I'm not asking for any of this to happen. This is not another "fix SMN" thread. Don't hate.
This is just for fun, its just some ideas I had and I'm curious what people think. I dont think this exact idea has been brought up before, but maybe it has somewhere in the 86 "fix SMN" threads. Anyway like I said I'm just curious what ppl think (and I'm bored during maintenance haha)
So, the major complaints I frequently see about SMN are:
- MP management in long fights can cause SMNs to fall behind in dps (class balance)
- SMNs benefit far less from Spell Speed than BLMs which can cause further class imbalance
- the Egi's are unimpressive looking (and dont feel Summoner-ish)
- Tri-Disaster is largely useless (except in certain fringe circumstances)
- BLM has better AoE, burst, and arguably even single target dps
Essentially my idea is to change the 5 Summoner abilities from this:
Lv30: Summon III
Lv35: Fester
Lv40: Tri-disaster
Lv45: Spur
Lv50: Enkindle
to this:
Lv30: Summon Ifrit- Frontal line attack (like Doom Spike). 4sec cast time. 60sec cooldown. Cannot cast another summon for 5sec after use.
Lv35: Fester
Lv40: Summon Titan- Frontal cone attack (same range as Quick Nock). 4sec cast time. 60sec cooldown. Cannot cast another summon for 5sec after use.
Lv45: Spur
Lv50: Summon Garuda- targeted AoE attack (same range/radius as Flare). 4sec cast time. 60sec cooldown. Cannot cast another summon for 5sec after use.
The 3 summon spells would NOT summon the "full" Primal. They WOULD, however, summon a 30-50% size transparent version for the short duration of the spell effect.
The devs dont want huge pets blocking everyone's view of the battlefield. This is why the summoned essences would be less than full size, slightly transparent, and short-duration. This spell effect would be no more distracting than the animation for Holy or Flare.
Why?
This change is intended to do several things:
-SMNs would use a pet that most people don't seem to hate
Egi's would be gone, but Emerald Carbuncle and Topaz Carbuncle would be used for dps-pet and tank-pet instead. A lot of people (not all) seem to hate the look of the Egi's anyway.
Most people seem to like the cute look of Carbuncles instead of Egi's, and the devs would still be happy SMNs have a small pet.
-SMNs get to feel like they are summoning something more powerful than an Egi
As I said, these spell animations would be significantly larger than an Egi. Maybe somewhere in the range of 30-50% of the full Primal's size, depending on the Primal. The tradeoff is they would only be visible for a few seconds at a time.
-Spice up the most boring part of the SMN rotation: Ruin spam
You'd be casting a summon spell in place of Ruin whenever a summon spell was off CD. Unless you needed to move, then you'd Ruin II first. Ruin and Ruin II would still be used (especially Ruin II for weaving oGCDs) but you would just be spamming fewer Ruins.
-Spell Speed would be slightly nicer for SMNs
Since a smaller % of SMN's overall dps would be coming from non-casted sources (due to a weaker pet) and a greater % of their overall dps would come from casted things (new summon spells). BLM would still benefit a lot more than SMN from Spell Speed, but every bit helps.
-Help alleviate SMNs' MP problems on long fights
It might not solve their MP probs entirely, but if the summon spells were made to have the right MP cost then it could definitely help MP consumption the long run, since several Ruin casts would be replaced with much more MP-efficient summon spells.
-Improve SMNs' AoE ability
Lets face it. There's no reason BLM should outclass SMN this badly at AoE. I'm not saying make them equal at it, but closer would be fair. Look at the melee classes: they all specialize in single-target dps with varying ability to AoE, and they are pretty balanced. There's no reason both dps-casters shouldn't be able to specialize in AoE and still be balanced. These new summon spells are NOT spammable, remember.
-Slightly improve SMNs' burst ability
Being able to cast a really strong summon spell at the right moment would really help burst. Summoners CAN burst pretty decently, but DoT classes are inherently at a disadvantage here and summon spells would definitely help.
How would this affect SMN dps?
SMN would lose Tri-disaster (lol), Enkindle, and be relegated to a slightly weaker pet. But remember, Enkindle is on a 5min CD and Emerald Carby is functionally the same as Garuda-egi, complete with its own Contagion.
You'd also be casting fewer Ruins, in favor of casting summon spells, and have slightly less mobility (due to 4sec cast on summons).
In return, SMN would gain 3 powerful summon spells that are more MP-efficient than Ruin and can hit multiple targets.
Notice I didnt list Potencies for the summon spells. This is because I'm not going to do the math on what the exact amount of dps lost would be in order to figure out what the new spells would need to be at to maintain current single-target dps output. If somebody else feels like doing that and wants to reply, please do! I just know the Potency would be pretty high.
Suffice it to say that [Enkindle + lost Ruins + (Egi dps - Carby dps) = Summon spell dps] with a lower overall MP cost, higher burst and AoE potential, and greater benefit from Spell Speed.
I like SMN gameplay how it is! Would't this change it too much?
No. It wouldn't change hardly at all. Everything would be the same except you'd be casting a summon spell sometimes instead of Ruin. DoT management and even pet management would be the same as it is now.
True, you would no longer have a choice between 2 dps pets. It would only be Emerald Carby. But they could easily add a melee Carbuncle in the expansion.
Wouldn't this go against the lore?
No. You wouldnt be summoning a full Primal. Just as the Egis are small portions of the Primals' power, the summon spell would only tap into a portion as well. It would just be in a short, powerful burst rather than a sustained entity.
They wouldn't even really need to change the class quests much (except for a little dialogue) - fighting the Egis would just allow you to summon that Primal's essence (new spell) instead of the Egi.
But...dat Tri-disaster utility!!
Honestly, SMNs didnt have access to Blizzard 2 when Tri-disaster was developed. SMN would still have a bind spell now with blizzard 2, albeit short-range instead of targeted. I think most SMNs wouldn't mind.
The best part of Tri-disaster imo is the casting animation. Hey - they could make that casting animation for the summon spells! Lol
What do you all think?
Its late and I probably forgot a something I was gonna say somewhere, but I'd like to know people's opinions.
Again, I'm not begging for SMN fixes. This is just a bit of theorycrafting, if you want to even call it that, for fun.