[Leesuke]

Back when I was a 35 WHM there was a SMN in the party with Titan doing mega throw (I think) and it was hitting the mobs for 200-350. Which was hella nice... I wouldn't quiet lable that as strong DD, but doing that much dmg every minute and throwing in a few Cure II's however is a nice upgrade to a party..

Anyway... If I leveled up SMN I don't mind doing the Cure spam to level up seeing as how I'm used to WHM.. But what BP's would I have to look forward to that'd be worth while to use every minute til 70.

And @ 70+ what kind of DMG would a summoner be doing? (In general)

Thanks!

[Romyro]

(This turned out to be longer than I thought :/….o well)

I leveled smn a long time ago, back when YYRs were a rare site, before they split Wards/Rages, back when groups of 5 high lvl smns would charge 1m+ to get you Fenrir. Actually I was level 18 iirc when SE created the mini-fork fights (AVOID THEM IF YOU CAN, TRUST ME). I rarely used the Rages back then, just didn’t seem to do much. At that time, when fighting things that double attacked (mandies) I used Shiva’s Ice Spikes a lot. Not everyone in the party was /nin either so I did Garuda’s Aerial Armor, titan’s Earth Ward (AoE Stoneskin) and when I was high enough Hasteaga. As my levels progressed, I used Fenrir a lot for the +Acc/Eva and sometimes the stat boosts. If you have a free carby (which all smns should) I’d also keep him out and he’d help me cure.

As far as DDing at lower lvls…I didn’t really use much rages until I got Meteorite (carb) and Eclipse Bite (Fen). I did try doing Magic Bursts with the Avatars II spells but that was rare since buffs had a better impact and I needed to focus on curing more then the melee’s TP…back when they skillchained. It was so hard to get parties on a smn that I put it down at 68 and switch to brd.

I picked up again maybe a year ago and actually got to 75 rather quickly. At 70, I suggest you find a duo partner and destroy Imps in CM. I did 1 astral burn in my life but it was after I hit 75. It’s nice yes, but I’m glad I didn’t do it awhile back. I’ve seen too many bad smns, along with too many smns that have 90 summoning skill at 75…just horrible…

Once you hit 70, smns is such a fun job. You don’t really need to main heal anymore imo. The most common BPs used at 70+ is Predator claws (garuda) and Spinning Dive (lev), but they all can do well. Diabolos’s Nether Blast is also pretty solid and I think you get it before 70. In general…I’d say the BPs can do 800-1300 regularly. I’ve had a predators claws hit for 86 damage :/, followed by ~2020^^ damage a minute later (on an Imp in CM). Breaking 2k is very rare for me. Very rare…like I think I’ve only seen it twice.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I have a couple other 75 jobs that I’ve been meriting before Smn. But the Merited BPs can be devastating as well from what I’ve seen. Geo Crush (Titan) and Wind Blade (Garuda) seem to be very popular from what I hear.

[Clever Ninja]

I've read and seen alot of logs showing good SMN damage, Romyro is pretty spot on with everything he said. In terms of Magical BP's, most people tend to max out 1 that can Magic Burst on Light, and 1 that can Magic Burst on Darkness. Garuda is popular simply because A) her physical BP is also good and B) her perpetuation cost can be severely reduced with some gear out there, like the ZNM helm I believe.

You'll need to build TP on the avatar abit to maximize the damage the magical BP can do, although if you're fighting something that doesn't take alot of damage from physical but gets hurt by magic this may be irrelevant, as they do good damage as standalone attacks anyway.

[Romyro]

i think people do Titan becasue Geo Crush has a solid chance to stun the target...i think

[Clever Ninja]

I've read different things, I heard someone advocating Shiva's cause of the ability to ignore any shadows. There is of course the fact that Titan's Geo Crush is probably the only Earth based Stun in the game(there was some old topic on BG where people were arguing that it wasn't, even though the attack itself is Earth magicfrom an Earth avatar, not sure if anything conclusive was found). If Geo Crush affected a bosses ability to build resistance to stuns(the few that do anyway), I'd be wary of using it.

It really comes down to personal preference in the end though, its just suggested to get a Light related BP(Ifrit, Ramuh or Garuda) and a Dark related one(Levi, Shiva or Titan).

[ShadowHolyFlyingDragon]

Thunderspark is a big one because it can paralyze. You have to release Ramuh if you target other monsters.

I always liked Crescent Fang, Rock Buster, and Megalith Throw, except MT is a ranged attack and it seems to miss frequently on IT mobs. But when MT connects, its good damage for a low level SMN.

Double Punch and Crimson Howl were also good when you buff your party.

Double Slap works until you get Meteorite, but if you don't want to get resisted on that, Double Slap works until you get Fenny's Eclipse Bite and Diabolos' Nether Blast.

NetherBlast is your money maker, or so I'm told. I don't ever see SMN's using Garuda's BP's on Kirin; wonder why...

[Romyro]

Nether Blast is very nice because it rarely misses (actually I don’t think it can miss) and the damage is decent yet constant. On top of that, it’s a ranged attack also.

a decent damaging, ranged attack, non-missing, gaining a small amount of hate to the smn BP = Win

[Zoltar]

@ 70 Predator claws will do over 1000 dmg easily, Chaotic Strike will roughly the same.

in all cerealness, merit your avatar att/acc, it really helps