More Summoner stuff.

Greetings. As we all know, every class has its good share of haters, however, it is my understanding that no class gets as much shit as the Summoner. This is understandable, really. Not only easy to get into, we also possess an unusually wide range of tools that, while potentially useful, or even vital to a group, can just as easily lead to its downfall.
This is the reason that has led me to attempt giving a few simple tips, tricks and recommendations I’ve learned over the course of my gameplay, that might have been missed by other players.First off, let’s have an analysis of the tools that we, summoners, have at our disposal (do excuse me if I have missed any, for I am not anywhere near perfect at what I do, though I try).
Crowd Control
As far as I know, Summoners have access to all the types of useful Hard CC in the game, and at least two of them.

Instant Knockdown (2-3)
This class can potentially have up to two (or THREE, if we have the HM V) skills that apply the Knockdown status.

Anklebiter (and Stages 1 and 2, Tiers 2 and 5. Tier 5 can potentially apply TWO knockdowns). Our cat must be facing the enemy if Stage 1, or be inside the Bomb’s aoe if Stage 2.
Beckon, aka ALI (Stage 2, Tier 3). We have to be standing roughly above the enemy for this one to work.

Instant Daze (2)
Summoners have at most, two skills that can apply Daze on enemies.

Strike (Stage 2, Tier 2) Easy to use. Just gotta make sure our familiar is targeting the right enemy, and that they're not under CC effects.
Thorn Strike (Stage 3, Tier 4) Middle range AoE ahead of us. The only CC we can use at any given time, without needing our Familiar or other conditions to be met.

Instant Stun (2)
One skill; two stuns.

Lunge (Stage 1, Tier 3) Press once and watch your cat Stun the enemy not one, but TWICE. A common mistake people make is to spam the key, prematurely ending the cat’s dash and missing out on one stun. Wait for your cat to finish; don’t be impatient.

I won’t be mentioning Knockback skills or Entangle, since these are either inconvenient to have or require some condition to be met in order to become usable.

iFrames/Resists

You guys have probably heard the term iFrame in the game. This one, if memory doesn’t fail me, was adopted from fast-paced fighting games, in which using a certain move would grant your character a small, often minuscule period of invincibility, or invulnerability. So iFrame is short for Invincibility Frame.
We, Summoners, have access to a handful of iFrames, but I’ll only be covering those that can be used at any given time, without prerequisites.

Petal Storm. Pretty straightforward. Place your AoE and watch projectiles and their status effects become nullified. Additionally, it nullifies Block and Evade of enemies inside it. Very handy.
It can also be specced to heal and to protect allies during Chi Recovery.

True Friend (Stage 2, Tier 2-3). Make sure your Familiar’s health is high enough to use this. Otherwise you might be wondering why it didn’t go off when you needed it. It provides you *and* your familiar with invincibility and status resistance against most skills for 5 seconds, or 5 offensive sources of damage, whichever happens first.
Additionally, it also keeps damage over time debuffs on you from ticking for its whole duration.
Can’t be used if either you or the Familiar are under any sort of CC.
Apparently, if your familiar is stealthed, it will refuse to use it as well.

Evade, aka SS. Simple enough; press S twice, in quick succession, and during its animation, you'll be immune to most damage and status.
Just like True Friend, you can evade up to one tick of damage from DoT skills if timed correctly.

Beckon (Stage 2, Tier 3). Oh, yes. Not only an inconvenient knockdown, it is also one iFrame. During its animation, you'll also be granted of invulnerability against most things.
Can also prevent one tick.

Enhanced Seed Shroud. If you put enough points into it, for the duration of this very useful counter, you'll also be granted an active skill that can be activated with F. This skill not only grants you an iFrame, but also your whole group. However, be mindful of using it, as it applies a 30s debuff that prevents anyone previously affected by it from gaining its benefits once again.
I reiterate, do not use this unnecessarily or selfishly. It can cause hate from Assassins and other Summoners.

Familiar

Upon completing the first few quests in the game, you're given your own cat. This friend will taunt and CC enemies, grant you invulnerability, help you or your allies during Chi recovery and even die for you if need be, but be wary that they can also screw you over in different situations, though for most of them you'll be to blame.
I can't give many tips for the proper use of your cat, since most of it comes down to being aware of its HP and positioning, and knowing the mechanics of whatever encounter you're tackling.
Having said that, there are a couple of things about it that you should know.

Taunt:
As useful as it can be to have a boss wail on your Familiar during their 8 seconds of 90% damage mitigation and status resist, there are some situations in which you should avoid it. Some classes, such as Blade Masters and KFMs are masochistic and are benefited by getting spanked a little, so be mindful of your friends and their weird fetishes.

Grapple:
Whenever an enemy is Dazed, Stunned, or Knocked down, your Familiar will become able to hold it down further for up to 5 whole seconds, and inflicting a few debuffs if correctly specced. As nice and practical as this might seem, it can also be cause of great distress for your groups.

Pros
Most bosses. Holding them down tend to be beneficial for your group, as it allows for an extra 5 seconds of free damage on the enemy, along with the benefits of disabling it from attacking anyone.

Neutral
Some bosses also change their mechanics based on HP thresholds. By pinning them down right before the shift, you can help or harm your group.

Cons
Yeti can be a great example of this. During the heat phases of this encounter, you and your allies will be afflicted by a debuff called Hypothermia. If you're afflicted by this, you do NOT want to use your grapple by any means. Otherwise you and your party might get frozen and promptly wiped.
Grapple, Soul Burn and Force Masters. This game is plagued with dynamic skills. This means that some skills will slightly or completely change their functions depending on your state or your target's. Force Masters' DPS rotation can be hindered by grappling skills, among other CCs. Most of the times, the beneficial effects of having your enemy pinned down outweigh the cons, but there is one situation in which you should **never** Grapple an enemy, and this is during our a Warlock's Soul Burn. By doing this, you're MURDERING your fellow FMs damage output. So refrain from doing so and use taunt or roots instead.


Assorted Tips/Mechanics and other stuff.


Grasping Roots/Weed Whack


This root of ours can be a fantastic asset, either for groups or individually. Not only does it immobilize and enemy, but in some cases, it keeps its AI from knowing what to do next.
During a root, if the enemy's target stands behind them, in most cases they won't be able to act, and will stand idly until the root expires, or until one of their mechanics spurs them back into action.
Be mindful, however, that bosses are granted a 10 second invulnerability to Rooting skills every time they're hit by one, so watch out for that.
Interactions
Both Grasping Roots and Weed Whack have its cooldowns reset back to zero, if an enemy activates your Seed Shroud counter (Doesn't work with Enhanced Seed Shroud).
Weed Whack (Stage 2, Tier 3) has its cooldown cut to 8 seconds, should your target be afflicted with Grapple or Knockdown as it was hit by it. With some careful maneuvering, you can keep it trapped in a loop of Knockdowns, Grapples and Roots until it dies, as long as it doesn't become completely CC-immune for extended periods of time.

CC->Grapple->Root Loop

This little trick allows you to keep most enemies CC'd or rooted to death, unable to do anything, as long as their target stands behind them/they don't become CC immune.

For this, you need the following:
Weed Whack (Stage 2, Tier 3)
Power Pounce (Stage 1, Tier 4)
Thorn Strike (Stage 3, Tier 4)
Strike (Stage 2, Tier 2)
Lunge [Stage 1, Tier 3)
*Anklebiter (Stage 1, Tier 1 or higher). This one is more of a convenience tool. It's good to have, as it gives you a wider window to act, but it's not required.

Alright, so this one works like this. You must CC your enemy with either Stun or Daze, before they shrug it off, have your Familiar Grapple them. Afterwards, before the Grapple ends, throw a Weed Whack at them. The trick is to do it just as the Power Pounce debuff reaches 8 seconds. If done correctly, your Weed Whack's CD will be cut to 8 seconds. Then, stand behind them and keep wailing on them until that debuff counts to zero and they get the KD effect from it. Promptly have your cat use Anklebiter, count two seconds and then use Weed Whack again. Again, if done properly, its CD will be back to 8 seconds. Now, as the root is about to expire, both of your Dazes should be ready for use. Apply them and start the loop once again. Rinse and repeat.
In short:
CC->Grapple->Move behind, wait 4s->Weed Whack->Wait for debuff to end->KD->Weed Whack->CC->Rinse and repeat.



Sogun's Lament


Ken and Gen

During this fight, it is known fact that we should never knock either of the twins down before they apply the third stack of their respective debuffs, however, here are two or three useful tips to make the fight more forgiving for us or our teammates.
Post Knockdown. As we all should know by now, knocking either of the twins will cause them to leap to the other side of the room, grab the person that has aggro on them and kill them, unless they're affected by a stun. That said, there's one other tool we can use to assist our teammate, even from the other side of the room. This is using our Enhanced Seed Shroud right before the last time they get slammed on the floor. If successfully executed, you'll have saved your groupmate, and potentially, the run.

Now, there is an even less known little trick we can use to save *ourselves* if we get grabbed. This one is a little quirky, since it requires some good positioning. As the boss departs from your side of the room to the other, you can Beckon your cat, watch where the Twin lands and make your cat Crouch in front of it, as close to the border of your side as possible. Then, once you get pulled, attempt to send your cat for the Lunge Stun, freeing and saving you from certain death.

And finally, if for whatever reason we're left alone in a platform and both bosses are at the other side, or our own is already at one HP, we can always use True Friend in order to move to the other side of the room, right through the instakill wall. Just gotta be careful with the timing. Be wary, though, the familiar dies most of the times, so it might be necessary to bring it back to life.

Birds

Either of then can be kept in an infinite loop of KD->Grapple->Roots. Just gotta watch out for their CC bars. Should they become white, that means they'll unleash one of their potentially devastating AoEs.

Asura

I will assume that the fight is well-known by this point, but as a reminder, Asura changes phases at 90%, 70% and 50% HP. We, and other classes, can extend the last phase by a couple of seconds, granting the group extra time to DPS. The trick consists on either rooting or grappling Asura at the right time, which is usually as he reaches the phase-change HP threshold, or mechanic.
Examples
Grapple right at 90% HP, allowing for extra DPS.
At the end of both Fire and Ice phases, he attempts to suck in the whole group, and promptly kick them. By rooting him, and having whoever is holding aggro stand behind him, he will be forced to stand idly until the root expires. Should your group reach the next HP threshold, he'll skip his Flower phase, allowing your group to keep stacking the AP buff from the frostfire balls as the encounter goes on. Keep in mind that this will stop working once his HP gets below 50%.