Edit: This post is outdated. Check my PSO2 Summoner Guide for a more detailed walkthrough.
I think I have a rough idea of how Summoners work now. A formal guide is going to be a real headache. Here’s some quick notes for now.
Important Skills
Apart from damage boosters, pet survivability seems pretty important since they have roughly the HP of a player, but with nonexistent self-preservation instincts. With that in mind, Summoner’s core skills seem to be:
- All Attack Bonus 1 & 2 – two 10% bonuses for 5SP per row, quite worth it.
- Pet Sympathy – Gives your pet bonus damage and HP recovery if you Shifta or Resta when it asks for it. Frankly this is a troublesome mechanic but Summoner damage bonuses are few and far between
- Harmonize Up – Your pet will beg for Shifta or Resta more often, quite needed for Pet Sympathy uptime
- Sympathy Time – Increases Pet Sympathy uptime
- Easy Sympathy – Increases the window where you can buff your pet for Pet Sympathy. 1pt so why not.
- Point Assist – The so-called pet Weak Bullet. Only 15% though. 5pts might be enough.
- Support Fire – 10% more damage on enemies painted with Point Assist, doesn’t need to be the point itself.
- Alter Ego – The obligatory “Press button for more damage” skill.
- Dear Master – Poor man’s Iron Will. The pet dies instead of you, otherwise the effect is similar.
Most of the other stuff isn’t too important, I’m guessing All Attack High Up will end up being one of the late SP sinks, then pet survivability stuff like Photon Barrier.
For subclass, Su/Fi seems like a safe bet for the Brave Stance bonus. I’ll eventually try Su/Gu to see if Chain Trigger can work well with pets.
Exp eggs seem to drop decently often. Got three eggs from a single Urban VHAQ, which got my Torim to level 10.
Starter Candies
For candies, these seem to be the good ones from the shops:
- Pancake – Attribute enhancers from the new pet NPC, Ariel. You get what you pay for. 2800 total Synthesizers for a level 3 Pancake since it requires buying lots of lower level pancakes. Pre-grinded level 3 pancakes can be bought with 5% and 10% attribute enhancers. The rest of Ariel’s stuff seem to be newbie traps.
- Megaton Parfait – More damage vs bosses, bought from Mutan, the Challenge Quest NPC. Costs 180k Challenge Miles.
- Invincibility Roll (むてきロール) – When Photon Blast Gauge is full, your pet becomes invincible for a while. Costs 50 Kagaseo stones from Earth.
- Stability Roll (しっかりロール) – Reduces pet KO’d time. Costs 50 Kagaseo stones from Earth.
- Support Roll (おうえんロール) – When Shifta’d or Debanded, pet damage, defense and critical chance increases. Costs 100 Durga and 100 Shiva stones from Magatsu.
- Blast Parfait – Pet gets more damage when Photon Blast gauge is full. Costs 60 Ares stones.
The Nab and Lilipa UQ stone candies don’t seem worth the grind for now, but I might revisit this later. Nab UQ candy converts pet DEF stats to ATK, while Lilipa UQ candy reduces PP consumption during Alter Ego.
I personally picked up a Support Roll and grinded it twice. I can only imagine how big a meseta sink this is going to be.
Pet Skills
Looks like pets learn a new PA every 20 levels.
Torim
- Torim Lv20 learns Torim Shout, which seems to be a useless short-ranged AoE
- Torim Lv40 learns Torim Spiral, a >7000 power attack
Sari
- Sari at Lv20 learns Sari Chaser, which is a chain-type attack like Ilmegid and Gizonde.
Overall
Sari seems to handle mobs pretty well. It has a ranged normal attack and a ranged vacuum skill, making for convenient mobbing. The other two are alright when they work, but at this point seem way too fragile, getting one-shotted by Predicahda jumps. My Torim is way too fragile to go up against bosses. This might fix itself once its level gets up to speed – it’s level 40 right now, fighting level 60 VHAQ enemies.
By endgame I’d imagine stacking Megaton Parfait with Support Roll and Blast Parfait on a maxed out pet might get pretty crazy, if they’re allowed to stack. Pets cap at two parfaits and two rolls, so that’s legal.
