The 6th Ministry's Secret: A Summoner's Guide

Avatar Attack merits basically do nothing. I did 5/5 magic attack and 5/5 summoning casting time, with some fast cast gear my summons are almost instant which is useful for quickly resummoning, and I never get resists on anything with my gearset (not even Hurkan @21% colonization rate) so it depends, if you're getting resisted with magic pacts keep 5/5 magical accuracy, otherwise the casting time is a good utility, but the avatar attack merits are worthless, pretty much anything is better than that, but it's up to you and what you do with summoner/playstyle

You do have a point, after all that was the reason why I never got it in the first place.
Meh, I'll just leave things as they are now.

The real issue with "low end" sets is that these request are asking for mostly 75 era gear, aby being the exception, which had a different focus than current SMN gear. In the past summoner gear had very few pieces that enhanced the pets. Instead, the focus was on perpetuance lowering gear. This is why it is difficult to make a set when limiting the amount of events you want me to pool gear from. I do have a solution I will post here in a bit. I will attempt to breakdown useful gear by event. It may take me a bit though. ^^;

As far as the new smn ammo pieces go, do they need to be equipped before the avatar is summoned or can they be equipped afterward?

On while the avatar is summoned. If you remove it the avatar's stat level will drop again until you requip it.

Balsam Staff:
DMG:157 Delay:366 MP+85 Staff skill +215 Parrying skill +215 Avatar: "Magic Atk. Bonus"+120

http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/August_2013_Version_Update_Changes


I do 6400+ dmg with balsam staff now on mobs that dont resist magic(thats 1400 more dmg), 11400+ on umbril with ifrit, 3300 on root from lair reive.

New boots looks awesome, i want them but i cancelled account, only 2 days left, /wave smn@ffxiv

So with all of this pet mab gear floating around as augments, does this make certain BP dmg + pieces better or would the +25 MAB on pieces such as Hangondes body, hands, legs outdo that stuff?

Took the liberty of updating the TP and WS Sets.

Weaponskill

ItemSet 273149

TP

ItemSet 206905

Also, I think BP Damage +10% is going to outweigh Pet:MAB+25 especially with the I.lv Ammo. So Body is pretty staple. Other pieces not so sure, But I know it can get Pet:MAB20+

Edit: For TP, You can give up the large DEF, 7STR and I.lv Bonuses, in exchange for 1 Haste and 3% Double Attack that Nabu's offers if you feel its warranted. Personally I tried to use I.lv gear because without it we still get really hurt.

And a Bonus is that the Hagondes Set all comes with PDT Augments, I know at least up to -4% on the body.

Its really hard to beat all that PET MAB for the meritable magical BP you can use em as just macro pieces but inventory hell is just that and use the others while waiting on that limiting as f bp timer lol. It's hard for any physical bps to be used seeing the damage of magical ones.

Math:

Formula is (floor[512+1.72*(TP+1)] + floor[(Avatar's INT - Monster's INT) * 1.5]) * MAB(of avatar)/MDB(of monster) * Day/Weather

After reading avatar perp -5 on the aug u+1 staff I am so ready to toss my other staffs lol. I was almost gonna buy the balsam but the u+1 may just be good enough for me.

The whole SMN Set might be able to get Perp-5. So far it seems each piece shares their augments. (I.E can get M.acc on any piece, pet:MAB, so on, so forth).

Legs on the Set confirmed -5 Perp, So its likely other pieces could as well.

Personally I'd love to have a Melee set with free avatars. Here's hopin.

Damn talk about a easy way to have a free avatar. Hmmm. this may start to feel almost like abyssea everywhere lol.

Would have to pick and chose though, since each piece can get PET:MAB+ on it as well, so if you went for a perp set you'd sacrifice a MAB Set.. Unless you had two of them and i dun wanna think of that macro nightmare XD

ItemSet 273735


For those who like to smack stuff while regaining MP!
-5 Perpetuation on Hagondes Pants.
26% haste.
6-5MP Refresh depending on Nirvana/Magian setup while smacking things.
Varying amounts of -PDT depending on augments.
Switch in Asperity Necklace based upon accuracy.
Can also exchange Evoker's Ring for Rajas or an Accuracy Ring however you will lose one MP a tic.
Huzzah?

Can get Perp-5 On an Uffrat+1 and gain somewhere in the ballpark of 160 Acc/atk, and up to 90 or so Base damage.

Think that may be fore the best.

also, Perp-5 Can be augmented (or Perp- in general) On every piece of Hagondes gear! So rejoice. I suggest getting Perp-5 on the body if SMN is your focus, and Emp+2 covers our BP needs quite well.

That and perp-5 on the Staff give you Perp-10 in Gear (Staff is good as a Perp/DD tool, but balsam outdoes it on Magical BPs even with Augments, so theres that).

So -14 With Refresh, If you put Perp-5 On head, You'll get -15 In perp, and +4 In refresh (Auto/Body)... Making you get 3mp/tic back. for MAB Head you could forgo the Augmenting and get Bokwus and have a solid MAB Head! (I think theres another floating around but i don't recall).

I've gotten +23 Pet MAB on the boots, which already had 25 MAB. and +28 Pet MAB on the legs. Currently trying to get perp- on the Staff.

best avatar out/non favor/refresh based setup is:
uffrat +1, oneiros grip,
caller's horn +1, WOTG earring
hag body, hag hands, evoker's ring
nares pants, herald's gaiters.

What about group #2 merits?
Atm I have 3/5 on Garuda, 3/5 on Shiva and 4/5 on Ramuh.
Was thinking about spreading those merits a bit more. Maybe getting five of them at 2/5? In which case which one would you leave out of the 6 available?
What's the consensus on BPs these days?

I have quit FFXI and will not be maintaining this guide.

I made my node(86) public to everyone. So, anyone feel free to update or rework the guide as you see fit.

I wish my fellow Summoners the best.

:(

Thank you for your hard work!

^ this!
And good luck in your new adventures.


Anybody mind sharing his opinion about my merit question?
I'm really wondering what to do.
2/5 in 4 pacts and 1/5 in the remaining 2? (Which?!)
2/5 in 5 pacts and leaving outside one? (Which?!)
Something else?

Atm I have 3/5 Garuda, 3/5 Shiva and 4/5 Ramuh, but several times I've felt the need to use other avatars, but without the merit BPs it hurts a lot

Just reporting a crazy issue with the new staff:

Thanks Squishy!

I am thinking really hard about coming back. Some of my friends came back, sadly most did not. Now I have to decide if it is worth my time. I even ordered SOA on a whim, lol. But back to this thread. SMN has always been one of my favorite jobs and I am happy to see this thread is in good hands.

Well I played for the fun with friends reason, lol. I just got lucky with getting good gear and weapons along the way. No friends on/ no fun!! And Squishy, you have great insight and understand the mechanics of the game better than most. I would listen to anything you have say, anytime!