A Few Questions :x

I would like to start off by saying hello :D

1) I'm wondering SMN's role in current end game content above VW. Whatever I do outside of VW is low man, so I don't get to see them in action.

2) This may be hard to answer, I am wondering what type of damage you do outside of abby/vw content. To gauge where I am at. Not really looking for the rare high dmg hit, what kind of damage do you normally do per BP?

3) Gear sets: I have most of the +1 empy and +2 relic. Right now the +2 relic seemed better to me (and the empy more situational). I am working on the garuda staff at the moment (but its going to take a while with my playtime).

How important are the summon staves? And which ones should I work on first?

4) Gear questions: If you have MAB/crit gear on does it transfer to your pet? Or do you need the specific "Increases avatar's X" gear to do so?

5) Merits: What merits are must haves? I maxed out phys/magic acc because I typically use both types. I had not decided on what tier 2 to max out yet. Which two tier 2 summon spells should be picked?


I have near maxed SMN skill (407 at the moment, 460 with gear). And the few VW runs I had went on, I felt kind of gimp. Last run that came to mind is Bot Rex, ramuh was only thunderstorming for 1000-1200 dmg.

Thanks a bunch for taking a look, and any advice you can offer.

I am not main SMN but what i can tell you is that sumnmoner is used for Perfect defence and shock squall only on Arch Dynamis Lord. This until the nerf of PD will come (it is being announced already).

With the new 1 hour ability i think it can open up new possibilities (from the look of it is a blood pact chainspell).

Sorry if i cannot contribute more.

no gear stats will transfer to your pet unless the gear specifically says pet: mab+ etc. Only exception I think is atmas in abyssea, which will all affect your pet.

As for the magian staves they are mostly useless. -perp is very easy to cap nowadays and the -bp even easier. The only advantage you will get out of a staff is allowing yo uto swap 1 or 2 pieces of perp for refresh, but I don't think there are a ton of options for refresh for smn that you cant already equip while capping perp with a chatoyant. The pet mab+ magian staff is/was the best for magical bp (been a while since i checked so could be other stuff now).

As for your bp damage, you want to precast in -bp gear then finish in pet: mab/macc is its a magical bp, +skill gear if its a buff. Not sure what type of damage you should be putting out as I haven't played SMN in a long time though.

1) Current role is Perfect Defense and Shock Squall. (I personally hate this and think the job needs major adjustment to make it live up to FF lore.)

2)This varies immensely depending on what you fight. I would do around 3k+ to ADL with merit BPs and about 900 damage physical BP to odin2.

3) I'll post some sets later if no one else does but generally you'll want a BP Delay set for pre-BP activation to hit 45 second recast, a pet MAB set for magic based BP, a perpetuation set/refresh hybrid, a physical BP set, and a magic skill set.

4)No, only gear that specifically address the "avatar" or "pet" will affect them.

5)For group 1 I suggest 5/5 physcial atk, and magical atk. For group two pick two of the avatars you'll use most, or even three. I strongly suggest not spreading them out.

(I personally use Heavenly Strike and Thunderstorm. I use Ramuh often for shocksquall so its easy to use both on the same pet. I use Shiva for a dark aligned magic nuke. Many things are weak to ice, or at least don't resist it. Between these two I cover most of my bases.)

Thank you for the responses :D

It's too bad we don't have a thread for random questions like this.