Questions about SMN as subjob

[sj101]

Hey there folks. Today is the day I come back to vana'diel after I nightmare experience playing WoW, with a family-fun question.


What are the capabilities of a summoner subjob? The exact disadvantages, like what can be summoned, the damage and abilities the summons have, etc. I understand not all of the summon abilities would be available for use blah blah, but are there insane major disadvantages TO the summoner class itself, not the gimpiness it would provide to some mainjobs (i.e. Samurai/Summoner). A friend was curious.

[Icemage]

Re: Questions about SMN as subjob

SMN sub, in most cases, is restricted to two abilities: Auto-Refresh (SMN25) and Garuda's Aerial Armor (SMN25). Some people sub SMN for extra MP, but most informed players find that to be more of a vanity issue rather than a compelling reason to use SMN as a subjob.

You can summon any spirit or avatar you could on your main job SMN, but the problem is all offensive abilities are limited to the level of the avatar (capped at 1/2 your main job level, so at most your avatar is level 37), which makes using them for anything but defensive moves is generally pointless, since you can't get any of the really good offensive abilities, and of the ones that you get, none of them will hit anything you'd want to kill.


Icemage

[Sabaron]

Re: Questions about SMN as subjob

The only reason I would say use SMN as sub is if you need to pull linking monsters in tight spots such as flies in Gusgen Mines. This is mostly useful for soloing--I was using it to kill Sadflies in the hopes one would drop a key--I died, but the pulling strategy worked. If I had been higher level, I'dve been able to use it more effectively, but sacrificing my Utsusemi and second weapon was too much of a loss at RDM31. I'll be trying this later on the Gallinipers (probably @ 40).

The method:

Summon Carby
Assault
Retreat (this is semi-important)
Release/Death

Once the claimed monster unlinks from carby, it links to you, and all unclaimed mobs unlink. However, while the monster is moving from where it was when carby depopped to you, it can link with others it passes by, therefore, carby retreat first, and the linked monsters will depop/unlink when he dies/releases. Takes a little practice but it's very useful.

[Tirrock]

Re: Questions about SMN as subjob

SMN sub is marginally useful to WHM, at least to the point where I don't really care if the WHM I'm with is subbing SMN or BLM. Aerial armor is okay, but I only used it in exp back when THF didn't have assassin and we had a non-tanking job tanking the first 3 or 4 hits of the fight. It has uses on HNM too. Avatar pulling is fairly useful in some camps too, although I personally find that sleepga and escape are usually more useful in general.

I'm of the opinion that outside of special situations (soloing for fun or fighting a cactaur NM for example) other jobs shouldn't sub SMN. The auto-refresh and a handful of extra MP just isn't worth losing the ability to cure. Or in RDM's case, I don't think it's worth losing sleepga, drain, aspir, and conserve MP, or divine seal and status removal spells.

Most of the blood pacts you could use would be worthless. The defensive ones would have some use, but you don't get that many at level 37 or below.

[sj101]

Re: Questions about SMN as subjob

Wooh, knowledge is power. Thanks all for fairly speedy replies.

[Hamlet]

Re: Questions about SMN as subjob

I would sub /smn in a heartbeat for melee burns if all the mobs didn't do annoying status moves. Besides that though, I'm mainly just refreshing and hasting and only curing every once in awhile.