Holyfuck SMN Update

[Tarage]

A new ability will be added for summoners, and with it, a brand new way for these masters of forbidden magic to lend their powers to party battles.

Avatar's Favor (Lv.55 Recast Time: 5 minutes Duration: 2 hours)
Channels the avatar's power towards a beneficial status effect for party members within range. Reduces perpetuation cost while active.

By summoning an avatar while this ability is active, a corresponding beneficial effect from above table will be granted to all party members within range of the avatar. The effect's potency will gradually increase until the avatar is released, and at its peak, can be expected to reach levels equal to those granted by the corsair's lucky number roll.

While multiple favors of the same variety will not be stackable, a single party can benefit from as many types as there are summoners. Furthermore, enhancements received through this ability can be used in conjunction with those received via magic spells, songs, the Phantom Roll ability, and so forth.

Wargholyfuckawesome. I need new pants now. This has the ability to revive SMN. I'm a happy camper. Let's go over the SMN Favors...

--Carbuncle - Regen: Not bad for soloing. At least when things blow up on you, you can get your HP back easier. Resting pet is nice.
--Ifrit - Double Attack: Hehehe, I'm betting I'm going to be having Ifrit out a lot for events.
--Shiva - MAB: BLMs love me.
--Garuda - Eva Up: Kinda meh, but better than nothing. Helps for soloing, especially if the perp cos reduction is high enough.
--Titan - Def Up: The weakest of the bunch. Then again, I wasn't using him for much anyway. Still might be useful in some asinine situation...
--Ramuh - Crit Up: Could be interesting.
--Leviathan - Magic Acc: Sticking sleeps/enfeebles anyone?
--Fenrir - Magic Eva: I... don't know what to think about this one.
--Diabolos - Refresh: Fuck. Yes. As I said before, BLMs love me.

So there you have it. Has the potential to be very sexy. Now, it wouldn't be SE if there wasn't a downside as well, as it has been reported that avatars are weakened in this state. We're not quite sure what that means, but it could be negligible. I guess we'll see in November.

That and there are still those holding out for a surprise Avatar at the end.

[Fnord]

Heres some facts post update, but pre-emergancy maintenance update so it might change some. Also Carby mitts do nothing atm until they fix whatever bug made them stop working altogether.
ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=15&mid=125783683187712135&num=5&page=1

~
Study on the effects of SMN skill and favor

The Test *using Titan*

My base defense is 244 with Nashira Gages (18 def) @ 311 smn skill

With favour on, my def maxes out at +57 or 301 Def (301-244 = 57)

Switching out gages for SMN. Brcr +1 (16 def) drops my def 2 points to 299 def. @ 323 smn skill however in the next tick, my Def jumps up 5 points to 304

So 304 -242* = 62 def cap.

* 242 is base defense with Summoner's Brcr +1

I'm not sure if the results improve further to say 330 skill, but it's definitely tier based with a ceiling around 318 skill that gives you a bonus.

* removing SMN. Earring to get my skill down to 320 flat from 323 resulted in no change in def bonus at +62.
* removing Astute cape to get my skill down to 318 from 323 result in no change in def bonus at +62.
* removing Astute cape & SMN. Earring to get skill down to 315 from 323 results in a change in def bonus to +57
* removing SMN. Torque to get skill down to 316 from 323 results in a change in def bonus to +57
* Based on Enilanerda's study on BG, noting that the 4tick refresh from diabolos kicks in at 317 skill, and having confirmed there is no bonus at 316, 317 appears to be the magic number.
* As the test is conducted alone with my 75 SMN it is difficult to find performance tiers below the 317 mark. I can confirm that at 269 skill *no SMN skill gear* the effect of the avatar favor is 'standard' as in Diabolos' max refresh bonus remains at +3


Titan's Favour
*+25 def base when the avatar is initially summoned
* caps at +57 def with skill 316 and below
* caps +62 def with skill 317 and above

Carbuncle's Favour
* 12 hp/tick regen at full strength with 311 summoning skill (does not include /WHM auto refresh)
* 15 hp/tick regen at full strength with 318 summoning skill (does not include /WHM auto refresh)

Diabolos' Favour
* +3 mp/tick refresh with skill 316 and below
* +4 mp/tick refresh with skill 317 and above

Shiva's Favour (from Suiram)
*214 skill caps at MAB+4
*285 skill caps at MAB+7
*322 skill caps at MAB+10
~



This kinda confirms what me and Icestorm tested out after the update as well, which is why I posted it. It seems that the avatars are losing about 10-15% of their damage while favor is up. Also the effect is centered on the avatar itself with a range of any AOE buff (maybe a little less). Avatars do not get any favors, only the players do. The effects do not stack with each other, but can be stacked if you use different pets. For example:
if 2 summoners use 2 diablos, party members will not get a 8tick/refresh. But if those 2 summoners use diablos and shiva, party members will get both the refresh and the MAB bonus from the 2 favors.

[Raizo]

The new favors are certainly cool, but keep a few things in mind regarding skill caps and BPs.

1) achieving 318 skill without merits will reduce your options on -perp gear. resulting in slightly better PT buffs but less MP for you.

2) After using a BP while killing colibris with Titan I observed the following.
- The Def effect dropped altogether after the BP fired, but only for about 10 seconds max, then went right back up to where it was, then continued its climb to cap. So using BP (while they are slightly weaker) does not have a large negative impact. This is great since you don't have to worry about being able to DD/Buff while maintaining favors on people. i.e. you lose maybe 10 seconds per minute of favor use.

Small mention - 2 new smn pieces. Fenrir head (acc boost) and Shiva feet (Macc boost) both of which unless i'm missing something are fairly underwhelming :( but at least new stuff eh?

[Raizo]

A little more info regarding buff strength after using a BP (ward or rage).

Using a BP will drop the favor effect entirely for a few seconds (like maybe 5), the favor will then resume at about half strength of max total based on your skill. Granted i've only tested this after achieving about half strength.

example:
On titan my def was 269 pre-favor with >317 skill tier cap. I let it build to about 312 then used BP. Def dropped to 269 for about 3-5 seconds, then resumed favor at about 300 def, and continued to build at normal pace from there. I let the favor cap (326 i think) and repeated with the same results.

- Diabolos's refresh seems to revert to 2mp/tick after the 3-5 second dropout of favor. Since 4 is the max refresh you can achieve (as of this time) this follows the roughly half strength favor effect after BP.

It seems to take around 30 seconds for each tier of skill at least regarding diaboloses refresh, but i never tried a stopwatch. Using tier 3 refresh, you'll lose roughly 35 seconds of max refresh after BP. I would assume about 1 min total for tier 4 skill cap.

[Raizo]

My own opinions on the new buffs. Looking at these mainly from a group perspective.

--Carbuncle - Regen: best uses would be to help smn main heal full time/ in support to tank/melee PT. constant 12-15 HP regen-ga with healing ruby 2 is highly valuable on mobs you with spikes etc you can't dispel, and that use alot of AoEs. Ability stacks with normal regen for 32-40HP/Tick regen potential with WHM. Mobs like Sarameya with nasty enpoison attacks would be rendered to normal dmg and avoid poisona spam. Regen 3 + COR + SMN has the potential for 50+ regens lol >.> impossible to die much?

--Ifrit - Double Attack: Possibly new potential for stronger zergs, although I don't know enough about the actual dmg calcs to see if smn would necessarily improve a full on zerg over a DD in that slot. Potential is probably best for DA/backup healer in case no brds or cors can be found for a meritPT, or farming pops etc with melee cannon.

--Shiva - MAB:

BLMs love me.

Tarage put it best here. New dmg potentials for Magic dmg cannons. Can focus on full ele skill/macc gear and maintain better dmg.

--Garuda - Eva Up: I disagree on the 'meh' advantage most ppl are sticking on this buff. This buff allows evasion type tanks a new evasion potential never seen before. BRD+COR+SMN could potentially make a THF, NIN or a job thats forced into tanking due to no PLD available more viable. Granted the use for this might be limited, but some mobs that constantly double and triple attack, or use TP moves with multi-hits could be rendered far less harmful.

--Titan - Def Up:

The weakest of the bunch. Then again, I wasn't using him for much anyway. Still might be useful in some asinine situation...

IMO you got this ass backwards. For mobs with hard hitting AoE's and high ATT, this provides never before seen defense for tanks. Pro 4/5 with def foods and BRD spells might push a new tier of defense that actually matters. Testing would have to be done, but with that much stacked defense and phalanx 2 and dmg down gear, bloodtanking might get a new meaning. Not too mention you'll be spamming Earthen ward.

--Ramuh - Crit Up: Not sure if this would be used over double attack. Some WS benefit from crit hits which might push some new potentials if using a max crit setup. I don't know enough about most DD classes to know if this would be useful.

--Leviathan - Magic Acc:

Sticking sleeps/enfeebles anyone?

If for say allowing a RDM to use max MND gear for stronger enfeebs, this has some potential. Might be more useful for BRDs, allow them to land debuffs without ES? IDK if the macc boost is enough to land sleeps/debuffs previously ES Only. This would be extremely useful in helping floor resists on HNM nuking though.

--Fenrir - Magic Eva:

I... don't know what to think about this one.

The testing on Ultima was inconclusive for helping block CB dmg. It seemed that Ice took low dmg on the first one, but higher dmg on the next 2 or so. So maybe it helped on the first? Seeing as magic evasion should be a pass or fail result with higher pass from this ability, it may have helped. I think magic evasion is highly underestimated. Used in conjunction with barspells, this could offer really nice resists. I've read a few posts about the new NMs that spam magic dmg moves/spells and ppl having good success using this ability on them.

--Diabolos - Refresh:

Fuck. Yes. As I said before, BLMs love me.

Pretty obvious how this ability changes the game. Can achieve refresh rates only previously had with Ghorn, and insane refresh with one. SMN+COR in a PT alone can achieve really nice refresh now(5mp/tic min, 9mp/tic max), allowing RDMs to be placed elsewhere or if short on RDM, or just give RDM a refresh breather in case they are also on stun duties etc. PLDs can take double marches etc while getting good refresh.

[Tarage]

I'd like to add that with these changes, and a little shuffling, Garuda, Fenrir, and Diabolos are now free as well, so their buffs are quite nice. For the other avatars, you can get them down to 1, or even free on their respective days.

[Fnord]

I know from a blm prospective, the mp refresh favor of diablos would be better then the Mab of shiva in almost any event. And thats coming from a MAB whore mind you. Besides dream shroud adds MAB to boot so diablos is a win win for any blm.

[Raizo]

I agree Fnord. For the most part more refresh will beat out +10 MAB in the long run for longer fights or manaburning.
However, Shiva's favor would stand out in some cases like KS99 turtle. Even with 4MP refresh it's unlikely you'll get enough MP back to make a difference during the nuke spam in shell phase. Granted its good for resting in between SC setups. With Shiva's +10 MAB though, you can definitely boost the dmg potential and possibly even garauntee a win with less than optimal BLM numbers. You'll basically be outfitting every BLM with a Sorc. Ring, potentially allowing 4-6 BLM (low numbers for the fight) to pull off win. Just a thought.

Not too mention with say Tarage and Yanxia who both have smn and not BLMs, that's a potential for refresh and MAB while freeing a rdm up to be BLM, or just nuke.

[Crumb]

How much is Diablos's magic atk bonus from blood pact? Might be better to use diablos for refresh and still get magic atk from his blood pact.

[Raizo]

Dream Shroud:
adds a MAB/MDB bonus based on the ingame time, 10% MAB at midnight(23:00-1:00) to near 1%-0% at noon (11:00-13:00); the MDB is affected in a similar way, but no known testing has been done to get exact numbers.

Its a very cool thing to be able to refresh and MAB at the same time, but I'm talking more about making sure you have pure MAB for lowman, as getting back even 40 MP over the course of emptying your MP on the turtle wouldn't matter much if he still hasn't come back out of the shell.

Side note: SMN used for full time refreshing a tank PT can also phalanxga the tanks, another decent diabolos dual use.

[Ikonic]

Most of our BLMs are geared well enough that more MAB isn't going to make as much of a difference as an additional nuke or two from refresh. With the exception of an event like KS99 Turtle I think refresh would win out on pure DMG. I know in dynamis the only thing that limits my DMG as BLM is lack of MP.