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

I know you used diabolos because his damage is very accurate since tp does not affect it. I should have mentioned that for some reason he does not get the +2 level bonus on the nuke. Try any of the new bloodpacts like impact or the merited bloodpacts and you will see damage difference. Its why i used heavenly strike instead of nether blast even though nether blast is what is used most of the time for magical bp testing. And diabolos was the reason it took me long time to figure this out. I orginally tried it with him and thought didnt work but tried it again with other avatars and it works. If you cant get the damage increase i'll try to make a short video of it or at least some screenshots so you can see the damage difference for yourself and i'll make sure to show gear. I tried many times to get the 166 damage increase over and over with heavenly strike without doing swap and couldnt get same numbers. I checked to make sure i have on all the same pet mab gear on during the swap from when i did the testing with pet mab + keraunos staff. Nether blast does not work but it will work with night terror. Also works with impact from feny and all the merited bloodpacts. Im going to list the 2 gear sets i use during my macro. I will list all the gear + augments.

Going to list my macro and the gear sets used as well as the augments. I have 5 points into pet magical attack for group 1 and 521 job points the only 2 categories not done are avatar favor which is 9/10 and the other new category bloodpact damage which is 8/10. I want to add also that i do not use any type of programs with my gear swapping. I only use what is given to me by the game itself.

Macro is: /Equipset 90
/Jobability "Heavenly Strike" <t> <wait 1>
/equipset 5 <wait 2>
/equipset 2

Equipset 90 is my bp delay gear to get -30 recast which consists of:
Seraphicaller
Convoker's Horn +1
Glyphic Doublet +1
Glyphic Bracers +1
Glyphic Spats +1
Glyphic Pigaches +1
Conveyance cape with bp delay II -2 on it

Equipset 5 is my pet mab gear set which consists of:
Keraunos staff augments are bp damage +8,elemental siphon +20, pet mab +17
Vox Grip
Seraphicaller
Helios Band augments bp damage +7 pet crit hit rate 4%, pet mab +27.
Eiodolon Pendant +1
Esper Earring
Diamond Earring with augment of +2 pet mab
Helios Jacket augments Bp damage +6, pet crit hit rate +4%, pet mab +30
Helios Gloves augments Bp damage +6, pet crit hit rate +4%, pet mab +28
Evoker's Ring
Fervor Ring which i use for flaming crush and meteor strike
Argochampsa Mantle
Incarnation Sash which i use now because i dont mind sacrificing 2 pet mab for 15 pet macc.
Helios Spats augments Bp damage +7, pet crit hit rate +4%, Pet mab+27
Hagondes Sabots +1 augments Pet mab +21

And equipset 2 is just me switching back to my idle set. Tried to have another smn on my server named Mooswa who has nirvana also try this but he does not yet have a keraunos staff augmented. I have a different gear set for physical bloodpacts that is only missing +1 bp damage on feet. Im going to do the swap on other bloodpacts like impact and night terror to see what damage increase is after swap to alluvion staff. I have double checked my macro and gear sets to see if there is anything else can be doing this but found nothing. If i dont use nirvana before i swap to alluvion staff i will never get that slight damage boost. Its not a random number its always the same. On the mandies that damage was always a 166 damage increase when using heavenly strike.

This time i did with impact from fenrir and night terror from diabolos on the mandies in ceizak battlegrounds and these were the numbers.

Night Terror:
Keraunos + pet mab gear 7,967
Nirvana into Keraunos swap 8,058

Impact:
Keraunos + pet mab gear 10,506
Nirvana into Keraunos swap 10,714

Waiting for you to post Shira because im sure when you try this on the other nukes besides nether blast you will see damage increase.

I found an old post where another smn talked about this. This has been old news for a while but seems alot of smn's still dont know about it. Going to post the link.

http://www.bluegartr.com/archive/index.php/t-125059.html

About halfway down the page there is a smn named Brythnoth who mentions what i been talking about.

Ok, I'll bite.

Buffs: Ionis
Day of the week: Earthsday
Pet used: Shiva
Blood Pact: Heavenly Strike (Necklace put away)
Target: Blanched Mandragora

Macro setup: (Which is the same as yours)
/equipset (BP Delay)
/pet "Heavenly Strike" <t> <wait 1>
/equipset (Magic BP)


Setup 1:
BP Delay set with Nirvana, BP set with Nirvana.
1. 8058
2. 8058
3. 8058

Setup 2:
BP Delay set with Nirvana, BP set with Keraunos.
1. 8803
2. 8803
3. 8803

Setup 3:
BP Delay set with Keraunos, BP set with Keraunos.
1. 8686 (Well I'll be! Let's do that again!)
2. 8686
3. 8686

For good measure, Setup 2: 8803

Myth confirmed, very interesting. o.o

Nice im glad you finally got it down was my fault for not saying it does not work with nether blast. I think alot of other smn's may have tried this with diabolos nether blast as well and figured it didnt work. It happened to me as i said in one of my other posts. The extra damage is small but if the +2 level bonus is helping get less resists then its well worth it.

Funny enough, it doesn't work the other way around.
Keraunos -> Nirvana does even less damage than Nirvana -> Nirvana.

That would be expected. Because it's like doing the Nirv > Nirv but with -2 level.

Does this mean that Avatar Level+2 and BP Dmg+40 remain for a brief moment after switching from Nirvana?

I'd say its just lvl +2, if the dmg+40% carried over, I'd think the dmg would be alot more than just 120.

also,
Nibiru Staff augments rank 15
A:MP+80, MAB +25, enmity -5
B:MND+10, Macc+25, MDT-3%
C:Pet Macc+20, Pet MAB+20, Pet Regen+2
D:Pet Acc+20, Pet Atk+20, Pet DA+3

Was hoping it would be close to ker, but 5 MAB vs 10% BP dmg...

With that setup you don't need the sash since you only need -14 perpetuation in gear for celestials/Diabolos and due to perp capping at -1 at least 1 auto refresh trait is required to cancel it out.

It drops from Angrboda. For me, I see it more as a Favor piece. I sacrificed a potential 4% crit on my keraunos at the moment cause I a) couldnt get it and b) -6 perp on my Keraunos seemed alright.

Beckoner's +1 and Nirvana users cap from these 2 pieces alone. And have space for favor since they over cap from assiduity +1.

For the rest of us, -6(-7) from Beckoner's(+1), then -5(-6) from gridarvor(Keraunos) puts us at 11~13, then add Assiduity +1 and you are at 14~16 (capping at 14), with NQ assiduity, you still cap cause of evoker's ring.

In any cases, you're free to use Empath Neck cause the -perp from caller's isnt needed.

The only time this belt comes into play, imho, is in the non-nirvana Favor set, if your perp set is only a flat -14. The smn skil and extra perp covers just what favor needs. Letting you keep the empath neck without losing a tick of refresh.

Also, the refresh ring I would count out, the pet ring is so good to pass up if smn's your main job. Extraspecially if you also have other pet jobs. Side note, wouldn't it be nice to have a new lvl99 replacement for evoker's ring.

The -1* perp on the pendant is in weather only. Empath neck is a very nice avatar engaged piece though, and caller's is still useful for idle avatar TP regain.

Umdhlbi, the Belladonna Tier II NM in Escha Zi'Tah.

I have a feeling that it's one of those items that will never be replaced, surpassed perhaps but not replaced.

They did talk about level 99 version of CoP rings and Evoker's, but appearently they changed plans since then (talking about years ago).

I can confirm Lucidity sash drops from Angrboda which is a tier 1 golem nm that absorbs fire damage i got mine a few days ago. Maybe drops from the tier 2 as well but i have not seen that happen yet.

Just checked the BG Escha thread, sais both NMs can drop it.
Go for the T1 golem I'd say, hell of a lot cheaper.

In other news:

550 JP's on SMN finally. Woot!

Dat +1 Favor, yo.

So does any of the new Psyloth gear compare to Helios for BPs?

Or not worth it? Helios set still the best?

Doesn't compare, but a few pieces are nice.

Psycloth Tiara Path D has replaced Convoker's Horn+1 for summoning magic with Fast Cast thrown in. Basically, Nahtirah Hat and Convoker's Horn had a baby and Psycloth Tiara was the end result. It's a great head piece.

Psycloth Lappas are now the best-in-slot magic accuracy and enfeebling legs in the game, but it's really situational on Avatar -DT to idle in.

Psycloth Shoes has the capability to be the best Avatar Attack feet in the game (Attack+45).

You better be getting thurandaut ring instead of some nonsense with refresh.

I don't think that's going to beat a phys. aug'd Helios. And you still likely won't be wearing that in idle. Outside of Empath Neck, and Psy Tiara. I don't see any must have for smn in there yet.

I thought Avatar attack was useless or did they change it?

It's not useless, it just takes large quantities for it to matter, compared to the difference you can see in Magical BPs by adding +1 Mab

Helios Boots: Pet: Attack+30

Psycloth Shoes: Pet: Attack+45

Hmmm..

Does psycloth get anything that compares to the other augments? You get more than just Attack+30 (double attack, crit rate, BP damage).

I have 2 separate Helios sets. 1 for Avatar melee in-between BP's and 1 for BP's.

Haste
Attack+30
Double Attack+8

and

BP DMG+7
Crit Hit+4
Magic Attack Bonus+30

And yes, Psycloth Tiara [Path D] has replaced Convoker's Horn+1 (for summoning magic) - at least for me it has.

Psycloth legs [Path D] are part of my Avatar -DT build and once I get around to it I'm making the Psycloth Boots [Path C] for my Attack build.

Body - Meh for SMN.

Hands - Meh again.

More like:

For phys BP:
Helios Boots: Pet: Attack+30, BPDmg+7, Crit +4%
Psycloth Shoes: Pet: Attack+45

For Avatar TP：
Helios: Haste, Attack+30, Double Attack+8
Psycloth Shoes: Pet: Attack+45

No matter how you slice it, not better than helios.

Hell, gut feeling is BP dmg +7 alone is better than Attack+45.. but I admit I have not tested that.