Leveling smn from 1-10

[AtraposBLM]

I've been meaning to level summoner as an alternate subjob for my black mage for some time now, but the last time I tried was before I had any avatars.
Currently, I have:
Ifrit
Ramuh
Titan
Garuda
Shiva
Carby (duh)

I'm lv3, and I'm a taru.

I'm not used to having a pet around, as I've only played BLM and WHM past level 10, and was wondering if you could give me some tips.
Things I particularly want to know:
1) Which avatar of the ones I have should I use?
2) Approximately what con mobs should I go after (assume I'll be wearing good gear, and can bring drinks/pies/w/e if you think it'd make it go faster)
3) Should I just sub /blm and abuse stone to level my way up a bit (I found I could with whm...but I wanted to train my other skills so I refrained)?
4) What are the best blood pacts to use from 1-20?
5) Approximately how far would I be able to solo before grouping becomes mandatory (for my blm, getting past 8 was terrible. For my samurai, I got to 11 ridiculously fast (purposely kamikazed enough to bring me back down to 9 so I can duo with a friend in horutoto)?
I know how to level in windy, so you don't need to be *too* specific, just looking for a general idea of what kind of con I can go after.

I'm trying to get summoner to lv30 at *least*, so any strategies (including helpful macro's, aside from the basic /assault /release) would be nice. I've read most of this forum, so if you refer to other posts I'll most likely know what you're talking about.

Thanks in advance.

[Tomoh]

Actually, getting to 10 wasn't all that hard. I had all the SMNs you had, but I pretty much stuck to Carby. I subbed BLM until about 5 and subbed RDM after that. I let Carby beat on mobs for about half of mob HP than I joined in with 2-handed staff and Stone upto 5. After that I subbed RDM and helped Carby with enfeeble spells. I chose Carby since he didn't seem as MP draining as the others.

Harder and more time consuming is increasing SMN skill. Look at the sticky on SMN macro.

[AtraposBLM]

thanks.

[Navia]

Carbuncle is all you need until 15.

up until level 9, carbuncle stays out a looong time because he only takes 1mp/3sec. Its most efficient to just use a 2h staff and let loose on easyprey/decent challenge with carbuncle attacking.
You should pretty much match his damage so hate between you and carbuncle will shift back and forth. You can kill quite a bit of stuff before needing to rest.

The levels when avatars costs increase another 1mp per interval are the toughest, you pay more but dont really see any difference in regular melee power compared to the previous level.

If you add in a pineapple juice every 5mins or so, the early levels just fly by with no resting at all.