Kweh's guide to playing summoner and gear selection

Opening Remarks
Hello and thank you for choosing to read this guide. It is my first one on the first job I leveled to 80. I intend to make it as comprehensive as possible and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy!

Race Selection
Keeping with the apparent tradition of writing job guides I figured I would throw this in here, but keep it short sweet and to the point.

Hume - This is what I chose when making my character. Very well rounded race, decent mp (summoner's only required stat) with decent agility and vitality that gives humes a slightly higher survivability rate over some other races.

Mithra - Like humes but with a slightly smaller mp pool.

Tarutaru - If you start out the gate wanting to match a job with the race that was made for it then pick tarutaru for mage jobs. The stats of a taru are built for mage jobs, they have the highest mp and intelligence with a decent dexterity and agility rating making them perfect for black mage and in our case summoner. However, let it be known that gear and player skill are more important than race.

Elvaan - Elvaan are unfortunately lacking in MP, summoner's only required stat, however they make up for it with high HP, VIT, and MND. The HP and VIT give them a higher survivability rate should their avatar get killed or if they get too much hate while in parties. Their high MND however makes them decent healers with a WHM subjob.

Galka - Galka are in a similar boat as the Elvaan, lacking in MP but higher physical stats than other race choices. With a higher VIT and HP than other Summoners a Galka probably has the highest chance of surviving should the avatar die or if they start taking hits in a party.

Sub Job Selection
Only going to list viable subjobs here.

White_Mage - White Mage is almost necessary if a Summoner wants regular exp party invites. Usually they want you to do 2 things, heal and buff the party. Though a Red Mage or a White Mage make much better healers because of their native spells and skills it is possible for a Summoner to be main healer in a party if they are geared properly and know what to do. This is your best option until 70 when you can get Scholar's Sublimation or until 80 when Red Mage's Convert becomes available.

Red Mage - Now that the level cap is 80 Red Mage is probably the best choice for a Summoner's subjob for one reason, and that is the use of Red Mage's Convert ability. Their cures and buffs are also nice but convert is probably the best thing for Summoner since they added the job. Red Mage isn't really better than anything else though until your Summoner hits 80 and you have access to Convert.

Black Mage - Black Mage gives the most MP as a support job out of any other option. Sadly, this is about the only thing useful that this job has to offer at 80 other than Warp and Warp II. Not useful except for the higher mp, though it's only a +10 bonus on a hume.

Scholar - Scholar also makes a fairly decent support job with the Sublimation ability. Sublimation can be used not only to regain mp but also to activate the latent effect on Conjurer's Ring. Otherwise, Scholar is pretty similar to Red Mage in that you'll get a balanced set of spells and skills which help out quite a bit. Not anything special until Summoner is 70 and you have access to Sublimation.

Weapons
Stick with a Staff as your main weapon because Summoner's highest weapon rank is in Staff plus these usually give more MP bonuses than other weapons. Also at 51 you get Elemental Staves which are a Summoner's best friend until 70+ for their Avatar Perpetuation Cost reduction.

Armor
Get anything that gives +MP or +Summoning Magic skill. +MP > Summoning Magic until 50 when it gets switched and you'll want to start building a max Summoning Magic set of armor. The same applies to weapons.

Leveling
I pretty much had to solo summoner from 1 to 74 so most of the leveling tips will be for soloing.

1-10
These levels you should do just like any other, go outside into the starter zones and kill until you hit 10. Even if you've gotten the other avatars, stick with using Carbuncle while soloing at lower levels as he has the lowest perpetuation cost.

11-20
Put up your party flag and go out to where the mobs are easy prey and solo while you wait for party invites.
 * If you're feeling adventurous however and you can make Yagudo Drinks or Melon Juice, take several stacks of materials with you to North Gustaberg (S) or East Ronfaure (S) and kill the Tunnel Worms in North Gustaberg (S) or Carrion Worm in East Ronfaure (S) both are level 10-12.
 * If you choose to kill worms use carbuncle to assault the worm while you stay out of its casting range and use a juice to pad your mp. The strategy is really very simple: 1) Summon Carbuncle, 2) Assault Worm, 3) Use a Blood Pact: Rage, 4) Get out of the worm's casting range and use a juice, 5) Wait for Carby to die off then resummon, 6) if your mp gets low or you run out cast a DoT on the worm then pop a juice and heal until full just make sure the worm doesn't depop or deaggro.
 * Level 12 - At level 12 and beyond keep at least 2 hi-ethers with you all times. This is when you'll start getting invites for Astral Flow parties.
 * Special note - While Astral Flow parties are the quickest and probably easiest way to level Summoner you shouldn't jump at every one you get invited to. If you burn from 12 all the way to 80 your skills will be no better than level 24 and summoning magic takes a really long time to level.

21-30
At level 20 you get Carbuncle Mitts which will make soloing a lot easier and you also get the opportunity to do the mini avatar fights if you haven't gotten the other avatars yet.
 * North Gustaberg (S) - Stone Eaters will be your prey, just use the same strategy for the 10-12 worms. These worms are 18-21.
 * Korroloka Tunnel - Land Worms here range in level from 20-25 but I would wait on these until 22-23.
 * Qufim Island - Land Worms again only here they go from 25-27.
 * Maze of Shakhrami - Abyss Worms here go from 27-30 but this is an extremely dangerous zone because there's a lot of stuff here that can and probably will aggro and kill you.

31-40
Worms worms and more worms
 * North Gustaberg (S) - Rock Eaters from 32-34
 * Grauberg (S) - Rock Eaters from 33-35
 * Attohwa Chasm - Flesh Eaters from 34-37
 * After 37 the only even match worms only spawn at night so I would recommend staying in Attohwa Chasm

41-50
At 40 you have the chance to get a Dragon Staff but it's nearly impossible to get. If you do get it however it will decrease your Avatar Perpetuation Cost by 1 making carbuncle's perpetuation 0 until you reach level 45 if you have carbuncle mitts.
 * Oldton Movalpolos - Ancient Bombs 40-45
 * New Strategy - This strategy is similar to that of the worms: 1) Summon Carbuncle 2) Assault a Bomb 3) Run away until Carbuncle's HP bar disappears and pop a juice 4) When carbuncle dies immediately resummon him and let him run after the bomb 5) If the bomb starts hitting you have carby use Poison Nails and Healing Ruby until carby has hate again 6) Repeat steps 1-4 until the bomb uses Self-Destruct.
 * Other than the bombs there's not much else to solo on thats even match or better

51-60
At 51 Elemental Staves become available as well as Austere gear at 50. I highly recommend getting the Austere Robe Set, also get Light Staff/Apollo's Staff and Dark Staff/Pluto's Staff before anything else.
 * Quicksand Caves - Sand Eaters 51-59
 * The Eldieme Necropolis - Azers 51-58, be careful doing these because they spawn in groups near pots and both pots and bombs aggro magic

61-70

 * Den of Rancor - Cave Worms from 61-64 but be extremely careful in here as the den is a very dangerous zone
 * Quicksand Caves - Sand Diggers from 62-65
 * Kuftal Tunnel - Kuftal Diggers from 66-69
 * Uleguerand Range - Mountain Worms from 66-70
 * Ifrit's Cauldron - Volcanic Gas from 62-68
 * Den of Rancor - Bifrons from 68-70

70-80
From 70 to 80 you'll be mostly doing Fields of Valor pages in Cape Teriggan.
 * Azouph Isle Staging Point - Exit the staging point through the iron gate. At the end of the ramp there is a Heraldic Imp you can kill for really good exp. Keep in mind that this is extremely dangerous and you should come /whm or bring reraise items in case you die. Also if you plan on doing Imps bring plenty of echo drops.
 * The Strategy - Come with Red Mage set as your support job and bring reraise items in case you die. Before you engage the imp make sure you put up buffs (Blink, Stoneskin, Phalanx, Reraise, etc.). After buffs rest to full, then run up until the imp is just barely in view. Summon an avatar, preferably Garuda or Leviathan, and Assault the imp then quickly use your level 70 Blood Pact: Rage and run back to the gate, if you reach the gate and your avatar's hp bar is still visible go ahead and walk through the gate to zone the mob and get ready to try again. If you didn't have to zone, wait until your Blood Pact: Rage timer is at 10 seconds remaining then Release your avatar and resummon and use your level 70 Blood Pact: Rage. Don't worry about assaulting the imp again, your avatar will automatically start attacking it when it's in range. Keep kiting the imp up and down the ramp until it dies.

Final Notes on Leveling

 * Always keep your party flag up when soloing and Fields of Valor pages are always an option.
 * Keep in mind however that when doing pages you'll want to be 3-5 levels lower than the level the page you're doing stops giving experience.
 * At level 70 you'll start getting Abyssea invites, take these as often as possible but only if you have ~6 hours of free time