How is this possible?

[Ryouken]

I'm a new player to the game (been playing for 3 months now) and I am a huge summoner fan (Ifrit and Fenrir rock my socks!)...

So I was lvling my THF in the dunes when I got invited to a PT, and as it turns out, one of my PT members was a lvl 13 SMN...

So we start fighting and I discover that instead of summoning Carbuncle, she brought out Ifrit, Leviathan, Titan, Ramuh, Shiva, and Garuda (wasn't sure if she had Fenrir and Diabolos)!

I havn't gotten the SMN job yet, but from what I have read you have to do ALOT of lvl grinding even before you can get your first avatar (not including Carbucle of course), yet she had almost all of them at lvl 13!

Is this possible, did she just join a PT of high lvl SMN's and leech of them during the avatar battles or is there an easier way to get the avatars at an earlier lvl?

Btw, can't wait to get my SMN job, I know it's gonna be alot of hard work, but I think it's totally worth it

[Taskmage]

Re: How is this possible?

It's true you have to do a lot of leveling to get your avatars, but it doesn't necessarily have to be with smn. Any job that participates in one of the higher level avatar battles can earn the ability to summon that avatar on their smn job.

It's also possible they just leeched the fights, as you said, but it still didn't have to be with smn.

[Ellipses]

Re: How is this possible?

There are two sets of Avatar battles to get the avatars. Mini battles, which are capped at level 20, require you to be SMN main job, and only allow Carbuncle regardless of the other avatars you have. You can't get Fenrir or Diabolos this way.

Then there are the Prime Avatar fights, which are 60+. These, you can do with any job, and you have to do all the "main" avatars in these fights (even if you already have them) to get Fenrir. I don't know about Diabolos, but he's also in a high-level fight you have to get through a certain amount of CoP for.

The SMN in your party almost certainly did the Prime Avatar fights on another job.

[Zempten]

Re: How is this possible?

*editted*

[Ryouken]

Re: How is this possible?

So basically I can lvl my WAR to 60+, participate in the avatar prime battles, and then when I get my SMN job I would automatically be able to summon those avatars?

Also, if you do the lvl cap battles to get the avatar, will the avatar be weaker compared to an avatar obtained through a prime fight? And can you still participate in a prime fight after you do the lvl cap fight?

[Taskmage]

Re: How is this possible?

1. So basically I can lvl my WAR to 60+, participate in the avatar prime battles, and then when I get my SMN job I would automatically be able to summon those avatars? 2. Also, if you do the lvl cap battles to get the avatar, will the avatar be weaker compared to an avatar obtained through a prime fight? 3. And can you still participate in a prime fight after you do the lvl cap fight?

1. Yes
2. No, you just won't have them until level 20 is all
3. Yes

[Shirai]

Re: How is this possible?

In order to choose a pact with the avatar you do need to have summoner unlocked.
However you can unlock the job at lvl 30, level on to a high enough lvl to fight the primes (60+ should be fine on those tho Astral Flow can still hurt you a lot at that level.)and start leveling summoner when you have them all.

If you want to beat Fenrir in a way that you are useful it's best to have a job leveled to 70+.
For this you need to fight all the avatars again and obtain the whispers you traded in for the avatar pacts the first time.
You can also save the whispers to get Fenrir first, but either way you'll have to fight them two times.

Diabolos however, to be able to fight him you need to have beaten him in Chains of Promathia chapter 3-5.
After that you can talk to a NPC to open the quest for the Diabolos Prime fight.
For this fight you also want to be at least level 70 if you want to be of use.

The uncapped (Prime) Avatar fights are repeatable quests and can be done every 24 hours after trading in your whisper.
The prime avatar fights do however require lvl 6 or 7 fame in the nation where the quest is given so start doing quests early, it will only advantage you later in the game.

[Icemage]

Re: How is this possible?

You don't have to do any of the fights as a Summoner except the solo mini-forks (which are entirely skippable with a level 60+ alternate job).

I have all avatars except Diabolos and my SMN is still level 1.


Icemage

[Shirai]

Re: How is this possible?

You don't have to do any of the fights as a Summoner except the solo mini-forks (which are entirely skippable with a level 60+ alternate job).

I have all avatars except Diabolos and my SMN is still level 1.


Icemage

True I forgot to mention that,
the Prime fights can be done as any job.
Just if you don have the job unlocked you can choose the pact if you go back to the questgiver.

[SharMarali]

Re: How is this possible?

I personally had completed all of the avatar prime fights before the mini-forks were released in-game. At one time (as you'll see from some of the older posts in this forum) this was the ONLY way to obtain avatars. I had a 70 RDM and had done all of the fights, and so I had the 6 "standard" avatars when I began raising my SMN at level 1. It's actually not terribly uncommon even now that the mini-forks exist for people to have all of the avatars at low levels. Basically, it's usually people who chose to level some other job to 60+ or even to 75 and then got bored later and decided to try raising SMN after they've obtained all of the avatars.

Some friends of mine would only raise SMN after obtaining Fenrir because they felt that raising SMN without all of the avatars would represent only a fraction of what the job was capable of doing, even at those levels (this was before Diabolos existed).

It's all about personal preference and priorities. Someone whose priority is to raise SMN and begins working toward that goal immediately upon playing the game is obviously not going to have all avatars until level 20, because the only way to get them WITHOUT using the mini-forks is to have some other job leveled quite a bit, or talk 5 people into letting you stand there while they kill the avatar prime.

[framerate]

Re: How is this possible?

Personally, I started as a WHM with the intention of leveling high enough to get Fenrir and Diabolos so I could be a SMN.

I started with WHM and got to 30, unlocked SMN, took it to 20. Then I got all the avatars in the mini-battles (solo as SMN20) and used SMN as my WHM subjob. Took WHM to 61 and was able to obtain Fenrir. Then I went back to my SMN to level it (finally) and to get further in CoP so I can get Diabolos.

SMN can be a lot of work if you want to get it right, you almost HAVE to level another job first (unless you're happy without Fenrir and Diabolos until your SMN is 65+.

[Murphie]

Re: How is this possible?

I'm planning on waiting to level SMN until I have all of the avatars as well. It's just a personal preference issue, really.

Also, I'm Elvaan, and I can't afford astals right now. I'd like to have those before I get started on SMN.

[samarium]

Re: How is this possible?

My SMN is level 10, and I own only Carbuncle. I fully intend to duo it (with my wife) to level 20, and then do all of the Mini battles to get my avatars. Well, except for Shiva; a looong time ago I started the Prime battle for her and still have the regular fork.

I'd like to feel that I earned them myself, and solo to boot. It feels worth more to me to know that I got out there and did it myself instead of leeching. Even if I went with a party at the appropriate level and WHM'd my heart out, I'd STILL rather do it solo.

-sam

[Murphie]

Re: How is this possible?

Well, if you're of the appropriate level in a Prime Avatar party, you're not really leeching. Those aren't a cakewalk unless you go in there with a few 75's and just stand in the back.

[Omnitank]

Re: How is this possible?

I can almost solo the Prime battles with my 74 THF. I can Tank just fine. I only need a whm to cast Bar-whatever on me. As long as I have that I have no prob. Takes about 15 mins a fight but I can almost solo them. I never did Fenrir like that though, so I can not say that about him.