User:Wotever/Gude:Astral Flow Party

= Introduction to Astral Flow Party (AKA SMN Burn)= Since the Level Sync update new possibility became easier to explore, one of the great discovery was summoner burn party, I don't know who came up with the idea but really deserve a lot of gratitude. A Summoner burn party can score from 20,000 up to 90,000 exp with in 1hr depending on numbers of factor. The increasing fame of Summoner burn led to conflict between players on certain zones and making envious players who don't know how to preform this to spoil a summoner burn party.

Basic Concept
The Main Idea is to gather a massive army of mobs crowded up on one target and Astral Flow as many time as possible. This might sounds easy, but doing this might requires a lot of practice, focus and decent players. There must be 2 party involved to achieve an SMN Burn;
 * 1) A holder and puller group which will gather and hold the mobs.
 * 2) A SMN Burn party which will exp on the mobs gathered by the 1st group.

The puller's Role
To gather as much mobs as possible with minimum hate and no damage or debuff and drop it off to the holder. So how do we do it??

How to pull

 * You must have Phalanx and Stoneskin up at all time and use Earth Staff all the time and especially when casting Stoneskin, relying on defense, evasion, or other supportive magic alone is ill thinking.
 * Rely mostly on linking and /heal aggro.
 * If the mob is passive and links nuke 1 of a family type and use it to link it with others, consider the mob you have nuked or debuffed scrap because the SMN party won't get exp off of it.
 * Be aware that some mobs track by smelling, so as a puller you would like to avoid running over water.
 * When you gathered over 15 mobs the train of mobs will start to act funky; each time you go forward the +16th mobs will go the opposite direction and make a U-turn back to you, so if you go too far they will lose hate and disappear, there are 3 ways around this;
 * Walk instead of running, not recommended because it will make the process very slow and dull.
 * Run 3~5 steps forward then stop for 10 sec to give a mob a chance to catch up with you.
 * Pull 15 or less mobs a time, you can run freely without stopping.
 * If a mob is aggressive just get within aggro range or sight and /heal.
 * Be aware when you gather a great amount of mobs lag will start playing tricks on you. do not wait too long for the mob to catch up with you because even though if it looks like the mob is far away from you, on the server side it's already next to you; to confirm this just click on the far away mob you will see it flying towards you or just warps to you. If you use /heal aggro sometimes it takes a long time to go down on your knees to force the graphic through lag just press Ctrl+M (for pc) to open the magic menu and try to cast Cure on yourself after giving the /heal command, this will result in making your client side it can't cast the spell making the spell names darker and your character kneeling. If your stuck while at /heal then you do the same thing; open menu the spell command and try to cast Cure on yourself.
 * If your an RDM waste some mp before getting to the holder so you can use Convert so the holder can take advantage of your low hp, If your another class try to take some damage till yellow health point but be cautious.
 * Once next to the holder give him/her a note because a big possibility they won't be able to see you due to lag and stand cute there waiting till they get hate.
 * Next to the holder do not Cure yourself, or put buffs up aside from Stoneskin (Phalanx if your RDM because of Composure, or /heal next to the holder. you don't want to stack hate and give the holder a hard time.
 * Do not worry if you have hate from the mobs you have nuked/debuff reuse them to link with other mobs on the next pull or kill them.

How to lose Hate once the pulling is done

 * Log off and on will reduce hate.
 * Zoning will reduce Hate.
 * Getting into a the Astral Flow Party and killing yourself by standing next to the mob and summoning or buffing up while Level Sync to reduce exp lose will erase hate, most I ever seen was 2 death to fully erase hate.

Holder's Role
Holder Must be a Red Mage even better if RDM/WHM because of Curaga and Bara-spells it is doable with other jobs but it is too much work, holder has to stay focus the most, very boring job and if the holder doesn't constantly patch his/her buffs expect a quick death, once Phalanx and Stoneskin goes away expect the holder to die within less than 20 seconds. Holder has to steal hate from pullers.

How to hold

 * You must have Phalanx and Stoneskin up at all time and use Earth Staff all the time and especially when casting Stoneskin, relying on defense, evasion, or other supportive magic alone is ill thinking.
 * You must patch Phalanx as much as possible, every 3 min is good being safe, you can always recast over Phalanx you don't need to cancel it unlike Stoneskin and Utsusemi. If you must AFK or /heal make sure you recast Phalanx then Cancel Stoneskin then recast it agian then you are good to go AFK or /heal.
 * You must avoid using spells that will damage the mobs like Ice Spikes, this might sound funny but I seen some beginners using it.
 * If you are assisting in the Initial pull, Holder must take the shortest and the most easy route to be ready to pick up mobs from the pullers.
 * You must chose a mob to stack hate on with non damaging magic which you will eventually call for help on it which the SMN Burn will use as a target, remember to stack hate it's the holder hate vs SMN Burn hate who has the greater hate will gain aggro, casting all none damaging Enfeebling magic twice should do the trick, Sleep and Dispel are great hate stacker for emergency, the call for help mob must one of the higher level mobs and with big health point that will assure it's survival against the waves of Astral Flow.
 * no need to /attack the mob to make it orange, once it's red just type /h.
 * make sure there are no other claimed mobs by your pt near by, if unavoidable make sure the mob you have chosen is the main call for help target mob, you can check that by looking at the orange name next to the small radar on the bottom left or typing .

How To Steal Hate

 * Spam buffs and cure on the puller clearly, but as long as the mob is yellow and unclaimed hate will not initiate before you /heal and you want them to stay yellow, unclaimed, undamaged and undebuffed.
 * When the puller/pullers arrive start spamming bara-spells, if the puller or one of the pullers aren't RDM give them phalanx, no need to give RDM Phalanx because theirs last longer with Composure which reduces the risk factor.
 * After finishing buffing /heal till you get around 3 tick of hp/mp up and then get up.
 * Everyone can now Convert then the holder Divine Seal and Convert then Curaga II for a great amount of hate.
 * Spells that give a lot of hate are Protect IV and Shell IV but sometimes are best avoided due to the amount of mp it cost.
 * if 1~4 mobs remain on the puller do not bother, big possiblity it's the mob that the puller nuked/debuffed.

Astral Flow Party's Role
To Astral Flow the call for help mob within the crowd of mobs as much as possible till the Party level reaches to a level where the SMN can do an area damaging Blood Pact: Rage, 3 Astral Flow per SMN should be easy without Haste. The Party must have 3 SMN and a Level Sync member. You will end up with 2 free slots, you can add a SMN to increase chain or give it to someone who will leech, having a member with COR or support job COR is highly recommended.

How to do the Astral Flow

 * Make sure all SMN have two Hi-Ether pots.
 * Make sure all the SMNs are present and not AFK before starting.
 * Give the order ahead of time without calling time; Example John > Mary > David.
 * No need to have someone engaged to the call for help mob just let the SMN use  in their macro; Example /ja "Diamond Dust"  or /target .
 * The COR or sub COR member should Corsair's Roll (it's ok to repeat at start if you don't get the number you like).
 * Once everyone got Corsair's Roll you then give time and make sure you give 15 game min ahead of time to give enough time for the SMN to ready up; Example (current game time is 23:50) 00:10 > 00:20 > 00:30, (John goes on 00:10 then Mary on 00:20 then David on 00:30)
 * After each Astral Flow pop a Hi-Ether to be ready to do Astral Flow again as soon as Blood Pact: Rage cools down.
 * After the each SMN did his/her first Astral Flow do not wait for order Astral Flow at will.
 * Once all SMN are 3/3 on Astral Flow they should start using Blood Pact: Rage area attack on the call for help mob.
 * In the event of failure but almost to the required level, try to get a SMN to temporary join the pt and burn his/her 2hr then leave to rejoin whoever disbanded from the original members, getting most of the exp is better than losing most of the effort so don't be shy.

Things that are highly recommended to do

 * Try to invite players you know how to do SMN Burn efficiently and keep note of any new players you met that did well.
 * Try to get as many pullers as possible to speed up process.
 * Try to accumulate as much mobs as possible.
 * Try to give the leech spot to a puller, friend, Additional SMN or someone who will pay to leech.
 * Try to use an Avatar for the SMN Burn that is strong on the game day.
 * Try to save exp ring for a good run and after the 10th exp chain.

Things that are highly recommended not to do

 * Do not to go into Conflict with other people, spoiling a pull or SMN Burn is so easy, so try to be friendly as possible and solve your matters peacefully with others.
 * Do not camp 24/7 or long time at a certain zone, other people would want to also SMN Burn will get annoyed and this will eventually lead to conflict.
 * Do not invite players that don't know how to SMN Burn, doesn't speak your language(communication is very important and lacking it can be a key factor in failing the SMN Burn), have slow response, frequent unannounced AFK, playing as SMN but doesn't know how to play it, or likes to make conflict with other people and keep note of them.
 * Do not pull mobs that are being farmed by other players, that will start a conflict.
 * Do not use a Avatar for the SMN Burn that is weak on that game day.
 * Do not take too long to start the SMN Burn after the mobs been collected, anything can happen; member disconnecting, random griefer or Armatures who want to help think the holder is in trouble passing by, Holder laging and dying or disconnecting.

Korroloka Tunnel
Level Sync: 11~14, AF Avatar:Shiva Mobs: All except Clippers, Call for Help Mob:Gigas Stonegrinder or Gigas Stonecarrier

Gusgen Mines
Level Sync: 10~13, AF Avatar:Carbuncle Mobs: All, Call for Help Mob: Feu Follet or Elementals (2 recommended of any).

Ordelle's Caves
Level Sync: 11~14, AF Avatar:Shiva Mobs: All, Call for Help Mob: Stroper

Credit and Thanks
I have done this so many times and taught others how to do it after I have earned more than 10 million Gil by selling leech 150~250k. Thanks to my friends Cowrie, Eldogx, Odogdagreat, Kotathia, Eradus, Zyrill, Immoralchaos, Gogoeb and Drhourai we managed to greatly improve SMN Burns and develop new tactics and discover new camps suitable for this. But my most gratitude goes out to whoever initially came up with the idea. Alphonza/Hades