How much over cap..Follow

..is necessary? Mine is currently capped at 311 with gear. I currently have 8/8 enfeeb and elemental. Summoner is my career job. And (no offense) but I despise RDM unless in very small things. So I was considering taking off either enfeeb or elemental and doing 8/8 summoning magic. or 8/8 smn, 4 enfeeb, 4 elemetal. Or any combination.

If it's your "main", I would say go for the merits. At the very least, try to get 60 over, that'll give you 3 minute everything except for Crimson Howl. Every point of skill is more points on your Siphon though, and Accuracy is always a good thing.

I have SMN WHM BLM RDM DRG, and for magic merits I put 8 into Summoning first, then 4 each into Enfeebling and Elemental. My other jobs get along just fine, and my SMN certainly enjoys the benefits.

Good luck to you :)

Mine is currently sitting at 337 8/8 so we're not too far off. I'm getting 21 more seconds of Warcry (2/3rds of a full duration of the normal ability), 21 more MP per siphon, and an unknown amount of accuracy boost to my Grand Falls. If I ever get a chance to test again, I got to work against dynamis mobs just this last sunday for the first time since I hit level 5 Fall, and I think I got resisted all of twice the entire night, everything landing for 1100 and change. Is this consistent damage due to my MACC/MAB Redingote? My merits? Perhaps a little of both? I'm not sure, but I do know that as a career (that's the big thing here) SMN, being consistent was one of our hardest things to achieve. Not only do I not have to rely on all 3 hits of pred claws to hit, I can trigger it from range and get the damage in even with 30 other people attempting to pound it instead of doing Assault => Pred Claws => Mob dies before garuda executes. There's something satisfying with having Levi tank mobs, especially the RNG types... he took 6 EESs that run, including 2 on the same summon once and it still didn't kill him. X) Should've put on my DT- Selenian Cap, maybe he could've taken a third one. I could test by removing 15 or 17 points of skill (Evokers ring + oracle's legs or summoning torque) and see if I start getting resists.

Anywho, I'm off topic. If you are going to be a career SMN, I'd find a place to put the 8/8. Accuracy in any form is difficult to come by, doubly so Magic Accuracy which has been my favorite mode of attack for a while now. :) I may not throw out the big numbers a crit-PC would show off, but I'm not going to throw out those tiny numbers a whiff-PC would reveal anymore, either.

Best of luck on your path to becoming a great summoner OP :)