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

Questions with this set since I am literally building all my sets as I type this:
1. What is the benefit of Nirvana in these sets with regards to BP recast?
2. I know it might be back a few pages but with 10 BPrecast from gifts and Con. Doublet +3 all I would need is 5 BPrecast II to cap both BPrecast and BPrecast II, correct (15 and 15)? Aiming for Sancus +1 but technically would only NEED seraphicaller for recast in this scenario. Is that correct logic?

1.There's some murky ***about nirvana precasting still getting some sort of bonus from the +2 levels, even if you swap out. I don't know the specifics. you can also get the 21 recast without nirvana, you ust need to net 670 skill with the empy 119 horn.

2. right, any of the 119 ammos will work. Get sancus sachet +1 tho, it should be your ~first~ whitebox acquisition, it's a large boost from NQ sancus.

This has been patched and it's no longer possible. The glitch prevented the stats change (pet str int etc) from taking effect immediately after an equip swap. It wasn't always a good thing, like when equiping Apogee Slacks and not receiving the pet str bonus before the BP goes off. There is still a delay with avatar's max HP change however.

Tyty lol

Is the perpetuation set on the front page still the set to aim for? Like engaged avatar and all?

ok, so just started to +2/+3 smn.
180 jp 16/20 BPD atm
Which avatar would you lot use for solo CP farming in Reis, Gates non Apex, and what damage would you expect to see from which ever avatar?

Atm I'm 1 shotting non apex efts that check as Tough, and was doing around 22k. Just wana check if that is about right, below average for my tier, and any gear options you suggest?

Main is Gridavor capped augment, NQ elan NQ Sancus, Apogee head, Shulmanu neck, Domesticator's earring, Enmerkar earring, Body +2, Merlinic hands with +10 bp, NQ Varar x2, Ambu back, crap SR legs, Merlinic feet similar as hands, Regal belt or Incarnation belt.

sry no Item set idk how the hell to do that

I am not sure about non-apex, but I did apex efts in moh making skillchains. With my gear at the time, even though the efts are fire based (Idk if they are for sure, they do drop fire crystals though) flaming crush was doing the most for me. I duo'd with a friend but my flaming crushes were doing about 28k-38k.

Thank you, probably will end up doing exactly that over next few weeks

Nah it's a bit out of date. We only used Helios back then because there was nothing better, avatar melee damage is pitiful any way you slice it. There are more refresh options available now.

Here's my current main set:

ItemSet 333865

1. Does ambuscade cape need to be worm at all times while avatar is out to keep the LV+1 (summon,idle,bp) or just at summon?

I see the perp set above has the cape so I assume it has to always be worn but just making sure.

2. - BG Wiki

Is this above quote stating that to keep perp cost the same I need to have it floored in my Avatar Favor set (empy head, 575 skill, perp~15). I.E. when using the job ability?

1. All Avatar Lv+ gear needs to be worn at all times in order to receive the effects. (Well, there is some lag where pet Lv+ stats linger for a brief moment after changing gear, but it's not worth trying to manipulate except for Nirvana->MAB Staff and maybe the Carby/Cait Sith mitts.)

2. Yes, with perp -14 you never have to worry about perp cost increasing. It has to be in the idle set not the JA precast set.

Hey guys

I am working on trying to max out my Physical BP set ATM and I'm seeing some conflicting advice..

I have read accounts that Enticer's from SR are BiS for physical after the Nov changes, but then that Apogee+1 are BiS.

At quick glance does the Enticer's TP bonus not help to push it over the +2BP and 1% DA? I haven't run the numbers as I am just getting geared and don't have the +1 legs.. yet

Our main bread and butter pact at the moment is Volt Strike.

I ~believe~, due to the relatively useless TP modifier that Volt strike got during the november update, Coupled with the DA fTP changes that same update on select pacts, Apogee +1 Path D is Second best in slot, second snowflake build of perfect Helios.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/51624-Nov.-10-2016-%28JST%29-Version-Update

Papesse said above that they fixed the lingering stats of +level gear.

I do wonder why Enticer's are not deemed better for Volt Strike. Each hit can crit, and a crit is 50% more damage. The pants give a flat 5% crit chance increase, plus what ever increased crit rate the TP bonus gives. Apogee +1 have 9 more bp damage which is like 4.5% of a damage increase with most SMN already around +100. It just seems to me like it would be worse. I am not debating as I'd imagine they are better and I just don't get it...just stating I don't get it.

crits aren't actually increasing damage in a lot of cases during pacts. We're usually capped, so a crit effect won't do more over a normal hit.

BG wiki states highest avatar cost is 15MP and since BG also states the character needs to be floored at -1 perp cost to not have favor increase the perp cost:

Wouldn't I need a perp set that was -16(-15 to null highest avatar cost and -1 to floor it at -1mp)?

Nope. Avatars always cost a minimum of 1 mp/tick. At 15 being the highest, you would need to reduce it by 14 to bring it down to 1/tick.

And then, as stated, their cost will not increase with favor.

Your build needs -14 perp because the highest cost is -15mp a tic, this will keep the cost floored with Favor up, anything less and the cost will increase. You can't get the cost to go less the -1mp a tic so stacking more than -14 per doesn't help at all as cost will still be -1mp a tic. Hope that makes sense.

Yes, it does. I was misinterpreting the -1MP to mean you needed to get MP into the negative to floor and not the fact that 1MP cost would always remain. Thank you both!

Crits used to be a huge deal for BPs. Native crit rate seemed to be around 30-50% and increasing it made a massive difference. I honestly don't know what changed that made crit rate less rewarding. It seems to me like they crit almost 100% of the time now. I say that because I know avatar attack is nowhere near capped most of the time, so in theory crits should increase damage a lot... but in practice crit rate increases don't really seem to do anything. So the only thing I can figure is they already have a really high crit rate.

It's possible something about the DEX of a Lv119+ avatar is broken, because it seems like crits have been less significant since about the time the ilvl ammo pieces started coming out. I remember when Helios first hit and I was super pumped to throw +4% crit rate on all my pieces, but I didn't really observe it giving me the kind of damage increase I'd come to expect from seeing what Razed Ruins and Gnarled Horn did in pre-Adoulin days.

In short: Don't know what happened, but pet:crit doesn't seem very useful anymore.

If I post my lolset for Volt Strike, would anyone be willing to give me some suggestions for easy upgrades? Thanks if so.

There's not really any "easy" upgrades for ideal end game set-ups. Many career SMN's will have spent a lot of time and money on Merlinic and Helios augments for varying degrees of ilvl content (with some players having multiple pieces for accuracy, magic accuracy etc).

HQ your sancus.
Gelos
Lugalbanda and all the other omen drops and upgrades.
Ambuscade back.
Hq varar rings are not worth it, nq are.
Nirvana, nirvana nirvana.
Nq apogee < Enticer's < hq apogee.

Anyone got some Schah zerg numbers sitting around 35-36k, Spikes to 44-46kk and my high of 55k. Just looking for some comparison. Someone said if im not hitting 70k I suck, never seen close to that. Sooo I guess I suck, or he was just blowing smoke out his ***

Those numbers are pretty good, in my last static we were doing that kind of damage with beast/drachen rolls and bolster frailty, those 70k numbers happen when you get a couple TAs on that volt strike, if someone tells you they average 70, they are bullshitting you hard time.

Thanks, we are running bolster (idris) frailty/torpor, and beast/drachen rolls(no regal neck) for buffs.

I was thinking about getting back into SMN
Please, can anyone Post up-to-date
Idle Set
Perp Set
Magic BP (BIS)
Physical BP(BIS)
Much Appreciative for the help if anyone throws some Top Notch Sets :)

Bumping this for current sets, help a brotha out.

ItemSet 352502

ItemSet 352629