Brought SMN out of retirement, could use some advice please.Follow

Sounds like you never really did anything.

I'd recommend:

ZNM
Limbus
Dynamis
Sprite thingie (did that ever get a proper name?)
Magian Trials
First mini expansion
Latest Abyssea expansion

I won't give any macro suggestions because those are generally something you self feel how you want them.

Favors depend on your playstyle. I just use it as -2 perpetuation, or fool around as MP tank with Diabolos refresh favor.

I did start to dabble in some endgame stuff, but never enough to pick up any equipment. My hours at work changed at the time and I had to drop it. Do have Sky access and Tavnazia sccess, some Dyna experience, helped on a couple of God fights. And I was a brand new 75 and I only have a grand total of 2 merits.
Thanks for the advice though :) Before I get into doing anything team-oriented such as Limbus and Dyna, want to make sure macros and such are in order, and get the hang of playing the game again. For starters I'll look at the belt and crown while I look into finding a Dyna LS, and pick up a torque. Start small with one thing at a time, don't want to jump into all activities immediately and get overwhelmed.

Edited, Aug 11th 2010 6:24am by RoxyKitty

Oh man, just goes to show how much I take that for granted these days. Good call, although that may have been around longer than 18 months at this point I'm not sure. Better safe than sorry with an item that important.

I use /WHM and /SCH. Not sure I'd bother with /RDM yet but others may use SMN more frequently than I do and disagree. Dispel is actually available with /SCH. I tend to play SMN more solo or in small groups rather than as a SMN in alliances though. So for me I guess I could consider /RDM as at least it'd have stoneskin but I often need to tele >.>



If you aren't ever going to level BLM then I'd go with summoning magic skill all the way. Otherwise you'll want 8/8 Enfeebling and 8/8 Elemental for BLM.



Abyssea has a lot of new shinies. I'd suggest checking out the wiki pages for each abyssea zone. I can't think of any VNM items which are relevant but no doubt someone else will put me right. A piece I think most peeps are after right now are Augur's Brais. The best way to check for SMN gear you might be interested in is still Alla's gear by job stuff here.

Ignoring what they have in common, /SCH offers -na spells, Erase, Regen II, Reraise, Drain, Aspir, Sleeps, Strategems (Accension/Manifestation are amazing), Sublimation, and B+ skills mostly for Sleeps, Drains, and Aspirs. /RDM offers Barspells (single target only with half skill), Blink, Stoneskin, Phalanx, and the crowning jewel of Convert.

Convert, to me, isn't worth giving up everything /SCH can offer, especially since /SCH offers it's own MP recovery tools. We can Ward for Blink and Stoneskin, so those are purely for convenience, and Noctoshield is marginally more potent than a half level Phalanx, even with merits. Earthen Ward's duration is signficantly longer than Stoneskin, and while you can potentially cap SS at 350, Earthen Ward is always static no matter gear (and AoE). We can Ward for -Na spells too (Spring Water), but since Ward is on a universal timer, having the -na spell from sub is more efficient.

Of course, this is all subject to change at 82 when we'll have access to Refresh, but I'd still be hard pressed to give up all the tools /SCH offers for what amounts to Convert and Refresh. I'm admittedly biased against Convert on SMN. On RDM, I almost have a 1:1 convert ratio for HP:MP naturally, so I don't have a lot of +HP gear. This doesn't translate so well into SMN. I'm a Taru. :(

Now as far as skills are concerned. Phalanx, at 118 skill, will only reduce damage by 9 points. 8 merits would only bring that up to 11. Noctoshield will hover around 13 points. Stoneskin fairs slightly better, but at 118 enhancing, you'd need 141 total MND to cap it, 136 total MND with 8 merits. Earthen Ward will do 210 (80*2+50) consistently. Enfeebling (and elemental I guess) is a crapshoot since you're loosing well over half your skill of a main and all the magic accuracy it includes. This goes the same for Ninjustu, too. /SCH offers the work around of B+ing your skill so you can actually sleep things! 8 merits will never change anything in enhancing or enfeebling (or ninjutsu but that's outside the realm of SMN so I don't care what you do).

Dispel is, fortunately, naturally accurate, so a half level enfeebling skill doesn't matter. Both /SCH and /RDM offer it.

I stopped using /WHM when /SCH offered most of the same tools. Boils down to offering Viruna, Stona, Divine Seal, and Barspellras. I only bring out /WHM if I knew I'd be using Viruna and Stona a lot, for specific mobs.


If you use Spellcast, precast in -BP Timer, midcast in BP gear, aftercast in Idle or Perp gear.

If you don't use Spellcast... the concept is that exact same. Have your -BP Timer gear on before you activate the BP. Avatars check your gear at the time they use the ability. So inbetween when you use the BP and when the Avatar uses the ability, while it's readying, equip your gear.

As for what to equip for a BP, that depends on what you're using. Physical Rages will favor Enhances Accuracy, Enhances Attack, and Skill. Magical Rages will favor Avatat|Pet: MAB and skill (and magic accuracy but there's not much out for it). Wards exclusively favor Skill.


AF, Relic, Marduk, Oracles, Goliard, and Nashira will cover a lot. Nashira has become even more useful since /SCH offers Drains and Aspirs too, for MAcc and Dark. If we could ever figure out where Augur comes from, that'd be amazing. Teal will fill in for spells outside of Avatars.

Some items to look into are Spurrer Beret, Lore Robe, Arcane Robe, Serpentes set, Summoning Belt, Caller's Sash, Accord Hat (if it's found), Tiresias' Cape, and Divertr Ring. -Emnity Gear is useful in super low-man or solo situations, but not terribly important, keeping hate more on the pet and less on you.

Edited, Aug 19th 2010 9:14am by jlejeune

I can't think of too many times I'm not using Earthen Ward, since I'm usually giving it to everyone else too.

At least it's not Walk of Echos, I guess.

I think it is actually worse, since T2s are said to be 2 hour repops with no alternatives since there is only one in the whole game compared to 8 of the other VNMs (who are also on 1 hour repops).

Not to mention you need to actually make people "waste" their abyssea time to help you farm these (unless you are one of the 4 or so overpowered jobs that can solo them).

But I guess you at least do not have to unlock a tier 3 or something in Walk of Echoes. So if you actually have trusty friends and a server where nobody knows about the brais, it should be relatively fast to get.

I think everyone has hit all of the major equipment pieces. I thought I would add my 2 cents as far as sub job selection goes.

I have /RDM /WHM and /SCH all available and I must say that I use all of them. It really does depend on what you will be using your SMN for. I tend to use /WHM during events where I know I'll be in a party with a RDM or if teleport spells are needed. I like to use /SCH for soloing. It provides Reraise, sublimation, a viable sleep and aspir. I've found myself going to abyssea parties as /RDM. I'm a Taru SMN, so obviously I'm far from a 1:1 ratio on my convert but I have a decent set and it nets me a good amount of MP (usually 900 about, but more in Abyssea obviously).

I think after the next few updates, RDM will likely become more of a default sub for me. Convert, Refresh, Haste, Stoneskin and Blink might be too much to pass up. Having to use Earthen Ward to give yourself SS is often a pain and a waste of a Ward pact. I get back just as much MP (if not more) from Convert than I do sublimation. Unless your fighting aspirable mobs, /RDM will always pull ahead for MP regeneration. If your primary role in whatever party you are in is to DD, then I think /RDM will serve you better than the other sub job choices. If you're main healing or assisting with status removals, then /SCH or /WHM will obviously be better.

I honestly think it worthwhile to have all 3 sub jobs leveled.

Edit: And welcome back! :)

Edited, Aug 20th 2010 5:56pm by Sasaraixx