Question about bloodpactsFollow

Well, the great thing about Summoner is that it can change the damage type as the situation requires. The best BP to use will always be situational. I use different Avatars all the time depending on what I am fighting (weak to blunt? Ramuh/Titan, Physical resistant? Shiva for Heavenly Strike).

Basically, if your enemy is weak to a certain element it may be in your best interest to use that merit BP, otherwise Pred Claws is still one of the best Phys BPs. I also make a lot of use out of Ramuh these days as his Chaotic Strike can be very accurate and with the right atmas can push out some decent damage and on top of all that has a great stun effect!



-BP timer gear is definitely still very useful. The AF3 gear does not have it, but with all the other options available (Relic gear from Dynamis, YY Robe, the new Accord Hat)you can easily max out your -BP timer as it caps at -15 seconds. So basically, switch to -BP gear as you activate the BP then immediately switch to your SMN skill gear and Avatar attack/MATK depending on the BP.



The main reason for the use of Shiva is three atmas: Minikin Monstrosity, Atma of the Ultimate, and Atma of the Beyond. Ice is a great element as a large portion of enemies are weak to it. Pairing up these three atma and with full 5/5 merits into Heavenly Strike, Shiva can tear through mobs. I often hit over 4k HS on dolls in Altepa. Basically for any element that you want to nuke with pair up MM, Ultimate and then add in the atma with your element. Ice is great because Beyond also includes a nice chunk of MAtk.

If you are just idling then yes, switch to as much -perp gear as possible. If you are idling but your Avatar is off meleeing a mob I like to also add in the AF1 Legs for a little Avatar accuracy bonus. This helps with the Avatar's TP gain which helps to make the BPs stronger (Note: Magical BPs use up TP, Phys ones will not reset TP when used but IIRC TP is still a damage modifier).



Not necessarily. Blood boon gear is great to help conserve a little MP. Where it really shines is when you have the full AF3+2 set as it augments the effect of Blood Boon. When wearing the set and Blood Boon procs during a BP it adds a straight damage multiplier to the BP depending on the amount of MP saved by Blood Boon. Check out gamerescape for exact numbers but it is quite a substantial boost. That being said we don't have enough testing yet to determine if adding extra Blood Boon gear increases the proc rate of the damage multiplier. Blood Boon gear is like -BP gear in the sense that you use it when you activate the BP and can switch out into other gear before it fires off. It is worth macroing in for any slot where you don't need the -BP timer as you are likely already at cap. The main one that comes to mind is Diabolos' Rope, though I am sure there are others as well.