The 6th Ministry's Secret: A Summoner's Guide (v2)

Yeah that’s wrong, maletaru/Iocus are right, same fern stones here at a time I only had SMN, spends 1000’s of them, they all have BP 10, one even has a double pet macc for above 30 along Mab 28 and pet int of 5

Yup I agree. I'm positive mine are from a fern stone, not DM:

hands={ name="Merlinic Dastanas", augments={'Pet: Mag. Acc.+25 Pet: "Mag.Atk.Bns."+25','Blood Pact Dmg.+10','Pet: "Mag.Atk.Bns."+7',}}

The highest single Pet:MAB roll you can get without dark matter is +25. If you see more than +25 then it's actually two rolls combined. (The second roll caps at +15 giving you a total maximum of +40 from regular stones.)

yeah I suppose I should have stated mine is mab 23 + mab 7 for a total of mab 30. Fern stones used, not DM.

Yeah, this is true which is why the mab/macc + mab + macc roll isn't possible with fern. The fifth slot only opens up with DM

What's the 5th augment...?

MAB/MAcc, BPD, MAB, Macc, that's 4 augments.

Sorry, I misremembered again. There are 5 slots total (base stat is the missing one) and I misremembered that the last is inaccessible without DM

New to SMN.
I am looking for some guidance on what gear is Mandatory/Nice to have/Not needed. I have a LOT of stuff I see in the guides with the exception of some weapons and the JSE/Su3 gear from other jobs (RDM, GEO), so just looking for opinions on what pieces I can skip entirely from the UNM/SMN JSE line. For instance, I initially went and farmed those two Mitts from the Tonberry UNM and the Body piece from Douma weapon, but haven't R15'd them because I'm not sure if they have any practical use and are worth the price of Lustreless. I will read up on more thread discussions later, and have been following this gear guide for ideas, but looking to narrow down the list so I'm not wasting money/time collecting unnecessary gear.

Please indicate which pieces from the below list are Mandatory, Nice to have, or Not Needed.


UNM
AF+3
Relic+3
Empyrean+3
Abjuration/+1
Su3
Merlinic/Helios


If they are nice-to-have, please indicate which rank they can be left at (fully R15 or upgraded to +3, or just macro-only piece can keep lower) and what the purpose is, so I can decide for myself when to get it. I do plan on getting all of the JSE to +3 eventually just for storage slip purposes, but for now, I just want to focus on useful pieces. (I have no plans to build a Nirvana, if a piece of gear is "mandatory" due to that weapon).

(if there's a guide that covers this information already and I missed it, just link and i'll look it up)
TIA

Why is this not a sticky?


You may not need all of these sets. Prioritize what is 'must have', 'nice to have' and 'not needed' based on how you intend to use SMN is your best bet.

Hey Buukki I can tell you what I think is the highest priority or skippable in the list you made.
Keep in mind, it goes without saying, it's just my personal and highly subjective opinion and not a "fact"

Assiduity Pants +1.
You might not need the perpetuance, depending on your build, but they're nice to have regardless because of the refresh and can be used by multiple jobs. The augmented version can be used in a pet-engaged set, but tipically those are not very effective on SMN, compared to like PUP and BST.

Lamassu Mitts +1
These can be used for avatar engaged sets (but see above), for Perpetuance according to your build, even if just as a temporary placeholder. They used to be pretty nice for SMN skill sets but they're no longer the best. Can be a temp placeholder as you aim for Baayami +1
Wouldn't say these are "vital" but UNM campaign is up, they can be a nice and free placeholder.

Asteria Mitts +1
These can be nice (augmented) for pet macc BP sets, until you get better options.
Primarly I'd say these are a nice idle set because of the refresh+2, unless you have augmented merlinic for that.
Not vital, can be nice.

Body for sure, get +3 asap.
Head can be a nice temporary placeholder for refresh if you think it's gonna take you a long time, for whatever reason, to get Empy+3 head, because otherwise that's the piece to aim for in the head slot.
Can skip the rest (feet offer a nice option for perp but with Apogee-1 and empy out there I'd skip em)

You want head for the enhancement to Astral Flow duration, but you don't "need" +3 for that. You could stop at +1, hell you could stop at the level 90 augmented version.
Body is an interesting option for BPs like Volt Strike, Predator Clows, I think Hysteric Assault too? Basically for multihit BPs with FTP transfer. If it's better or worse than other options is a complicated issue, which has been discussed in depth multiple times in this thread (please notice there's no pet: acc on this body).
I dunno what to suggest here, consider this option for sure but maybe don't prioritize it?
I'd say you can skip the rest of relic armor.


Head is a must, totally. Get it asap.
Then there's hands for Mana Cede, but honestly you could use the +1 version for that (or even the abyssea version). And tbf is not like you use Mana Cede every time CD is up, so...
Body can be a nice temporary option to reach the necessary thresholds of Perpetuance and SMN skill (need to never go below a certain number of SMN skill to mantain the boons of Avatar's Favor, read further in the thread or BGwiki to see the tiers) but that's it.
For feet I can say similar things I said for the hands, with the difference I'd dare to say Elemental Siphon is used more often than Mana Cede.
Legs are very nice for some support BPs (healing) that scale with TP and are very nice if for some BP sets you want to aim to as much Blood Boon as possible. Both uses are very niche if you ask me, so I wouldn't prioritize them.

Empy sets have another secondary nice use, DT for the master, while also giving very nice defensive stats/meva etc. Up to you if you want to get em or not, depending on your available gallimaufry.

Apogee+1, HQ for the set bonus.
You want at least Head, Legs and Feet. "Pro" SMNs probably go for multiple of them, one path A and one path B. I'd say you can just get a single one of them and go path C for all-purpose. You can always change your mind and get a second pair in the future since you can swap the augments.


This is gonna be expensive but you kinda want at least 4/5 Baayami+1: body, hands, legs and feet.
These are used for various purposes, for SMN skill sets (most support BP: ward) and for several other instances where you want to reach a certain amount of SMN skill when precasting BPs, for Avatar's Favour and to reach the desired amount of -10 BP recast, bringing you to the current cap of 20 seconds recast (which is a pretty big difference compared to the raw value of 60 seconds)


You at least want a pair of Merlinic Hands augmented with >8 BP and whatever else you can get. Ideally you will end up with at least 2 of them with different stats but you gotta start from somewhere, right?

Helios can still be nice for multiple stats but first and foremost BP damage paired with Pet: DA. This works very very good for BPs with multiple hits and FTP transfer, like the ones I already mentioned.
But I'd say this is a very pro and dedicated set. You might want to work on those eventually but I'd say probably not right now?


Also I suggest to get Enticer's Pants from Sinister Reign, ideally with the max augment but anything works.
They are very very nice for magical BPs and they're free!


Furthermore, there's other things to discuss:

The best is the Odyssey one, from R20 onward (probably even earlier).
Second best option is the Sancus Sachet +1, which is SU-something.
Next best option is probably Seraphicaller I guess?


Leaving Stage5 Opashoro and R15 Nirvana aside, there's something else you want

Espiritus path B is nice for SMN skill sets (most support BP Ward). If you have multiple ones of them, then Path A or C can also be very nice for magical BPs, until you get better augs on the following ones.

Gridarvor - get it and augment it. It's gonna be your best idle staff for perp (until/if you get Nirvana), it's also an incredibly strong option for phisical multi-hit TP with FTP transfer.

Grioavolr / Keraunos - these can be augmented with BP damage and several other stats, turning them into your best option for magical and even physical or hybrid. Grioavolr is potentially better but augs are more random. Keraunos gives you a minimal degree of control with the 3 different slots/stones. They can be easily better than Espiritus path A/C for magical BPs.

I forgot to mention two more categories of offensive BPs:

1) Physical ones without FTR transfer
2) Hybrid ones (well, mostly just Flaming Crush)

You could get specific Grioavolr/Keraunos that try to get as much physical augs as possible (mostly pet att/acc), but they won't create a massive difference in damage output alas and quite frankly most of these BPs are used very rarely and/on only in very specific content. Like 99% of the times where you want to deal physical damage with BPs you're gonna use one of the FTP transfer ones, for which Gridarvor is very nice.
Easy answer for these other physical BPs would be Nirvana or Opashoro of course, but really, they don't matter that much or at least I wouldn't really focus on that sub-category as you try to get your SMN ready for generic content.


For Flaming Crush well... you need a ton of buffs for this to be effective, most of the times.
While you could maybe theoretically get a decent option through a dedicated Grio/Kera, I would just use your default staff for magical BPs.

I didn't really find the extra Baayami +1 gear to be worth it. Buff duration is great, but the main use of skill gear is to floor the recap reduction of Avatar's favor, which caps at 670 skill (+1 from Gifts, +5 from horn). You can hit 670 skill in your BP recast gear without buying a full Baayami+1 set.

Don't you need a certain ML level to achieve that? Or am I misremembering?

I don't remember. I think I did not cap SMN MLs and I only had Baayami feet+1 and legs NQ in my BP recast set but was capped.

Just checked, at ML30 with my current set I'm at 720 skill. Removing the 30 from ML would put me at 690, so 20 above the cap.
For that we can thank various gear that got introduced in game since I made the set.

For instance the +10 skill earring
The +10 skill from Head going from +1 to +3
And I'm not even using the waist slot, that could be another +8.
I was probably at 675 when I created this set.
I guess without ML the max theoretical skill you can get is 683, which is 13 above what you need.

This implies you got a perf +5 aug on the cape though.
Implies 1x HQ stikini ring
The +10 skill earring.
Also implies some skill in the waist slot, but at least the +5 skill one should be easily accessible to everyone.


4/5 NQ bayaami offer just a 20 skill difference, so I'd say you can easily overcome this 20 skill difference with the other slots (+3 head, a belt, some ML) and save over 100m gil. (Asura prices)
Well, sounds worth it! Good point Byrth.
I'm sure Buukki will know what to do now :-D

Thank you for your response and insight, Sechs (and Byrth). Few things I had not considered, most I had an idea of, but good to have a direction on what to build. Will probably eventually end up 15/15ing the JSE quest gear anyways at some point, but with things like cards and dynamis lockout, this allows me to focus on only pertinent pieces first, then gather other niche stuff for storage/completion/ja use later.

Very much appreciated.

Drat! I didn't scroll up far enough to read that I was helping Buukki.

I take back everything. Buy Baayami +1, galka! Particularly the hat!

This may be a long shot, but figured I'd ask here. Any Summoner here by chance using Ashitacast still with an updated .xml? :D

Jokes on you, I haven't had gil to buy anything worthwhile since TTOF days

https://pastebin.com/sDwhLqbV

I haven't updated it/played SMN seriously in some time, and there's some duct tape all around it. But a pretty in-depth ashitacast_smn if you're willing to work with it.

Wow thank you! I just skimmed it and this is pretty in depth. Looks fantastic! I really appreciate the response!!

Looking for suggestions on the most efficient way to farm Omen cards solo (just missed the campaign for it). I can kill the fodder easy one or two at a time, but it takes a while farming the whole floors. Too scared to mass pull with SMN being super squishy with lower health. My Thunderspark wasn't one-shotting groups of fodder, thinking maybe Apogee x2 might do the trick. Something like hit one mob with Valaneiral out while pulling the rest (so I get heal bombed), then he'll use AOE to gather them up and I can Thunderspark x2. Curious if others had any ideas. Guess I can also just Flaming Crush everything one by one.

I remember it sucked. I used 4 trusts, GEO mule, and Ifrit for damage, one shotting fodder with Flaming Crush (unless Ifrit decided to path so he would face a Mandy) and skillchain killing transcendents with Garland of Bliss+FC IIRC. It wasn't as bad as it would have been before BP recasts dropped to 20s, but it sure wasn't AoE killing.

TBF I may have even done some runs with a DD friend for this. I don't remember.

RUN really spoiled me in there.

Thunderspark and stun is what I did but I also had a WHM alt to keep me alive. The bigger problem is getting objectives on SMN so make friends with a SAM ideally

If you have bunzi/nyame at decent ranks, Earth Crusher and Thunderspark does a good job of clearing it. Valanareal and 2 healers preferred. Pick your poison on the subjob unfortunately though. Impact and the occult accumen set you built for Aminon isn't half bad



Does anyone know the max values of Fenrir's Impact off the top of their head? I assume against something like Ongo, the regular spell is much better.
Any chance both Impacts stack?
Does the bloodpact work with burn for 2 sources of -INT?

They don't stack and Fenrir is a flat number based on skill instead of % as I recall so it's probably significantly worse on most or all end game content

Player impact is way stronger in terms of potency. It's like -100 and can be stacked with a higher land rate.

If only there were some way to tell

Dang, that's a miss. Just treat it like such and do something else until it comes around again.

Omen cards seem hard at first, but they even out and you get more than you need over time, I wouldn't stress it or if you need them asap, try to find a partner or /sh for one. A good Thf is obviously the best in Omen farming. Then there are so many jobs that can work. Just /sh Omen Card Farming and a lot of people will respond I'd bet. Kindof need them to complete objectives which is the whole point for cards.

Basically three methods of doing Omen. 1) Farming Cards: more different jobs the better, 2) Farming Swarts: use AOE jobs with TH on their aoe, and 3) Boss farming.

A SMN solo farming cards I'd say to start:

#1 Wait till campaign.
#2 Research the objectives and clear them as fast as possible.
#3 Use Trusts that help accomplish objectives such as setting up a skillchain for avatar to burst on (maybe Ayaname or Iroha II and have an accuracy/haste/storetp set so you can make the skillchain too. Probably use Valaineral as tank.

Sounds fun.

I know. I waited until the last day of card campaign to 99 smn :/
Think it only comes like once every 3 months or so. Traded all my THF+BLU cards to get the 10 needed to make the +2 body, so need 49 more. Would be a long grind to solo but it's not pertinent to have +3 body right now, since nobody will ever ask me to play this job, maybe ever.