The 6th Ministry's Secret: A Summoner's Guide (v2)

Random observation I've found:

Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl seems to negate the stat down from Impact. I've used it against several Impact-casting Escha NMs and each time, the tank reports that my anti-Impact armor works...

Maybe useless trivia, something that doesn't matter, but I've found it useful.

I'm genuinely curious, what do people merits nowaday in Group 1? I use to have ATT and MATT from wayyyyyyy back then, and now I am reconsidering it. Before having to test it myself, anyone have input regarding this?

I have Nirvana, I want strong FCs, and strong MBs on high ilv content.

I am sure this have been discussed somewhere else, and that poeple like Pappesse and others hvae input about that.

Thanks!

I have phys acc and magic atk, reason being: if you are using FC you need to hit all 3 strikes. You are also more likely to get frailty than torpor. Since other DD can find acc on other buffs (like songs) that won't apply to your pet. So I prefer phys acc for that.

Magic atk cause it'll help FC as merit BP alike. Also favoring MATK cause if you are using those hopefully you are MBing and and odds of resists are fairly low (I don't get much variation on my merit BP's magic burst.

Category 2 is where I am torn. I 5/5 Shiva for 3 reasons.

1) cause she also have TP bonus so even from fresh summon, with crystal blessing she has good TP amount for her Heavenly strikes.

2) Glyphic gloves (+1) Magic burst bonus scales by how many merit points you have in your specific Blood Pact. (Breaking point seems to be around 3/5 where they get better than apogee).

3) lots of Dark Sc going these days and with Shiva you also give mages MAB favor.

Now this is where it gets dicey... 1/5 the rest or max out a Light side burst capable BP...

I went with 1/5 rest for options but... Whenever they do light I cry a little bit.

So it's kind of the opposite of where in Abyssea Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl had no effect on players when they had Cruor stat buffs. I'm interested to find out what other stats down Ecliptic Growl may negate aside from Impact and such.

Don't do this. Merit points are common enough that if you're going to do a specific setup that needs a specific merited pact, just swap to 5/5 it.

Next time I'll set Focus on the tank and see if anything happens.

As Verda tells me:

#realworldsmnproblems

I personally don't do this for stuff I do, but were I (good enough to be) invited to Kirin, I'd probably do it.

New Gifts:
1280- Magic Defense Bonus Increases magic defense by 8.
1355- Capacity Point Bonus Increases acquired capacity points by 35%.
1360- Magic Evasion Bonus Increases magic evasion by 8.
1445- Physical Defense Bonus Increases physical defense by 8.
1530- Physical Evasion Bonus Increases physical evasion by 8.
1620- Avatar/Spirit Phys. Atk. & Def. Bonus Increases avatar and spirit physical attack, ranged attack, and physical defense by 38.
1710- Avatar/Spirit Phys. Acc. & Eva. Bonus Increases avatar and spirit physical accuracy, ranged accuracy, and physical evasion by 25.
1805- Avatar/Spirit Mag. Atk. & Def. Bonus Increases avatar and spirit magic attack and magic defense by 13.
1900- Avatar/Spirit Phys. Acc. & Eva. Bonus Increases avatar and spirit magic accuracy and evasion by 25.
2000- Summoning Magic Skill Bonus Increases summoning magic skill by 13.
2100- ★Master! Grants a job-specific designation.
Decreases the recast time of one-hour abilities by 15 minutes.

Don't forget that the master title comes with "effects" also, though they could be somewhat crappy...

Here's what stands out so far, hopefully the list gets bigger.

Deino Collar (Neck): Accuracy+10 Pet: Magic Accuracy+7 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+7

Merlinic Dastanas (Hands): DEF:84 HP+9 MP+20 STR+3 DEX+23 VIT+20 AGI+2 INT+26 MND+37 CHR+21 Evasion+19 Magic Evasion+48 "Magic Def. Bonus"+3 Haste+3% Avatar: Attack+20 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+20 Enmity+5 "Blood Pact" damage +5

Scintillating Cape (Back): DEF:15 Pet: Attack+16 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+16 Critical hit rate +3%

Edit:
Exemplar (Staff): DMG:104 Delay:366 INT+27 MND+27 Magic Accuracy+25 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+28 Magic Damage+217 Staff skill +242 Parrying skill +242 Enhancing magic skill +15 Elemental magic skill +15 Summoning magic skill +15 Magic Accuracy skill +228 Avatar: "Blood Pact" damage +8

Grioavoir(Staff): DMG:202 Delay:366 INT+19 MND+19 Magic Accuracy+14 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+30 Magic Damage+217 Staff skill +242 Parrying skill +242 Magic Accuracy skill +228 "Conserve MP"+5 "Fast Cast"+4% Avatar: Magic Accuracy+35 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+115

... And looks like SMN shares a Aeonic with BLM and SCH with the,
Khatvanga(Staff): DMG:268 Delay:402 Magic Damage+279 Staff skill +269 Parrying skill +269 Magic Accuracy skill +269 "Occult Acumen"+30 "TP Bonus"+500 "Shattersoul" Aftermath: Increases skillchain potency Increases magic burst potency Ultimate Skillchain

Yeah, I'm not seeing much if we can't augment them, pretty much the Collar and Exemplar would replace a Espiritus.

Still hoping those aren't aeonics, but just weapons in Reisenjima... As in, if you dont have Aeonics, you have these fall backs when the inevitable "Ultimate Skillchains" becomes a required thing.

Edit: the more I think about it, the more I think those are not Aeonics.

Well, they said the Aeonic would give us Lv.4 skillchains, so I'm hoping it's just the base weapon, but I have a feeling that it isn't..

Or they are the start of a final Aeonic weapon we have yet to see.

It is pretty clear Aeonic weapons will be Skillchain focused, and unless they update our avatars BP rages to be able to create these level 4 skillchains , the best SMN stick will likely still be Nirvana.

Still a lot of unknowns, but it would be sucky if pet jobs get left out of the Aeonic skill chain thing.

I can see them going the WoE route and allow us to unlock 'level 4 skillchains' without the Aeonic, but with the missing TP bonus (from the Aeonic weapons and bonus skillchain damage)

Actually, the fact they are using the merit Weaponskills for the Aeonics almost guarantees this is where they are going.

lvl 4 SC will be accessible to all, but for extra uber damage for DPS weilders, they have to get the weapons.

Happy with the stats of gifts got this update and hoping this special job trait we get for 2,100 jp's is usefull. This new Merlinic gear already has potential to dethrone some of the +1 apogee gear if you can indeed augment them. None of the apogee +1 gear has base pet mab stats so the fact that these hands already have that can possibly make them best in slot for pet mab nukes or even flaming crush considering they also have pet attack +20 and bp damage+5%.

Given Merlinic a generilist mage armor set, it's almost likely going to be the drops from Reisenjima.

I'd wait for the augments to come out though as the hands looks to be the reverse of Psycloth Manillas. That piece had accuracy base stats but can be augmented with attk/MAB. I can see this being the reverse.

It would be a good sidegrade from Apogee NQ with less pure pet MAB and bloodpact damage but more accuracy, and possibly interchangeable with psycloth.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/49029

"Job adjustments-wise, we will be increasing the Gift cap to 2100, and when reaching this cap you’ll be able to earn a special trait and title for being a prestigious “job master.” Additionally, we’ll be expanding the merit point and job point systems, and making adjustments to both beastmaster and puppetmaster."

Still salty about the 2 recast timer gifts that bring nothing to the table.

They haven't fixed the 1200 JP gift yet?

>:(

Aeonics for any pet jobs are pretty disappointing, no pet bonuses at all...

I'm seriously pretty bummed about the 1200 gift still, would have been more useful if we'd have been given new blood pacts instead. Would be nice to have a BP for every other avatar that would rival Flaming Crush for example. Or maybe even new AoE BPs so we could use something aside Thunderspark or Level ? Holy... The new 2100 Gifts are VERY generic, I mean, every job gets the same reduction for 1HR Abilities, nobody gets anything job specific.

As far as buying stuff with merit points, I'm surprised that job specific group 1 & 2 merits are still capped at 10 each, would really like to buff up merit BPs even more still.

Avatar level 127 [Yes, please!]

I'm expecting the same principle as NQ Abj -> HQ Abj (all non-vomit stats +1, +5, or +10), along with scaling skill/DMG to ~121. I'm not sure if that would be OP or underwhelming for other mythics, but I'd be happy with avatar Lv+3, Perp Cost -9, BP DMG+45, Garland of Bliss WSD+40%, and Aftermath: Occ. attacks 2-4 times.

Relics and empyreans probably need more significant buffs.

On another note,

Honestly, as a summoner, the part where
Very salty about it...

So these new Merlinic Dastanas can be augmented via a random augment system. They already come with base stats Avatar: Attack+20 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+20 Enmity+5 "Blood Pact" damage +5 and can be augmented further to beef up an avatar.



I'm guessing the rest of the Merlinic set will be able to be augmented with similar stats, but I'm certain that Helios or Apogee should be able to beat those other armor pieces. The only reason these mitts stand out is due to the already existing SMN stats.

So these gloves should be able to knock out better damage compared to Fully Augmented Apogee Mitts or "Perfect" Helios Gloves. I'm likely never gonna get full Apogee+1 set, so I'm not taking the set bonus into consideration for comparison.

Source: Reisenjima Armor