Questions about staple skills and their use

[Demise]

First, horray we have class specific forums now!

Second, I just hit 45 and I'm looking to improve my build for soloing and having the most survivability/utility in dungeons etc. I've got my favorite skills that I've used while leveling, but I keep switching it up to see if I'm missing something or could improve my play in some way. (A lot of guides are for other translations of the game and are generally not very helpful yet. Not to mention the god awful skill translations and tooltips in game.) So now I'd like to ask some other summoners about some skills and see how you guys have been using them in game!

 

Sunflower is probably one of my favorite skills. However I'm not very good at chaining up to the big sunflower burst yet. What chain/combo of skills do you guys use to get your stacks up to 5 without the buff falling off or running out of chi? Right now I only seem to make it to the 5th stack if I get lucky with hongmoon weapon procs while I've got doom n gloom up. Sunflower only gives me stacks every second hit, which makes the 3 chi cost rather exhausting. Does specing doom n bloom to go down the focus regen side instead of the hp regen side of the skill tree help with that?

 

I find that the House Cat tree makes my cat way more tanky, plus combined with the Tiger Crouch means that I can solo large clusters of mobs all at once which make clearing dungeons easier. Does Beckon have a lot of use in pve besides a disengage? How do you guys utilize your cat in pve while you're doing dungeons? How do you keep the furry little *cricket* from getting his teeth kicked in? I'm using True Friend quite often to keep my own hp and focus topped up, should I be using it less aggressively to keep my little minion from dieing?

 

What do you guys find the most effective way to self heal and keep your hp topped up during boss fights? Do you spec for the hp regen on petals storm as well as doom n bloom?

 

I've found that the weed wack + thorn strike combo (tier 4 form 2) combo seems to do pretty good damage on single target, such as bosses etc. Is this a good source of damage or should I drop this combo and rely solely on sunflower for my damage?

 

I've been looking at skill tree builds and I've tried out a variety of things, it really just comes down to /how/ to use those skills most effectively that I want to polish up on. It's so easy to caught up with this classes impressive toolbox, I want to make sure I'm doing my best with the basics!

[Lifesong]

Hello! I'm a noob myself, but I'll share what I've been doing.

 

I run with the heal on doom and bloom. My kitty has been the tank for most of the stuff I've done in the game. I've been able to tank Poh4 man without any issues so I don't see that changing any time soon. I rely on a combo of crits(thanks to my purple gem) and the heal on doom and bloom to keep my own HP topped off. I use potions if I get in a pinch. I've got almost 400 of them now so I guess I'm not needing them very frequently.

 

I use beckon to clear negative effects off my cat and on the occasion I need to move something that I'm tanking. I usually end up standing close to melee range to keep everything smooth. Moving things is tricky. There is a 3 second window where the kitty isn't Qing. If I want to move something I do it immediately at the start of that window. Moving an enemy is more of a last resort than a feature.

 

I use true friend for the 5 hit damage resist.

 

I haven't stopped to think about my sunflower shotgun use since I first made my build over a week ago. It's basically just keep my dot up, right click and hope to get lucky. If I can think of anything to add I'll post it.

[Engete]

i'm still not on lv cap yet, but here's my opinion...

 

Sunflower

photosynthesis on sunflower only stack by big sunflower, which need some requirement like stealthed, doom and bloom, or briar patch/nettles...

so if you want to stack up photosynthesis, don't use this skill at the same time... use it wisely one after another...

you'll need instantly cast doom and bloom tho, since it would give you boost on focus... *sunflower is a bit costly on focus

and you'll have to use rose/butterfly in between sunflower, so you have some focus regen...

and, you could have boost on chi regen by sacrifying cat's crouching tiger's taunting with the focus regen on brach 1 *a bit risky tho...

you could summon briar patch/nettles after hit the enemy with grasping roots, branch 2 power pounce, or any attack who give your opponent weed whack poison...

for stealth, i'm pretty sure you know how to do... :) 

*that being said, with high latency/lag it seems really hard to doing this... ~~

i myself due to this very reason couldn't use sunflower with its full potential, always end up on empty focus... ~~

 

doom and bloom

for solo, you'll only need to put 2 point here (up to regen 10 focus), since next point is only beneficial for partying...

 

beckon

to call out your cat to your side when you are the one who surrounded by mobs instead of your cat... *then the cat could instantly crouch (?)

or to call out your cat because the boss gonna launch some deadly short-middle range aoe attack

 

true friend

2nd branch have a nice effect i think, give you 5 sec/5 attack i-frames... *enough time to delay death :)

 

petal storm

its conditional, if i know the dungeon doesn't have many ranged mobs, or the ranged attack is not that deadly, i wouldn't spec my point here...

*i think it would be good when fighting poharan, but i still didn't get the invitation yet, so cannot confirm this...

 

weed whack

as i said before, sunflower need weed whack poison to go become big sunflower, so i think weed whack-nettles/briar patch-sunflower would be a good combo...

*oh, and thorn strike branch 2 have that weed whack poison too... that could be done too i think...

 

just don't too rushing on skill and put everything on cooldown... *that would give you a hard time in dungeon... ~~

 

---

i maybe wrong tho, so hope there's someone willing to correct me if i wrong... :)

[Lifesong]

Petal storm is more or less useless against Poh. If/when you pull agro you can't stand in one spot. The only time I use petal storm in that instance is on the first boss and the adds in the kitchen. No points are needed.

[Engete]

12 minutes ago, Lifesong said:

Petal storm is more or less useless against Poh. If/when you pull agro you can't stand in one spot. The only time I use petal storm in that instance is on the first boss and the adds in the kitchen. No points are needed.

oh i see...

i only saw that instance on youtube, and most of her attack is ranged, so i assume it would work somewhat... ~~

[Elvenmad]

 1 point in Beckon also gives you another I-frame with 30 sec CD,  not  many ppl know this ^^

 

Also be prepared to switch and change some skills for each different boss or set of mobs, EVERY fight is going to be different and every fight will more than likely have different mechanics, hence will require different skills. 

 

I have mained Summoner on CN servers for years , love it, have no problems soloing most dungeons end game, Cat tank is just OP

[Demise]

Thank you so much for all the tips guys, I'll definitely start practicing when I get home from work tonight.

 

I saw people suggesting using the wheed wack - > thorn strike -> briar patch as an opener to start your sunflower spam, then following up with doom n bloom when you run out of focus. Unfortunately I seem to run out of focus before I can even get one stack up when I start with this opener?

 

So should I open with doom n bloom first, spam sunflower, then throw out my burrs when doom is about to run out, true friend for some focus and then weave with lmb to finish off my stacks?  I've been trying to make this work and have been getting luckier than usual, I just am not sure if I'm missing something along the way to get it to work on a more regular basis. (Basically I'm still pretty dependent on whether or not my hongmoon weapon procs. :I ) Maybe this is a matter of my crit not being high enough?

[Elvenmad]

open with Doom and Bloom and keep it permanently on CD , it is your main source of Focus regen and it heals you and your pet too, I open with Doom and Bloom, get Brier patch down asap then your into Sunflower spam

[Lifesong]

1 hour ago, Elvenmad said:

1 point in Beckon also gives you another I-frame with 30 sec CD,  not  many ppl know this ^^

 

That is useful to know. Noob question here... Does it give it an Iframe for the kitty and the SMN or just the kitty?(or just the SMN)

[Lifesong]

1 hour ago, Engete said:

oh i see...

i only saw that instance on youtube, and most of her attack is ranged, so i assume it would work somewhat... ~~

 

If you pull agro at range she is probably going to fire bomb you. The fire bomb drops a fire on the ground. You can't use petal storm to avoid it.

[Elvenmad]

5 minutes ago, Lifesong said:

 

That is useful to know. Noob question here... Does it give it an Iframe for the kitty and the SMN or just the kitty?(or just the SMN)

 

Both

 

User is resistant to damage, status effects

Removes Deep Wound

Tier 1 Form 1 Beckon is used instead while cooldown is active

Removes all status effects except Stun, Daze, Knockdown, Unconscious, Airborne, Grab, Phantom Grip, Grapple

Recalled Familiar stands by for next order

Penetrates Defense, Deflect

 

 

[Lifesong]

I read that, but I wasn't sure what it actually meant and how it actually worked. I assumed it simply meant the kitty couldn't take damage during the beckon. Glad to know it does more than that. I've been keeping a point spent in it for the removal of negative status effects either way.

[Elvenmad]

its a 1.5 sec i-frame I use in on PoH, it does work,  cant wait till we get Hongmoon levels going to open up so many more options for summoner, currently your pretty tied to the main skills

[stalkster]

@Demise

Don't open with Doom N Bloom.

 

Open With 1 Grasping roots(24sec CD) or better yet 2 Thorn Strike(18sec CD) T4F2 >LMB > F (Flying Nettles)> Rotate LMB +RMB > After 2-3Stacks of Sunflower(2 usually, 3 if weapon chi proc)  > F (Boom N Bloom) > Use The Chi regen to keep rotating LMB + RMB > Super sunflower > Use LMB till full chi or close then repeat. This will give you super sunflower 90% of the time assuming.

A:You don't get CC'ed // B:The boss don't get knocked up in the air. // C:The boss don't move out of the nettles.

 

To sum it up..

2>LMB>F>rotate LMB+RMB >(2-3 stacks)>F >rotate LMB+RMB>(5 stacks go ham RMB)>LMB spam till/depending chi/waiting for CD of 2 > repeat.

 

You use 1 or 2 to restart the rotation but doom n bloom/flying nettles  wont line up better to wait for thorn strike.

 

Hope this helps.

[Tenerezza]

On 2/3/2016 at 6:56 PM, Lifesong said:

Petal storm is more or less useless against Poh. If/when you pull agro you can't stand in one spot. The only time I use petal storm in that instance is on the first boss and the adds in the kitchen. No points are needed.

 

Poh never moves as long as her targets is more then 10 meters from here, so a Summoner is in fact one of the best classes to actually tank poh, make sure that when you pull agro to stand 10+ meters away, and all you need to do at this point is walk around her to avoid pretty much everything she has to offer.

 

If you get closer then 10 meters thought, she will start to jump around crazy and start to CC you and the like.