Summoner Damage Dealer!

[Galaxia]

Hello everyone,

After reading so many posts about SMN been a weak DD I decided to compare all the Avatars in a party, I had full permission from the party to carry out the experiments,
Now against what most people say I do get to DD alot as a SMN, I am more then happy to back-up heal but I don't main heal, I have never had a problem getting invites, Anyway onto the results!

Shiva:
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Physical: Although her damage is OK she isn't the wirth the MP to keep her out as a Melee DD Avatar, On a IT mob sher hits for around 15-32 dmg.

Bloodpacts: Can't say I'm disapointed with this one bit, She keeps high damage with her Blizzard II which is around 200-320 and can MB it for around 400-700,
Her Double Slap is my next personal fave as it does a good amount of damage around 220-360.

Defence: Sadly this is a downer, Her defence is VERY weak she doesn't take damage well at all, Don't get my wrong she can hold up for awhile but in the end ya know shes just not there for her defence.

Apperance: Ok I gotta admit I didn't like how Shiva looked at all for awhile, Her hair is erm... scary? I love her costume though... well what there is of it, I think when they made this Avatar they wanted to go back instead of forward. Her looks tend to suit the Vana Diel time.

Garuda
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Physical: I don't mind Garuda melee attacks actualy they tend to be in the 20-35 area and she keeps pretty constant damage. She's a good ally in pt's

Bloodpacts: I love Garuda's BP's, They offer nice damage and even nicer support, I tend to use Claw alot in partys does around 150 to a IT, Her Aero II is well suited too with a good 300 damage you can't really go wrong and MB'in this will get you around 400-560

Defence: Almost same as Shiva but with a slight increase...

Apperance: I like this Avatar... I mean they could of give her a costume but... oh well, I love her hair and wings I think there just pure class, Also cool that show has claws I'm not too sure about the red eyes but ya know....

Fenrir
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Physical: A+ one of the best Melee Avatars, Keeps a good 25-55 dmg, Doesn't miss a awhole lot maybe 2-3 times per fight. One of my most used Party Avatars

Bloodpacts: YAY the fun, Fenrir gets the best Support Blood pacts, Especialy #'Ecliptic Growl the nice BP that gives you a stats boost not just one one stats but all of them! His Melee BP's aren't too great tho.... But worth having one of the better ones is his dispel type move.

Appearance:
Kept the true Final Fantasy look, As we saw in in FF9 he looks pretty much the same, Big huge purple dog with lighting bolt looking streaks and HUGE Teeth.... Let's not foroget thye HUGE Teeth! Also the only Summon to make a noise when summoned(He howls).

Ramuh
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Physical: Sadly Ramuh just doesn't cut it as a Melee Avatar, His Melee doing around 10-20 on a IT.... Not really worth using him as a DD Melee.

Bloodpacts: Ramuh can do some decent dmg with Thunder II I find it does around 150-200 his defence and support BP's are kinda useless.... He can MB for around 400

Apperance: He looks the same as the other games.... He has a cool staff and his costume is pretty accurate, I'm not a huge fan on Ramuh...

Ifrit
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Physical: Pretty decent around 15-30 on IT, Don't really use him much I have found that he isnt a useful Avatar in many situations...

Bloodpacts: Not really useful as support but his Dmg BP's are actualy pretty good, Ya can push out some serious dmg with them, I've had his Fire II do 300 dmg with MB and 700 with MB.

Apperance: Hmm I have to say he looks pretty much the same as all Final Fantasy games, He looks alot like Ifrit from 10.

Leviathan
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Physical: Nice amount of dmg from Leviathan, Around 27-42 I like to use Leviathan in Partys for DD Melee plus building his TP for his BP's is always good.

Bloodpacts: I tend to use his BP's alot especialy Tail Whip which does a very nice 200-340 dmg, And his Water II hits for around 150 and with MB around 400.

Apperance: Hmm Same as others really he's kept his looks through the series. Huge glowing snake type thing lol.

Titan
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Physical: Pretty decent dmg but he tends to miss more then hit. I rarely use him for Melee

Bloodpacts: His Earthern Ward is VERY useful especialy with Nin's, I don't use his other BP's they tend to lack alot of dmg his Stone II does around 100 and 200 with MB

Apperance: Fat man in a nappy to put it simply...

Carbuncle
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Physical: I don't use Carby for Melee at all only when Solo does he get chance to hit, Carby makes a good Pullin Avatar though especialy since he's free with right equipment.

Bloodpacts: Apart from Meteor I don't think theres any use for him til later lvls...

Apperance: Same as all the Final Fantasy games apart from cuter... Love the Ruby on his head and his fan tail glow.


Thanks for reading ^.^ hope this helps

[Lilani]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

One problem I have with your experiments: what were the elements of the mobs you battled? Perhaps you were simply battling mobs that the avatar didn't have an advantage over, or maybe they even had a disadvantage. I will admit that Fenrir is much stronger than the rest, but let's not forget to oppose elements when DDing

And I love what you said about Titan...fat man in a nappy...LOL.

[Galaxia]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

I did the tests on the mobs the Avatars were weak to aswell as the ones they arent weak to and got a % for dmg ^.^

[Galaxia]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

By the way this is Part #1
I will be doing further tests listed below

- Raiseing SMN Skill
- Equipment Changin
- Using Mobs weakness and strengths
- Using AF and Austere

[xiozen]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

My only concern with your tests... they seem a little on the inexperienced side. Let's face it, most lvl 75 summoners use the lvl 70 bloodpacts to cause physical damage. From personal experience:

Garuda's Predator Claw appears to be the highest "Piercing" dmg attack; but because it's piercing dmg, many mobs have high resistance to this type of attack. It also has pretty low accuracy and depending on merits and equipment, may miss more than it hits.

Ramuh's Chaotic Strike. Nice attack, does blunt dmg; has the chance to stun the target upon a successful strike. Works well against kraken type mobs... sea mobs, fish etc. Water based mobs appear to take the most dmg from this attack. Has higher accuracy than Garuda's attack but does less dmg (again, depends on the mob type/merits and equipment).

Leviathan's Spinning Dive. Nice animation on this one^.^ Mediocre dmg compared to the above two. However.... has extreme accuracy. This one RARELY fails to connect.

Ifrit's Flaming Crush. Can't say much about it; I don't use it much... however it appears to do GREAT dmg on standard mobs, such as Toramas', Dhalmels, etc. With the update coming out... i can see some abuse in store with this one: Ifrit's Warcry + Flaming Crush FTW ...

Shiva's Rush. .... .... .... what can I say.... for a melee "dance" that strikes five times.... I have yet to find a mob weak to it.... kinda depressing.... really... <sigh>

Titan's Mountain Buster. Ah!!! Behond the power of the KNUCKLE sandwich. Watch POTS and SKELES' quiver in fear. This is the absolute must have bloodpact against the above two listed foes... this attack, although low in accuracy; does INCREDIBLE dmg. KRT anyone? Tulia? ^_^''

Diabolos' Nether Blast. An interesting attack... the 1st avatar we have that has an effective attack against elementals... sky gods... sea mobs... sea gods... etc. This attack really can't be resisted all that well by ANYTHING, not even Kirin. At lvl 75, this attack hits for a pretty much consistant 475-599 dmg. Now this may not sound like much, but keep in mind it's a RANGED attack... so unless the mob is moving at an impossible to gauge walk or jog... you'll be in range for this to connect almost everytime. And this 475-599 dmg adds up!! esp. on a mob where ur melee attackers hit for 14 - 20 per swing... or ur nukes only do no more than 200 dmg per tier IV or -aga III.... Nether Blast is a GOD-SEND!!!

Fenrir's Eclipse Bite... this attack is Impossible-to-gauge!!!! You'll use it ALOT! It has HIGH accuracy... rarely misses on anything, except for mobs with SUPER high evasion... and causes a TON of dmg to boot. Combine it w/ Ecliptic Howl to ensure it hits if ur having trouble.

As far as keeping the avatar's out... load up -avatar perpetuation gear. I use HQ elemental staff (-3 perp cost), evoker's ring (-1 perp cost), Austere robe (-1 perp cost), Nashira gages (-1 perp cost), Evoker's pigaches +1 (-1 perp cost) for summoning elemental avatars and a NQ light staff + vermillion robe (too lazy to camp the Shikagami weapon) + carbuncle mitts for free carby + 1 tick refresh.

Anyway, just a bit of my feedback... good luck with your tests.

[Xylaa]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

I could've sworn that Predator Claws was slashing. From what I know and what most have confirmed from tests, we don't have a piercing level 70 bloodpact.

I'd just like to add that from my experience, Titan is more consistent on pots than Ramuh, but Ramuh has higher damage potential. I've broken 2k on the pots in sky with Ramuh, but never with Titan. I was only a level 72 summoner without merits or the +avatar attack relic armor.

And a question to the OP. When you're tier II bloodpacts did near 700, were your avatars at 300% TP? I've never heard of that kind of damage, and my avatars at level 60+ do that much with no TP magic bursting the tier IV bloodpacts. Usually those are 700-800 on VT-IT.

[Shirai]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

I could've sworn that Predator Claws was slashing. From what I know and what most have confirmed from tests, we don't have a piercing level 70 bloodpact.

Predator Claws is slashing damage,
this is simply tested on the Jailer of Temperance and the slimes in Apollyon.
We only have one Piercing Blood pact, Carbuncle's Poison nails.
Which indeed isn't a level 70 Blood pact.

Rush: Blunt (I believe)
Predator Claws: Slashing
Spinning Dive: Slashing
Flaming Crush: Blunt
Mountain buster: Blunt
Chaotic Strike: Blunt

I'd just like to add that from my experience, Titan is more consistent on pots than Ramuh, but Ramuh has higher damage potential. I've broken 2k on the pots in sky with Ramuh, but never with Titan. I was only a level 72 summoner without merits or the +avatar attack relic armor.

At 75 it's possible to break 2k damage on those with Titan without gear/merits.
However even with gear that enhances it takes lucky crits to break this damage.
(Current personal record is around 2.7k (AFv2 feet, hands and legs + Sacrifice torque, 2 merits avatar accuracy and 1 merit in avatar attack))

Ramuh can do more but this depends if all 3 his hits actually land.
Same goes for ifrit.

[Tirrock]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

Only a couple things that I have to add. Eclipse bite has lower damage potential than level 70 blood pacts, especially on IT's. But its lower MP cost combined with fenrir's lower than normal perpetuation costs and better than normal melee damage makes it great on lower level stuff, so long as it doesn't have slashing damage resistance/immunity.

On flaming crush... I think it has a lot of potential. It was pretty awesome before, but seemed pretty inaccurate. With the changes to summoning magic skill coming up, it might be pretty good. It's the only level 70 blood pact that does physical and elemental damage at the same time.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

By the way this is Part #1
I will be doing further tests listed below
- Raiseing SMN Skill
- Equipment Changin
- Using Mobs weakness and strengths
- Using AF and Austere

One suggestion: Hold off on levelling Summoning Magic Skill until after the update later this month. At the present time, all you'd be doing is making your Spirit Pacts more efficient. Extensive testing hasn't linked skill with BP or avatar melee dmg.

[eva00r]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

Neither Blast deals only 150-200 damage to Ultima. It's not 400-500 constant.

[SharMarali]

Re: Summoner Damage Dealer!

The thing to remember about Nether Blast is that it is NOT a physical based attack. Depending upon the resistance level of the monster you're fighting, Nether Blast may do less damage than what it would otherwise "normally" do.

That said, it's one of the most accurate attacks in the entire game and will deal consistent damage every time against whatever you happen to be fighting.

The only attack, be it a weapon skill, blood pact, spell, or whatever that I can think of in the game that is as consistent is Spirits Within, which might actually be a little MORE consistent, since it ignores defense on virtually every monster in the entire game.