Pet Newb - Questions

Generally speaking, Pet jobs have never been my thing. DRG, BST, kinda kills my interest in those. I feel like there;s not enough control and versatility. As for Puppetmaster, I really can't say. I'm familiar with it, but eh. Just doesn't jump out at me.

Summoner, however does.

I've glanced through the guides, I guess my objective is.. if I do a pet job, I want it to be all about the pet... and that seems best done with this job.

How is the feel of this job vs. other pet jobs?

Follow up question. Regarding augment gear from ACP, Moogle, and Shantotto, are those pieces considered as good for SMN as they are for BST?

Not sure what feel means exactly, or what you're looking to find out.

If you want a pet job that has some actual uses with other people, than Smn would be your best(and only) option.

I'd suggest you just go out and unlock it and play it until 20 or so, which shouldn't take all that long.
First hand experience would be best I think, to decide if the job is even interesting to you.

I didn't feel a massive change, besides strength and variety in BPs, on Smn from 14 to 99.

Not sure about add-on gear at this point, never considered getting any of it for Smn alone. Maybe ASA legs for Elemental Siphon or something, not sure how useful haste on hat or Attack/DA/Crit etc on body is.

You don't need any of the add-on gear.
It is definately the job to play if you want pet focus and not solo.
The job is most similar to ... Bard? Your biggest benefits are to your party, though your pet can also deal some subpar damage so... I finally figured out what smn is. "a hobo with a bunch of COR friends." lv50 JSE supports this too. Your pets give 10' buffs and can deal some damage that ultimately has to wait on recast time.

I play BST, PUP, and SMN (I love pet jobs, DRG isn't really a pet job). Out of those, SMN is my 2nd favorite. BST with pet is like a big dumb brute, no subtlety. SMN has party-focused pets, but don't underestimate its soloing. I just don't find summoner soloing fun, although I'm decent at it. You can't melee, you're basically just a glass statue watching until your pet dies, then kiting and re-summoning. PUP is my favorite; you have the most-capable melee out of the three, and pets can fill any role. They also have attachments, similar to gear, and feel more like an actual party member compared to BST or SMN.

So I wouldn't say that summoner is the most about the pet. It is the best fit for parties, though. Beastmaster is the worst. All three are more than capable solo'ers that bring their own strengths to the table.

If you're talking about the add-on head/body/legs, they are not necessary for summoner. If you're talking about the augmented gear you get from key rewards from add-ons, some of that may be best-in-slot since there are a limited amount of items that benefit avatar stats compared to other pets. The augmented M.atk earrings are particularly nice.

keeping it simple:

Bst: strongest / most att/def pet, and you can fight with your pet. Wide range of pets / abilitys (only job you can /heal while pet is fighting). target gear: pet:-pdt (axe) are easy, small time sink

Smn: Expendable pets, wards are awesome in partys, but your character is made outta paper (keep your distance) target gear: -perp / mab , +2 aby AF covers most of it

Pup: Not only can you pick your pets "job", but can customize with attachments (have seen played like smn, or go full att with auto healer) target gear: varies based on role of user / auto

hope this helps

Sorry my question wasn't well worded, had got off a 12 hour shift at work before posting :P.

But thanks for answering my question. That was kinda my impression too about BST, it's kinda the lumbering brute of the pet world.

Also I kinda felt like SMN had some similarities to COR on the buffing end.

I played BST to 77, or so, and just felt bored. Felt like auto-attack + wait = win when I've watched lv 99 BST friends use it. SMN always looked more active by comparison.

Pup always seemed unpredictable, but I don't know alot of hard core pups. And DRG almost plays like it doesn't have a pet at all.

I'll prolly just hafta do as suggested, and start leveling it. The ACP/Moogle/Shantotto gear question was in part because I've seen alot of BST's use this gear at 99, for the attack bonuses for their pets, but at looking at gear sets, it seems to be more about reducing costs and timers than increasing pet attack.

<3 smn, it's like my god job (since I've had it as a main since 04); so... I haz lotz of petz jobz too, the difference between smn and others is your pets are like men, if you're someone who uses men like tissues... soft, strong, and disposable; smn might be for you... it brings a whole nother dimension to kiting tho; regarding bst that's if you like a strong man that you have to pay for his membership. and Pup is like a forbidden love... I'm good with just the tissues... >.>

WTF...

SMN is an enjoyable fun job. Dont kid yourself however its a support job first and everthing else second. Our buffs are ok but not as good as COR BRD RDM or SCH. That doenst mean we do not have uses. Your party will love you for Levithan Alexander Titan and at times Ifrit.

Expendable pets, and after finishing my armor sets there really isn't anything I need to buy for smn. Two huge advantages to the job. Smn can solo a lot inside and outside abyssea. There are advantages and disadvantages between bst and smn though, for instance, SMN can't solo dynamis, you'll go crazy if you tried. BST has a huge disadvantage in Walk of Echoes just because of how often pets die there. I consider both jobs situational.
edit: smn is used for alexander's perfect defense in endgame events, bst doesn't get squat

ideally you'd want gearsets to reduce timer/enhance reward, PET+gear, and a tp/ws set. The add-on gear provides some of the best benefits for pet+ gear, and since not too many jobs really benefit from add-on gear (some exceptions i suppose like melee whm, some waltz properties, etc.) it's easy to give to bst because bst benefits greatly from it.

don't forget shiva ^.^ and garuda... used to be diabolos but he kinda faded away... but anyway HI KEIDO :D, you know me I be crazier than a bat outta hell... IDK where that one came from but take it or leave it

Yeah I forgot about hastega dont mess with diamond storm too much.

lol I just use pred claws/heavenly strike depending what I fighting lol

Bad BSTs or certain mobs can force you to just sit and watch your pet. Good BSTs can help their pet on a lot of stuff at 99. Anyway, more of my 2 cents on the pet jobs:

BST pros- high HP pets, more pet -DT available, can do solid melee damage on stuff that you'd do on BST, excellent Dynamis job, Ruinator is a very powerful WS on low-end targets
BST cons- soloing can be dull, lots of competition in Dynamis during JA time, long recast time on pets

SMN pros- disposable, elementally-aligned pets allow solos that are tough for BST or PUP, unique VW procs, pets can do fair spike damage with different damage types, useful buffs for party play, WoE soloing
SMN cons- pets have 1/3 the HP of BST pets, hope you like kiting if you're going to solo, no real melee, master is fragile

PUP pros- versatile, pet + master can cover all damage types, Sharpshot is the highest dps pet in FFXI, master has high evasion and fair damage, excellent Dynamis job on low-competition WS time
PUP cons- unique VW proc but only one, not much to benefit group play, pet has 1/4-1/2 the HP of BST pets, long recast on pet healing/limited pet healing/limited pet recast, takes vast effort to get most from job

Since you solo in -perpetuation set at idle, the only piece of add-on reward gear that really benefits SMN is legs, you might want the movement speed augment for kiting. The add-on scenario body is good for solo BST, as is the head. The legs are less useful because anything outside of Dynamis that you'll solo on BST you want the af3+2 Stout Servant bonus. PUP gets a lot from all three pieces, though Salvage II legs probably are more useful than ASA legs.

Solo lvl smn to about 15 at least to get a feel for it, the job doesnt change too much, except for the perpet cost not being as much of a bother at higher lvls, plus being able to have access to refresh, stoneskin, phalanx and such if you /rdm at 99. The bp also get better as you lvl. I did most my lvling on smn before aby and alot of that was solo. Its a fun job.

But some advice to hopefully make the job more enjoyable

Do not get stuck in the...I only use garuda or shiva, cycle. Your avatars are situational and Levi or Ramuh, Ifrit or Titan may excel at fighting a mob but so many smns are stuck on garuda and shiva they end up not being able to use smn to its full potential.

Do not stand outside jeuno and summon/dismiss/summon to skill your magic, its horribly slow, use diablos for offensive blood pact rages/wards. Besieged is great to lvl smn magic in followed by vw. Smn magic skill is one of those that I was lvled quickly in besieged even when my skill was super low. summon/bp/dismiss/repeat in besieged, your temps keep your mp plentiful and since 10 other ppl are fighting the same mob, no worries about getting hate.

DO NOT listen to anyone who tells you that you cannot melee beside your pet, I do it all the time. Sure damage isnt crazy good but every little bit helps. You just need to get your staff skill high enough and like any other ws use macro gear. The merited ws is actually fairly decent for smn, doing 1.5k+ without gear. There are certain nm that I wouldnt recommend it (ie Turul, any Ironclad) but your pets good enough they can take them down fairly easy anyway.

The magian staffs are ok for perpet- and bp delay- but they arent 100% necesary. The relic +2 easily caps your bp delay- and is tons easier to get then those staffs (6/8 done and its painful) and the Chatoyant gives you -3 perpet and at lvl 99 with all your perpet- gear available they dont do much. There is a nice ice path one for magic bp, there is much debate about whether the soulscourge or it is better and the debates get VERY heated. But the ice path magic bp one is the easiest smn staff to make so its not a bad choice.