A question?

[Markus. D]

when I get to level 30 and enter a summoner Job.

what does an "Avatar" do.

just.... attack? or do they have special skills of thier own?

[eternalshiva]

they have tons of abilities:

http://www.summoner.info/

[Miriel]

I would advise that if you're looking to become a SMN, you should level WHM, because undoubtably being a healer/backup healer will be your main priority for quite some time.

[Lionx]

The avatar = your summon, they learn abilities as you level up, you can get Diabolos only if you progressed enough in CoP missions(therefore a higher lvl job) and Fenrir if you have a lvl 75 job only, the rest are free to be taken at lvl 20 in the mini battles.

[Markus. D]

whats a good job to sub with BLM?

edit: screw it.... ill just change to White Mage.

[Garland]

Some avatars come out once a battle to cast stoneskin, blink or haste on the party. Most just relax inside your magic menu, not really coming out much. Avatars are pretty modest - they don't like doing anything cool looking in front of party members. This works out well, because party members don't want to see your avatars anyway - just your Cure III. Some avatars, like Fenrir and recently Diabolos can be a source of discrimination against new aspiring summoners, but in many cases, the discrimination is baseless and unfounded, and the avatars wouldn't benefit the party much regardless. You might think I'm kidding about Diabolos, but indeed, there are elitists out there who are so elitist that they demand all summoners have even this deliberately challenging to obtain avatar within the 1st week of its release.

When you hit 70, avatars undergo a major personality shift. Think Yuna in FFX becoming Yuna in FFX II. Now they're all about big impressive damage. Players that passed you up and belittled you for 69 levels will now become your best friend for your impressive hate free damage. Instead of only competing with whms and rdms for your party slot, you'll from time to time compete with Blms too. In a recent party as a 69 blm, I replaced a summoner in a party, and it wasn't to main heal.

[Markus. D]

can i have a quick summon list, i cant find one.

[Garland]

Carbuncle (pseudo-light)
Ifrit (fire)
Shiva (ice)
Garuda (wind)
Titan (earth)
Ramuh (thunder)
Leviathan (water)
Fenrir (pseudo-dark)
Diabolos (pseudo-dark - moreso a "dark" avatar than Fenrir anyway)

[Markus. D]

neat, quite alot of them.

ive seen about 3 of them with my thief.

Carbuncle (heard can be very tedious to obtain)
Fenrir
Wind Spirit thingo.....

[Garland]

Getting Carbuncle (and thus unlocking summoner at the same time) is a matter of getting a very rare drop and travelling the world in search of various weather. If it's difficult, it's only in that unlike other tasks, you're at the mercy of the FFXI random number generators it seems. No matter how high level you are, if Fire Weather isn't being cycled through for example, you aren't getting your Carbuncle. If the Carbuncle Ruby refuses to drop, you're not getting Carbuncle. Getting summoner is more about good luck than great skill.