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

Most people assume TP benefits physical BPs more than magical BPs but it doesn't. It varies from BP to BP.

Physical: I believe it may only affect the first swing, because multi-hit BPs don't benefit nearly as much as single-hit BPs. Therefore I use Enticer's on things like Spinning Dive, and Apogee+1[D] on things like Volt Strike.

Magical: Varies per BP, and based on your gear, but generally speaking if your avatar has about 1500 TP or less, then Enticer's beats Apogee+1[A], and if you have more then Apogee+1[A] wins. This means if you have 5 merits invested, Apogee+1[A] will beat Enticers on that BP, but for a 1/5 merit, Enticers would be best. Other BPs, like Thunderspark or Night Terror, don't seem to benefit as much from TP and Apogee+1[A] are always better. Regardless, for all magic BPs, the difference between the two is minimal unless your avatar is at 3k TP. I'm talking like 300 damage difference.

Hybrid: It's only Flaming Crush in this category, and TP hasn't been shown to make much difference. Apogee+1[A] is best, followed closely by Apogee+1[D].

In short, path A slacks really aren't very important, at least not compared to path D. If you're only going to pick 1 pair, do path D and use Enticers on all your magic pacts.

And yes, Gridarvor is a terrible weapon for Flaming Crush. Grioavolr, Espiritus, or Keraunos should all easily beat it unless you're desperately lacking accuracy.

Just bumping these sets because I had to pore through wtfImpact sets (after looking at Helios sets in OP...) to get to some useful sets and don't want anyone else to go through what I had to.

Which path for each of those sets on apogee? Just starting SMN gearing and using this as a template to get up to speed without Nirvana. Can use espiritus in place of nirvana for FC yes?

Stick to path A/B for phys/magic, except legs go D. I forget offhand if FC legs should be D or not.

Oh, and update those sets to use the new Dyna neck. even HQ1 is better than either omen neck.

C would be a better hybrid to save inventory space yes?

Lots of SMN do go with path C, yes, and it's a personal choice but honestly I'm of the opinion that it's a poor decision.

Here's the thing: magic attack bonus is a straight damage multiplier, where physical attack is not even close. Your magic pacts will benefit much more from 10 more MAB than your physical pacts will from the 25 physical attack.

I went path A on my first pieces, then much later, made path B for my second head/feet. Again, personal choice though.

Avatar's Favor, do you have to idle in Summoning magic skill for the tiers to increase? Once increased if you swap out of summoning skill will they decrease? Does the BP ability delay stay once increased to the higher tier?

No you don't need to idle in skill. The game tracks how long the current favor has been active, even after you hit the cap for your current smn skill level. So if you equip more smn skill, the favor will go up immediately to match. In short, just load your BP timer set with smn skill and you're good to go.

Thanks!

Avatar's Favor like Shiva's magic attack bonus is skill based tho.

Is there any intersection of wanting reduced delay while sacrificing raw Rage power - i.e. powerful 30 recast Bloodpact vs weak 25 sec recast Bloodpact? Or will you just always want to max out damage for any content of importance?

In macro:
Line 1, /equipset 1(bp delay + smn skill)
Line 2, /Pet "name of BP" <wait 1>
Line 3, /equipset 2 (BP gear)

Oh baller, best of both worlds

Put the wait at the end of line 1; otherwise lag could possibly leave you at lower damage (in delay/skill gear and not BP gear). This also allows you to use the macro from out of range, run in and have it go off, and then immediately run out (to avoid AoE danger).

...REALLY? I had no idea. I set up my favor set to max skill... That's interesting. I'm gonna have to refactor some things.

Maybe I should just post my GS here and get some advice. I'm probably doing a lot of things wrong still...

Does anybody have a precise formula for SMN skill > Ward duration conversion?

think what you want is on here.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Avatar%27s_Favor

Here's whst I found on bg wiki, so every skill is 1 second essentially.

For 1, 2, and 3 minute duration BPs, every 1 Skill over 300 grants an additional second of duration.
15 Minute flat duration - Aerial Armor, Earthen Ward
60 Minute flat duration - Reraise II
Job Points for Astral Conduit grant a 1% bonus to duration per job point. This is applied after the skill boost.
Unlike other enhancements, Blood Pact: Wards do not suffer any level correction when used on low level party members.
Spell potency is fixed and unaffected by Summoning Magic Skill.

"Chance of doubling blood pact status" increase damage of physical and magical BPs.

No proc / proc on Wild Rabbits
Thunderspark: 11003 / 12457
Thunderstorm: 19613 / 24560
Night Terror: 14168 / 16820
Crag Throw: 6953 / 9164 (this BP does fixed physical dmg when PDIF is capped)
Spinning Dive: 17500~ / 23000~
Doesn't work with Nether Blast and Somnolence.

No proc / proc on Cuijatenter
Thunderstorm with 209 INT: 9518 / 11912
Thunderstorm with 419 INT: 13400 / 18140

It probably just double WSC mods as people thought.

Back after a 10 year break.. Trying to get to a decent position again.

Picked up the entire Apogee+1 set. What is the best path for these? It looked like C to me, just because then it is a good middle ground.. but idk.

head: a+b
body:a
hands:d
legs:a+d
feet:a+b

Don't forget D body for idle.

Granted we might have to wait some more time, wouldn't Empy+3 body be a replacement or, at worst, a viable alternative to Apogee+1 (D) for Idle?
Idling with HP-160 isn't really the best, granted that SMN is a job that is tipically out of range from most AoE sources of damage.


And to offer a different perspective for Kingafk's question: the reply Frod gave you is absolutely right but maybe you were looking for a "simpler compromise" to start from, since you're a returning player?
With this premise yes, Path C is the best "compromise", but for pure damage in some slots you might want to look at different options which aren't particularly expensive, thankfully for you.
Namely: AF+3 body (also useful to proc the set bonus with the Regal Belt, which you will eventually have, most people have the belt already these days so if you join an Ou run and the belt drops, there's high chances you gonna be the only one lotting on it)
Merlinic Hands, they already provide good BP damage stats, and can get much higher with relative ease thanks to Fern stones.

merlinic hands and af+2/3 body don't interferre with what i already listed.

apogee a is magic path. and d hands are for magic accuracy, not for bp damage.

Very interesting, some real data! Are you planning on testing further on harder mobs and also testing multihit BPs?

Never had the slightest intention to interfere with what you posted, Master Frod :o

Woah woah woah wait. If I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying that, once at max tier, you can remove skill gear (does this also mean Beckoner's Horn?) and still recieve the full potency of your favor? I mean in terms of raw favor benefits, not BP recast.

Incorrect. When fully charged, your favor bonus is whatever tier of skill you have equipped, plus beck horn. It will change up or down when you go up or down tiers.

Edit: this also applies to precast on bloodpacts. You need to be in that tier to get that recast.

Since it seems to be confusing for some folks, here's an example scenario:

If you summon an avatar totally naked with Avatar's Favor up, and stand there naked for 2 minutes, your favor will still be at rock bottom. Then if you suddenly put on 670 smn skill and Beckoner's Horn +1, your favor will immediately go straight to the max tier rather than slowly beginning to charge up.

The charge up time happens whether you have enough skill to actually reach the highest tier or not. When you change gear, it immediately adjusts your favor to the appropriate tier based on your smn skill and how long the avatar's been out with Favor up.

Ohhhhh it all makes sense now. Thank you both for taking the time to help!