Welcome
If you are new to Summoner, welcome, or if you are returning back to playing the game & the Summoner job, welcome back!
Below will be information about Summoner to help you get started on getting up to speed with the current iteration of the job.
Summoner Actions Summary
Summoner is a unique job with its emphasis on pet & DoT gameplay. Like the other casters Summoner uses MP to cast its spells. Most will be hardcast Ruin GCDs. However, unlike the other casters it does not have random proc based gameplay but instead revolves around the cooldown management of numerous abilities.
GCDs
Most Commonly Used GCDs
- Cast
Ruin/
Ruin III as your main filler GCD.
- Cast
Ruin II/
Ruin IV when you need to move or weave.
- Cast
Egi Assaults to generate
Further Ruin stacks for
Ruin IV casts.
DoT GCDs
- Cast
Miasma/
Miasma III into
Bio/
Bio II/
Bio III to apply both of your 30s duration DoTs.
- Despite the 30s duration, in later levels they are cast infrequently for reasons discussed further.
AoE GCDs
- Cast
Outburst against 3+ targets.
Infrequently Used GCDs
- Cast
Resurrection to revive dead players.
- You are never expected to cast
Physick.
Special GCDs
Egi Assaults cannot be used while a Demi-Summon is out.
Ruin II becomes
Ruin IV when you have
Further Ruin stacks.
Ruin III becomes
Fountain of Fire in
Firebird Trance.
Outburst becomes
Brand of Purgatory in
Firebird Trance.
- Using
Fountain of Fire grants you the
Hellish Conduit buff, allowing you to next use
Brand of Purgatory.
OGCDs
Use On Cooldown
- For single target use
Energy Drain to generate 2 Aetherflow stacks and
Fester to spend them.
- For 3+ target AoE use
Energy Siphon to generate 2 Aetherflow stacks and
Painflare to spend them.
Enkindle and
Devotion cannot be used while a Demi-Summon is out.
Part Of The Core Rotation
- Use
Tri-disaster to instantly apply both of your current
Miasma and
Bio DoTs to your target.
- Using
Dreadwyrm Trance reduces GCD cast times by 2.5s, grants access to
Deathflare and makes
Summon Bahamut available when the Trance ends.
- Using
Summon Bahamut replaces your Egi with Demi-Bahamut for 20s, allowing
Enkindle Bahamut to be used twice before the timer ends.
- When
Summon Bahamut ends,
Dreadwyrm Trance is replaced with
Firebird Trance. Trances share a cooldown.
- Using
Firebird Trance reduces GCD cast times by 2.5s, buffs the party with the
Everlasting Flight HoT, replaces
Ruin III with
Fountain of Fire and
Outburst with
Brand of Purgatory and summons Demi-Phoenix for 20s, allowing
Enkindle Phoenix to be used twice before the timer ends.
- Using
Dreadwyrm Trance and
Firebird Trance resets your
Tri-disaster cooldown, reducing how often you need to hardcast your DoTs per cycle.
Situational
- Use
Addle to reduce the damage of enemy magic attacks.
- Use
Bane to spread your DoTs against 3+ targets.
- Use
Surecast to prevent yourself being knocked back by enemy attacks.
- Use
Swiftcast to make your next GCD spell instant.
- Use
Lucid Dreaming to recover MP.
Returning To The Game
Whether you have started Summoner fresh in Shadowbringers or have come back to FFXIV from A Realm Reborn, Heavensward or even having taken a break mid Stormblood, Summoner has changed considerably from how it used to be.
Here is a list of current mechanical changes since Stormblood:
Aetherflow
- The Aetherflow action has been removed, stacks are generated by using Energy Drain/Siphon against a target with a cap of 2 stacks.
- Fester has a base potency of 100 when used with 0 DoTs instead of doing 0 damage.
- Bane no longer consumes an Aetherflow stack when used.
Trances
- Aethertrail no longer exists with Trance being on a rigid 55s cooldown.
- Trances reduce the base cast time of spells by 2.5s. This includes Resurrection.
- Firebird Trance (FBT) shares a cooldown with DWT.
DoTs
- Tri-Disaster has a 50s cooldown down from 60s.
- DoTs all last 30s instead of later level upgrades increasing the duration to 30s.
- Shadowflare has been removed.
Pets
- Pets have been tweaked to have dedicated roles with aoe, single target & support options.
- Pets can can be placed directly under enemies without aggroing them, no longer take damage & cannot die.
- Egis redirect all of their enmity to us just like Demi-Summons.
- Titan-Egi can no longer tank for us.
- Pet actions have been replaced with Egi Assault command GCDs.
- Demi-Summons only react to GCDs instead of GCDs + OGCDs making the goal 8 Wyrmwaves/Scarlet Flames.
- Devotion is a 5% damage 3 minute cooldown party buff only.
- Rouse has been removed.
Spells
- RNG Ruin IV procs have been removed. Using Egi Assaults generates Further Ruin stacks.
- Tri-bind has been replaced with Outburst.
You can read more about the historical Summoner changes here.