Advice about End-Game Gear

[Telera]

Basically, this is the short of it. I have no patience, desire, or will to participate in any of it. Sky sounds utterly drab. Dynamis and HNM is full of drama, and lots of time sinking. I have no patience for drama, and little time to be sinking into the game anymore, especially in those kind of chunks.

I seldom see any Summoners running about in AF2, and very few pieces from Sky, but even that seems sporadic. I suppose my question is: are there viable alternatives to some of the endgame gear (AF2, from my reasearch, doesn't seem so hot, imo) that can be acquired through means I can work through at my own pace? Perhaps CoP, Assault, Avatar pieces, NM drops, etc.

I already have plans to get YY Robe, at some point. I'm also working on getting my items for my Evoker's Ring, so I already know of those pieces. Is there anything else I can look into? Keep in mind, I have no real plans to be participating in the killing of powerful nonsense, so whatever gear I'd be gathering would be more for my own benefit, and/or the newbies I want to start helping at that point.

[Sevv]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

Lol tele just do endgame with me most of our smns have thier af2 i think vel is missing 1 peice and most of our zenith is rotting - hnm peices =P

other than that your big bad endgame peices are:

YY robe
Zenith set
Af2
lol thats about all i can think of that smns can use/get from endgame minus some herald's but sell > a smn who can run away quick

[Kirsteena]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

If you get the right Dynamis shell, it doesn't have to be full of drama - in fact, I have never had drama about dynamis at all, in well over a year of doing it. Summoner's Horn is, I understand, one of the best pieces of AF2.

YY Robe is the obvious one, but the drop rate on that is pathetic, be prepared for a long time camping - and it will be anything but drama free. You might want to look into getting as far as sea in CoP to look at Limbus - Evoker's Pigaches +1 are hot sex to any smn (probably one of the best pieces). Sky doesn't have anything per se for smn, but some of the zenith pieces you might want to look at.

Any ls that gives herald gaiters to a smn to sell ahead of a blm who will end up kiting needs walking away from now.

Basically it is up to you how involved you want to get in endgame activities - I am with friends, so having a lot of fun while doing it. Otherwise endgame will make you bitter.

[Ryba]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

Ahh the joys of preparing for end-game SMN lol

YY Robe is almost a must end-game, the -5 BP timer is a huge asset for HNMs and Gods/Dynamis (considering it's the best -BP timer you're going to get on body, period). Which is what makes SMN such a huge DD end-game, b/c the faster/more often we can BP, the more dmg we do.

I know you said you don't want anything to do with either, but some of our better gear comes from Dynamis, and you can get Abj for Zenith Crown and Pumps through Sky. Our AF2 is hot, specifically the Horn/Pants/Feet/Gloves, the body is crap compared to YY, imo. The reason for their hotness is b/c of -BP timers. No other piece of armor in those slots lowers BP timer by any significant amount, not even Penance gear when compared to AF2. In most AF2 gear + YY you can get BP timer recast down to about 30 secs =P There or very near there, anyways. That means 6 BPs per Astral Flow instead of 3. Not that you'll use Astral Flow for Avatar 2HRs end-game anyways since Lv.70 BPs do a ton more dmg. But that's another topic.

Other items that are nice endgame gear are Walahra Turban(quested R/E), Loquacious Earring(R/E Ancient Beastcoin purchase), Astral Earring, Serket Ring, Vivian Ring(HNM R/E drop from Voluptuous Vivian). I agree with the previous poster, SMN will most likely never have Herald's Gaiters due to the fact that it has no real use for us, other than status-symbol value, BLM would get far greater use out of them since they're MP-whores end-game lol Magnetic Earring is another good choice, which comes from the final CoP/ZM mission(correct me if I'm wrong, been a while lol) As far as waist, not much of an option there, go with Hierarch Belt (best imo), Blue Cape +1 for back (best imo).

Try to get all of your HQ staves when you get the chance, not a requirement, but it helps alot due to HQ staves giving an additional -1 or -2 perpetuation cost compared to the NQ versions, which will be very helpful in SMN soloing Heraldic Imps @74+. Not to mention that you can solo Bombs from 51-75 anyways XD, but that's all Carbuncle (ohh yeah, don't forget to get your Carbuncle Mitts, if you don't have them already =O) lol Anyways...for neckpiece, I'd have to say Grandiose Chain for resting, Fenrir's Torque for fighting. Also note we can use alot of the standard 70+ mage gear, i.e., Errant Houppelande (+5 hMP - also good for resting)

I think that about covers gear. But I'd say get your AF2 when you have the chance, it's more valuable than you know. Any other questions? =P Enjoy the endgame =), it's a blast......sometimes literally hahaha

-SM

Edit #1: Almost forgot one of the most important pieces to acquire, Hedgehog Bomb (best imo), that fills your ammo slot, so be careful not to throw it <_< lol

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

YY Robe is the obvious one, but the drop rate on that is pathetic, be prepared for a long time camping - and it will be anything but drama free.

Er, drama isn't assured. My sister spent weeks camping that with a group of rather nice people. It's not just bad drop rate--on our server, at least, there is a lot of competition for the NM, too.

However, the "drama" was mostly about lot's a sad faces and shared misery, and the occasional "I'm going to quit the game if I can't get it soon. >.<" When YY Robe actually drops, though, all the competitors around would /clap for him or her. JP and NA both (and probably EU, too).

The way I see it, it's an opportunity to met a lot of Summoners on your server (along with their unlucky friends who get dragged along), while commiserating and lamenting together over how much S-E loves to torture SMN's.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

I'm just soured by camping it for 3 people recently, with gilsellers holding the damn thing for an hour. And the stealing claims that happened to us.

But true, now that there are less camping it is a bit less drama free. Glad to hear that not all servers are like mine

[Shirai]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

A little comment on gear here as I'm not going into the ways and woes of endgame.

YY robe

Basicly, a very nice thing to have but not needed.
The Refresh on it can be obtained by a Vermilion cloak.
However what I won't deny is that the blood pact timer -5 and avatar enmity +5 are very nice traits of this thing.
Also the ability to equip headgear is a very good thing.
Other pieces are the Austere and Penance robe which do nicely until you can get a Yinyang.

Advantage:
The NM dropping this can be camped and killed by a couple of high level friends.
Has amazing stats for summoners.
Can equip headgear.
Looks a lot better then Austere robe.

Disadvantage:
Drops from an NM with high competition rate when camped.
Not a 100% droprate.

Zenith set

As much as I like to use them on whm I avoid Zenith like the plague on summoner.
Other then +50MP per piece this doesn't add anything useful for summoners and the -HP is something I'd avoid unless I were a Galka or Elvaan summoner.
Even then it's not the optimal endgame gear for this job.

Advantage:
Huge MP boost, high defense.

Disadvantage:
50 HP loss per piece you wear and the defense won't make up for it on a paperskin summoner.
Doesn't add any useful stats for summoners.
The droprate for these parts is questionable.
Need a sky/HNM/Endgame LS for these pieces.

Af2

My personal favorites,
Summoner is one of the few jobclasses that get useful AFv2 pieces.
Further more it's nearly the only job for which the whole set is useful.
All pieces add -BP timers and have good stats for the offensive playing summoner.

Advantage:
Each piece has at least one useful stat for the summoner job.

Disadvantage:
All this drops in Dynamis and the droprate for these is more then questionable.
Depending on how many other summoners are in that shell the competition can be fierce for some pieces.

A few additions:
your regular AF legs and feet are also very useful.
AF head adds +5 summoning skill, if you have skill over cap this is very nice to add on your Blood pact: Ward.
Also for Blood Pact: Rage accuracy.
This is your regular Artifact gear, so I would assume that you have this

AF+1 feet and Nashira gages if you want to get as much perpetuation down as you can get.
You do need sea access to obtain these pieces.

[Telera]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

If you get the right Dynamis shell, it doesn't have to be full of drama - in fact, I have never had drama about dynamis at all, in well over a year of doing it. Summoner's Horn is, I understand, one of the best pieces of AF2.

I know there's good shells out there, but the scary thing is how many Social LSs I've been in where within a week of joining, I log on into the middle of a flame war between 2-3 members who are part of a HNM/Dynamis shell.

Player1: *was told could lot by numerous administration/SH this run finally, then told he couldn't. Naturally was a little miffed. From what I gather, yes, he'd been on a few runs already.*
Player2: *only response besides trying to address the issue: 'you're a n00b, stfu, gtfo then.*
Followed by a general de-evolution of conversation in the entire LS into them arguing and others trying to calm them down or shut them up. I was halfway mortified, and dropped the pearl not long after.

Similar scenarios in other shells, often relating to members who'd been there long enough that they shouldn't have gotten so shit on, but have. Or people who are bored and tired of going and everyone never seems to understand the mentality of 'Hey, I'm just sick of this. Let me take a break.' And no, these weren't people who got AF2 and split. They'd kept going and really were just sick and tired of it. First impressions are lasting impressions, sadly, and being exposed first hand to the negative has somewhat jaded me on the experience.

I have, though, gotten invites to join some HNM/Dynamis ones once I'm able from friends (like Sev there), and while it might be better with a familiar face to coach me, the problem of time remains. I'm just not turned on by 2+ hours sitting in Sky. I've had too many friends send /tells of 'Help me, I'm so bored. I could be doing xxxx now.' Or I'd send a /tell noticing they were out there saying 'Good luck.' expecting no response as they SHOULD in theory be uber busy, and then getting to have full conversations because they're just waiting on PH. lol... And I really don't think Sky is for me, much. I am an Elvaan summoner, but the HP loss from that Zenith... eh. Plus I really don't know how long I want to *keep* doing Sky. I work alot of nights. It's almost the only thing I work, and I work until fairly late. Retail, odd hours, no real rhyme or reason to which days, etc.

The only thing I'm 'less opposed' to doing would be Dynamis, if only because I really enjoyed Garrison. I'm not sure if the two are at all similar, but they seem it. The problem with that is getting the money to go on the runs and so forth. I'm not sure exactly how that's handled, but I have next to zero farming time anymore. Check FFXIAH, I've managed to gather a stack of mercury and pot shards in weeks. XD. A friend was nice enough to camp Enke with me and I sold those, but that money is long gone and I just don't have time for farming anymore. Endgame requires, I dunno, more interest in the game than I really have atm. Hopefully that will change if I can ever get back into it enough to be levelling again. But I'm busy with work mostly, trying to find another job, which will be more hours and much less time to play. I'm also grinding in PSU more (which is more enjoyable than XI atm, regardless).

I need to look up viable duo spots for myself and my b/f (dragoon, same lvl as me). We actually have alot of fun with colibri, and can take them down without a ton of difficulty, it's just alot of MP resting between them for me. That's with my Vermy and Sanction Refresh. I know parties are faster, but there's an odd enjoyment to just the two of us fighting together. Haha, makes no sense, I know. :p

However, I'm gonna be making a Notepad file and keeping notes of all the responses here, as I'm sure someday I'm going to get bored enough to venture into Endgame, if only for a while. Thankies for the replies, and if any other odd advice pops up, I'll gladly take it.

What I've gathered so far, is that YY (which I will camp until my eyes bleed) and AF2 are the most 'useful', stats wise. At least SMN specific. Zenith is only good for MP boost, and while Elvaan have weaker MP, I believe I'd rather have more boosts to my actual abilities than MP, so I may pass on Sky altogether. Unless Val makes me go. >.>; He wants to do it. Damned Dragoons.

[RandomKG3]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

The yingyang robe is hands down the single best all-around body piece for smn in the entire game. If you're not going to get the Summoner's Doublet (relic armor), or a Penance Robe (which is prohibitively expensive/rare), and you have no interest in equipment swapping macros for that slot, then the YYR is pretty much the best you can get. You can wear it all the time once you obtain it and be fine with the stats that are on it.

You're right generally about Zenith gear, the only function it serves is to boost mp, and there's lots of better gear for smns to throw into those slots than pure mp boosting stuff.

Generally, the AF1 pants (Evoker's) are good for your avatar's accuracy and the AF1 horn adds a nice +5 to your smn magic skill, which is only topped by that rediculously impossible to obtain crown from those new Salvage missions. If you have sea access and 17 close friends who are bored out of their skull, Ix'DRG has a chance of dropping the item required to obtain an Astute Cape, argueably one of the best capes for smn and the only one which gives a +5 to your smn magic skill. An intensifying cape is also decent, mostly because it gives you +hp in addition to the same amount of +mp as a blue cape, and you can do assaults to earn the AP for it (to get it for free).

Loq. Earring and Magnetic Earring are both great for your ears, and a hedgehog bomb for your ranged slot for +30 mp. The Loq. Earring costs 75 ancient coins dropped from limbus, the Magnetic Earring is from the Apocalypse Nigh quest, and hedgehog bombs drop from the Brothers ENM in Ulegeurand Range. If you're getting ancient coins, you can also work towards Evoker's Pigaches +1, which reduce perpetuation by -1. For your second ring (your first one will be Evoker's Ring without question), a Tamas Ring from completing CoP works fine. If you can get your hands on a Vivian Ring, that works too, but that extra 20 mp won't make or break you, and it's probably better to keep that 50 hp, rather than lose it.

So no zenith means you don't have to do sky. (I find sky to be tedious.)

Limbus, you can do solo or with a small group if you're just in it for coins and upgrade items. (You'll never get to fight Ultima/Omega for Homam/Nashira without an HNM shell, but you only lose out on Nashira Gages.)

So that leaves Dynamis. You could join a Dynamis Shell and only be obligated to two nights of activity a week (for about three to four hours a pop) for a chance at a full set of relic without joining a full HNM shell and all that it entails. As stated above, the relic armor for smn is extremely useful and every piece will give you something or other that's useful to some degree. Probably what you'll want most are the gloves and boots, which add accuracy and attack respectively. The pants reduce the casting timer of elemental spirits, and the body and horn reduce perpetuation cost (depending on the day for the body, and weather for the horn). The body and horn are really just situational. You can potentially reduce the perp cost of an avatar by more with the summoner's doublet than a YYR if it's the right day.

And of course, there's the be all and end all staff that every summoner covets, Bahamut's Staff. Though you don't need an HNM-LS to obtain it, it helps to have a large group of end-game people handy to tackle the fight. Of course, if you prefer, you could just buy a full set of HQ staves and it's the same difference, minus the bonus to smn magic skill and extra damage if you melee with it.

So that's that in a nutshell.

[Ryba]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

mmmmm, Bahamut's Staff. Want it just as a symbol of accomplishment lol Would rather have relic staff though tbh =P Just cause it looks lethal >8P lolz

-SM

[Sevv]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

the reason i said zenith gear is telera is an elvaan smn

and ryba wouldnt the loq earring be better then the astral ?

[Gobo]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

Shirai pretty much said everything I was gonna say heheh.

Head: Relic Horn and AF1 horn are all you'll ever need for BPs. Hell AF1 horn is perfectly fine forever. If you get both, and are good with macros you can get the -BP reduction and the +5 skill added in to the BP. Yigit head or if you have lots of nice friends, Volunteers Khud, for resting

Body: YY robe is good, if you never go to Dynamis. However, the relic body pretty much wins hands down for Physical BPs. 3% may not be much, but its still better than 0%. Austere/Penance are good until you get any of the above
Errant for resting hehe.

Hands: Relic hands>>>>>>>all. Sorry hate to say it, but its really the 1 piece from Dynamis thats worth all the pain. Austere/Penance cuffs are nice, but they are still no where as good. Carby mitts of course.

Legs: AF1 pants pretty much for any physical BP, relic pants for all buffs, unless you don't have them or Hate Dynamis Windy with the fiery passion equal to that of 10,000 white hot suns (what, I have my blue spats). If your crazy you can use Austere/Penance, but no one will hold it against you if you don't. Baron slops or Yigit legs for resting

Feet: Relic feet and AF+1 feet are both good. Either will do, it really doesn't matter much. Again Austere/Penance are good to for the +skill.

Neck: Time to make your gobbie bag cry. Summoning Torque, Sacrifice Torque and Grandiose Chain for the bare min.

Earring: Umm, Loqauc is nice, Relaxing is godly, Magnetic if you are persistent, Antivemon if you are not. Just try to avoid -HP or HP to MP.

Ring: Again try to avoid HP to MP or -HP. Evoker's Ring of course.

Back: Intensifying Cape or Smn Cape. Anything else is pointless. Invigorating cape if you have spare Ilursi Points.

Waist: Hierarch Belt. Covers all the bases.

Ranged: That MP egg or Hedgehog.

Avoid HP to MP or -HP like the plague. No MP is worth losing what little HP we have. Hell Taru's should get +HP for HMN situations, since they have so little. +HMP is a wonderful thing, I think I have around +22 with gear maybe more, I'd have to log in to check.

[Ryba]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

Sev, I meant it as Loq. Earring + Astral Earring XD or Loq. + Magnetic =P

Relaxing would be so nice, but pain in the @ss to obtain lol Unless someone knows something I don't <_< lol Which is highly probable. XD

-SM

[Telera]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

the reason i said zenith gear is telera is an elvaan smn

Yosh, Elvaan. But still, Boss, if I had to choose between overall improvement in performance (AF2, YY, etc) or just more MP (at the sacrifice of HP that even as an Elvaan I can't afford to lose w/ my paper-doll defense) I think I'd rather take the AF2 and so on. Sky makes Tele cry. ;_; Haha.

I've had my eye on an Intensifying Cape for ages, but haven't actually gotten any Assaults done yet. I've got a Summoner's Torque all ready for when I hit 65 (bought it when it spiked in price, I hate myself lol), I'd made a note of Sacrifice a while back, but because of the large gap between its level and mine haven't actually bought it yet.

XD Thankies so much, though. So much info to sort through, but uber helpful for me mapping out what I want to do/paths I need to focus on from here on.

[Sevv]

Re: Advice about End-Game Gear

lol wait wait wait smns get hit O.o lmao i havent seen a smn get hit in endgame in ages lmao (^.^)b and tele you know if you ever need me im there thanks for all the advice for her everyone.