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The 6th Ministry's Secret: A Summoner's Guide

Summoner, your history!
Summoners are conjurers that make pacts with the gods themselves, calling them forth as avatars using forbidden magic.

The Vanishing “Doll Master”
Some years ago, the Head of the Manustery, Uran-Mafran, suddenly vanished.
Ildy-Goldy, a researcher of tuning forks in the Rhinostery, one day saw his visage inside a giant protocrystal.
Anyone who gets close to Uran-Mafran and the protocrystals has their memories erased, but those who shared his class in magic school still remember him.

Karaha-Baruha

Twenty years ago, during the Great War, the was a hero named Karaha-Baruha, who saved the people of Windurst. In addition, he was Vana'diel's most powerful Summoner, known far and wide for his abilities. In recent years, the ban on Summoning magic has been lifted, and the Rhinostery has spearheaded a research program into understanding its properties.

However, it's rumored that the conjuring performed by the adventurers of today is much different than the magic of Karaha-Baruha. What's different about it? With the original great Summoner deceased, we may never know.

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Deep under Windurst in the depths of Toraimarai Canal a secret sixth ministry existed, the Animastery. In this ministry the secrets of "Summoning Magic" were unraveled and eventually banned. I will do my best to share the information I've learned over the years of summoning.

The nature of this guide is to give a centralized place for relevant Summoner information regarding the job fundamentals, designing gear sets, and the job's roles in various content. I will try to make updates and fixes as necessary. I hope many will find this to be helpful.

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Contents

•Summoning Magic Skill
•Blood Pact Delay
•Blood Pact Rage
•Blood Pact Ward
•Perpetuation
•Weapons
•Avatars
•Avatar's Favor
•Astral Flow
•Elemental Siphon
•Merits
•Job Points
•Food
•Melee and Shattersoul
•Support Jobs
•Additional Sets - cure, PDT, and idle sets updated, rest not
•Augments
•The Roles of Summoner in today's FFXI

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Summoning Magic Skill: (A-)417 native skill level.
The benefits of summoning magic skill are:

•Lower interrupt rate while summoning.
•Increases avatar accuracy when skill is over the base cap.
•Increases the AI of elementals and shortens their time between casts.
•Increases the amount of MP absorbed using Elemental Siphon.
•Increases the potency of Avatar's Favor in tiers.
•Increase in buff time of Perfect Defense (30s + Floor(Summoning Magic Skill/20)s).

Gearing for skill: There is a large amount of gear that has summoning magic skill on it.
This makes it relatively easy to make a decent set even for beginners.

Max Potency Set:
ItemSet 312416

(Note: Kirin's Pole can be augmented with up to +12 Skill.)

Alternate Summoning Magic Skill Gear:
Head: Marduk's Tiara/+1, Caller's Horn +1/2, Austere Hat, Elite Beret +1
Body: Caller's Doublet +1/2, Augur's Jaseran
Hand: Summoner's Bracers+2, Beacon Cuffs, Austere Cuffs
Legs: Caller's Spats +2, Oracle's Braconi
Feet: Nashira Crackows, Marduk's Crackows, Austere Sabots
Waist: Summoning Belt
Neck: Summoning Torque

Blood Pact Delay: A Blood Pact is a unique order given to a summoned avatar that they must carry out. All avatars have a variety of different abilities they can utilize, and their repertoire increases along with the skill of their master. When using blood pacts there is a 60 second timer before you may use another blood pact of that type. Blood Pact: Rage and Blood Pact: Ward both have separate timers. There is a hard cap of -15 seconds blood pact delay reduction. However, the Eminment Sachet and Seraphicaller allows you to go even further beyond. This means the lowest you can get your recast timer is 40 seconds. It is important to equip this set before the activation of any blood pact. Reducing this timer can be considered the equivalent of wearing haste gear on a melee job. It boosts the frequency of your actions improving your overall performance.

There are quite a few different items with the "Blood Pact Delay-" attribute. The set below goes over the cap purposefully to show more options for you to pick and choose to reach your -15 cap.

Blood Pact Delay Set:
ItemSet 321090
(Note: The Fay Crozier may be augmented with up to -5 BP Delay)

Other pieces to consider:
•Summoner's Horn +2 and NQ/+1
•Summoner's Doublet +2 and NQ/+1
•Yinyang Robe
•Idaraaja and Eminent Sachet

Blood Pact: Rage
Equipment must specify it affects your pet.

Physical Blood Pacts: When you decide to use physical blood pacts your focus should be on gear that affects blood pact damage and gear that increases magic skill for added accuracy. Additionally, pet TP does not affect the physical blood pacts.
ItemSet 317307

Magical Blood Pacts: When you decide to use magical damaging blood pacts it is important to focus on pet/avatar Magic Attack Bonus, and gear that increases blood pact damage. Then, skill to increase accuracy or gear that increases pet magic accuracy. Additionally, avatar magic damage are TP abilities. Their damage increases depending on the amount of TP the pet has. You may use <pettp> command in-game to see your pet's TP.
ItemSet 313669

Flaming Crush:This is a hybrid blood pact consisting of one strong first physical hit which has an -en like magical side and another purely physical hit. Blood pact damage and Avatar/Pet: Magical Attack Bonus will increase the damage.

(Note: The Diamond Earring may be augmented with up to +2 Pet Magic Attack Bonus. Both of these are obtained through A Crystalline Prophecy Mission 7.

The entire Hagondes set may be augmented with pet MAB or MAcc via trading the armor and a Verdiris Stone to Divainy-Gamainy inside the Inventors Coalition in Adoulin.
*Note, both the Hagondes and the +1 sets contain the same pet augments and in the case of the feet, the same base pet MAB. Feel free to save yourself some time by not spending an eternity in Ra'Kaznar.

Blood Pact: Ward

Healing Blood Pacts: Healing BP's potency are affected by pet TP.

Support Blood Pacts: Depending on the blood pact its duration may be increased by wearing summon magic skill gear when the avatar executes the blood pact.

Offensive Ward Pacts: There are offensive wards such as Sleepga, Tidal Roar, or Nightmare. These sets should focus heavily on skill and gear that affects avatar magic accuracy.

Perpetuation
Luckily for us this is much less of an issue now than it was back in the 75 era. While an avatar is summoned your MP will be drained over time to maintain their presence. There are several gear options based on which staff you are wearing and which avatar you have summoned. Once you have enough perpetuation gear to keep your avatars out indefinitely you should then focus on gear that adds refresh effect or gear that enhances pet performance such as Pet:Haste. Summoner obtains up to Auto-Refresh II as a job trait. While a pet is summoned Auto-Refresh I will be added in towards the perpetuation cost before gear is considered. This means you will only see Auto-Refresh II's MP added to your refresh pool.

The Avatar's perpetuation cost will rise in proportion to summoner's level and varies between some of the avatars. Elementals also have their own perpetuation cost.

Perpetuation costs at level 99.

Elementals.....	5mp
Carbuncle......	11mp
Caitsith.......	11mp
Fenrir............	13mp
Celestial.........	15mp

As long as you have enough gear to cover the cost then you can start to focus on either refresh or pet based sets. Don't forget to add auto-refresh one into that perp calculation too!

Examples of Refresh based sets:

Nirvana/MagianStaves Set:ItemSet 321145

Alternatives/Downgrades:ItemSet 318057

Alternatives/Downgrades:ItemSet 318058

Convoker's over Evoker's if you have them.
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Examples of pet based perp sets.
*Note the earrings come from ACPas well as the ring.

Nirvana/MagianStaves Set:ItemSet 321389

Alts/Downgrades:ItemSet 321392

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*-5(cap) is possible via a +1 stone.*

*Assumes -4 Perp on Uffrat +1.*

Uffrat +1 Staff Set:ItemSet 318061

Alts/Downgrades:ItemSet 318062

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Chatoyant Staff Set:ItemSet 318063

I'm a Baby SMN:ItemSet 318064

This is the ground floor. This set is pretty much all T1 Abyssea or less. I didn't think I needed to make an "I 99ed afk in Abyssea" set for the lols. If I did that consist of an Onion staff and full teal (picture that sexiness!) or maybe 5/5 Wayfarer set from Eminence.
Weapons

Nirvana Best Avatar out idle, Avtar melee and physical Blood Pact Staff
Gridarvor second best Avatar melee and physical Blood Pact Staff
Tumafyrigaugmentable via Path B for MP +60 Avatar: MAcc +15 MAB +15 Best Pet: MAcc/MAB Staff
Balsam staff / Astralwatcher Highest Pet: MAB staff
Magian Staves are still second best Avatar out idle staves
Ufrrat+2 augmentable with one of:
•Pet: Magic Attack Bonus up to 25
•Pet: Magic Accuracy up to 25
•Avatar Perpetuation Cost- up to 5

Avatars

TERRESTRIAL - Terrestrial avatars were creatures before Vana'diel was formed, but became avatars after Vana'diel was formed.

Carbuncle

Carbuncle is the first avatar you form a pact with when you unlock the job. He is also the weakest but that doesn't mean he is useless. Carbuncle is the avatar of Light, who can be conjured forth magically. Carbuncle represents the bonds between humans and avatars and will come to the aid of all who choose to walk the path of a Summoner.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Searing Light	Astral Flow ability: AoE Light Elemental Magic Attack Not worth using if alternatives are available unless you need Light Damage AoE.
1	Healing Ruby	Heals the HP of 1 target party member: Approx. formula if your level > 30: HP Restored = 44 + 3(Level-30) + floor[TP/12.3] floor[Level*0.075 - 1]
5	Poison Nails	Physical Attack (Piercing): May Induce Poison
24	Shining Ruby	Grants a Protect & Shell affect that stacks with other forms: Decreases magic damage taken by about 5% (10/256)
44	Glittering Ruby	Randomly Enhances 1 Stat: Not worth using
55	Meteorite	Light Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP): Not worth using after you unlock Holy Mist
65	Healing Ruby II	Cures all party memebers (Potency affected by Level & PetTP): This is the strongest Curing BP
76	Holy Mist	Light elmental Magic Attack(Potency Affected by PetTP Weaker than other avatar's magic BP but useful when target is weak to Light Carbuncle's strongest attack
94	Soothing Ruby	Removes multiple status ailments including ones removed by Erase: This can be very useful
99	Pacifying Ruby	Immediate enmity reduction for a single selected target party member. Enmity reduction is believed to be of 20%.

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Fenrir

Similar to Carbuncle but is Dark based and is stronger. Fenrir has the lowest Melee delay and strongest Melee attacks.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Howling Moon	Astral Flow ability: AoE Dark Elemental Magic Attack Not worth using if alternatives such as Lunar Bay are available unless you need Dark Damage AoE.
5	Moonlit Charge	Physical Attack (Blunt): May inflict Blindness.
10	Crescent Fang	Physical Attack (Piercing): May inflict Paralysis.
21	Lunar Cry	ACC & EVA down on a Target: Can be useful!
32	Lunar Roar	AoE Dispel(Up to 2 Status Effects): Can be very useful!
43	Ecliptic Growl	Enhances attributes of party members within area of effect. Potency & Stats affect vary by moon phase
54	Ecliptic Howl	Enhances ACC & EVA of party members within area of effect. +26 total split by moonphase. ie) 100% moon = +26acc and +0 eva
65	Eclipse Bite	3-Hit Physical Attack (Slashing) Fenrir's strongest physical attack
78	Lunar Bay	Dark Magic Damage (Affected by PetTP) Fenrir's strongest magical attack
96	Heavenward Howl	Grants the party Endrain or Enaspir Which en effect granted is based on moon phase

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Diabolos

]Dark based avatar. Not used too often outside of niche situations.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Ruinous Omen	Astral Flow Ability: AoE Attack that deals a random percentage of damage Not Useful at all.
1	Camisado	1 Hit Physical Attack (Blunt) This does have a knockback effect
20	Somnolence	Darkness Elemental Damage (Affect by PetTP) Additional effect Gravity can be very useful!
29	Nightmare	AoE(4 Yalms around target) Dark based Sleep DoTs will not remove this sleep. Same Sleep potency as Sleepga.
37	Ultimate Terror	AoE Absorbs a random number of Attributes Not very useful
49	Noctoshield	Grants the party a Phalanx effect. Static -13 damage taken per hit Not very useful unless there is no one else to grant the effect & SCH/RDM will laugh at you.
56	Dream Shroud	Grants the party a MAB & MDB boost of +14 total. The exact amount each gets varies based on the time of day. Can be useful under certain situations.
65	Nether Blast	Ranged Darkness Elemental attack. (Not affected by PetTP) Damage = (Avatar's Level + 2) × 5 × Day/Weather Bonus × MAB÷MDB Can be very useful in sitations where other forms of damage are mitigated
80	Night Terror	Dark Elemental magic attack (Affected by PetTP) Does 40% more damage to sleeping targets Diabolos' strongest attack
98	Pavor Nocturnus	Inflicts Death (Low success rate) or Dispel on Death-Immune targets. Higher success rate to sleeping targets Useful when successful

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CELESTIAL - Celestial avatars are the avatars that existed before Vana'diel was formed. They are sometimes referred to as "the Slumbering Gods"

Titan

The Avatar of the Earth Element. Most known for his Blunt Damage and Earthen Armor's Damage Mitigation.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Earthen Fury	Astral Flow Ability: AoE Earth Elemental Damage Not exceptionally useful unless you need AoE Earth Damage
1	Rock Throw	Ranged Attack which may also Slow the Target.
10	Stone II	Earth Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
21	Rock Buster	Physical Attack (Blunt) which may also Bind the Target.
35	Megalith Throw	Ranged Attack which may also Slow the Target.
46	Earthen Ward	Grants the party Stoneskin (Potency = 2×Level + 50)
60	Stone IV	Earth Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
70	Mountain Buster	Physical Attack (Blunt) which may also Bind the Target. Titan's strongest physical attack
75(Merit)	Geocrush	Earth Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP) May also inflict Stun Titan's strongest attack. It is very useful.
82	Earthen Armor	Reduces any single action that would have taken over 75% of your maximum HP by 45%. This does stack with Bard's Sentinel's Scherzo. Extremely useful when used properly.
99	Crag Throw	Yet another Ranged Attack which also inflicts Slow onto the Target. Slow effect is of 30% and lasts 2 minutes.

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Leviathan

The Avatar of the Water Element. Most used for his Tidal Roar.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Tidal Wave	Astral Flow Ability: AoE Water Elemental Damage Not exceptionally useful unless you need AoE Water Damage
1	Barracuda Dive	Physical Attack (Slashing)
10	Water II	Water Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
26	Tail Whip	Physical Attack (Blunt) which may also Gravity the Target.
33	Slowga	AOE that Slows(30%) Targets in range.
47	Spring Water	Cures party members in range and removes status ailments. Does not remove ailments removed by Erase Very Useful
60	Water IV	Water Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
70	Spinning Dive	Physical Attack (Slashing) Leviathan's strongest physical attack
75(Merit)	Grand Fall	Water Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP) May also inflict Stun Leviathan's strongest magic attack. It is very useful.
84	Tidal Roar	AoE that inflicts Attack Down(-25%) Extremely useful.
99	Soothing Current	Increases the healing effect of Cure received by 15%.

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Garuda

The Avatar of the Wind Element. A very popular avatar most used for Predator Claws and various Wards.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Aerial Blast	Astral Flow Ability: AoE Wind Elemental Damage Not exceptionally useful unless you need AoE Wind Damage
1	Claw	Physical Attack (Piercing)
10	Aero II	Wind Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
25	Aerial Armor	Gives 3~4 Blink Shadows which last for 15 minutes
36	Whispering Wind	Cures party members in range.
48	Hastega	Hastes(15%) party members in range. Duration enhanced by SMN magic skill at time of execution. (Max duration of 6:20) Very Useful
60	Aero IV	Wind Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
70	Predator Claws	3-Hit Physical Attack (Slashing) which may also Crit. Garuda's strongest physical attack
75(Merit)	Wind Blade	Wind Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP) Garuda's strongest magic attack. It is very useful.
84	Fleet Wind	Grants the Party Quickening(+25% Movement Speed). Duration is enhanced by SMN Magic Skill (5:20 Max Duration) Extremely useful.
99	Hastega II	Hastes(30%) party members in range. Duration enhanced by SMN magic skill at time of execution. (Max duration of 6:20) Garuda's Most Useful Ward.

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Ifrit

The Avatar of the Fire Element. Most used for Blunt damage and DD related buffing potential

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Inferno	Astral Flow Ability: AoE Fire Elemental Damage Not exceptionally useful unless you need AoE Fire Damage
1	Claw	Physical Attack (Blunt)
10	Fire II	Fire Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
23	Burning Strike	Fire Elemental Physical Attack (Blunt)
30	Double Punch	2-Hit Physical Attack (Blunt)
38	Crimson Howl	Grants the Party Warcry (Identical to Warcry Ability potency) SMN Skill augments duration: Base Duration 1:00 - 5:20 Max Duration Very Useful
60	Fire IV	Fire Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
70	Flaming Crush	2-Hit Fire Elemental Physical Attack (Blunt) Ifrit's strongest physical attack
75(Merit)	Meteor Strike	Fire Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP) Ifrit's strongest magic attack. It is very useful.
88	Inferno Howl	Grants the Party Enfire (Comparable to Enfire II) SMN Skill augments duration: Base Duration 1:00 - 5:20 Max Duration Usefulness is enhanced when paired with low delay attack rounds and multi-hits.
99	Conflag Strike	Deals Fire Elemental Breath Damage with an additional effect of Burn. Burn deals 30 HP/Tick and decreases INT by 63 for 1 minute.

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Shiva

The Avatar of the Ice Element. Most used for her Heavenly Strike, Sleepga, and Diamond Storm.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Diamond Dust	Astral Flow Ability: AoE Magical Ice Damage (Affected by PetTP) Useful when you need AoE Ice Elemental Damage
1	Axe Kick	Physical Attack (Blunt)
10	Blizzard II	Magical Ice Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
28	Frost Armor	Grants the Party Ice Spikes SMN Magic Augments the duration: Base - 3:00 ~ Max 6:20 Useful when fighting mobs suceptable to Paralysis.
39	Sleepga	AoE Sleep Unresisted duration is 90 seconds and range is 8 yalms around the target.
50	Double Slap	2-Hit Physical Attack (Blunt)
60	Blizzard IV	Magical Ice Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
70	Rush	5-Hit Physical Attack (Blunt)
75(Merit)	Heavenly Strike	Magical Ice Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
90	Diamond Storm	AoE Evasion Down Base Duration - 3:00
99	Crystal Blessing	Grants a TP Bonus effect of +250. SMN Magic Augments the duration: Base - 3:00 ~ Max 6:20 Shiva's Most Useful Ward.

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Ramuh

The Avatar of the Thunder Element. Most used for Shock Squall & Chaotic Strike's Stun Effects

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Judgement Bolt	Astral Flow Ability: AoE Magical Thunder Damage (Affected by PetTP) Useful when you need AoE Thunder Elemental Damage
1	Shock Strike	Physical Attack (Blunt) May inflict Stun
10	Thunder II	Magical Thunder Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
19	Thunderspark	AoE Magical Thunder Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP) May inflict Paralysis
31	Rolling Thunder	Grants the Party Enthunder SMN Magic Skill augments duration: Base - 2:00 ~ Max 5:20
	Lightning Armor	Grants the Party Shock Spikes SMN Magic Augments the duration: Base - 3:00 ~ Max 6:20 Useful when fighting mobs suceptable to Stun.
60	Thunder IV	Magical Ice Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
70	Chaotic Strike	3-Hit Physical Attack (Blunt) Will stun the target for 5 seconds for each hit that lands This stun effect is overwritten by all other types of stun
75(Merit)	Thunderstorm	Magical Thunder Elemental Damage (Affected by PetTP)
92	Shock Squall	AoE Stun Long Stun duration
99	Volt Strike	Another 3-Hit Physical Attack dealing Blunt Damage which is almost identical to Chaotic Strike. It deals more damage however and is known to have a longer stun duration.

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Unknown - Unknown avatars are the avatars whose existence and origins are even more mysterious than Celestial and Terrestrial avatars.

Caitsith

The Avatar born of Altana's tears. Caithsith is a light based avatar with a variety of unique abilities.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Altana's Favor	Astral Flow Ability: Grants the effects of Arise and Reraise III to party members within the area of effect.
1	Regal Scratch	Delivers a threefold attack.
15	Raise II	Revives target from KO.
25	Mewing Lullaby	Puts all enemies within area of effect to sleep (dark based) and lowers their TP to 0. Regardless of sleep it resets TP.
30	Reraise II	Grants target party member the effect of Raise II when they are KO'd.
55	Eerie Eye	Silences and inflicts amnesia upon the target. Not a gaze move. With no set duration the amnesia only lasts up to about 12 seconds at best, and the silence about half a minute. Fairly useless as you might as well just reset the mobs TP with Mewing Lullaby.
75	Level ? Holy	Deals light damage to enemies within area of effect when level of mob is divisible by roll of Caithsith's die. Very inconsistent as it will fail if the roll is not divisible by the level of the mob. However, when it does work the results are very powerful.

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Atomos

The ever consuming Avatar. Atomos is a stationary Avatar which will swallow anything in reach of its large maw and regurgitate it onto its allies.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
1	Deconstruction	An automatically performed ability which works similarly to Absorb-Attri. If successful, it absorbs a beneficial effect from a target enemy.
1	Chronoshift	After Deconstruction has been performed, it will immediately and automatically use this ability. It will still be used (and have no effect) even if no beneficial effect is drained from the target enemy.

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Alexander

Um.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
75	Perfect Defense	An automatically performed ability which increases resistance to all damage and detrimental effects.

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Odin

Um.

Level	Blood Pact	Effect
75	Zantetsuken	An automatically performed ability which has a chance at instantly defeating enemies. If the target is an NM, it will inflict damage.

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SPIRITS - Spirits of the 8 elements a Summoner may call upon.

Elemental Spirits can be called forth after invoking the power of a written pact. These scrolls can be attained through numerous methods, as well as purchased from the Auction House. Spirits will cast Black & White magic in accordance to the level of the summoner. Spirits are different from avatars, in that you cannot relay orders to them. The time between casts and the AI are affected by SMN Magic Skill and certain pieces of gear.

Light: Light Spirit functions differently from the rest of the spirits. It gets access to cures up to Cure V and Curaga IV. It has been known to ignore the standard period between cast times when players are in critical condition. It's Curaga spells are also able to be cast upon alliance parties. It can also Haste, Protect, and Shell 5 alliance members.

Dark: Uses standard Dark based Dark Magic Skill spells. This includes the DRK exclusive Absorbs.

Overall usefulness: The spirits are not used often outside of "for fun" and every 5 minutes to recover MP instantly through the use of Elemental Siphon. The exception is the Light Spirit. It is good to self buff and possibly attempting emergency Curagas. The other use is the fast cast time which makes it great for a quick get away from mobs when under attack.

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Spellcast
I have recieved a few requests for my summoner spellcasts.
Here is my own personal spellcast incase anyone wants to see it:
Paulu's SMN Spellcast

Avatar's Favor
A level 55 Pet Command which is only usable with summoned Avatars but not Spirits. This will give an effect that will last up to two hours or until zoning to a new area. This ability can transform the summoner's avatar into a mobile Luopan. It will also increase the perpetuation cost for avatars. Each avatar has its own unique aura when active. This aura will affect party members within 10 yalms of the avatar.

Some key facts about this ability:

•Avatar Perpetuation Cost is increased while this ability is active:
At level 99 Carbuncle costs 2 more MP/tick and all other avatars cost 3 more MP/tick.
•Avatars do not receive the effect of their own Aura Sphere.
•Avatars no longer receive an unquantified Attack, Accuracy, or Magic Attack penalty while the Favor is active.
•Wearing the Caller's Horn +1/2 will increase the effect of the Favors.
•Potency will reset when an avatar is released or killed.
•Effect builds over time until it caps The cap is based on your current summoning magic skill.
(Takes approximately 2 minutes to cap potency)
•After activating a BP the potency of the Favor will increase according to the MP cost of the BP.

Effect at 512 skill and Beckoner's Horn +1

Favor	Effect
Carbuncle's Favor	Regen +26
Ifrit's Favor	Double Attack +23
Shiva's Favor	Magic Attack +36
Garuda's Favor	Evasion +34
Titan's Favor	Defense +92
Ramuh's Favor	Critical Hit Rate +23
Leviathan's Favor	Magic Accuracy +??
Fenrir's Favor	Magic Evasion +??
Diabolos's Favor	Refresh +7
Caitsith's Favor	Magic Defense +24

Astral Flow
This secret technique allows a Summoner to draw out and avatar's full power. It requires the use of your entire magical essence to boost the avatar, who then can release that energy to make a devastating magical attack against the enemy. Summoner's 1 Hour ability. A 3 minute status. While this is in effect the perpetuation cost will be removed.
All the celestial avatars will have access to a signature blood pact rage. Most of these are useless in today's FFXI.

Carbuncle, Fenrir, Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, Titan, and Leviathan's blood pacts will deal magic damage of their respective element. Avatar's TP will also increase the damage dealt. However the damage are greatly underwhelming and often one will opt to use the merited or level 75 physical blood pacts over them.

The exception to this are the newer Astral Flow abilities of Alexander and Odin. These two are only available to level 75+ summoners and only while Astral Flow is in effect.

Alexander will use Perfect Defense once summoned. This will grant the party a decaying immunity to damage and debuffs. Duration has a base of 30 seconds with another second added on for every 20 SMN magic skill. Damage reduction and resistance rates vary based on the summoner's remaining MP. Alex is generally the only reason you have to Astral Flow.

Odin when summoned, will appear over the summoner and face the targeted mob. He will then active Zantetsuken. The line-of-sight AoE attack that will attempt to KO any enemies within range. The more enemies in range the higher the rate of failure. If this attack is used against a notorious monster it will instead deal damage. The amount of damage varies with the summoner's remaining MP. Due to being highly inaccurate Odin is generally a let down.

After either Perfect Defense or Zantetsuken are successfully activated the Astral Flow affect will end the summoner's MP will drop to 0.

With max job points into this ability, Avatar and Spirit attributes are increased by 30 while under the effects of Astral Flow.

Astral Conduit
Summoner's other 1 hour ability, it is acquired automatically at level 96. Here are the big guns right here ladies and gentlemen. This was SEs indirect apology to SMN for a variety of different grievances and issues they may not even have heard!

Upon activating Astral Conduit your BP timers will reset to zero even if you just used a BP, your MP will be completely restored, and the effect remain ready to spam for 30 seconds. Which if preformed well is about most of your total MP anyway. You do not have to wait for the animation to go off. As soon as the those little energy line doodles around your avatar are gone you can BP again which should end up looking like a chain of BPs.

This also does not share the same timer with Astral Flow and you may still use that at your own desire. However, the increased attributes from Astral Flow job points will increase your damage output. Furthermore, for each job point allocated into Astral conduit, damage dealt for Rage Blood Pacts are increased abilities by 1% and a max of 10%.

It is particularly fun in Wild Keeper Reives as your 1 hour can be reset multiple times in the course of one if it lasts.

Elemental Siphon
A job ability that absorbs MP from your summoned elemental spirit. It is usable every 5 minutes. The potency of this effect is altered by the amount of summoning magic skill you have at the time of activation.

Additionally the Caller's Pigaches +2, A Shantotto Ascension Augmented legs for Elemental Siphon +20, and the Conveyance Cape from Reives all enhance Elemental Siphon.
(Summoning Magic Skill - 50) * Weather(single:10% double:15%) and Day(10%) bonus, Cap for bonus/penalty is 35%)

With max job points into this ability, the amount of MP recovered increases by 30 MP.

ItemSet 312415

If you lack any pieces please refer to the SMN max potency set for alternatives.

Merits
It is your account. You can spend the merits however you please. This is only a suggestion.

Group 1:
5/5 in Magical Attack is highly suggested because it offers the most potent increase of your performance. The remaining 5 are up to your playstyle. When you solo a lot you better put it in physical Acc, if your mainly a support for your party/alliance MAcc is the way to go.

Group 2:
There is a lot more freedom here. My best advice I can offer is to pick two, or at most three to upgrade. Spreading out your merits will make these much less useful.

With the advent of Adoulin there have been a vast number of new enemies lining up with a bone to pick with you and your avatar.
With a Wild Keeper Reive weak to each element there's now a reason to be made for owning each different merit BP where there was not so much one before.
It is up to you if you choose this route of jack of all merit BPs master of one.
If you wish to specialize in some elements more so than overs then Shiva, Ramuh, and Garuda are fine choices.

•Shiva receives a potent boost from Atma of the Beyond in Abyssea as well as having three useful wards.
•Ramuh primarily for his nice AoE stun.
•Garuda has one of the best physical BPs on top of AoE haste and curega.

Job Points
Unlike Merrits you can max out all categories in Job Points. It's a time intensive grind, so is it worth it for Summoners? Yes it is. All of the so far released categories help you in boosting your zerg-quality of Astral Conduit. It will take a total of 55 job points to max any particular job point category.

•While using Astral Flow Avatars and Spirits have increased attributes by 3 per point
•While using Astral Conduit you gain 1 percent boost of damage for Rage pacts and duration for Wards per point
•Avatar/Spirit Accuracy Bonus increase by 1 per point
•Avatar/Spirit Mag. Acc. Bonus increase by 1 per point
•Avatar/Spirit Attack Bonus increase by 2 per point
•Elemental Siphon Effect increase by 3 per point

Food
New foods have recently been added which unlike typical food effects, the effects extend to the user's pets. Jobs such as DRG, PUP, BST can also benefit from using these foods. The effects do extend to newly summoned pets after the food has been consumed, as long as the player does not lose the food effect due to KO, dispel, time out, etc, the pet will benefit from the food's effects. The effects are not known to extend to fellows or trusts. All +1 foods listed last a maximum of 60 minutes, while normal quality last 30 minutes. All the following foods can be found in the Breads & Rice section of the Auction House.

Akamochi - Pet: Acc/R.Acc +75 Atk/R.Atk +75

Akamochi +1 - Pet: Acc/R.Acc +81 Atk/R.Atk +81

Kusamochi - Pet: Atk/R.Atk +113

Kusamochi+1 - Pet: Atk/R.Atk +120

Shiromochi - Pet: Acc+ 108

Shiromochi +1 - Pet: Acc+ 114

Bean Daifuku - Pet: Acc +75 Haste +??%

Bean Daifuku +1 - Pet: Acc +81 Haste +??%

Grape Daifuku - Pet: Acc +75 M.Atk+14

Grape Daifuku +1 - Pet: Acc +81 M.Atk+15

Rolanberry Daifuku - Pet: Acc +75 M.Acc +??

Rolanberry Daifuku +1 - Pet: Acc +81 M.Acc +??

Melee
All of the important technical aspects of the job have been covered so far. Summoner does however wield a staff with a B skill level. While you probably won't be winning any parses over a well geared DD, you may still find yourself pulling some unexpected weight.

TP SetItemSet 262905

ShattersoulItemSet 265610

Shattersoul: 3-hit weaponskill with additional effect of Magic Defense Bonus -10.
This is our most powerful staff weaponskill.
Garland of Bliss: Magical light weaponskill with additional effect of Enemy's Defense -12,5% with a 30%STR/70%MND Modifier. Magic Attack Bonus will influence the damage greatly.
Myrkr: Self-target weaponskill which restores 20%MP every 1000TP and removes up to 3 status effects per use.

Support Jobs
The choices for Summoner aren't large. The three most common subs are WHM, RDM, and SCH. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

•WHM: The default subjob. You are the perfect backup healer. You can provide hastes and status assistance. All between using your 45 second recast BP's. The main draw-back is the lack of MP regenerative abilities and traits.

•RDM: The best choice for those concerned with MP. The use of refresh and convert ensure you'll be able to last for a while, especially in conjunction with Elemental Siphon. The main draw-back is that you lose the support capabilities of status removal and lack of native reraise.

•SCH: The cross between the two. SCH brings the mix of back-up cure and status removal. It even offers the options of Dark Arts. This can give summoner a somewhat reliable source of Sleep, Drain, and Aspir. Another perk which can tweek your perpetuation builds is the use of the Caller's Gloves in conjunction with the weather spells. The catch is that they do not have as powerful curing capabilities, lack the Haste spell, and lack Stona.

•WAR: Yes, I put this here. I will cover this more when I talk about our role in VW. For those fond of the frontline this brings some added bonuses to our combat skill via Berserk, Aggressor, Double Attack, and Warcry. Grab your staves, we're gonna go smack some stuff!

Additional Sets:
There are some other sets you may want to consider. You can start to break down summoner into even more advanced sets. The only true limit is your imagination... and your inventory or macro space!

SMN Curing:ItemSet 318565

SMN Curing:ItemSet 318581

Fast Cast:ItemSet 282482

PDT:ItemSet 318568

HMP:ItemSet 284953

Idle Set:ItemSet 318569

Pet Equip.:ItemSet 282499

Spell Interrupt:ItemSet 282502

Augments
The game unleashes new augment systems every now and then. Some are really potent and deserve an own category.
Displayed numbers are the expected maximum for each tier. While there may be reports that some numbers are higher for a column these are so few and might be unintentionally wrong due to mixing things up.
Hagonde Armor Set:

Augment	Stone	Stone+1	Stone+2
Pet: Magic Attack Bonus	up to 15	up to 20	up to 25
Pet: Attack/Ranged Attack	up to 15	up to 20	up to 25
Pet: Magic Accuracy	up to 15	up to 20	up to 25
Pet: Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy	up to 15	up to 20	up to 25
Avatar Perpetuation Cost-	n/a	up to 4	up to 5

Alluvion Skirmish:
The following are exclusive augments available for the weapon Keraunos. Up to 1 Snow, 1 Leaf, and 1 Dusk Augment can exist at the same time.

Augment	Snoworb	Snoworb+1	Snoworb+2
Pet: Magic Attack Bonus	up to 13	up to 17	up to 21
Pet: Attack/Ranged Attack	up to 4	up to 10	up to 13
Pet: Magic Accuracy	up to 10	up to 19	up to 14
Pet: Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy	up to 9	up to 18	up to 14
Pet: M.Evasion	up to ?	up to 16	up to 10
Pet: Evasion	up to 6	up to 3	up to 14
Pet:Defense	up to 6	up to 13	up to 19
Augment	Leaforb	Leaforb+1	Leaforb+2
Avatar Perpetuation Cost-	up to 2	up to 4	up to ?
Pet: Haste	up to 2	up to 4	up to ?
Pet: Critical Hit Rate	up to 2	up to ?	up to ?
Pet: PDT-	up to 2	up to 4	up to 3
Pet: Store TP	up to ?	up to 2	up to 3
Pet: Regen	up to ?	up to 3	up to ?
Augment	Duskorb	Duskorb+1	Duskorb+2
Blood Pact Damage	up to ?	up to ?	up to 10
Augment	Leafdim/Leafslit	Leafdim+1/Leafslit+1	Leafdim+2/Leafslit+2
Elemental Siphon	up to ?	up to 20	up to 25

The following are exclusive augments Helios Armor set. Up to 1 Snow, 1 Leaf, and 1 Dusk Augment can exist at the same time.

Augment	Snoworb	Snoworb+1	Snoworb+2
Pet: Magic Attack Bonus	up to ?	up to 26	up to 30
Pet: Magic Accuracy	up to ?	up to ?	up to 30
Pet: Attack/Ranged Attack	up to 7	up to ?	up to 30
Pet: Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy	up to ?	up to ?	up to 30
Pet: Defense	up to ?	up to 28	up to 30
Augment	Leaforb	Leaforb+1	Leaforb+2
Pet: Double Attack	up to ?	up to 5	up to 8
Pet: Critical Hit Rate	up to ?	up to 3	up to 4
Pet: Regen	up to ?	up to ?	up to 3
"Blood Pact" ability delay	up to ?	up to ?	up to 5
Blood Boon	up to ?	up to ?	up to 7
Avatar Perpetuation Cost-	up to ?	up to ?	up to 4
Augment	Duskorb	Duskorb+1	Duskorb+2
Blood Pact Damage	up to 5	up to 7	up to 7
Pet: Haste	up to 2	up to ?	up to 6
Summoning Skill	up to 3	up to 8	up to ?

The following are exclusive augments Telchine Armor set. Up to 1 Snow, 1 Leaf, and 1 Dusk Augment can exist at the same time.

Augment	Snoworb	Snoworb+1	Snoworb+2
Pet: Magic Attack Bonus	up to ?	up to ?	up to 20
Pet: Magic Accuracy	up to ?	up to ?	up to 20
Pet: Attack/Ranged Attack	up to ?	up to ?	up to 20
Pet: Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy	up to ?	up to ?	up to 20
Pet: Defense	up to ?	up to ?	up to 20
Augment	Leaforb	Leaforb+1	Leaforb+2
Pet: Subtle Blow	up to ?	up to ?	up to ?
Elemental Siphon	up to ?	up to 35	up to ?
Augment	Duskorb	Duskorb+1	Duskorb+2
Pet: Damage Taken -%	up to ?	up to ?	up to 3

The following are exclusive augments Telchine Armor set. Up to 1 Snow, 1 Leaf, and 1 Dusk Augment can exist at the same time.

Augment	Snoworb	Snoworb+1	Snoworb+2
?	up to ?	up to ?	up to 30
Augment	Leaforb	Leaforb+1	Leaforb+2
Pet: Subtle Blow	up to ?	up to ?	up to ?
Elemental Siphon	up to ?	up to 35	up to ?
Augment	Duskorb	Duskorb+1	Duskorb+2
Pet: Damage Taken -%	up to ?	up to ?	up to 3

Incursion:

Conveyance Cape

Summoning Magic skill+2-5

Blood Pact Damage+1-5

Blood Pact Delay II1-3

Pet: Enmity+5-15

Playing Summoner: With all the gear talk sorted out, what does a Summoner have to offer? I'll discuss a few different parts of the current FFXI and how summoner fits into the picture.

• Normal Reives: Ah, the meat and potatoes of the Adoulin Expansion. Sometimes you may not even want to engage in them, but they will be blocking your path. Keeping you from zoning into a zone for the first time zone or blocking a mission objective. SMN along with all pet jobs has the advantage of a slow and painful, but guaranteed method. Avoid aggro while your avatar eats away at the roots, rocks, etc. Which may be your only option if you are in a zone such as Khamir Drifts because the monsters are simply way too strong to risk being pummeled by. In a tier one Reive (see this for more information) you need not be a coward! Take Shiva and sleep the adds while you shatter and smite each and everyone of those poor monsters' souls!

The Conveyance Cape is a possible drop from Wild Keeper Reives and Reives in Marjami Ravine, Yorcia Weald, and Dho Gates.

• Wildskeeper Reives: Take heed for there are fearsome and ancient beasts lurking in the dark corners of overgrown Adoulinian wilderness! You obviously will be fighting these fearsome beasts that eat bigger things at midnight than your Carbuncle and couldn't even use a Nirvana for a toothpick. This is probably the favorite event of any SMN as you get to be, well, a real SMN. There are currently six Naakuals to go up against. One of each element with the current exception of light and dark. They each possess strong AoE moves of their element that will wreak havoc and punish your poor avatars. The silver lining is that if you use the avatar strong to their element (or the same, but then you won't hurt it) it will stand strong and tall taking little damage compared to those poor unfortunately people that are near.

Outside of the normal rewards for WKRs. There is a chance you can obtain the Conveyance Cape from a WKR.

• Skirmish: While people will not be searching for a summoner to bring to a Skirmish. There is not a good reason you can not go. Outside of doing a high tier (4/5) they are very easy, and the Yorcia lower tiers end up being a snore fest. As once people go and kill the dens you simply stand there for the better part of an hour waiting for some poor dopey mobs to walk/sprint right up to your tent.

You obtain the Uffrat from Skirmish in Cirdas Caverns. It is +1ed from a common KI drop, a Vial of Translurry. That is a commonly obtained KI from your treasure box in a Yorcia Weald Skirmish. Once you have the KI you can +1 the Uffrat by trading it to Divainy-Gamainy at a fee of 5,000 Bayld.

•Delve:While Delve contained much of the best gear for SMN at launch. That has slowly been changing as new content is added. Hagondes from Skirmish with pet MAB augments and Eminence providing you with a better sachet and master melee/pet MAB pole have replaced most of the reason for a SMN to care about Delve. There is however still useful gear still left in there for you, but out of what is left most is useful for meleeing/WSing.

As for the event itself it fun. These are harder versions of WKRs, and some of the most challenging content in the game. However there is really no place for SMN in the event. Unless you are in a linkshell that does Delve, and doesn't care what you come on. Then expect unfortunately to be on a different job.

•Abyssea: Atma will affect your avatars, but not cruor enhancements. Because of this you have some opportunities available to you. If you play solo you may want to use ducal guard amongst other atmas and solo things. If you know what you plan on doing you can excel for the situation. The atma will provide for powerful boosts to magical or physical damage. The major downside to summoner is that it lacks many "procs" for yellow and red. The elementals can still proc but due to their random and squishy nature this becomes a tedious task. Overall having a summoner in abyssea shouldn't hurt, but It's role isn't anything that one couldn't do without.

Some examples for atma setups;
Solo= Ducal Guard, Mounted Champion, Razed Ruin, Future Fabulous.
Magic Dmg= Hell's Guardian, Ultimate, Minikin Monstrosity, Beyond.
Physical Dmg= Razed Ruin, Gnarled Horn, Sanguine Scythe, Voracious Violet

•Legion: While not too many groups are very active in legion, it still is a viable endgame event. Summoner's roles can be a bit more significant here. Using their Perfect Defense at key times is their most notable role. They may also be expected to use Tidal Roar, Diamond Storm, and Shock Squall in a rotation to hinder the enemy. Additionally, they may be called upon to assist with their /magely duties including hasting, status removal, or support cures.

•Dynamis: Summoner doesn't offer much for this fast paced money grab, but if you're familiar with how the new dynamis works you should know that summoner's bloodpacts are not restricted to the "JA/WS/Magic" system. The bloodpacts can proc during any time and seem to have an adequate proc rate. (I do not have numbers at this time). If you are solo the killspeed probably would not warrant trying this, but I think in a small group you could end up having a good time if you accept the fact you're not a THF with TH or a 1st string DD. The best part about summoner in dynamis is that the TE statues may easily be 1-shot by a merited BP.

The other notable role, or the only one to most people, in Dynamis is Arch Dynamis Lord. Summoner's main roles are to Perfect Defense at the start of the fight and to Shock Squall.

•75 Era Content: Summoner is extremely competent when it comes to the older content. With the level variation between your avatars and the mobs you will see that things are a lot easier. You will be able to handle many things that may not have been possible at the old cap.

•Limbus II: With the revival of Limbus you may battle Arch Ultima and Arch Omega. Summoner provides a decent source of extra damage without needing any extra cures from the healer. In the Arch Ultima fight your bloodpacts will bypass the Physical and Magic Screens making summoner quite useful.

•Solo: Summoner is a pet job, and like all pet jobs is capable of soloing some fun things. Some key concepts behind soloing involve keeping your enmity low while trying to keep enmity up on your avatar. Generally you'll want to build distance between you and the target. The use of buffs such as blink, aquaveil, and stoneskin will prove very beneficial. Casting spells at least 30+ yalms away will allow you act out of range of the enmity accumulation. This lets you cure yourself or buff more safely. A useful tip, it is also important to note your BP timer as it compares to your avatar's hit points. It may be more beneficial to wait till your current avatar dies to use your next BP so it will be able to hold hate against your accumulating enmity.

•VW: This was Paulu's favorite content for summoner. Most of the time you will see summoners on the sidelines using their tidal roar, diamond storm, or shocksquall in between their attack BP's. Occasionally a proc will be called for them to trigger. This is their main role and as long as they land their procs they are doing it right. Additionally, the use the Assault command will give messages for Blue alignment weaknesses. You may use Assault every 10 seconds to learn weakness to inform your alliance with.

But here is an alternative. What does a summoner do between that? I get tired of standing on the sidelines during Qilin or Uptala runs. The minimum of summoners is to get their procs. As long as you do that I see no problems with pulling out your staff and having some fun or maybe even getting a staff proc. I am very serious when I encourage you to try it out for yourself. A well geared summoner with Shattersoul will be comparable or better to what I call the 2nd string DD. Many times you will be able to out parse NIN, BLM, SAM, or RNG in the non-bard/cor parties. This isn't an attempt to brag but rather to encourage people to try something they might not even consider.

Notable Atmacites:
Magic Oriented: Shrewd, Destruction, Curses, Dark Designs.
Physical Oriented: Valiant, Persistence, Coercion, Depths

The Buffer's Role: Not specific to any one event, the use of Avatar's Favor turns summoners in a COR/BRD/GEO Hybrid. You will find this to be useful in large groups of party play. If you are solo I don't think you will make the most out of this since it penalized your pet. The other draw-back is the small range of 10 yalms. Many times your party members won't be in range or your pet will die too fast. It's not a bad ability but finding ways to use it wisely can be tricky.

Conclusion: Overall summoner falls to being a soloing job, proc job for VW, or a Perfect Defense/Shock Squall job with some hasting on the side. Personally I feel SE could tweek the job and its roles a little more but I still love this job and play it none the less.

Thank you for reading.

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