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

Summoner has always been my favorite job. I had perfect aug Hagondes set (Pet:MAB+25) and quit last december. When I came back from a break, Helios was out, and Hagondes was absolete. I decided I was too far behind to try to catch up, hearing horror stories about 20mil+ per perfect aug. With apogee coming out, I am 6/11~ apogee pieces needed (with one whole set for path A) so I Feel like my summoner can be used again. :)

Back when Hagondes was popular, I would have to guess I had spent a solid 50mil or more on perfect augs. Between buying stones and using ones that I obtained... :(

Also, I 6-stepped darkness today on Wopket. Didn't do much damage, but it was interesting to see :

Hey guys does the job point category for mdmg work like bp dmg? As in, is it a straight 3% damage boost per level for magic bps?

I believe it works like the normal Magic Damage stat, so it adds 75(15x5) damage to the base BP damage(before MAB/ BP dmg etc).

Also, the JP category for BP damage isn't the same as the BP damage on gear. When it was first released it was just a straight damage increase, and not a %. Though they adjusted it a few months back (along with the first BST nerf), I'm not sure how it works anymore, but it still isn't a % unfortunately.

Fortunately, it doesn't matter much, since there is no choices to be made, you just want to max everything, because you can and should...

And arguably, until you have capped job points everywhere the best is always pretty much to reach the next Capacity% gifts. In that reguard, it doesn't matter much what category you put them in since the end result is the same.

If you are starting out on your JP, my advice is fill everything whenever you can so you can unload as much JP as possible and not get left with 4-5 leftovers until you reach at least 100 JP gift. Even if you 1/15 everything... That BP II timer -5 is super important. After that then feel free to max a category of your choosing... (I suggest Astral flow / conduit categories, they are more powerful than one would think.) Then put your left overs after a Capacity sessions into those other places when it means you can reach the next tier of Capacity bonus% before going out to CP farm again.

I tested a while ago with Nether Blast while naked + taking into account MAB merits/gifts and Magic Damage and BP Damage job points are indeed the same exact thing for magic/breath BPs.

And I second that AF and AC are good JP categories to cap first. Great for soloing stuff like high-tiers and going on a killing spree to maximize your capacity chain.

Didn't check the forum this weekend, but thank you Verda for correcting these people who are bad at math.

MDB does not affect MAB in any way different from how it affects the entire magic damage term, BPdmg included. Those who are laughing at me for posting math they don't understand, check your ego.

Here's a dead simple example. Let's say you have a mob with 50 MDB, and you hit it with a nuke that has 1000 base damage. If what you claim is true, then 100 BPdmg should give you more of a boost than 100 MAB, because the mob has 50 MDB, right?

With 0 MAB, 100 BPdmg, you will deal 1000 * (100/150) * (1+1) = 1333 damage.

With 100 MAB, 0 BPdmg, you will deal 1000 * (200/150) * (1+0) = 1333 damage.

Exactly the same. MDB doesn't make your MAB less valuable at all.

I'm fairly certain this is even true in the case of things like GEO debuffs which reduce enemy MDB below the base value, though I admit I could be wrong on that count.

They're not a ratio, they're multipliers and divisors. Do you not recall how ratios work? It doesn't even make sense to call a term of a formula a "ratio".

As Verda pointed out with order of operations, those terms can be moved around without affecting the formula. Dividing the MAB term by MDB is no different from dividing the entire formula by MDB, because there is no addition/subtraction going on in the magic damage formula.

This is a 100% completely accurate magic damage formula as well:

Damage Dealt = (D × MTDR × Staff × Affinity × SDT × Resist × MB × MBB × Day & Weather × MAB × TMDA × Potency Multipliers)/MDB

So one of SMN's final job point categories is increases magic damage of avatar/spirit. Now my question is, is this the same magic damage as BLMs/other casters get, or is it different. Looking at verda's equation on the previous page, I didn't see anything that accounts for Avatar magic damage. That is why i'm curious whether or not it is calculated differently.

Smn advice

Hello guys
Few days ago I got the abj for apoge pumps, my question is which path is the best for physics Bp and why?

B because all 4 paths give the same amount of BP DMG+, while B gives the most Attack. Go for D if you want more accuracy.

Thanks verda for the response ^^.

Another question: I've been trying to read through all the MAB vs BP DMG discussion going on in this thread and I'm still slightly confused. My question comes down to this, which of the following 3 is better for Flaming crush, magical, and physical blood pacts.

Apogee Legs nq path A, Apogee Legs nq path D, or Enticer's pants.

Part of me is leaning towards enticer's pants for merit bloodpacts since they are so greatly increased by tp. Physical bloodpacts is path D Apogee, but for flaming crush... idk if path A or D would be better. Meh, when i eventually get these pants I could probably test it myself, but my curiosity couldn't help asking this question :P

Edit: Alsom is smn 1200 jp cap breaking? As in can you get lower than 30 second bps?

I've found Enticer's better for Merit, Conflag, and Impact; NQ Apogee A for Flaming Crush and Night Terror; and NQ Apogee D for pure physical.

Sadly, there is no way to break the 30 sec cap.

Jopa have you actually tested Path A vs. Path D for Flaming Crush? I'd wager path D may actually win with optimal gear.

I just switched my Apogee from D to A, and I've eyeballed higher average with A.

Again, that's eyeballed. A definitely does higher damage with a resist/missed hit. D has higher spikes.

Just got 2 back-to-back BP Damage +5 conveyance capes. <_<;

I was really hoping a BP Damage +5, Skill +5 one.. So I only need one.. Guess I'll carry two! One for skill, one for BP damage (I cap -BP Delay without cape)

Talking about Pants... I my mind they never competed, A was always the winner for magical / crush. However, between C and D for physical BP... I tend towards D as a gut feeling.

I definitely can't argue about MAB being a more desirable stat than STR for Flaming Crush in general, but STR makes a pretty big difference on physical pacts due to the fSTR in the calculation. We're also getting to the point where we're already stacking quite a lot of MAB elsewhere. Flaming Crush is also affected much more by BP damage than purely magical BPs are and path D has a lot more BP damage. So I wouldn't say it's quite so cut and dry.

I'm going to have to try out both paths once I find Voodoos (not bothering to upgrade NQ since I already have so many augmented Helios pieces).

I was looking at the gearsets on the first page and noticed quite a few have the same pieces of armor, but list different augments. While I am aware that you can have more than 1 of those pieces of armor, how do I go about trying to get my gearswap to swap in the correct one?

Put on the specific piece and type //gs export

go to your export folder and add that piece to your gs file.
*Can do this for the entire set if you so choose*

They are both multipliers, and we get more of both combined from Path A. It's pretty dry to me (for Crush)...

Path D has 6 more BP damage than path A. And MAB is only a partial multiplier, doesn't work on the physical half, so BP damage is considerably better.

Also, you're stacking a ton of MAB & BP damage on other slots as well, but STR is nowhere else.

But there's no point arguing, only testing will tell.

So i figure, once the update hits, isn't it about time we update this guide?

offhand it's lacking...
everything RoV, Vagary and SR.

Apogee NQ and HQ.
incanter's and empath necks
Kobo, lucidity and incarnation belts.


No mention of the higher tier of favor, formulas for perfect defense or zan..

anything i'm missing?