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

I'm slightly curious why they kicked off WHM, BLM, RDM, BRD, GEO off of the upgraded Dalmatica set and decided to focus it strictly on SMN.

I'd agree on the Sinister Reign legs. (which are actually a pretty valid alternative tbf, probably better than my current augments!)
But considering the effort (and gil) required for Apogee plus gil for Eschalixirs plus actually having to farm the Abjuration...
Well I mean, not sure it's gonna be cheaper or faster or more efficient.

Ready to be surprised but I hardly doubt it's gonna beat Helios in all slots. Maybe in some slots?

Yes, they beat perfect Helios when TP are uncapped.

The questline and subsequent fight for the BP dmg earring is annoying the crap out of me, mainly because I hate keeping NPCs alive. They invariably try to get themselves killed as soon as possible. I tried duoing this (with trust) as smn/whm and blu/dnc, and since trust won't heal the NPC I spent more time curing than I did having Garuda wreck face.

It's worth it, though... at least I think so...

What exactly are the benefits to having 575+ skill? I'm sitting at 566 in my skill set, and I know that I'll hit it if I get Marduk+1 feet and a summoning earring (hahahaha I know right). Is it worth the 2m I'll spend on earring, or wait on JP benefits?

What is the quest for the BP dmg earring? You mean the Gelos Earring right?

Apogee/Astral Conduit + Flaming Crush on the mannequin should end the fight really quickly.

Anybody tested Gelos' earring?
Please confirm that it's BP damage +5% and not +5...

The gain of 5 defense, 2MAB, 1 refresh, etc is not worth the loss of whatever you're using in your "TPidle" set.
There's more to SMN than just perp and refresh, though loosing refresh even just to get a minor boon from another favor tier... pass.
512+X is more than adequate. Especially since you're not gimping yourself just to give 1~2 ppl (at most) a very miniscule increase over what you'd give them at 512.
(the +X is from favor tier buffs like RF3 horn and gifts.)

Also: The fight's super easy, when you ignore everyone but the mannikin. She's the only one who actually needs to be defeated.

It's 5%. lol

Where does the Gelos' Earring questline begin? Or information regarding the entire quest in general.

And does anyone know the pop item needed to pop the Evan's Earring NM in Escha-Sky?

Thanks.

The Gelos earring is from a quest called "Barrel of Laughs" from those 2 taru's in western. And i got the evan's earring yesterday from a tier 1 nm in new escha zone but i dont remember which one it was i killed. I killed 5 tier 1's so the best i could do is narrow it down to 4 nm's because i know the first one i killed which was the vampire nm did not drop it. I can give you list of other 4 nm's i killed at least. Going to log on and give you the posistion to start the quest Avalon. And i will give some info on what you have to do and npc's need to talk to for the quest.

Hey thanks for the information and help!

You begin the quest for Gelos Earring by clicking on the Mischief Marker at J-11 which begins the quest with the 2 taru's and i would like to point out there are quests before this you have to complete before get barrel of laughs from these 2 taru's. After the first cutscene you want to click on the door to the left labled "Depository" that starts next cs. Next you need to head to rala waterways for a bcnm fight which the quickest way to get there is from eastern entrance F-7. Once inside head to M-6 and get cs at door for bcnm fight. Fight is very easy just have to kill mob in the middle. After this you want to pick up some sickles because soon you will have to harvest a key item in sih gates by doing /laugh emote before you harvest and you want to bring at least 3 because its not 100% that you get the ki may take a few tries. After clicking on depoistory door i dont remember the exact order of other cs's so im going to just give you locations of the other cs's you get. I-8 in western adoulin is a door labled "Svenja's Manor" which gives at least 2 cs's i think. Oh and you might start a quest on accident called flowers for svenja by clicking on this door. Im not 100% sure but i think member in my ls had to finish this quest before he was able to continue. I-9 door labled "Hospital" is a cutscene. At somepoint you have to go back to the J-11 spot and click on mischief marker again. The very last cutscene involves you having to talk to the mithra npc in mummer's coaltion and then you select your reward out of 5 possible earrings. I know last couple steps not in order but hope this helps.

Great, thanks for all the information. I appreciate it.

Sava Savanovic was the first nm i killed which was a vampire nm and didnt drop it im sure so it was one of these next 4 that i killed: Bia, Ma, Met, or Tenodora.

Awesome, thanks a lot. It's a shame not everyone is as willing to be helpful!

So, considering I already have enticer pants and my Helios aren't perfect aug.
These are the silly augs on my helios: BP DMG +4, MAB+20, DA+8%.

Would Enticer be better for me for all type of BPs (Physical, magical, Merit) or not?

I suspect that they would be better for Merit, better for Physical, but worse for Magical.

What are your Enticer's augments?

Drops from Met. Someone already posted a screenshot of the drop in the screenshots section.

http://www.ffxiah.com/screenshots/76919

Edit: Also the walkthrough to get the earrings* is below.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/A_Barrel_of_Laughs

Quest order is:
1. No laughing matter
2. All the way to the bank
3. To laugh is to love
4. A barrel of laughs*

I don't remember now, think it's like acc/racc/macc +10 and mp+ something

Hmm, that's odd. When I originally searched for that quest on BG there wasn't a walk-through posted - only the basic introductory info and template.

Thanks though!

Helios still reign supreme for Flaming Crush (the 30 MAB will help Crush, but the TP bonus from Enticer's won't). Since that's really the most powerful BP we have anymore, I personally still think it's worth doing.

Helios is arguably better for physical as well (1 less crit chance and 3 less double attack, but 1 more BP damage and either higher accuracy or slightly less accuracy with higher attack), but Enticers is probably close enough.

So yeah you can probably skip doing Helios for physical pacts, but a BP Damage & Pet:MAB pair will still help out your Flaming Crush a lot, especially against weaker targets where you don't need the accuracy. Edit: And by weaker targets, I mean almost everything in the game. Cuz that's how Ifrit rolls.

Can anyone confirm what effects the 1200 job point gift?

avatar favor level?
+level from ammo/nirvana?
anytime a stat point is added from gear/astral flow?

And are the earrings easy to solo? Been considering coming back for this patch.

The 1200 gift is another -5 BPdelay.
No idea if it's II or III though.
We don't even know if the first one was II or III because the only test I recall used -15 regular... Which is too many variables.
So there may be a hard cap to BP delay of 30s or BPII may cap at 15.

Not sure what you're asking about favor, level, and stats.

Yes the earring fight is easy to solo. Just attack the mannequin and you'll win in a couple seconds using Ifrit.

Aw sorry, Apparently when the developers were typing out the patch notes they made a typo and since then have corrected it. In addition to the -5 bpdelay it also said +2% chance to double attack based on stat buff, perhaps it was meant for dragoon.

So I'm reading through the last few pages of this thread, and people have mentioned they have 90+ Blood Pact Damage. Am I missing something, because I'm not even close to this. My BP augments (not including Magical Attack Bonus) are:

Main - Keraunos - Blood Pact Dmg +9
Grip - N/A
Range - N/A
Ammo - N/A
Head - Helios Band - Blood Pact Dmg +5
Neck - N/A
Ear1 - Gelos Earring - Blood Pact Dmg +5
Ear2 - N/A
Body - Helios Jacket - Blood Pact Dmg +4
Hands - Helios Gloves - Blood Pact Dmg +6
Ring1 - N/A
Ring2 - N/A
Back - Conveyance Cape - Blood Pact Dmg +4
Belt - N/A
Legs - Helios Spats - Blood Pact Dmg +4
Feet - Helios Boots - Blood Pact Dmg + 7

+44 Blood Pact Dmg.

Your Helios Spats have +6 in their base stats. Nirvana is +40 and Esper Earring is +3.

D'oh forgot about Nirvana. Thanks XD

After spamming the new bcnm for enticer pants for 2 days straight i finally got the pants and going to test them out vs. my helios pants of +7bp damage and 29 pet mab.

Okay done with testing and i didnt expect for the enticer pants to win but they do. These are numbers from doing heavenly strike on mandies from ceizak battlegrounds.

Did 5 heavenly strikes with helios pants on for 12,532
And 5 heavenly strikes with enticer pants for 12,878

Cant wait to get that new staff from the tier 2 mob also which beats out keraunos in avatar nukes.

I forgot to add new gelos earring in place of my diamond earring but even so these are accurate tests.

What about non-merit BPs? Namely Lunar Bay, Impact, and Night Terror.