Finally, I feel like a summoner...

[xiozen]

All too often I have met ppls that have lvl'd summoner, and part way through the job ..say around lvl 30 - 40... they hate it... no... that's not right... they DESPISE it.

Why..? Because they feel like a substitute whm, that's why. Now I won't hypothesize as to why I think SE created the summoner job this way... however, I will use what I've experienced to understand the summoner job. In all prior FF games what did summoners do..they summoned, when the summoning animation was completed - the summoner didn't send the avatar away.. it went away on its' own once it finished using it's "bloodpact" ability... this of course is before we actually "dismissed" the avatar in future FF games.

As I see it the addition of the "Summoner's Pilgrimage" to FFXI-Online re-emphasizes the summoner job. For those who don't know what the pilgrimage is - having to do the lvl 20 avatar battles solo..which is what Yuna had to do in FFX - she couldn't get any assistance as she had to prove her worth solo w/ each avatar before she could actually summon them.

So now we have (a) getting a Carbuncle's Ruby (b) getting the lights (c) becoming a summoner (d) getting the avatars through the Summoner's Pilgrimage (e) leveling the summoner to lvl 70, which unleashes all of the avatar's abilities... so when do you really become a summoner... at LVL 70.

Some may argue you techniquely become a summoner alot sooner than that... I beg to differ and I do this because at lvl 70 you have ALL of the avatar's abilities, not just "some" or "a few". It's the trip up the leveling ladder that many players can't make--which ends up differentiating a summoner from someone without the patience to level a job which heavily depends upon the sub-job you attach to it.

So what's the best subjob... in my experience (again many may beg to differ) WHM.

I'll just point out some of the benefits I've experienced by having this as a sub-job at level 70. As an elvaan smn/whm I have about 1,064 mp (880 hpts). I start the battle with a bloodpact melee attack to get hate so that the avatar takes the all the hits in the beginning of the fight and cause roughly 900 - 1000 pts of dmg. Afterwards, and depending on the mob, Curaga II is available to use w/ Divine seal after the fight to avoid hate if needed. Cure III... all the bar-spells (which are INCREDIBLY important during Prime Avatar battles, if u don't have a whm or brd). Erase... Raise I... (not that a lvl 70+ would want R-1, but if nothing else is available ...meh)... Stoneskin and Blink (without having to cast an avatar if needed just for me)... Protectra II and Shellra II (at lvl 74)... Tele-Dem, Mea and Holla... and lvl 72... Poisona... Cursna... Viruna... but of course Leviathan can cure those, however it frees up a Bloodpact if I can just cast the spell... The benefits are ENORMOUS.

Just to set future summoners expectations... you should honestly be expected to heal between lvl 12-59... after lvl 60 - 69 you should be expected to heal and perform interimitent bloodpacts and Magic Bursts (Carby's Meteorite does AWESOME dmg and Fenrir's Eclipse Bite is heavy dmg) These two attacks are the first of the HEAVY hitting melee abilities you'll get before lvl 70... the rest of the avatar's heavy hitters become available at lvl 70.

There are "traditional" party formations...and this is what I mean... (Healer, Refresher, Tank, 3 Direct Damages) There are many, many non-traditional party formations as well... however I'm focusing this topic on the traditional.

Since many parties will be traditional you'll be sought out to fulfill the Healer role 98-99% of the time between lvl 12 - 59. At lvl 60 - 69 85-95% of the time you'll be sought out to be main healer or DD, depending on party set-up. If your serious about leveling summoner... try to look forward to healing... just do it to get the experience so that you can hit lvl 70. I can almost guarantee when you're lvl 70, parties at that lvl will be ASKING..no.. BEGGING you to use your bloodpacts or MB... the dmg I do at this lvl is INCREDIBLE.. The avatar's have no dmg cap... just last night I used Garuda's Predator Claw w/o any TP accumulation... and did 1,015 dmg... ^^ My party was like: OMG... DANG!.. Do that again!... I love smns!!! =3... etc. etc...

Anyway I wanted to spend some time tellin' folks my opinion on the smn job from 1 - 70... i'm almost lvl 71... and I get to equip my Grim Staff (can't wait!)... Also in a few lvls probably 72-73 i'll join a Dynamis LS and work on AF2

Not too far from getting my Evoker's Ring too. So GOOD LUCK to all future summoners out there. Any questions, feel free to ask me!

[DrivenTooFar]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

I hate asking a summoner to be a main healer because they usually do not get to do their main job: to summon. Unfortunatly, since healers can be few and far between, summoners usually have to take the role. At least you are optimistic about it and are thinking realisticly about the SMN/WHM job. That probably explains why you never gave up on it and are having such a good time playing as one. Thanks for the insight on the job and good luck on your way to 75.

[Lythinari]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

I have a summoner in my hnmls that believe that the relic af is soso, but still decent.
I too think that it is alright, but not something we would use outside dynamis.
Even though an hour is still a long time to use your avatars, I believe he prefers the austere's robe over the AF2 because of the avaliablility of the over all perpetuation and BP timer over the single hour weather and day perpatuation -6(total)

[SharMarali]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

Yar... Once again I have to interject that there is more than one way to play SMN. I personally was very "buff-heavy" throughout the early levels. Most SMNs seem to feel that buffing the PT is somehow "beneath" them, but I respectfully disagree. We are the ONLY class which has the ability to cast stoneskin on the entire PT. We can blink jobs that don't have /NIN, and we can raise a load of other stats with Fenrir. Until level 60, I rarely used offensive BPs at all, because I just didn't have the time to work them into my regime of stoneskin/ecliptical howl/etc. After level 60 I tried to MB when possible, but that still took a back burner to buffing the PT. 70+, I've shifted my focus a bit, but I'm still far more buff-heavy than most SMNs.

PTs really appreciate the buffs. I've had a number of people tell me that they've PTed with SMNs before but never really thought they were that good before PTing with me.

For me, being a summoner is not a one-man show, proving how much damage I can shoot out during a chain. Heck, if it was, I'd have been fighting an uphill battle, at least before 70. It's about what I can do to help the PARTY acheive the best experience possible.

And when I had a brief stint in an HNM LS, before I decided that HNMing really wasn't for me... I was shocked to find that they would APOLOGIZE for asking me to use stoneskin and blink. I would tell them NOT to apologize, this is a part of my job. Apparently other summoners that they'd dealt with in the past disagreed and would whine, complain, or even outright refuse to do what they felt was a mediocre task.

Anyway... It's up to the individual how they want to play the job. I just want to add once again that playing "buffing SMN" is certainly an option, and that no matter WHAT you read saying what summoner is or is not, it's ultimately up to you how you want to play the job.

[Darkages]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

ok quick question is mat hard at level 50 for smn bc atm im level 25 smn and i want to level it to aleast 50 bc im afaid of mat lol i dont want to die and spend over a mil on trying to kill him if i cant win after a few trys ill just finish leveling my whm to 50 atm its level 42 mabe i should do that what do yall think (country oyea)

[xiozen]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

Shar, nice point regarding buffing... something which I took for granted all summoners did ...>>in addition to being expected to main heal<<.

I know that is what I did 75-80% of the time while lvling summoner... Titan's BP, Garuda's BP, Fenrir's BP, etc etc depending upon party set-up, mobs and general circumstances.

So yes, Buffing the party is something I also think those looking at lvling this job should look forward to doing and doing often.

Thx for the reminder!^^

***Dunno about the Maat lvl 70 battle, if that is what's begin asked in the above post. I fought Maat as a Black Mage and I don't wanna do it again.. HAHAHA too much work.*** Hopefully someone can give you a few pointers... or check ffxi.allakhazam for posted hints or opinions. Good luck!

[aegina]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

i always hate inviting a summoner to be a healer. i only do it when i have no other choice.

once i was building a pt for east altepa desert (lvl 34 ish i think. this was months ago). i had a whm and a tank (i was a rdm at the time) and i noticed there were 2 summomers seeking. i invited the summoners to dd^^

i dont remember what chains we made, but the mobs died just fine. It was a fun to see ramah and leviathan appear and tear the mobs to shreads^^

since then, i try to invite smn's to backup heal when i can, so they can still summon.

p.s.: in the above pt, after awhile the whm had to leave. one of the smn's volunteered to switch to main healing, and i got another dd to replace. score one for a versitle job

[Feenicks]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

ok quick question is mat hard at level 50 for smn bc atm im level 25 smn and i want to level it to aleast 50 bc im afaid of mat lol i dont want to die and spend over a mil on trying to kill him if i cant win after a few trys ill just finish leveling my whm to 50 atm its level 42 mabe i should do that what do yall think (country oyea)

Maat is Lv66-70, yo.

[SharMarali]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

I also know nothing about the maat fight for SMN... I fought him as RDM and WISH I'd have done it as SMN.. lol...

[Bahamut Kaiser]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

Smn was originally ment to be an Advanced Player only Job, the Avatars were locked in the high lvls and you couldn't get them til you reach 60+. It was ment for player who been through most of the game with another job. PPL wanted to be able to play summoner without spending a year+ doing another job, and thus the lvl 20 avatars where introduced.

Smn is a job ment for advanced players, if your good then the avatars will provide a variety of useful and powerful abilities which are unique to the job. Thing about Smn is he falls into several catagories, Nuker, WS, Heal, Buff, and more buffs, but wile it has powerful moves in several catagories he cannot use them all freely or dedicate to 1 as regularly because of the time delay on BPs. A good summoner will be able to do his BPs of whatever flavor and mix in a few cures. At higher lvls Smn can easily replace a Whm with more then just cures, he can reduce the damage beforehand with powerful Buffs, and do a few specialty cures with avatars too.

Thing about Smn is, Smn accells toward the end of the game, Rdm often get scouted as healer backups and whatever else til they get refresh, Smn will get scouted for healing until he can use a decent variety of BPs, be glad you have the versatility to get parties for several purposes instead of complaining about getting parties as something you don't like. The obvious alternative would be you didn't get parties because you can't heal and they needed a healer.

[Gwynn]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

I personally love having SMN in the party. They are easily the most versatile of the mage jobs along with Red Mages. They, however, can do a few things RDM can't, namely among them the delicious AoE Buffs and being able to help with SC if needed. I remember I had a 5 person party in Upper Delkfutt's Tower killing bats. Party set-up was NIN, DRG, SMN, BLM, and RDM (me). Since we only had 1 DD, we had the SMN use Shiva's Double Slap in the SC, after which the BLM would MB Blizzaga II and I would MB Blizzard II. Easily one of the most fun parties I've ever been in. Since then, I've grown a great fondness of SMN.

[xiozen]

Re: Finally, I feel like a summoner...

Smn was originally ment to be an Advanced Player only Job, the Avatars were locked in the high lvls and you couldn't get them til you reach 60+. It was ment for player who been through most of the game with another job. PPL wanted to be able to play summoner without spending a year+ doing another job, and thus the lvl 20 avatars where introduced.

Smn is a job ment for advanced players, if your good then the avatars will provide a variety of useful and powerful abilities which are unique to the job.

Hmm the 1st quote states "Smn was originally meant to be an Advanced Player only job..."... I remember this, frustrating but I could deal with it... However, the 2nd quote states "Smn is a job meant for advanced players..." Nice opinion but I can't agree. The job is hardly for an advanced player. As with any job you grow with the job as you level it and acquire the new abilities that come with it. I honestly don't think you have to be an advanced player in order to be an effective summoner.

Just an observation --