A Summoner's Gear Guide

If Mboze is more practical for you to clear than Bumba, consider looking at Bunzi pants instead. That's what I use for Pet:DT, they're really nice at R25+. 9% for the master and at R30 they have 5% for the pet.

I have seen Bubzi, but I'm limited to boxing atm, so I think the highest I will ever make is V20 at some point and then bumba is probably easier to execute and gives -5% for pet at R25, so I think that's my best option.

Just wanted to clarify something.
This set is listed as elite in the guide
ItemSet 366325
but it doesn't actually require BP augment on cape or Sancus Sachet +1 right? Epitaph is enough with -5 BPII, because gifts have -10 BPIII and hands and legs have -15 BPI, so it's a total of -30, which is a cap. Right?

Yeah -5 BP2 is fine.

Amazing Guide, Really Helped me a lot preparing my Summoner <3

Looking at the merit/magic blood pact sets, overall would be higher damage I imagine but hardly any pieces have much pet macc... on higher level content using SMN... specific example Ongo v25 1st KI... would Beckoners not be a better option? BP damage on most of the pieces is pretty decent but also has really high MACC... sure its lacking MAB compared to other options listed... but macc I imagine would be an issue no?

I am gearing up a summoner for random stuff like that and will probably only use it in higher level content like ody v25 stuff so trying to figure out my priorities is all.

Thanks in advance for any pointers/explanations!

Avatars have surprisingly high magic accuracy. I think it's because of their strong elemental affinity, as you're always using BPs that match the avatar's element such as thunder with Ramuh, ice with Shiva, etc. Fenrir's Impact lands consistently on mobs that players struggle to land it on (unfortunately the debuff is less powerful). Of course I encourage you to experiment if you think you're getting resisted.

In terms of Ongo V25, you'll most likely be using Night Terror which literally has 100% magic accuracy. It cannot be resisted. Even when I tried Geocrush non-bursted it would hit for almost as much as Night Terror, suggesting it's not really getting resisted much either, if at all.

If you do feel you need more magic acc, I'd suggest switching up food before gear. Rolanberry Daifuku & Marine Stewpot are good and only cost you 14 Pet:MAB compared to the usual Grape. Though, I think you'll find it unnecessary.

Awesome! thank you very much for the information and advice. I have a pretty decent pup and bst, might dive deep into smn as well. I seem to enjoy pet jobs, for now though just trying to get functional for clearing some content. Thanks again!

Which helios pieces are still worth getting for a new Gridarvor smn, specifically in regards to physical bloodpact (hysteric assault)

Head & feet

You'll want to augment blood pact damage with duskorbs (up to +7), pet: double attack with leaforbs (up to +8) and pet: accuracy or pet: attack with snoworbs (up to +30)

Body you'll probably use reforged AF body until you get stronger, hands definitely Merlinic, and legs would be Apogee if you can get them or whatever you can manage if not (Enticer's from SR aren't terrible).

Thanks for the info.

Do helios hands with max augments compete with merlinic at all?

So you're looking at 15 BPD versus 7 BPD + 8 DA. Without looking at the attack and such:

With Gridarvor the Merlinic comes out on top, beating Helios by 1.9% with BIS gear.

With Nirvana (but no AM3 up) it's extremely close and in some circumstances the Helios even wins (by 0.6% with BIS gear).

With Nirvana and AM3 up, Merlinic wins by a good margin (1.2% with BIS gear).

{Edit: With stage 5 Opashoro, Helios pulls slightly ahead with a 0.8% lead in BIS gear.}

Again that's without looking at the pet:attack or whatnot. The cherry on top is the pet STR & attack you can get on Merlinic. Up to 15 STR and 50 Attack. It's why I don't bother swapping in Helios when AM3 is down even though the comparison above says it should be a tiny increase in damage.

oh? I was planning one Merlinic hands and call it a day, but I haven't got down to it just yet. These are what I am planning to make. Please give upgrade suggestions.
ItemSet 394951 ItemSet 394950
no Opashoro for a while. Grio for now.
*Grioavolr: BPD+9 pet: INT+12 MAB+21 currently
Apogee Body/Feet A, Head B, Legs D.
I know I could make a 2nd feet B but meh. inv-1 for some attack on probably fights geo debuffs probably actually work on anyway.

edit: i don't consider empy feet inv-1 because it's slip'able, ya.
already have a cath palug ring. sounds like that's a non-AM3 swap. good to know.
gdi, so i will need the dyna clears on smn if relic body has a use. that set is otherwise terrible.
helios head/feet... maybe eventually. I am so sick of that NPC from Linos spam which still isn't even close to cap augs.

edit2: just going to put this here since listed sets go well beyond what's needed.
ItemSet 394955 ItemSet 394953 ItemSet 394952

Lodurr earring, vox grip, evoker's ring, kobo obi just don't see a purpose to those items vs listed.
esper stone +1 is the one I'm not sure about. think its used in some jobs sets for the enmity- elsewhere... otherwise, is 10mp really worth inventory -1?

Magic set looks great although Grioavolr will beat Opashoro. Not sure how much MAB the aftermath gives you yet, but it would have to be big to beat Grioavolr. At least MAB+50, probably more. And again, that would only be with aftermath up.

Flaming Crush is an exception there, Opashoro will be fantastic for that, with or without aftermath. That set has a few other differences from the magic set as well, though.

As for the physical set, it does need a little work for usage when Nirvana's AM3 is down, but the Merlinic hands are fine. I literally use Merlinic hands for all BPs, despite what I said above, because of the other attributes besides BPD that they offer. They're extremely strong. (That last line in my previous post is crucial.)

Anyway when AM3 is up, it's a decent set, but when AM3 is down it'll be lacking in multi attack. If all you made SMN for is Conduit burning stuff, then your current set is fine. Otherwise, you definitely want to consider Helios head & feet. You'll also want to try to get Cath Palug Ring if you can, that'll beat Varar+1. Relic body +3 also beats AF body as long as you don't need the accuracy, and at this level of gear you probably won't. All of these swaps basically pump up your Pet:DA at the expense of some BPD. You may see some lower damage from the BPs that only land 3 hits, but your average will go up because of seeing way more 4-hit and 5-hit BPs.

For some actual numbers, I plugged your set into my calculator along with a set that makes the above suggested changes. (You can find the calc on my Pastebin just copy & paste it into a .html file and open in any browser.)

With no AM3, your set has a 2.8861x total multiplier from BPD + Pet:DA combined. It'll drop 4-hits 15% of the time and basically never gets 5-hit. 85% of your BPs will give only the default 3 hits. With my proposed changes it has a 3.1557x average damage multiplier which is 9% more damage. It'll 4-hit 49% of the time, and 5-hit 19% of the time, meaning less than 1/3 of your BPs will only land the default 3 hits. So 1/3 of the time your damage will go down compared to your current set, but the rest of the time it'll go way up.

This dynamic changes with Nirvana AM3 up, and the ideal set ends up looking closer to what you have already because you have tons of multi-attack from the AM3.

I do think Apogee+1 feet path B beat Empy feet, and it's not really inv-1 because you should be able to throw empy feet on the porter moogle, but it's not a huge difference so keeping empy is fine.

I have opted for helios gloves on physical set over augmenting another merlinic hands. Or would merlinic hands with BPD 10(my magic BP hands, no atk/acc) beat near perfect helios gloves regardless?

Still need a physical cape, but smn continues to be a wip.

Merlinic Dastanas still have attack+20 on them and have 8 more BPD on them than Helios Gloves.

Depends on the bloodpact, Helios for multihit, Merlinic for single hit.

Since you have Gridarvor, the Merlinic will almost certainly be better, even if you just use your magic pair.

For a Nirvana user, it would be really close and I'd probably still just recommend using the magic Merlinic to save the hassle of augmenting Helios. (Or if you're going to bother augmenting Helios, just make a 2nd pair of Merlinic instead and get the true best in slot.)

There are almost no scenarios where I'd recommend going with Helios Gloves over Merlinic.

Thanks for the feedback everyone ^^ much appreciated.

Baaya. +1 is 500 thousand trillion gil though. How are you going to transport it to the AH?

Is that some inside joke I missing? XD

I still stand by this for nirvana users even if there are amazing physical augments on merlinic. I'd still just use the merlinic for single hit blood pacts like spinning dive and helios for all the multihit. Unless AM3 is active then i switch to merlinic.

I won't necessarily disagree, you're gaining a little from converting BPD to Pet:DA but you're losing a little on the Pet:STR/Atk side. I see it as basically a tie and which one wins probably depends heavily on what you're fighting and what buffs you have. This is also true with Opashoro.

For example if doing Reisen HELMs, you'll probably have full buffs including crooked beast roll, bolstered frailty, and maybe even dia 3, in addition to vorseals which do benefit your avatar, and MLs which didn't exist when the content came out. I suspect you won't miss the Pet:stats much there. On the other side of the spectrum, there's stuff like V25 Gaol fights where SMN is often used in the first entry for NMs and has basically no support but is still expected to deal damage. For that situation, Helios will probably struggle to be competitive.

Also, if you have Nirvana AM3 up, then Merlinic is far and away superior. So if you have Nirvana, you need a decent Merlinic no matter what direction you go.

Just stick to the old guides, they work just fine, no need of re inventing the wheel there fellas. There’s a lot more to learn about how to time correctly those BP than a meaningless 1/2k dmg, maybe. Actually aim for inv +1, that’s a better idea

The point of this set isn't the bp1 and bp2, it's to get enough skill in precast to cap favor for the 20s recast. you only need to hit that tier of skill which is now easier to do with master levels.

Where does Fickblix ring come into play for summoner? Experimenting with it out of curiosity and it doesn't seem to translate very well for multi hit blood pacts. From what I can tell just by eyeballing numbers and what not, BPD rings are better for multi hits and fickblix seems to be better for single hit/magic stuff implying that to me anyways that its only first hit bonus from fickblix. Anyone else have any experience utilizing this ring on SMN?

bump.

I tried to test this a few days back but couldn't find an NM sturdy enough to not die in a few BPs but weak enough not to murderize all my trust tanks or do other annoying stuff like level up skewing my damage numbers.

I'll see if I can snag a proper tank to hold something for me this weekend and do some real testing.

Edit: Having trouble finding a tank willing to hold something still for me. Nobody on Asura is interested in science anymore!