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

I wonder if the nirvana trick still works now @_@

What is the new bp aoe range?

All listed in the official update notes are 10' now :D If I remember correctly nightmare and thunderspark were about 4.5' before so it's a huge improvement should make cleaving more viable on smn. I'll edit the post with more screenshots and info.

I'm standing 10.5' away from the urganite, Ramuh is slightly closer.


10' away Shiva sleepga


10' away Ramuh Shock Squall


10' from diabolos, Ultimate Terror (centered on Diabolos):


10' away from the urganite, Nightmare (centered on the mob):


10' away lunar roar:


10' away diamond storm:


10' from levi (centered on the mob) slowga:


Mewing lullaby wasn't in the list, neither was Tidal Roar but I'm pretty sure it was already at 10', it is now at least.

So all were changed to at least 10', some are still larger like soothing current and spring water. Really nice :)

Verda how do you get that scanning ring on mob?

That was an official update hmm I'd like to say 4 months ago but "some months ago" for sure. Config -> Misc. 3 -> Area Display: on

Just use an ability with area effects from the menu and that will show before you "activate" it.

Way easier to cleave on Ramuh now! :D Still not competitive with BLU, BLM or BST but it doesn't feel like dragging your face over asphalt at least to try to gather all the mobs in tightly packed groups before your avatar dies from auto attacks, gathering is also much easier thanks to cooldown reductions of JAs and much larger range :)

Sorry Verda for asking. What do you mean by cleaving?

Gathering lots of mobs and then killing them all at once, for example to farm merits.

OK that makes sense :)

Origin is from the war ws, fell cleave. During abyssea, a good war was tanky enough to hold alot of mobs and got tp fast enough to ise that ws over and over.

This question intrigued me as given how the BPdamge/MAB ratios interact, I've worked out a formula of 1 BP damage equalling roughly 2 MAB (with my gearset), so on NQ Varar, I figured it would be a wash.

Testing with the mandies out in Ceizak with Diablos on Night Terror @ 0 tp with my regular MAB gear just swapping out the 1 ring

2x Varar NQ
12556
1x Varar nq + Speakers
12542

Removing +9 BP damage and 120 MAB

2x Varar NQ
11204
1x Varar nq + Speakers
11261

So Varar + Speakers actually overperform if you are more MAB starved, like say, not swapping out nirvana for TP reasons or for soloing. Or if your Apogee/Helio build is light on MAB.

I think it's a bit of a wash tbh and I'd just save the gil and invest it towards grabbing an HQ and stick to Varar + Speakers.

Varar +1 however...
Really jealous of Frod :) On my server, those rings are impossible to find.


As for flaming Crush, I'd stick to Thurandaut ring +20 ACC +20 Attack is hard to beat for any melee based BP. Even a hybrid one.

The ACC will help more than hurt on content that is difficult.

Is there a way to make it show up via macro? It's annoying as hell that I can never take advantage when i hit a macro of any sort.

Wouldn'tusing <stnpc> do it? Would just add an extra confirmation

It doesn't do that for my other jobs and I have just confirmed that /console mewing lullaby <stnpc> does not do so to a mandy outside ceizak.

In game /ma "Banishga" <stnpc> lets me pick npcs and enemies as the target and gives me aoe range on them, are you sure you have it activated?

My next few posts are going to be revised sets for smn.

ItemSet 346306

Physical pact set, best in slot.
Path B for head, body, feet.
Path D for Legs



Alternatives:
Merlinic head and body can put out similar stats, theoretical perfect augments can pull ahead on head and body, can't beat legs/feet. (consider a second set for higher acc situations)
Mujin Obi only gives like... 5 Atk, really. Arguably better to go for 15 acc from incarnation or 20 from klouskap
Sac Torque is only like 3 atk, most old content gear is ridiculously weak.

ItemSet 346308

Magical Pact Set, best in slot
Path A for head, body, feet, Legs

Alternatives:
Enticer's Pants Are better for low/no TP and lower-than-5 merits on pacts. http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/46440/the-6th-ministrys-secret-a-summoners-guide-v2/46#3121483
Merlinic head and body can put out similar stats, theoretical perfect augments can pull ahead on head and body, but can't beat legs/feet. (consider a second set for higher macc situations)
There's a belt somewhere that gives like 3 MAB.

It operates perfectly fine if I manually select anything and i've had that activated for several months. I also checked via menu to see if it was working.
If I try to macro it then it utterly fails.
I did not test manually typing it all out as that utterly fails at the entire point behind having a macro and i'd be better off via menu by then.

I think your issue is the command.
Use /pet "mewing lullaby" <stnpc>
Don't forget the quotes.

EDIT:
Empy body is better than +1 Apogee body for phys. 15ish acc 11%BPdmg v 30 atk 10%BPdmg. Your set is kinda accuracy starved.
And 5 less acc for incarnation is made better because of the extra hits... because haste is doing nothing for you in a BP.

Though Merlinic can exceed both bodies... with perfect augs. Like you said.

Was my mistake, it's caller's sash and 2 mab. Worth using for night terror since it has super high magic accuracy or in a fodder set, but incarnation is definitely a stronger overall choice in most situations.

35 atk on apogee +1, i'd make an argument that 35 atk should be worth more than 1 bpd, though theoretical perfect aug merlinic jub is best in slot because it combines acc, atk and the str over the 10 bpd.

Set isn't nearly as acc starved as you'd think. eating a shiromochi, swapping to phys merlinic body and i should be close to 1350 to 1400 acc, plus whatever the ~50 skill over cap i have gives. there's huge gains in acc off the sancus, nirvana and campestres.

Oh and afaik double attack does not proc on bloodpacts.

Isn't AF 119 body +12% BP?

AF119 is 12 with no other stats.
empy119 is 11 with 14 skill (small handfull of acc)

3x Apogee Bodies seems like quite a pain to get. Assuming I only get two would one Path C and one Path D be advisable? Or would It be One Path A / One Path D?

Do we know if skill still indirectly add to bp acc?

It was something they specifically added years ago.
Although they did recently say that skill doesn't give acc.

They then corrected that statement later saying it does, like 2 days later lol. It isn't tested and hard to test how much accuracy per skill but it is known it is not 1:1 at least because they said in that correction post that it does add accuracy but not as much as you'd get from + accuracy gear (could be low as .5 or high as .9 if I'm guessing).

In any case, you can change apogee paths for what kind of content you'll be doing for 3k silt per piece. Apogee +1 body will often beat out empy or AF in damage. Attack doesn't seem too valuable with some mobs having like 1900 defense or more, but that's a high and rare number. Given 1000 defense and 1000 attack, 35 attack would be a 3.5% damage increase from PDIF. Given other slots you can do that in too it adds up. In many cases the +attack should beat out 1-2 bp damage but if you're using NQ body then AF body is a good raw damage option and without idris geo frailty and dia II and possibly beast roll too, you're going to be attack starved. BPs have big native acc so unless you're missing vs a mob and don't have access to drachen roll or torpor or distract I-III then acc sets will probably not see much use especially if you have nirvana you're given about 150 acc to play with, just with food and aftermath and as others said get a lot of it already. You also have very high acc options you can swap in like apogee mitts +1 or well augmented merlinic stuff if it comes to that (though it never has for me).

As that dev post I mentioned correcting that skill does give accuracy also said, BPs get just like weaponskills do a boost of 100 accuracy, though it's not clear if that applies to additional hits of physical pacts.

With merlinic hands on fern to get lots of +10 bp base roll, I've been unable to get acc and attk on same roll. I've just settled on 10 bp and 29 attk for now. :(

I did accidentally cancel a roll with 10 bp +3 dex 28 attk and +7 MAB

I hate myself.

I keep fearing I'll do something like that >.> I haven't yet though

Completely OT, but I wanted to share. I've had a good 2 weeks on my SMN.

1/1 on Elan +1 synth
which freed up gil for my Sancus +1 purchase.

Shoutout to Pikagreg who 1/1 my Elan Strap +1 and to Boozerr who brought some goodies to Bismarck to sell and gave me a nice discount on the Sancus +1

congrats :D