Summoner FAQ

[Sheila]

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/27610.html
Just click on Summoner Guide

all my future updates will go on there

[Crow]

Yay-that site has a list of the summons' abilities on it. Found it using translator, so it's a little weird. Might be useful for a section of the site for summoners though . And it has some of Fenrir's abilities listed...

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babel...2Fability.html

[Sheila]

Since I'm seriously going to play this job out I plan on translating and explaining it all from my experience.

I'll explain stuff that seems necessary

Abilities
1 ƒAƒXƒgƒ‰ƒ‹ƒtƒ?ƒE ?¢Š«?b‚Ì?^‚Ì—Í‚ðˆø‚«?o‚·?i2ŽžŠÔƒAƒr?j
Astral Flow 2hour.
It is a status that lasts as long as other SP.
Once activated you can access your summon's "true ability".

How to use:
Have summon out and already attacking monster. If not attacking monster, it will miss. Have the ability menu available (this menu is available every 30-60 seconds etc depending on what ability you did last), activate astral flow and choose the last option. The 2hour for each summon has a specific name.

Property:
Cost is yourlvx2 MP. If you have no more MP, the summon can/will disappear during the "charge time" of the ability or you cannot select it. Also, if you had any more MP it all goes to 0MP after the ability is done. Only do this when MP is in a "pinch" or last minute. You must use the element strong to the element you are fighting or it can and will be resisted.

10 MPmaxƒAƒbƒv MPmax‚Ƀ{?[ƒiƒX•t—^
About 30MP bonus at level 10. Another bonus at 50.

20 ƒŒƒWƒXƒgƒXƒ?ƒE ƒXƒ?ƒE‚ɑ΂µ‚Ä?A?_‚µ‘Ï?«‚𓾂é
Little resistance to "slow" status. No use really but primary weapon is a 2h staff which is slow to begin. Slow also affects spell casting, it takes 1.5x longer to recast the same spell even after the countdown has passed. Slow does not affect summon time.

25 ƒI?[ƒgƒŠƒtƒŒƒVƒ… MP‚ª?™?X‚ɉñ•œ?i3•b‚É1‰ñ•œ?j
MP recover 3seconds/1mp


Status
From tests it seems your own stats and level affect summon strength. Boosting MP amount is most important. MND if you want, because you are really going to backup whm often - helps to have WHM magic skills for your sub maxed also.

INT MND CHR doesn't affect summon monster's magic damage.

Neither does smn magic skill - seems to be a toy skill right now. All summon monsters have a fixed damage amount for your level, their magic, and fixed time for abilities.

[Sheila]

UPDATES

an MP bonus also comes at level 50

astral flows
You must have more than your levelx2 MP, in other words, lots of extra MP to get your summon out, in position, then activate astral flow and activate the astral flow ability.
Latest patches have increased the damage somewhat.

Carbunkle:
Shearing Light: all enemies in range get light damage

Ifrit:
Inferno: all enemies in range get fire damage

Titan:
Earth Fury: all enemies in range get earth damage

Garuda:
Aerial Blast: all enemies in range get wind damage

Shiva:
Diamond Dust: all enemies in range get ice damage

Leviathan:
Tidal Wave: all enemies in range get water damage

Ramuh:
Judge(ment) Bolt: all enemies in range get thunder damage


ability list
Œõ?Fƒ‹ƒr?[‚Ì–ü‚µ(6) •W“I‚ÌHP‚ð‰ñ•œ
Carbunkle: Ruby Healing (6mp) - a little hp recover

•X?FƒAƒNƒXƒLƒbƒN(10) •¨—??UŒ‚
Shiva: Axe Kick (10) - physical attack

•—?FƒNƒ??[ (7) •¨—??UŒ‚
Garuda: Claw (7) - physical attack

“y?Fƒ?ƒbƒNƒXƒ?ƒE(10) ‰“Šu?UŒ‚?B’ljÁ?UŒ‚?FƒXƒ?ƒE
Titan: Rock Throw/Slow (10) - ranged attack, slow status

—‹?FƒVƒ‡ƒbƒNƒXƒgƒ‰ƒCƒN(6) •¨—??UŒ‚?B’ljÁŒø‰ÊƒXƒ^ƒ“
Ramuh: Shock Strike (6) - physical attack, stun status

?…?Fƒoƒ‰ƒN?[ƒ_ƒ_ƒCƒu(8) •¨—??UŒ‚
Leviathan: Baracuda Dive (8) - physical attack

‰Î?Fƒpƒ“ƒ`(9) •¨—??UŒ‚
Ifrit: Punch (9) - physical attack

[ Lv5 ] Œõ?Fƒ|ƒCƒYƒ“ƒlƒCƒ‹(11) ’ljÁŒø‰Ê?F“Å
Carbunkle: Poison Nail (11) - attack, poison status

[ Lv10 ] ŠeŽíIIŒn‘®?«–‚–@(24) ƒ_ƒ??[ƒW20‘OŒã?BƒŒƒW?E‚è?B
all summons at this level get "version 2" black magic of their
respective element. ex: Blizzard2, Thunder2.. the magic
is easily resisted.

[ Lv19 ] —‹?FƒTƒ“ƒ_?[ƒXƒp?[ƒN(38) ”͈͓à‚Ì“G‚É—‹‘®?«ƒ_ƒ??[ƒW?@’ljÁŒø‰Ê:–ƒáƒ
Ramuh: Thunder Spark (38) all enemies in range get thunder damage attack, paralyse status

[ Lv21 ] “y?Fƒ?ƒbƒNƒoƒXƒ^?[(39) ’ljÁŒø‰Ê:ƒoƒCƒ“ƒh
Titan: Rock Buster (39) ranged physical attack, bind status

[ Lv23 ] ‰Î?Fƒo?[ƒjƒ“ƒOƒXƒgƒ‰ƒCƒN(48) “G‚ɉΑ®?«ƒ_ƒ??[ƒW
Ifrit: Burning Strike (48) fire damage attack

[ Lv24 ] Œõ?Fƒ‹ƒr?[‚Ì‹P‚«(44/3:00) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚Ƀvƒ?ƒeƒX‚ƃVƒFƒ‹‚ÌŒø‰Ê(–hŒä’l‚ðŒ©‚éŒÀ‚è10%ƒAƒbƒv?A’Ê?í‚̃vƒ?ƒeƒX?EƒVƒFƒ‹‚Æ?d‚È‚é)
Carbunkle: Ruby Shine (44) lasts 3mins. party in range gets protect/shell defense +10%

[ Lv25 ] •—?F?^‹ó‚ÌŠZ(92/15:00) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ɃuƒŠƒ“ƒN‚ÌŒø‰Ê
Garuda: Vacuum Armor (92) lasts 15minutes or until worn off. Party members in range get Blink status
(Blink - increased physical and magic evade)

[ Lv26 ] ?…?Fƒe?[ƒ‹ƒEƒBƒbƒv(49) ’P‘Ì?UŒ‚?@’ljÁŒø‰Ê:ƒwƒ”ƒB
Leviathan: Tail Whip (49) physical attack, heavy status

[ Lv28 ] •X?F“€‚Ä‚Â?EŠZ(63/1:30) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ɃAƒCƒXƒXƒpƒCƒN‚ÌŒø‰Ê
Shiva: Freeze Armor (63) lasts 1min30s. Party members in range get Ice Spike status
(Ice Spike - everytime physically hit by a monster, ice damage + paralyse effect counter to monster)

[ Lv30 ] ‰Î?Fƒ_ƒuƒ‹ƒpƒ“ƒ`(56) 2‰ñ?UŒ‚
Ifrit: Double Punch (56) two attacks

[ Lv31 ] —‹?F—‹ŒÛ(52/1:00) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ɃGƒ“ƒTƒ“ƒ_?[‚ÌŒø‰Ê
Ramuh: Thunder Hand (52) lasts 1min. Party members in range get EnThunder status
(En Thunder - every physical attack does extra thunder damage)

[ Lv33 ] ?…?FƒXƒ?ƒEƒK(48) ”͈͓à‚Ì“G‚ɃXƒ?ƒE‚ÌŒø‰Ê
Leviathan: Slowga (48) All enemies in range get Slow status

[ Lv35 ] “y?Fƒ?ƒKƒŠƒXƒXƒ??[(62) ??
Titan: Megalith Throw (62) Physical attack, Titan picks up a huge rock and throws it, slow status

[ Lv36 ] •—?F•—‚Ìš‘‚«(119) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ÌHP‚ð100’ö“x‰ñ•œ(ƒŒƒxƒ‹ˆË‘¶‚Å?ã?¸?E‚è)
Garuda: Wind's Whisper (119) Party members in range are cured about 100+hp depending on level, more

[ Lv38 ] ‰Î?F?g˜@‚Ì™ôšK(84) ƒEƒH?[ƒNƒ‰ƒC‚Æ“¯‚¶Œø‰Ê?i?UŒ‚—Í15%ƒAƒbƒv)
Ifrit: Crimson Roar (84) Party members in range get a status like War Cry (attack power +15% for very short time)

[ Lv40 ] •X?FƒXƒŠƒvƒK ”͈͓à‚Ì“G‚𖰂点‚é
Shiva: SleepGa (54) Sleep on all enemies in range.

[ Lv42 ] —‹?F—‹“d‚ÌŠZ(91) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ɃVƒ‡ƒbƒNƒXƒpƒCƒN‚ÌŒø‰Ê
Ramuh: Raiden Armor (91) about 2mins Pt members in range get Shockspike
(Shockspike - for every physical attack monster lands, they get lightning damage, stun status)

[ Lv44 ] õ?Fƒ‹ƒr?[‚ÌàŠ‚ß‚«(62) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚̃Xƒe?[ƒ^ƒX‚ðƒ‰ƒ“ƒ_ƒ€‚É10ƒAƒbƒv(?™?X‚ÉŒ¸?_)
Carbunkle: Ruby Sparkle (62) party members in range get a random status up +10 for short time,
and it slowly goes back down to normal, ie +9 +8 +7

[ Lv46 ] “y?F‘å’n‚ÌŽç‚è(92) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ɃXƒgƒ“ƒXƒLƒ“‚ÌŒø‰Ê(20%ƒJƒbƒg)(150?`200–³Œø‰»)
Titan: Earth Protection (92) lasts about 15mins until worn off, party members in range get Stoneskin status
(Stoneskin - character will take about 150-200 damage before HP is back to becoming effected)

[ Lv48 ] •—?FƒwƒCƒYƒK(changed to 129) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ɃwƒCƒXƒg‚ÌŒø‰Ê
Garuda: HasteGa (129) party members in range get Haste status

[ Lv47 ] ?…?F—N?…(99) ”͈͓à‚ÌPTƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ÌHPˆÙ?í‚ƃXƒe?[ƒ^ƒXˆÙ?í‚ð‰ñ•œ(+ƒCƒŒ?[ƒX‚ÆHP150‰ñ•œ)
Leviathan: Springwater (changed to 99MP) party members in range get HP & statuses cured and other bad statuses recovered *esuna type*
statuses it cures: blind, silence, petrified, paralysed, sickness, poison, sleep
does not cure curse (this may be a bug)
does not cure erase needing statuses (ie dex down, evade down)

[ Lv50 ] •X?Fƒ_ƒuƒ‹ƒXƒ‰ƒbƒv(96) 2‰ñ?UŒ‚
Shiva: DoubleSlap (96) 2 physical attacks

[ Lv55 ] Œõ?Fƒvƒ`ƒ?ƒeƒI(108) ƒ_ƒ??[ƒW320‘OŒã?B
Carbunkle: Petit (french for small) Meteo (108) attack that does about 320 damage

[ Lv60 ] ŠeŽíIVŒn‘®?«–‚–@(118) ƒ_ƒ??[ƒW350‘OŒã?BƒŒƒW?E‚è?B
All summons get version 4 magic. Damage is often resisted.

[tazirai]

Good post and good info shiela may wanna make this a full fledged guide for summoners.

[Sheila]

('?ž')?U

other recent changes to summoner:

shiva/ramuh/etc was 30 MP, now 7MP to call

current state of job:

Still highly flawed. I played this crazy, to help someone get to 60.

There are also many many MANY bugs involving summon beasts. People would still see beast onscreen although you recalled them. If someone unequips an item or moves while you do a party strengthen ability, you loose the MP, the summon will freeze, the summon wont even do the ability! The timer will reset and say "you can't do anything for another minute". Really frustrating.

As well, if a monster moves as your summon does any ability (astral flow, magic, ranged attacks included) it too will get the "out of range, this ability could not go" message. Your MP is lost, nothing happens and your ability menu too is gone.

A SMN is simply a messy cure tank all the way. The ideal rear guard for a summon involves having a rdm and a bard.
yes BRD = duh
no WHM = will be curing, but so will smn! There's nobody MBing or adding to the kind of damage only magic can do. This simply makes battles too long.
yes RDM = rdm can help cure, help MB and at later levels refresh everyone, then convert and keep going at the same pace as smn's MP which can keep going for a long time
no BLM = two people taking really long to get MP back is the worst possible situation

The only job useful with summon subjob = WHM 50+

Even with Ballad1, Ballad2, Refresh, Autorefresh, having your summon out during battle is completely pointless. Really not feel like a summoner.

For the current level cap, the best subjob is WHM and no other. Curing statuses and some weaponskills are only available with it.

AF does not have hate minus for summoner, it has hate minus for the summon beast! Beast hate is the same for any party member hate, separate.

When you call back your beast, the hate generated to the smn is gone as though that beast member 'died', same for if the beast actually died. It does not affect your hate or other party members hate. It makes no sense because we WANT our summons to take hits. Summons can also be hit by statuses and cannot be cured aside from being recalled and called out again.

Sleep however is another story, if you fall asleep, your summon is too. If you wake up, your summon wakes up.

This was an overhyped job that turned out as bad as ninja.

The only time you see a SMN's true potential is when putting them against a weak opponent, because the beasts don't have a damage cap.

How can summoner ever be fixed? Getting rid of the huge MP slip is the first step...

from my other post:
1-10: Use your summons as purely attackers
10-24: Attacker and occasionally ver2 magic/abilities
24: Play with the barely useful carbunkle pro/shell
25+: Garuda party blink, most used ability for a long while
28: Shiva icespike, para is barely effective and just for show
31: Ramuh pt enthunder, lasts shorter than ice spike but fun
36: Garuda's pt cure, not even useful since you will have curega
38: Ifrit Warcry, used before renkei, for the MP it costs why bother
40: Shiva sleepga, I'm expecting this to be for BCNM40 as the mandrags are about tsuyo to 40. Sleepga does not work well on totetote++ when linked while leveling.
42: RAmuh pt shockspike, very useful if monster lands hits often as it stuns monster
44: Carbunkle's pt "random status up by 10" fun but the stats go back down fairly quickly after cast anyway
46: Titan (after 40 levels of not using him) has pt stoneskin, a cut on the max amount of damage you can take
47: Leviathan (after 20 levels of ignoring) has pt heal/esuna
48: Garuda (after all that blink) has hastega, it too is cut down in the amount of time it lasts. much shorter than real haste, and by this time only 1 or 2 party members need haste anyway..

after this summoner gets nothing new that's really of use. People will rotate between Blink, Stoneskin, Hastega and rarely using Leviathan's cure.

50: Shiva's double slap, in case you already haven't noticed that Shiva is so weak physically, this can do lots of damage if she hits BOTH times
55: Carbunkle's meteor (slightly weaker than the version 4s
60: version4 spells, instead of using party strengthening only, using version4 to finish off monster becomes your main goal. BARD threnody is required for it to not be resisted. Your damage can vary from 100 to nearly 500 depending on the resist down. A good bard would redo their threnody for your incoming spell.

Why party blink is so important: Not only do monsters miss attacks, their magic can miss too - until it wears off. This means way less healing.

As for the party healing abilities, since it takes time to get the summon OUT and in position, the inability to use this job for reacting to situations makes it all the more flawed.

Elemental summons:
They do random spells, and cost more MP (to get out and the drain) than even the beasts. There's rumors of them doing ancient spells and other things, but I believe its too rare or not worth it.

another new site but not much up http://vanana.com/smn/

[Kirashi]

love how ya translated
[ Lv60 ] ŠeŽíIVŒn‘®?«–‚–@(118) ƒ_ƒ??[ƒW350‘OŒã?BƒŒƒW?E‚è?B
All summons get version 4 magic. Damage is often resisted.
lol

[Sheila]

That "350" is someone's damage, not mine.

They mean to say it's fixed damage for your level and often resisted. My smn can do up to 460 on some monsters. To do that much on a very strong monster, Bard's threnody needed.

[Sheila]

I still don't get why posters are waving their hands as though they found these summon job sites and want 'credit' for it.

I've been reading them since Ziraat was out and all their info is simply pasted from 2ch forums, which they link.

Both sites are linked in 2ch at the top of each thread, both sites link each other, the first site has been linked ever since the summon job was available.
http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/sho...threadid=11231

anyways I want to update the past 60 abilities which are now ingame. It's not found at sites yet afaik.

[ Lv65 ] Œõ?Fƒ‹ƒr?[‚Ì–ü‚µII(166) ”͈͓à‚̃p?[ƒeƒBƒ?ƒ“ƒo?[‚ÌHP‚ð‰ñ•œ
carbunkle: ruby light 2 (166mp) pt members in your range get HP recover

this ability is not as strong as leviathan's (leviathan cost less MP and even cures status). More signs that summoners with carbuncle only at high level is junk.


[ Lv70 ] (all beasts get a new set of physical attacks)
[ Lv70 ] •—?FƒvƒŒƒfƒ^?[ƒNƒ??[(164 ˆÈ‰º70—š?s‚Í?Á”‚¶) 3‰ñ?UŒ‚
[ Lv70 ] ‰Š?FƒtƒŒƒCƒ€ƒNƒ‰ƒbƒVƒ… 3‰ñ?UŒ‚ ‰Š‘®?«?UŒ‚
[ Lv70 ] •X?Fƒ‰ƒbƒVƒ… 5‰ñ?UŒ‚
[ Lv70 ] “y?Fƒ}ƒEƒ“ƒeƒ“ƒNƒ‰ƒbƒVƒ… ’ljÁŒø‰Ê?FƒoƒCƒ“ƒh
[ Lv70 ] ?…?FƒXƒsƒjƒ“ƒOƒ_ƒCƒu •¨—??UŒ‚
[ Lv70 ] —‹?FƒJƒIƒXƒXƒgƒ‰ƒCƒN ‚R‰ñ?UŒ‚?@’ljÁŒø‰ÊƒXƒ^ƒ“


Like the rest of the summon physical attacks, this can be strong or weak depending on your level vs monster level. Very frustrating.

MP drain:(not including auto refresh)
MP drain at level 60+ for beasts is about 9mp/second
MP drain for elements at level 60+ is 15mp/second
MP drain for carbuncle at 60+ is 7mp/second

where is fenrir and other summons?
Some think the next large version up is around October and it may come then. But summoner job players are more concerned with improving the actual job so they are NOT cure tanks.

what summoners want:
-skill up become easier, right now it is wasteful to TRY to do
-can solo or be useful in party outside of being a cure tank
-mp costs change (if a less people get a party ability, then less mp cost)
-2h staff skill A
-faster summoning and abilities
-summons attacks have enchant already
-keeping summons out cost less mp (or none)
-the damage summons do is valid for the MP things cost so it does not feel wasteful to be attacking with your summon (and have it miss or do little)

[RPGdemon]

wow, thanks sheila , this thread has cleared up so many queries about being a summoner. after reading this thread im definitely going to be a summoner and have rdm as sub.

i chose rdm mainly for refresh (when the level cap is high enough obviously) and the Enchanting spells.

is rdm a good sub for smn? and what would be the advantages and disadvantages of this combo?

thanks in advance sheila

[Sheila]

There's old talks of sub rdm on summoner at 2ch.

They all ended up saying

WHM SUB IS SUPERIOR, THE END.

1. cure statuses, rdm sub can not cure statuses
2. more 2h staff skills available only to whm/pld/mnk when main or subbed
3. party spells you can use without significant loss in power or effectiveness

Don't bother with smn/rdm, and I really don't know about refresh and convert becoming able to use on sub rdm in the future. AFAIK its like the /THF nerf, it most likely would be less powerful. Refreshing shouldn't be your job's purpose, there are real RDMs and BRDs to do it.

so people thought what does smn/rdm get?

1. at a certain level and if skill maxed beforehand, useless dagger skills since smn skill with dagger is low
2. at a certain level, slight increase in speed when casting cure since its the only thing you can use, period. Summons will not be "sped up" by rdm sub, nor do they need to be.
3. less MP more HP, this is bad for races other than taru. Taru smn needs that HP so they don't die easily.
4. little offensive spells you will never use since the skill is halved and you have no int or mag power boost

Summons do not use their weapons in battle normally due to lack of str dex, they belong in the traditional "back row". So really, enchant is useless when you miss and won't do damage, it's useless enough on most RDM main, and equally useless on the party enthunder of Ramuh.

[FFXITsukasa]

Sheila did you find Fenrir's astral flow yet?

[Icemage]

Given what little information is currently available about Fenrir, I would "guess" that he completes the 8-element cycle. You will notice that the current list of summons includes all elements EXCEPT Dark, so I would imagine that, if Fenrir appears in an update, that his Astral Flow power is similar to the other summons - area damage, dark element.


Icemage

[FFXITsukasa]

Seems logical but what about a non elemental summon? Think they will have one of those? Like maybe Bahamut?

[Kamehameha_King]

summons

i was searching for FFXI ifrit on google cause' i wanted a good picture, and then i found this site called killing ifrit. if you go to magic and click on the summoner thumbnail, it gives you all the abilities of Fenrir AND a thumbnail, not to mention all the other summons too.