Preliminary 5.10 Patch Notes

Hello everyone, Nemekh here with an update on very anticipated Summoner changes in Patch 5.10 on October 29th!

The preliminary 5.10 patch notes are now available.

Yoshida was not kidding when he said there was an overwhelming number of changes. There certainly is a lot to cover!

5.10 Summoner Changes

5.10 Summoner Changes

5.10 Summoner Changes

5.10 Summoner Changes


Here are the changes by segment:

GCDs

Egi Assaults & Ruin IV

Egi Assault - Action category has been changed from ability to spell.

Egi Assault II - Action category has been changed from ability to spell.

One of the main changes outlined for reducing how busy 5.0 Summoner was, Egi Assaults are now on the GCD reducing overall OGCD casts by 4 a minute. As a high ping player I am very thankful for the extra GCDs I will be gaining from clipping less.

Yoshida mentioned in the 55th PLL that EAs are instant. This is a strong change for additional mobility & opening up weaving space outside of Trances while further helping reduce the number of Ruin II casts in a given run. This implies at least one of each will be used in the revised 5.10 opener.

It is unknown if they retain the same charge structure, however, we are operating under the belief they are.

Will they be worth using? Absolutely!

We will have to test the new EAs to see how they execute from the Egis. Further information on the Egi action potency changes can be found below.

Ruin IV - Potency has been increased from 260 to 300.

An unexpected & appreciable increase in Ruin IV’s potency.

Assuming that EAs result in 4 Further Ruin procs a minute, this is a general gain of 4 * 40 potency per minute, or +160 potency a minute before alignment considerations.

DoTs

Bio III - Damage over time potency has been increased from 40 to 50.

Miasma III - Potency has been increased from 40 to 50.

Damage over time potency has been increased from 40 to 50.

I will admit reading this change had me laugh out loud, not for being a joke of a change as it is an appreciable damage increase, but the fact that history is repeating yet again & that this was on my bingo sheet of anticipated changes!

In Stormblood our DoT potencies were 40 potency for each respective line. Later they were bumped up to 50 potency. With Shadowbringers release they were reduced to 40 potency, now they are being increased again to 50 potency. The eternal yoyoing of Summoner DoTs.

Now a full DoT set is 2 * 500p, or 1000 potency before spell speed scaling instead of 800 potency.

This change makes our baseline damage stronger provided we maintain full DoT uptime, while making it even more important to snapshot DoTs under buffs. Our Lv. 70 damage benefits a good amount from this change when considering Summoner in Stormblood Ultimates.

Gaps in DoTs by letting them lapse & not reapplying will become more punitive.

Outburst

Level 76 Enhanced Outburst - Increases the potency of Outburst to 90.

An expected change after the announcement that Ruination was going the day of the dodo.

The old Lv. 78 Enhanced Bane trait spread Ruination to targets around the source so that Outburst could benefit from the +20 potency to be 90 potency per target.

Now Outburst is 90 potency per target without requiring Ruination which was only possible to be up 75% of the time.

This is a slight AoE buff in pre Lv. 78 content where Ruination could not be spread & Ruination was 15s instead of 30s.


OGCDs

Trances

Dreadwyrm Trance - Recast time has been reduced from 60 to 55 seconds.

Firebird Trance - Recast time has been reduced from 60 to 55 seconds.

The cooldown reduction to Trance is very interesting. It offers flexibility & gives us leeway towards a busy point in the rotation with our burst windows every minute of Trances & Demi-Summons.

The prior rigidity was the main reason for why strict Tri-disaster resets lead to an inevitable DoT gap, now it will not be as much of a concern. It is also a benefit to higher ping players who are more prone to drifting cooldowns, where being slightly later will not be as punitive due to Trances coming off cooldown earlier. Being able to correct for the drift of previous Trances is an interesting option where prior there was no alternative at all.

I do have some reservations that the 5s cooldown reduction will be a trap for the unfamiliar player used to using actions on cooldown. It will be important to watch the timers of other cycles, or counting after Trance becomes available to know when it should be activated.

Players have asked if we will now operate on a 1m50s cycle. With raid buff alignment we will still want to adopt a 2 minute DoT cycle with our core burst from Trances & Demi-Summons aligning with these windows, however, in doing so every 2 minutes we would be deliberately drifting 10s to keep to time, which over the course of 12 mins+ (such as e4s, Ultimates) would result in a Trance, TriD & Demi-Summon lost altogether, which is a considerable amount of potency!

Due to this here could be merits to using one or more Trances immediately for AoE, downtime or fight length reasons to allow for the extra Trance & Demi-Summon to not be lost altogether.

As always, map your cooldowns against an encounter to see what the correct call is.

Tri-disaster

Tri-disaster - Now deals unaspected damage with a potency of 300.

The additional effect of Ruination has been removed.

With the removal of Ruination, Yoshida mentioned that Tri-disaster would now feature direct damage to compensate.

300 potency is up front is a good potency change for several reasons.

Firstly, Ruination was in general 12 Ruin GCDs of benefit, of 12 _ 20 potency worth, for 240 potency for a full Ruination. Every 2 minutes the DoT cycle has 3 Tri-disaster casts meaning that 90s/120s Ruination should be active, or 3 _ 240 potency worth for for 720p total.

However, this was not the case due to 20s of Ruination being wasted by Firebird Trance, 20s being 8 GCDs worth, so in reality it was 240 _ 2 + 4 _ 20 or 560 potency total. With the new change, this is 3 * 300 potency for 900 potency per 2 minute cycle which is a gain of 340 potency. I for one am happy that the design error with FBT & Ruination has been addressed here.

Secondly, being front-loaded instead of spread out over 30s makes Tri-disaster important to snapshot under buffs, as it’s effectively like having Fester attached to the DoT application.

Furthermore adding the aforementioned potency changes to Miasma III & Bio III, Tri-disaster is now an effective 1300 potency action instead of 1040 before spell speed scaling on the DoT portion!

This makes buff alignment for Tri-disaster even more important as it is now a single action powerhouse, where we align one under buffs every minute in a full uptime scenario. Think of all those powerful stacked multipliers on all that potency.

Bane

Bane - No longer spreads the Ruination status effect to nearby targets.

Enhanced Bane - Now always extends the duration of Bio and Miasma applied by Bane to the full duration of their original effects.

With Ruination being removed, the Lv. 78 trait has changed Bane’s 15% chance to refresh DoT durations to 30s to the spread targets, not the source, to a 100% chance making the duration reset to spread targets guaranteed.

This change is exciting for 2 target scenarios, as provided Bane retains the same cooldown, we can perpetually bounce DoTs from one target to another, alternating the one we Bane from as long as the source’s DoTs don’t run out in the process.

A hypothetical example:

  • Cruise Chaser has Tri-disaster applied.
  • Bane is used to spread DoTs to Brute Justice.
  • 11s of DoTs left on Brute Justice, Bane is used to spread 30s DoTs to Cruise Chaser.
  • 11s of DoTs left on Cruise Chaser, Bane is used to spread 30s DoTs to Brute Justice.
  • Repeat as much as necessary, Tri-disaster again for damage.

The buff snapshotting of this will be tested on patch day to confirm interactions as keeping buffed DoTs active on two targets would be very strong. Even if buff snapshots are not perpetuated, not having to apply an extra hardcast set is a potency gain over having to do so.

However, using Bane on cooldown risks throwing more unnecessary weaves which could lead to further Ruin II casts resulting in potency bleeds. Don’t refresh overzealously!

The same idea could be applied to multiple target scenarios, however, without the aid of plugins it’s not easy to know which target out of many around the source has had the 100% strength DoTs applied.

Using Bane from a 40% strength DoT target & spreading DoTs that way risks chain weakening DoT applications, which given enough repetitions will make DoTs tick for single digit damage! Don’t do 0.4 ^ n * damage.

Painflare

Painflare - Potency has been reduced from 150 to 130.

A little nerf to Painflare, this puts it in line with the rest of our AoE toolkit being a gain at 3+ targets instead of being at parity with Fester at 2 targets.

-20 potency per target for at most 4 Painflare casts a minute assuming sustained AoE, or -80 potency per target per minute.

Nerfs to some actions are unfortunate, however, consider what was gained in other areas. It really isn’t the end of the world of a change.


Egis

All attacks from arcanist and summoner pets are now categorized as magic attacks.

A very interesting line in the patch notes. I will say that it is almost a certainty that this change does not mean that pet scaling has been removed.

What it does imply to me is that the melee pets Topaz Carbuncle, Ifrit-Egi & Titan-egi will now share the same damage scaling from their potency as their caster pet counterparts, standardising pet potency among all Arcanist & Summoner pet entities. What does this mean for a rough yard stick of how much their potency is worth in terms of a player? Melee pets are akin to ~48% of a player. Caster pets & Enkindles are akin to ~80%. It’s a pretty sizeable increase that puts 250p EAs at ~200 player potency.

This will be tested thoroughly when the patch goes live.

Ifrit-Egi

Crimson Cyclone - Potency has been increased from 100 to 250.

Flaming Crush - Potency has been increased from 100 to 250.

Potency is now reduced by 50% for all remaining enemies.

Inferno - Potency has been increased from 200 to 300.

At an initial glance, this is a big potency change at 2.5x the power. However, keep in mind pet scaling.

With the above mention to Arcanist & Summoner pets now being magic attacks, operating under that assumption, 250p Egi Assaults would be approximately equivalent to ~200p, or a Ruin III.

The 50% falloff with the new potency on Flaming Crush means that Ifrit’s AoE Egi Assault has had a 25% increase.

The Inferno increase is a very welcome boost to what had otherwise become a very anaemic 2 minute DPS cooldown. It is assumed the DoT portion remains the same, which makes Inferno decent for AoE, which is nice with Ifrit-Egi now being stronger for 2 target scenarios.

Garuda-Egi

Wind Blade - Potency has been reduced from 40 to 30.

Aerial Slash - Potency has been increased from 60 to 150.

Slipstream - Potency has been increased from 20 to 50.

Damage over time potency has been increased from 20 to 50.

Duration has been reduced from 15 to 9 seconds.

Garuda-Egi is the only one that had potency adjustments to her core GCD. Wind Blade took a hit to 30p, which implies to me that this is so that she is not a gain at 2+ targets over Ifrit-Egi, as 2 * 30 is 60, with Burning Strike, assuming caster scaling, being 80 caster pet potency. This means that Garuda-Egi’s intended to be used for 3+ targets like the rest of our AoE toolkit. The change, while a slight nerf there, makes it more consistent.

However, to compensate for the AoE nerf & the fact that Egi Assaults are on the GCD, Aerial Slash Aerial Slash has had a 1.5x increase for 150 caster pet potency per target hit, or ~120 player potency per target. That’s a pretty decent change.

Similarly, Slipstream has also had considerable potency tweaks. The DoT & initial damage potion of the Gale Enforcer Ground AoE have also been increased by 1.5x, however, the ground AoE duration has been reduced by 2 ticks to 9s from 15s. This is a net potency gain while front-loading more damage in time as previously there would be a clash where using a Demi-Summon after using Slipstream would cause the Ground AoE to despawn due to Garuda-Egi no longer existing. It’s also nicer for short term AoE burst with Garuda out when Demi-Summons & Trances are on cooldown.

Despite the nerf to Wind Blade the changes to her other actions make them a net gain in overall Garuda AoE damage.

Titan-Egi

Earthen Armor - Barrier strength has been increased from 20% to 30% of maximum HP.

Mountain Buster - Potency has been increased from 70 to 250.

Earthen Fury - Potency has been increased from 200 to 300.

Whoa now there Earthen Armor. I have always been a proponent of the value of Safety Titan in early prog when learning without changing up your core rotation & surviving difficult situations, however, a 30% max hp shield is huge.

If it retains the same 30s cooldown with charges, while yes it’s an Egi Assault that does no damage & likely still will not result in a Further Ruin proc, this is Manaward on a much more frequent basis, on a raise caster where previously we have never had something like that as part of our survival toolkit.

To me it’s crazy strong for its intended purpose. If you’re having to use Titan DPS is the least of your concerns, so don’t worry about the DPS loss.

Mountain Buster & Earthen Fury reflect Ifrit-Egi’s changes, where ~250 Titan potency should be approximately ~200 player potency to all targets around him & 300 Titan potency is ~240 player potency per target hit. It is assumed the DoT portion remains the same.

Demi-Summons

Demi-Bahamut

Summon Bahamut - Wyrmwave can now be executed immediately after being summoned.

Praise Bahamut & a happy Akhmorning! This was one of Summoner’s biggest peeves with the Demi-Summons in Shadowbringers. After early attempts at bug reporting their new behaviour was met with “working as intended” on the official forums, after much outcry Square Enix listened & made this change.

Demi-Bahamut will now be able to respond immediately after manifesting with Wyrmwave once we use a GCD. This allows for the old Stormblood methods of late weave Summon Bahamut into an instant GCD with Akh Morn following, resulting in a 1 WW Akh Morn rotation without any requirement to clip. This does mean that I’ll updating the Demi-Summon rotations page with revisions.

Demi-Phoenix

We do not know if Demi-Phoenix reacts the same as Demi-Bahamut with being able to execute Scarlet Flame immediately after being summoned, however, it is hoped they both share this change. If not, the difference will be brought up.

Everlasting Flight - Duration has been increased from 20 to 21 seconds.

A minor but appreciated change. By being 21s instead of 20s, this guarantees that Everlasting Flight will always heal for 7 ticks instead of sometimes 6, sometimes 7.


Quest Adjustments

The parameters of enemies that appear in arcanist and summoner quests have been adjusted.

It is nice to see developers recognise how contemporary changes can considerably alter how older quests play out, especially when lacking in gear.

Prior to Shadowbringers, there was an expectation to have Topaz Carbuncle/Titan-Egi aggro & handle adds during the class & job quests.

With the change in Shadowbringers to make pets no longer take damage nor being able to aggro enemies, it meant that Summoner would take the full brunt of everything. This made some older quests much harder than they used to be.

Thank you for looking at the lower level experience with the job quests, Square Enix.


Afterthoughts

Q: Are these changes good for Summoner?

A: Yes

Instant EAs on the GCD resulting in less clipping & greater mobility reducing R2 count. Stronger Egi actions, stronger Ruin IV, stronger DoTs, stronger TriD with the on hit damage, Bane ideas in multi-target scenarios, greater leniency with Trance timers, Demi-summons being fixed to be responsive. All in all this is a very positive list of changes.

I know I am happy that most of my gripes were addressed. There are still the occasional things left like Energy Siphon being unnecessary button bloat for meager AoE gains, or the Energy Drain system with regards to downtime. But overall I am really looking forward to the patch in 4 days time.

What does this mean for DPS numbers? This is currently being worked on to grok a projection of the gains, a lot has changed so please be patient as we work things out!

We will be working hard on updating & revising the openers & rotation over the next few days, where once the patch has been released we will be able to get our eager hands on the latest build to test & verify all interactions.

Watch this space!