A Summoner's Gear Guide

You are correct, kind of forgot about an avatar macc set since I swear SMN debuffs don't land like 75% of the time anyways, but the Empy +3 would win w/ Lamassu +1. Difference of about 13 macc and a little more skill puts it ahead once all is +3, at +2 is still lags behind just a little bit.

What's the best earrings right now for Phys, Hybrid and Magic BPs?

Previously it was basically Gelos/Lugal for all of them, but then I heard Sroda is BiS for physical now, potentially for Hybrid as well, and there's also the Sortie earring. I currently have all of them with the sortie one at NQ. What are the BiS combos with them each if you guys have already done the testing? I scrolled back a few pages but couldn't find anything here.

I don't know if that double attack is for the player or pet on sroda.

It has to be for the player because it wouldn't make sense for the Pet based on the wording. It would just say Pet: Double Attack +7% without any other stipulation. If the pet was dead, he wouldn't have any double attack period. The pet being alive grants the master the bonus.

Tested it a while back and it didn't effect the pet, just the master.

In terms of earrings, I believe JSE Earring and Lugalbanda are BiS for every BP except macc BPs, which Kyrene's still wins over NQ JSE earring, but not the +1/+2 (Perfect NQ earring I think wins over Kyrene's, but I'm just going off minimums). As well as Cath Palug/Lodurr for skill based BPs.

Thinking about it again, I suppose it could have granted both the pet and Master the DA+7% bonus if the pet was still alive, and no bonus if the pet was dead. I hadn't considered that might be the case based on the wording. It obviously doesn't but I understand why there may have been some uncertainty.

Is there a set for night terror or magic specific blood pacts? Assuming it's the merit set and then swap legs for apogee C.

Sroda Earring isn't for pet DA, it's for pet base damage. 21 Volt Strikes on Chapuli in Reisenjima:
Sroda average: 21,788
Beckoner average: 21,558

well dang, that DMG+10 is adding a lot more than I thought it did then.

21 Flaming Crushes on Wanton Denaid in Reisenjima:
Sroda average: 48,720
Beckoner average: 48,433

I had to do a shitload of these to get the numbers right, because most of the time they died from just the physical hit and the magical one never went off.

Of all the +2's to get. The one job I retired.

Since Sroda was a misunderstood gem, which is the better second earring? JSE or Luga?

If anyone here is surprised by Sroda Earring I suggest not limiting yourself to only one thread :)

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56616/aman-specific-items/2/#3620312

No one knows which is better between Luga and JSE?

In my testing, which was somewhat limited and did not involve any DPS spreadsheets or calculators, just in game testing, I found Lugal/Sroda to be best for physical and Flaming Crush, and Lugal/JSE best for magical. So there's no competition between JSE and Lugal, IMHO.

Disclaimer: I don't have JSE+1 or +2, so it might actually be better than Sroda at +1 or +2. I doubt it will overcome Lugal because there are 2 earring slots, so there needs to be a second earring also better than Lugal and I'm not aware of anything which competes for the left ear.

@long_horned explained how to calculate Volt Strike damage some months ago.
https://twitter.com/long_horned/status/1569730222634987520
They are calculating Volt Strike and other physical pacts damage this way:
(Avatar Melee DMG+fSTR+Stat Modifiers+Blood Pact Damage Job Points)*fTP*pDIF*Critical Hit*Crit. Atk. Bonus II Trait*BPD

Melee DMG is 132 for a lvl 122 avatar, Sroda Earring fits here
fSTR (Avatar's STR vs enemy's VIT) caps at +24
Stat modifiers:(309 STR+292 INT)*0.2*0.85=102
Blood Pact Damage Job Points 20/20 adds +60
fTP is 5 for Volt Strike
pDIF (Avatar's attack vs enemy's defense) caps at 4
Critical hit and Crit. Atk. Bonus II aren't very important and are ignored in certain zones when pDIF is capped
Avatar Lv.+1 from the JSE earring adds 1 melee DMG, 8 attribute stats and 11 magic damage.

Avatars's stats, melee DMG per level, fTP and stat modifiers of most Blood Pacts can be found at this address: https://w.atwiki.jp/bartlett3/pages/329.html
It also show how to calculate ranged, hybrid and magic pacts. It's very accurate, I tested Crag Throw and Burning Strike damage and got the expected results.


tl;dr
Physical pacts: Lugalbanda > Sroda/JSE+2 > JSE+1 > JSE > Gelos
They say Sroda beats JSE+2 but in my case with my own gear/ML JSE+2 is superior by a tiny amount. Both earrings appear to be very close. JSE gives a lot of atk/acc too.

Hybrid pacts: Lugalbanda > JSE+2 > JSE+1 > Gelos/JSE > Sroda
Sroda falls behind due to BPD being calculated twice.

Magical pacts: Lugalbanda > JSE+2 > JSE+1 > JSE > Gelos

Papesse, what do you think of the new values on the odyssey t4 path d armor sets?

I suspect the body and legs would be interesting to test.

Nyame body at R25 and above beats AF3 for physical and hybrid pacts. HQ Apogee A is still superior for magical pacts.
Nyame legs at R30 doesn't beat HQ Apogee D/A.

Been wondering a couple things relating to discussion of sancus vs epitaph on page 14, I can't figure out the answer so here we go:

1)sancus sachet +1 has +20 ranged accuracy is irrelevant or is it not? Can't think of a single BP that is ranged attack? or maybe epitaph is the usual acc/racc + macc and text is wrong? Do I even need to worry?
2)For the BP delay I reread the last 3 pages multiple times but still not clear to me, do I get to cap with just epitaph, what's the smn skill needed? I know 680 covers it but that's not what I reach so not sure if I still need sancus

I was looking to free a inventory slot and tried to figure it out but sorry just a bit lost on these 2 ammos <.<

Epitaph R30 is of course better.
But I think it gets better even at lower ranks. R25 for sure I think, maybe even R20?

in between 16 and 20 is where it matches sancus +1 and where i'd switch over.

consider the gear you're using, if you're already struggling with acc, then wait until the acc matches that of sancus. the epitaph is only a difference of 1 BP damage until higher ranks.

as for ranged BP's, Diabolos has at least nether blast, and I believe most of his BP's are still considered ranged, but I can't confirm that.

regarding BP delay- you'd want to get -15 seconds in tier 1 and 2 each, tier 1 is pretty easy to find, tier 2 has less options

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Blood_Pact_Ability_Delay

that page lists all the available options
to dumb that down though

convoker doublet +3 (-15 tier 1)
sancus sachet +1 (-7 tier 2)
glyphic pigaches +3 (-3 tier 2)
espiritus (-2 tier 2)
conveyance cape (-1-3 tier 2)

Those 5 pieces would cap out your BP delay in the least number of pieces

there are many combos you can use however if you cant get the +3 on the cape or don't wish to change weapons

glyphic doublet gives (-4 tier 2)
glyphic feet (-3 tier 2)
sancus sachet +1 (-7 tier 2)
conveyance cape (-1-3 tier 2)
glyphic head (-10 tier 1)
glyphic hands (-8 tier 1)

this being said- if you got a +3 on the cape, then you could drop back to the epitaph with it only having -5 delay, but i feel like you're still going for a 6 piece build rather then the 5 I mentioned earlier.

The 3rd tier mentioned is where the smn skill comes into play and where the emp head shines, automatically bumping you up 5 ranks in favor. i was also unaware that they have added another tier to smn skill 735+

hope that helps

There's a lot of good information in this post but there's an important omission.

At 100 jp, and 1200 jp you receive -5s of BP recast delay each, which is it's own tier of BP delay reduction. Meaning you only need 15 BP delay I, and 5 BP delay ii, or 10/10 or 5/15 in your BP delay set. The maximum benefit you can receive from all 3 categories is 30s and 10 of it is a given from jp gifts.

The avatars favor bonus is the only way to break the 30-20s recast windows using the Empy helm, smn skill, and having favor on/charged.

Best of luck making sets!

Both of y'all are slightly off. Since the job gift bp timer- are their own thing You can stack whatever is easiest and get the remaining -20 as long as neither side breaks 15. One of the things that makes sancus +1 nice is the -7 II on it, opposed to the -5 II on the new ammo.

I was checking my sets to see if I had enough BP- in them to cap based on this conversation and noticed that I'm significantly over the cap.

Baayami+1 hands and legs have 15 BP1, with those and Epitaph you've already capped BP at 20 (15+5). Guess it's time to sell my Sancus Sachet+1, I was holding onto it just in case I needed the BP reduction 2.

Depending whether or not you have AM you want to hold onto, here's my set for BP reduction:
ItemSet 389950

Bolded part literally says everything you just said.

Thanks for the awesome explainer everyone, I understand now finally bp I/II after a long time fumbling! I think I got a set down that works for me now :P

I didn't even know ranged accuracy was a thing for pets BP tbh as seen, just to confirm, was it tested that epitaph is only acc/macc and not hidden /racc like some pieces of gear have been in the past? I can't name one off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure pup gear often has that hidden acc/racc thing... I mean, maytbe I'm being a mix of paranoid/ignorant but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case... feels weird removing the 20racc from epitaph but maybe a way to differentiate gear I s'pose...

According to some guy's blog I found, a couple of Titan's BPs are also ranged, the "Throw" or "toss" ones, IDR which.

At the end of the day though: I can't think of a single ranged BP you're likely to use on a regular basis on SMN, and most people probably don't have distinct sets or possibly even GS distinction for them, or care about it.

I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe Papesse can bring up some obscure scenario for it, but for general use I think you're fine with Epitaph and to hell with pet racc.