A few more questions...

[Wiseman40]

How is the strength of your pet calculated? A guide I read on doing mini avatar battles stated that you definately need to max your summoning skill in order to have a stronger carbuncle, so I do.
So according to this person your summoning skill helps determine the strength of your pet.
Does your level affect this as well?

I also read a guide that as an adendum, asked SE to make raising the summing skill easier, because currently it's not worth the effort.

That may be true. I've spent hours trying to cap summoning using spirits and carbuncle and am at 20/33 (level 10 smn). Obviously if I cap it before I make it into the 20s or so it may be easier to keep it capped, as I'd only have to raise it three points or so per level, but currently it's a huge pain.

Also, what of our avatar buffs stack with what?

I read all of the information here:
http://www.summoner.info/

Which was the most comprehensive, but over a year old, as well as any summoner guide I could find, and there is little information as to which buffs can stack with what.

The spells I'm concerned with are:

Aerial Armor (does it stack with blink?)

Hastega (does it stack with white magic haste?)

Earthen Ward (does it stack with stoneskin?)

Crimson Roar (does it stack with bard songs?)

Rolling Thunder (does it stack with Enthunder?) (I don't really care here I'm just curious).




Also, is there a nice list of Diabolos abilities and such? The above linked site hasn't been updated in so long that it's not even close to having information on it, and I can't seem to find any guide new enough to contain that information.

This is the best I could come up with:

Camisado: Deals physical damage.
Somnolence: Weighs target down.
Nightmare: Deals darkness elemental damage that puts all enemies within the area of effect to sleep and gradually reduces their HP.
Ultimate Terror: Decreases attributes of enemies within area of effect.
Noctoshield: Gives party members within area of effect the effect of "Phalanx."
Dream Shroud: Enhances magic attack and magic defense of party members within area of effect.
Nether Blast: Delivers a ranged attack that deals darkness elemental damage.
Ruinous Omen (Astral Flow): Required MP: Caster's level x2. Uses all MP and reduces the HP of enemies within area of effect by a random percentage.

How effective is this stuff?

I've heard of people getting Diabolos before they get Fenrir, and defeating him with a 6 person party rather than the alliance I hear it takes to defeat fenrir.

[Jei]

Re: A few more questions...

Aerial Armor (does it stack with blink?) - no. doesn't stack with utsusemi either.

Hastega (does it stack with white magic haste?) - no

Earthen Ward (does it stack with stoneskin?) - no

Crimson Roar (does it stack with bard songs?) - yes

Rolling Thunder (does it stack with Enthunder?) - no

basicly the ~ga spells from avatars and the spells you cast normally are the same thing. Their efficiency and time of effects varies, but you can't have 2 of the same spell effects at the same time.

As for the spells, I think allakazam and somepage got a pretty good info.
I like somepage better because it loads much faster. here's the link.
http://ffxi.somepage.com/spelldb/ind...class=Summoner
The one you'll be using a lot is the Nether Blast. There are couple big boss monsters that moves around, or you need to kite, or even fly on the sky. Normal blood pacts will not reach them but Nether Blast will almost always land hits.

As for summoning skill, most website say it matters. But most of my high level end game smn friends say it does nothing.... so I don't know....
Only thing i can tell is that, the higher your skill is the less chance you'll get interupted. So it might help if you're trying to call your avatar while something is hitting you.

[Kardor]

Re: A few more questions...

Well bout the Pet strenght this is 50% lvl and 50% Sheer Luck.
If there is a formular to calculate Pet strength it either isnt found or i didnt see it so far.

Bout the skill well this is a myth even under summoners^^ It does reduce the delay Spirits use their spells and it reduces possible delay, and thats all what has been PROVED so far.

Lately iam doing Capped Promathia Missions and i went with 2 other Summoners i was the only one who had a capped skill at lvl 50. It appears to me that i was doing a bit higher damage and a slightly higher chance on Critical Bloodpacts. well this might be only a coincidence for i didnt registered such in my Endgame Smn Pts but there might be something to it.
Keeping the skill always capped will probably demand more time than lvling my guess is get it to a good lvl and then just skill it up in regular partys.
Ps: The amount of +Skill seems to be dependant on Area+Lvl meaning if u skill in dangerous areas you will receive faster and higher skillups then in areas like Ronfaure.
If any other smn here noticed something like that too pls tell me^^.

[Wiseman40]

Re: A few more questions...

In order to avoid starting a bunch of threads I'm going to post any other questions I have here...


Here's one:


If a red mage casts refresh on you, and you're smn/whm level 50 or higher do you still lose mp by having an avatar out (not talking about carby here).

My wife plays a rdm so I'm curious. Basically, do these avatars become 'free' with refresh, and the auto-refresh from smn and whm traits?

[Jei]

Re: A few more questions...

It depends on the perpetuation cost of the avatar VS the mp you are refreshing. Usually perpetuation cost will be higher.
In theory if you can reduce the perpetuation cost (by gear) and increase refresh rate (by juice/refresh) to the point refresh rate is higher, you will even regen MP while avatars are out.
I don't know if this can be done practically except carbuncle, I don't know enough end game smn gears

[Tsikuro]

Re: A few more questions...

In order to avoid starting a bunch of threads I'm going to post any other questions I have here...


Here's one:


If a red mage casts refresh on you, and you're smn/whm level 50 or higher do you still lose mp by having an avatar out (not talking about carby here).

My wife plays a rdm so I'm curious. Basically, do these avatars become 'free' with refresh, and the auto-refresh from smn and whm traits?

No, but it should cut the cost to keep it out by a bit.

[Wiseman40]

Re: A few more questions...

Hmm that's unfortunate. I was hoping to have an avatar out indefinately with refresh. Originally I was excited about auto refresh at 25 smn, then again at 50 smn (from 25 whm), before I found out how much the perpetuation cost of avatars increased as well. Carbuncle mitts will obviously give me a free carbuncle, but I was hoping to utilize some of the other avatars a little more heavily.

As it stands the only use for them is to summon, use a blood pact ability of some kind, release, then summon another avatar or heal party members. I'm not completely opposed to that but I'd like some other options.

I'm seeing a sad lack of gear that reduces avatar perpetuation cost. So far I've only seen an Evoker's Ring, which reduces cost by 1.

The summoner AF armor doesn't seem very impressive. From what I can tell, summoners need things that either reduce the cost of their spells, increase their mp or mp refresh rate, but the AF armor seems to add things which aren't often useful.

Some pieces add to summoning skill, which even the most experienced summoners don't know the mechanics of. Some pieces add to evasion (?).

What sort of gear are people using? I know there are items that convert hp to mp. That would be very useful in keeping avatars out longer.

Do we have any gear that adds refresh effect? I've seen some high end whm gear that does, so it would be great if we did as well.

Also, what other gear can I expect to lower the perpetuation costs?

[Taskmage]

Re: A few more questions...

Avatar perpetuation cost items:
http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/list...tuation%20Cost

Summoners can equip 3 items with a refresh effect. Vermy, Yinyang Robe, and Dalmatica.

[Jei]

Re: A few more questions...

the 25 whm ability is HP auto regen not MP btw.
There are gears which gives exactly "minus perpetuation cost" effect.
For example the auster robe. http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/2518
or http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/7519

[Wiseman40]

Re: A few more questions...

Looks like I'll have to choose between refresh and perpetuation cost on some of these equipment slots. Intuitively I'd say that refresh is better than perpetuation cost reduction due to its many applications.

Am I wrong?

[Jei]

Re: A few more questions...

if it reduces by 1 it will be the same as 1 refresh tick.

[bikkebakke]

Re: A few more questions...

Also, the MP refresh ability smn gets at level 25 is not active while you have an avatar out iirc.

[Caspian]

Re: A few more questions...

Its gonna cost some money to get both austere's and vermy, but what you could do is use austere's when you have an avatar out, since it looks cooler, then use vermy when you don't for the refresh effect.

[LadyPeorth]

Re: A few more questions...

Also, is there a nice list of Diabolos abilities and such? The above linked site hasn't been updated in so long that it's not even close to having information on it, and I can't seem to find any guide new enough to contain that information.

This is the best I could come up with:

Camisado: Deals physical damage.
Somnolence: Weighs target down.
Nightmare: Deals darkness elemental damage that puts all enemies within the area of effect to sleep and gradually reduces their HP.
Ultimate Terror: Decreases attributes of enemies within area of effect.
Noctoshield: Gives party members within area of effect the effect of "Phalanx."
Dream Shroud: Enhances magic attack and magic defense of party members within area of effect.
Nether Blast: Delivers a ranged attack that deals darkness elemental damage.
Ruinous Omen (Astral Flow): Required MP: Caster's level x2. Uses all MP and reduces the HP of enemies within area of effect by a random percentage.

How effective is this stuff?

I've heard of people getting Diabolos before they get Fenrir, and defeating him with a 6 person party rather than the alliance I hear it takes to defeat fenrir.

Camisado - Okay damage...becomes cruddy damage later. Still it looks nice and ends Gravitation if you need a filler to make a SC.

Somnolence - Adds gravity, does anywhere from 20-200 damage. Seems to ignore defense. Have never had it miss. I'm also convinced it adds a slow effect on the mob...but I have no proof of this.

Nightmare - Fun fun fun. If you pull a bunch of DCs and blast them, it's nice...but at higher levels, don't expect it to sleep much. It should be noted that any damage dealt to the mob besides Nightmare's damage will awaken it. If only it had more accuracy...then it would be a great substitue for some BC battles.

Ultimate Terror - Very nice when you get a high status drain (5 on one mob). This is however rare and it doesn't tell you what statuses you drained (2 could be STR and VIT or MND and CHR).

Noctoshield - "The Win" as quoted by every paladin I've used it with. With Ninjas, use Stoneskin. With Paladins, use Noctoshield. Every Paladin will kiss your feet.

Dream Shroud - A test was done and the bonuses it provided were pretty low...along the range of +5 MA/MDef Bonus.

Nether Blast - I love this Blood Pact. At 65, it does 400 damage. At 75, it does 400 damage. Best part is, it seems to rarely be resisted. Only problem is...you guessed it...400 damage. The only place it goes from there is down. I've seen it deal roughly 200 damage to Jorm each time. However, as listed, it is ranged and thus can hit flying foes that melee misses. Also, you rarely see that annoying "<t> is too far away."

[Kardor]

Re: A few more questions...

Well bout Nether Blast ure wrong - kinda.

Nether Blast deals a fixed amount of damage based on your Lvl.
Iam lvl 73 and mine deals like 470 dmg.

The thing is it will deal 470 dmg to TW aswell ti IT monsters.
It "Can" be resisted but ive never seen this so far, i did 470 dmg to genbu while he had his Def up thingy on so i think you have to fight a very strong dark elemental Monster in oder to get a resist.