Summoner Info.. {yes please.}

[Lythinari]

With most of the stickys out dated from a very long time ago, they lack information which summoners have found out over the 2 or 3 years since the "Summoner FAQ" sticky was posted.

Problems with the first few posts for about 2 pages is that its filled with information which can easily be acquired from job abilities and what not from other websites.
Perhaps somepage, or allakazam as examples.

What information the majority of or lower level summoners dont know are things such as...
Moon crescents for Ecliptic howl, Ecliptic Growl and the status effects on each phase. - information like this is hard to find out, but I know statuc effect for ecliptic growl, just want to find the one for howl.
Advantages of different subjobs for summoner - I find lots of people critisize anything other than whm, but then again, people critisize anything but war sub for nin yet nin/blm is a very good DD.
Foods that can be consumed - one day one of the summoners in my pt ate sole sushi, and I think, her avatar caused about 10-20 more damage on the mob than it was before. I say think because there were three carbuncles hitting the mob at one time and it was only one time experience so far.
Summoning skill - we know it doesnt increase strength of your avatar, still I know is in question, but I heard from someone that capped smn skill enhances astral flow. Accuracy and evasion is hard to calculate on an avatar. So is hate, but from a one time experience uncapped skill gives more hate than capped.

[Jabeo]

Re: Summoner Info.. {yes please.}

I am by no means an expert on SMN since the majority of my FFXI career has been as PLD but my wife is SMN75 and mine is Lv69 now so I think I can at least attempt to answer your questions as best as my knowledge allows.

Q1) Effect of moon phase on Ecliptic Growl?

A1: My observation is that there is no relation here. The effect of Ecliptic Growl is based on the level of the SMN starting at Lv.50 with an effect of +4 to each status parameter and reaching a maximum of +7 to each at Lv.75.

Q2) Effect of moon phase on Ecliptic Howl?

A2: The effect of this blood pact is related to moon phase. I forget which is related to which, but the accuracy and evasion bonuses are determined by moon phase. For example, during a full moon whichever one is associated with that phase will get a maximum bonus while the other gets the minimum bonus. The same can be said but in opposite terms during a new moon. When the moon phase is at 50% the bonuses are equal. Now if someone can remember which status, be it accuracy or evasion, is linked with which moon phase then you will have the general idea of how the effect of this bloodpact is determined. As for exact numbers for the bonus... beats me and I am not even sure how you would get %'s for accuracy and evasion but you would probably have to do lots of testing while running a parser or something.

Q3) Effect of food on avatar strength?

A3: I don't want to be a nay sayer but I am 99% certain that food comsumed by the SMN does not effect the avatar in any way. Was the other SMN a level higher than you? Did the other SMN have an Apollo's Staff while you only had a regular Light Staff? These are some things to consider. If the owner of the other carbuncle was higher level than you that could explain the higher damage. Another possibility, and I stress that possibilty since there is no proof to back it up, is if they were using a HQ staff it may have a subtle enhancing effect of some sort. The extra damage could also be chalked up to luck. Like any melee attack there is a range of damage that can be done and maybe that carbuncle was just extra lucky that day and was landing lots of maximum damage hits.

Q4) Effect of summoning magic skill?

A4: I wish I had the answer to this one. From my experience I can agree that this skill does not effect avatar strength and that it does not effect the strength of Astral Flow. I honestly feel that only the dev. team at SE know what the hell this skill does (if anything). In terms of magic skills your skill level reflects your magic accuracy. For all the other magic types (elemental, enfeebling, dark, etc.) what this means is the higher your skill, the more accurate your magic will be and the less likely it will be for your magic to be resisted. So, what does this mean to a SMN? Well, since you raise your skill by summoning an avatar or spirit and there is no accuracy to be involved here at all I have a personal theory that summoning magic skill was created simply to give SMN a skill for their magic. Think about it, without summoning magic skill what would it fall under? It fits none of the other magic types with the only one that is even close being enhancing. So I think the dev. team at SE just created this skill for game mechanics so that when a SMN casts a spell it would have a skill that could increase (that did not fit any of the pre-existing skills) but in fact has no bearing what so ever on the effectivness of their avatars. I am sure some of you are thinking, well what about the Tier II or IV spells that avatars can cast or spells cast by spirits? My answer to that is that those spells strength (and accuracy) are all dependent on the avatar's/spirit's strength, which is determined by the level of the SMN.

[Spellbinder]

Re: Summoner Info.. {yes please.}

I haven't played in a while so I wasn't sure what Ecliptic Growl was until I read the post above me, but I'm certain that it is affected by the moon phases. There was a chart floating around somewhere showing how much each stat is boosted based on the moon phase, so maybe someone with a link could pitch in with that information.

[Feenicks]

Re: Summoner Info.. {yes please.}

All magic skills (Ninjitsu, Healing etc) decrease the likelihood of interruption as the skill gets higher, from my experience. So from that we can say that the only concrete thing that we know Summoning Magic Skill can improve is that higher skill means you are less likely to get interrupted when you get hit.

I seem to remember an interview with SE a while ago saying that the Summoning Magic skill does very little - well they said that it didn't affect anything to do with avatars, casting time, blood pacts or anything major.

[Tirrock]

Re: Summoner Info.. {yes please.}

Summoning magic skill also, apparently, increases the frequency of avatar spirits casting. I never use the spirits anyway, so I can't say if that's right or not.

As for ecliptic growl: It is effected by moon phase, not level.

Moon Phase ---------Lunar Cry------------Ecliptic Growl--------Ecliptic Howl
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
New Moon............... Acc-1 Eva-31..........STR+1 INT+7.........Acc+1 Eva+25
Waxing Crescent......Acc-6 Eva-26..........STR+2 INT+6.........Acc+5 Eva+21
Waxing Crescent......Acc-11 Eva-21........STR+3 INT+5.........Acc+9 Eva+17
First Quarter Moon...Acc-16 Eva-16........STR+4 INT+4.........Acc+13 Eva+13
Waxing Gibbous.......Acc-21 Eva-11........STR+5 INT+3.........Acc+17 Eva+9
Waxing Gibbous.......Acc-26 Eva-6..........STR+6 INT+2.........Acc+21 Eva+5
Full Moon..................Acc-31 Eva-1..........STR+7 INT+1.........Acc+25 Eva+1
Waning Gibbous.......Acc-26 Eva-6..........STR+6 INT+2.........Acc+21 Eva+5
Waning Gibbous.......Acc-21 Eva-11........STR+5 INT+3.........Acc+17 Eva+9
Last Quarter Moon...Acc-16 Eva-16........STR+4 INT+4.........Acc+13 Eva+13
Waning Crescent......Acc-11 Eva-21........STR+3 INT+5.........Acc+9 Eva+17
Waning Crescent......Acc-6 Eva-26..........STR+2 INT+6.........Acc+5 Eva+21

On the chart, STR means STR, DEX, and VIT boosts.
INT means AGI, MND, INT, and CHR boosts.

Chart from:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/f...i_summoner.txt

I honestly haven't looked over that FAQ in a while. With all the SMN changes...I just had to feel my way through SMN. Most of it didn't matter for me by the time they took place anyway. I was in the mid/high 60s when SMNs were able to start magic bursting, and I was only damage in a party once until level 70.

Still...the chart is very helpful, if nothing else. And if I remember correctly, it also lists what level you get all the blood pacts, which is another nice feature.

[Jabeo]

Re: Summoner Info.. {yes please.}

Hehe, thanks for the chart Jenica! As you could probably tell from the length of my response regarding Ecliptic Growl I was just guessing on that one but being Fenrir the moon phase chart makes much more sense for that BP.