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

Dunno if it was known but on Keraunos you can get Avatar Perp -6 with Leaforb Stone +2.
Think previous known cap was -5?
It's the only staff that can go beyond -5, other than Nirvana of course.


Snoworb is still pretty random on Keraunos instead. I remember when I spent over 7 mils in stones before Frazil Staff was released.
Traded over a stack of Snoworb stones +2 and never saw Pet: Mab.
Just ***and yaii a Pet: Macc +12. Didn't know Macc could go as low as +12 with +2 stone :'(

Having similar luck with +2 Leaforb.
I dunno, either the range of stones is slightly better on armour compared to weapons, or maybe I'm just biased.

ToM staff.

And yeah I have bad luck on weapon with stones. I've been trying to get a decent siphon or fast cast roll and all I get is MDT and ranger augments with Leafdim.

So then a Helios Jacket with BP+7 Pet: MAB+30 would be the superior option over the Disappointment Robe +1, right? I wouldn't recommend tossing any orb stones at it yet until after the Empyrean Reforge has been released.

Disappointment Robe +1 just falls apart compared to the Helios Jacket. At best, a Helios Jacket rolls +30 MAB, which is identical to the Disappointment Robe, then you just get bonus BP damage.

Even if you don't roll perfect, the BP damage can easily bring it past it, even more so for Flaming Crush.

With 27 +2 Snoworb stones I've been unable to see a single Pet: Mab yesterday.
Reminds me of the over 7 mils I spent some time ago (before Frazil Staff came out) with Mab +16 as my best result.
And then wanting to cut my wrists after seeing a friend getting Pet: Mab +17 with his first Snoworb Stone +1.
Talking about Keraunos eh.

I'm at about the same amount of Duskorbs trying to get BP damage on my Keraunos...

I used like 5 Duskorbs+1 and 1 Duskorb+2 on Keraunos, no luck.
I have BP Damage +3% and got it with an NQ stone.
Max Pet: Mab I've been able to get so far is Mab+6, that too got with NQ stones lol.
And also Pet Crit+3/Pet DA +3. Again, NQ stone because two stacks of +2 Leaforb gave me ***.

Shame Perp slot shares augment with Pet: Haste btw, or Keraunos could've become a better Idle staff than Gridarvor.
For who doesn't have Nirvana of course.

Ahem... roughly 6 mil in orbs later... (I'm sure I lost count along the way...)


Sod it, I'm happy, this will do until I finish my Nirvana.

Leafdim or leaforb for siphon?

Quality of stones used? Approx amount of attempts for each?

Siphon; Leafdim +1.
Number of attempts, 4 or 5. But that was a couple of months ago so I can't remember the exact number, but it weren't that many attempts. And leafdim was cheap as heck.

MAB; Snoworb +2, 3 attempts. Yeah, I know, incredibly lucky.

BP Damage: Urgh... over 30 attempts with +1 and +2 Duskorbs, it was a +2 which finally gave it.

No, I didn't get Elemental Siphon from a Duskorb. It was from a Leafdim+1 I think.

I've thrown a healthy about of Duskorbs at my Keraunos thus far and still haven't seen any BP Damage augments.

This is a nice looking Keraunos, and it should do for magic BP's even after you get your Nirvana finished.

I'm hoping the stats for Empyrean Reforge won't stray too far from the original +2 set we've grown accustomed to wearing. This is all my own speculation so far, based on so far details released that Reforge will be levels 109 and 119.

I'm certain all pieces will include "Blood Boon" as a set bonus. Aside from the obligatory Stat Vomit stats, such as HP MP STR INT MND M.Eva Haste Etc, some ideal distinguishing upgrades I'm hoping for are:

Caller's Horn 109 - Summoning magic skill +14 Refresh+2 Avatar's Favor+1
Caller's Horn 119 - Summoning magic skill +19 Refresh+3 Avatar's Favor+2

Caller's Doublet 109 - Summoning magic skill +15 Avatar perpetuation cost -5 Blood Pact damage +12
Caller's Doublet 119 - Summoning magic skill +20 Avatar perpetuation cost -6 Blood Pact damage +14

Caller's Bracers 109 - Halves avatar perpetuation cost Enhances "Mana Cede" effect Avatar: Accuracy +25
Caller's Bracers 119 - Halves avatar perpetuation cost Enhances "Mana Cede" effect Avatar: Accuracy +30

Caller's Spats 109 - Summoning magic skill +11 "Blood Boon"+15
Caller's Spats 119 - Summoning magic skill +16 "Blood Boon"+20

Caller's Pigaches 109 - Elemental Siphon +40 Avatar perpetuation cost -4 Avatar: Magic Accuracy +??
Caller's Pigaches 119 - Elemental Siphon +45 Avatar perpetuation cost -5 Avatar: Magic Accuracy +??

As far as gloves are concerned, the weather requirement should be removed from them, similar to the Glyphic Horn. I have no clue how Mana Cede would be upgraded, since with Full Job Points and Caller's Bracers +2, Pet TP will automatically be 3000%.

Some additional stats I would like to see added would be Thaumas Coat stats for the 119 Doublet - Pet: Accuracy+12 "Double Attack"+3% "Triple Attack"+3% "Quadruple Attack"+3% Haste+4% I've said it once, I'll say it again, I would have preferred these stats on the 119 YYR+1.

The stats which I personally wouldn't want to see added onto Caller's Reforge are BP Damage, Pet: MAB, Elemental Siphon, because they'll be redundant due to Helios & Telchine augments, and that'll make everyone cry because they spent millions on Duskorbs, Snoworbs, Leaforbs. I'd personally be indifferent to Pet: Attack, Pet: DT-, Pet: Acc, Pet: Regen, Pet: Haste, Pet: Etc.

That's some pretty creative thoughts - even if it's speculation. It'll definitely be interesting to see what the stats are.

That being said, I don't think hardly anyone is exempt from having spent a lot of money on this latest Skirmish in terms of augmenting. I suppose the cumulative costs in purchasing pop sets would also factor into personal spending overall as well.

Those in the minority who have taken a back seat to the new Skirmish gear and haven't spent a single gil on stones must be patient visionaries who have predicted superior stats for Empy reforged.

I have pretty low hopes for the new Empyrean armor, but maybe some of it will be good.

Where did Sabotender go...

I sure hope SE will drop the bomb and make smn empy gear BIS for BP, then I get to laugh at all those spend millions on augmenting the new skirmish gear bwahahahaha.

well Empy head has good chances of being at least a nice Idle/Favour piece. Maybe it will get Refresh+3 who knows.
Might also get more SMN skill than Convoker's.
Body too might be nice for SMN skill, MIGHT be good for BP too, but depends on wether or not its BP damage will go up, I doubt.
If Perp goes to -5 it might become a nice idle piece for Favour.
Hands... meh. Legs could've been nice before Helios Spats were released lol.
and feet I dunno.

tl;dr
Head/Body will totally get an use, I'm sure about it.
The rest kinda depends on which additional stuff they'll get, but I'm not holding my breath.

Empyrean at a point WAS best in all 5 slots for a while, especially because of the set bonus. Before level 80, there were only two boots to choose from for Avatar: Attack, Artifact pants and Relic Gloves were our only source for Avatar: Accuracy, plus Avatar: MAB on armor was non-existent, so the only other option for us was to stack up on as much Summoning Magic Skill as possible. So it's not too improbable for Empyrean to get a 2nd wind for BIS all over again.

^
He's cute, can we keep him? Can we, can we? *kitten eyes*

Ok ao Keraunos, my best so far is

BP Damage +8
Pet Crit+4, DA+4
Pet Mab +13

Used Duskorb+1, Leaforb+2, Snoworb+2.
My best on Snoworb was Attack+20, mabwise I got as low as 10, sigh.


Even in the current state it should still be better than Frazil Staff and Tumafyrig (physical augs) for BPs, right?

SMN in the news:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/46253-dev1258-Job-Adjustments?p=542149&viewfull=1#post542149

I think a vein inside my nose just popped, anyone have some tissues?

Is that what I think it means D: (BP Delay baseline going down??)

Happy to see its gonna be easier to get more wards out in a rotation not only cause they shoul dlast longer... bu if indeed BP delay is going down... oh my...

No, this means that the time between command and actual activation of a Blood pact (3~5 seconds at the moment?) Will be going down to probably the same activation time of Shock Squall. (~1 second)

BP Delay itself can already be brought down to 30 seconds.

On the upside, we'll probably be able to get more blood pacts going during Conduit.

Probably more BP during conduit but i'm not sure we'll enjoy the BP activation time getting too low.
a bit of lag and we risk firing in our BP delay set instead of the intended one.
i have similar issues with RNG when there's a lot of snapshot (gear and buff) where some shot just dont get out in the final set but in the midset instead.

Don't be TOO excited about the the buff duration increase, Shirai...
We don't know how it works yet.
And given the previous example of "favor's effect will be increased" actually meaning "we made Favor no different just added another tier that can't be feasibly done"...
They could just mean that they won't cap at 500 and will have a higher duration cap.

Also: wtf is with them and Cait Sith?
She's gimped to the 75 era with a worthless magical BP...
And her first BP update...
Is for her to get a "post 99" BP??
I hope at least it's not as ***as like Volt Strike and that it's basically around the same cost and power of the 75 physical BPs...
She really could use Holy/2/4 and maybe some buff of some sort.
Honestly, I think they don't know what to do with her 76~99 BPs.

And about this I am not worried at all, because duration calculation for ward pacts works entirely different from the Favor tiers.
Worse come to worst, I may have to go back to a full skill set for Ward buffs instead of using the Blood Boon pieces I use now. It's not the end of the world.
In fact I might even be able to store/sell some pieces and free up some inventory space, woohoo, go space!

Also, our most used and important buffs already have formidable durations.

I'm really pumped about the decreased charge time and increased radius. That's been bugging me lately when I do a Fleet Wind every time we port up in Yorcia Alluvion, and usually only hit half the party even if I time the macro well enough that I never see the "Garuda readies..." message.

I dont know if this was added to the new list but my Telchine cap got Pet: double attack+5, pet regen+3, and perp-3.

Not at the same time lol but those are just augments i came across before getting siphon. i used leaforb+1.

0__________0
That wasn't what I was saying at all.
That's literally 100% in the opposite direction of what I was alluding to.

I was saying that you should temper your optimism because the last time they used similar wording was with the "increase of Favor potency"... Which immediately was revealed that there was no potency increase, just that they added another tier.

Which in this case, wouldn't be so bad since +500 is easy enough to do for this job.

In sum, I was trying to point out that it doesn't necessarily mean that with 500 skill giving you, for example, a 5m duration now that post update it will give a 7m one... It could be that 600 skill post update will give you a 7m duration but 500 is still the same 5m.
Which is why I referenced the Favor update.
Since that was a similarly misleading "boost".

Not saying it will be this, but tempering optimism is always wise.