general summoner questins

[KaIsAR]

How do i become a summoner?

How can a summoner obtain summons,GF,aeons,eidolons whatever?

Does summonig cost MP? and if yes how much?

Do all summoners have that stupid horn on their head?

[Starxion]

http://www.shadow-dragons.com/index2.htm Hope this help you.

[KaIsAR]

THX that helped a lot, but it didnt say anything about how to obtain new summons. can sombody help?

[SSTwinrova]

(All this is from what I've heard -- I'm not a beta tester or an importer, so I'm not positive on this)

To gain a summon, you have to fight the Summon Prime version of the monster. This normally requires a Lv 60+ party in order to defet it since it is so strong. At the end of the battle, you will have an option of being able to call that summon from then on.

Note: Your Lv 60 job does not have to be "Summoner" -- It can be any job, but you will still be able to call the summon once you have switched back to Summoner as your main/sub job.

[tomfin10]

Does summonig cost MP? and if yes how much?

Yes, while your summon is out it drains MP. I'm pretty sure it drains 1 MP every 3 seconds and as your get a higher level it drains faster.

Do all summoners have that stupid horn on their head?

The 'stupid horn' is part of the summoner's AF Armor (AF - Artifact). You don't have to wear it but it boots your stats when you get it.

[Semih Neridia]

Carbuncle start off with 1MP drained per second, and as your level is getting higher, 2MP, then 3MP.

The other summons(Shiva, Ifrit etc) start off with 3MP drained per second, and as your level is getting higher, 4MP, then 5MP.

You can use summon's ability, that ability will also cost more MP, etc, Garuda's Group blink, Titan's group stoneskin, etc.

[Ultimarenee]

like u hitori are confusing me, OK is it 1mp per second or 1mp every three seconds cuz if all like thaat summonings will only be able to come out approximately 1-4minutes in our time and that really sux I mean COME ON NOW it takes mp to summon like that it never did before....ITS BAD ENUFF THEY USE UR MP TO DO THEIR MOVES....I think square went crazy... ok think about it as this way 4mp per second that means in 100 seconds ur mp will have been depleted by 400 and thats not really a long time, if its 4mp per 3 seconds then you have 300 seconds before that happens which is much more satifying...but what marvels me is why did they reverser so that as u get stronger it takes more mp it shuld take less since your getting used to summoning..ugh:/

[vissione]

Summoners are support class, and summons are pets.

Forget everything you know about the normal series, it's very different in FFXI. If Summons never died, and could stay out forever, summoners would be overpowered.

As a summoner you're going to summon a summon, cast it's special ability, and call it back. Then use your MP to be a backup healer, buff, debuff, etc. If you want a permanent/semi-permanent pet be a beastmaster or a dragoon. The attack power of a summon isn't that great, and the abilites they have cost lots and lots of MP. It's best to use Ifrit to raise attack power of the entire party and call it back, use Ramuh to cast en-thunder on everyone's weapons, use Garuda to cast blink on the entire party, and so on and so forth.

Every so often you can use your summons as an extre melee, but as you know that will be brief. The real power of summons are in their abilities, not their attack power.

[Ultimarenee]

Eh! OK THATS Y but still summoners are like my favorite class in the whole game and now they toned it down so much!
*suteki da ne plays in backround*
I mean what will i do without my shiva and my Garuda or my cute lil carbuncle! (valefor substitute) I mean I love my aeons/summonings! well alls fine as long as they don't put in those magus sisters again cuz if there was eva to put a PvP <player versus player> in this game I would kill with those girlies!:angel:

[Crow]

Speaking of what vissione was saying, is it better to send out a summon to do melee attacks or just smack the enemy with a cane during the first bunch of levels of being a summoner? Just curious ;) . It'll be tough leveling in the beginning without those awesome-looking abilities. The attack abilities might come in handy once in a while too...

[tomfin10]

If your SMN/WHM then for the first few lvls I'd act as the healer. If your SMN/BLM then I guess you could summon, or use Black Magic. :sweat: Because the summon's attack does little damage and like vissione said, they're really good for support. Although the melee abilities will also help often.

[Sheila]

Summoner job if played correctly has a few stages..

I rarely use the summons' attack abilities at current level as are they much weaker than the players in the party.

1-10: Use your summons as purely attackers
10-24: Attacker and occasionally ver2 magic/abilities
24: Play with the barely useful carbunkle pro/shell
25+: Garuda party blink, most used ability for a long while
28: Shiva icespike, para is barely effective and just for show
31: Ramuh pt enthunder, lasts shorter than ice spike but fun
36: Garuda's pt cure, not even useful since you will have curega
38: Ifrit Warcry, used before renkei, for the MP it costs why bother
40: Shiva sleepga, I'm expecting this to be for BCNM40 as the mandrags are about tsuyo to 40. Sleepga does not work well on totetote++ when linked while leveling.
42: RAmuh pt shockspike, very useful if monster lands hits often as it stuns monster
44: Carbunkle's pt "random status up by 10" fun but the stats go back down fairly quickly after cast anyway

when summoner gets decent

46: Titan (after 40 levels of not using him) has pt stoneskin
47: Leviathan (after 20 levels of ignoring) has pt heal/erase
48: Garuda (after all that blink) has hastega

after this summoner gets nothing new that's really of use. People will rotate between Blink, Stoneskin, Hastega and rarely using Leviathan's pt erase.

50: Shiva's double slap, in case you already haven't noticed that Shiva is so weak physically
55: Carbunkle's meteor (have yet to see anyone bother with this
60: version4 spells, same as above

Why party blink is so important: Not only do monsters miss attacks, their magic can miss too - until it wears off. This means way less healing.

[MalkaiyaOneZero]

if summons are so weak, then why bother being a summoner?
I wanted to be one until reading this...

Is dragon more powerful pet for attacking?

[Sheila]

Because the higher level you are, the more of the payoff. Right now, these abilities listed are not final.

If you notice while fighting summons, they have "other" special abilities which have yet to be unlocked. Things that are probably at level 70 and beyond. An example of this is Shiva's "Heavenly Strike".

Then there's the business of other summons. Fenrir is ingame for sure, but who knows if others will be ingame.

And no, Dragon is very weak and dies more often the higher your level. You have to sit to heal it, which won't ever happen if in a normal party. They also do random things, the higher your level, more various things. Still, nothing is amazing enough to make it overpowered and it too is your 2hour ability. There is nothing special to fall back on for a big battle.

Summons can be defeated, and you will always be re-summoning one before that ever happens.

The summoner as a job is more powerful and malleable (is that the word I want...) for a party than dragoon. A summon gains abilities for various situations and is a supporter mage type.

Dragoons are limited to certain positions for a strong renkei, making them completely incompatible when grouped up with some other jobs. They also don't take hits very well.