out there.

How does Bloodpact Delay equipment work? Do you have it on when you activate the ability and then switch to the attack or skill gear while the Avatar readies it?

Getting to a zero MP loss is not that hard with the +2 AF3. This is my set for most avatars. And it gives me+3 refresh with the avatars out. So all this is not needed to cap out to a zero loss. It's just pretty much the ideal set up witout getting into magian staffs.



Augur's legs are pretty simple to obtain. Nashira Gages are going to be tricky as Limbus is dead. You will also need less gear to keep out Carbuncle, Fenrir and Diablos.

i seen so many smn that don't know what atmas to use on abyssea-_- garuda is literally the best avatar @abyss don't need mm just garnarled horn, sanguine syt, razed ruins, can pop up to 4-5k predator claws very constantly if you are in pt or ls event

There are quite a few important gear sets you need for SMN actually. Like most have said, they're Prep-, Blood Pact delay- (macro in before using a BP), Avatar ATK/Acc bonus, Avatar Magic ATK/Acc bonus, Summoning Skill, and Elemental Siphon gear (not listed in an order of importance or anything like that.) Here's what I use.

Summoning skill (BP ward durations/effect)

With merits and capped skill, this is 529 Summoning Magic. Might be a bit overkill, but I say it can't be enough overkill!

BP ability delay- (if you don't do the magian trial staves)
(max Blood Pact delay- is 15; this is -18)

Elemental Siphon

Pants are augmented with Elemental Siphon +20. Caller's feet+2 is equal to about 40 summoning skill. (source)
(Summoning Skill(513)- 50 + 20 + 40 x (Bonus from day/weather; Icesday + Hailstorm so 1.20))
513 - 50 = 463 + 20 = 483 + 40 = 523
523*1.2 = 627.6 (Someone feel free to check the math on this :x)

Prep-

Fay Crozier augmented with prep-3 Pet: atk+5/MAB+3. Nash gages swap out to Carbuncle Mitts if using Carby (and a refresh body/Caller's Horn+2 since you won't need the prep-7 with him.) or Caller's Bracers +1/2 depending on avatar you're using and the day. With /SCH you get 5/8 weather effects, and Sublimation can lower your HP to the 75% needed for conjurer's ring effect,

Physical BPs

Could use Summoner's Doublet/+1/+2 for the crit rate (Predator Claws), but I like the set proc on Empy armor. :x Also I don't really go hunting down the pet: atk/magic atk+ stuff cause I'm kinda lazy.

Magic BPs

The Magian Pet: MAB+ staff would be a better piece, but I'm working on Cure staff and STR claws for SCH/RDM/PUP D: I'll get around to it eventually...

And yeah, that's really all I can think of. Might want some MND+ gear also for a stoneskin set (though with /SCH and Light Arts, shouldn't need too much mnd+. Mostly for /rdm or /whm.)


Since Earthen Ward Stoneskin is (DMG absorbed = Avatar's levelx2 + 50 HP; 99*2+50; 198+50 = 248 stoneskin.) 248 Stoneskin compared to 430 stoneskin. >_> (I get 460 on RDM thanks to stone mufflers~<3) And this is going by base SMN99/RDM49 Elvaan MND of 96. Idk how much mind other races will need. Sorry. :x

I went through a heavenly strike phase myself :x 5/5 if, then MM/Ultimate/Beyond. Was getting just shy of 6k.

Also, OP, 5/5 Avatar Magic Acc/Atk in group1 merits. Then, in group 2, you can 5/5 one Blood Pact, then 1/5 the rest (since you need them for staggering in voidwatch anyway.) Though I did 5/5 Magic acc for the 75 cap, so maybe Atk/Magic Atk now...

Attack/magic attack is the way to go. You really don't need MACC for anything other than like, :ward enfeebles.

Thank you you totally revamped my SMN perp down set...


Garuda/Leviathan Perp Down set,So far i get +3mp/tick with this set.. I could swap out Tatsu(-PDT) for refresh subligar(total +4mp/tick) if i ever get them...

If you wanna be really pro, Fast Cast set for summoning avatars!


For main weapon, wear a magian staff with the Casting time -14% effect on them! Think the fast cast on this is um...

Body - 5
Marduk set - 10
Loq - 2
Vivid - 1
Witful - 3
Ring - 2
/RDM - 15
Total - 38% Fast Cast (+14% with <element> casting time: -14%)

5/5 Rubeus beats it though, i think no? Also dont forget veela cape!



But if u have blm leveled u can now swap from the -16% casting to the perp staff

Ah didn't realize it was 10% with just two pieces; 50% for each piece. (that seems a bit much though... and it has a verify flag on it on the wiki.)

But, going with the 10% bit, it's um

Neck - 3
Rubeus set - 50
Cape - 2
Ear - 2
Ring - 2
Belt - 3
Strap - 1
/RDM - 15
total - 78% Fast cast; 14% cast time down with Magian staves (DMG+6 Acc+1 Casting time-14% path)

I've been trying to figure out how the Fay Crozier works, but I don't quite understand. You get the base weapon from a woodworker and then you can augment it from "Succor to the Sidhe" quest? Or do you get it already-augmented from a Campaign battle? The wiki isn't quite informative enough for me to figure out what I should be doing.

If you augment it through the quest, are the augments random?

Get the base weapon and trade it to the fairy in w/e zone you want fights where semi challenging at 75, prolly still need 2 ppl there is more than one mob kill said mobs and get random augs on said weapon traded. gl