My Concern with Summoner: Aetherpact (Devotion)

[Katsu78]

When the Job Actions trailer launched, I was hyped for Summoner. When the media tour happened and I saw the abilities and changes, I was even more excited. However, there is one ability that really concerns me, something that Square should give another look at before Stormblood launches, and that is Aetherpact (Devotion).

As it stands, the tooltip for this ability lacks key features like a duration, but I'll state what we do know:

It's sic only
It's a 5% damage, healing, and resistance up buff
And it's only to a single target.

The english tooltip for this ability is wrong. The Japanese tooltip is more accurate--being a single target ability almost makes Devotion worthless, and here's why.

Compared to other buffs in 4.0, Devotion is underwhelming, let's start with the other DPS:


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[Katsu78]

Dragoons have new ability called Dragon Sight which buffs their personal damage by 10% and a party member's damage by 5% for 15s. This is much better for opening rotations than Devotion as it buffs two people, the Dragoon and the target, while Devotion only buffs one person for 5%. If devotion was, say, a 10% buff, then I can understand why its single target.

Monks get a new ability called Brotherhood, which increases the damage of all party members by 5% for a 15s duration. This, once again, is better than Devotion because it's a raid buff. Imagine if Devotion really was raidwide. Stacking Brotherhood and Devotion would have a 10% damage buff to the entire raid, making the raid shit damage!

Ninja has Trick Attack. 'Nuff said.

Black Mage doesn't have any raid utility exclusive to them as far as I know


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[Katsu78]

Red Mage has embolden, which buffs the Red Mage's magic damage by 20% and the physical dps of the party by 10%, with the percentages dropping every 4 seconds. Once again, it's a raid wide damage increase, and much better than Devotion in its current state.

As for Bard and Machinist, I don't think it's fair to compare as both are support/utility jobs anyway, despite changes to that utility in 4.0

All in all, Devotion is rather pathetic compared to the unique utility the other DPS get (with the exception of Black Mage). Not only that, but it requires sic in order to use, meaning while you're buffing a party member, Garuda could use its new contagion during an inopportune moment, and your overall DPS could drop significantly, or Ifrit using radiant shield during a burn phase where doing the most DPS is required. These possible sitautions make me disappointed with Devotion.

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[Katsu78]

What I want to see changed with devotion, is one thing or another. Have it be active only while the pet is in sic and effect the entire raid. Or, give it a duration, allow its use during obey, all while keeping Aetherpact's 90s cooldown.

That being said. I'm well aware that everything I've said about all of the DPS' raid utilities are subject to change, and I'm well aware that I haven't set foot into Omega or done a lick of any 4.0 content. But this is just a gut reaction from learning how Aetherpact really works. I know Summoner has Contagion and Radiant Shield as part of its utility kit, but if you're going to give a job another piece of utility you should make it worthwhile, and I don't feel like Devotion is worth it. Maybe someone can sell Devotion to me, I dunno.

For those that agree with me and want to see it changed, how would you change Devotion?

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[Katsu78]

Here's a source of the translated japanese tooltips. Take a look:
https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/13...88#post6907488

[Raionx]

Monks get a new ability called Brotherhood, which increases the damage of all party members by 5% for a 15s duration. This, once again, is better than Devotion because it's a raid buff. Imagine if Devotion really was raidwide. Stacking Brotherhood and Devotion would have a 10% damage buff to the entire raid, making the raid shit damage!
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To be fair Brotherhood only buffs physical dps. and for what it's worth the tooltip I saw for devotion was in english and was party wide.

[MidnightTundra]

This is the pay off for potentially having 3 damage buffs on one role.

You can have ifrit pre-pull pop radiant shield as you're summoning garuda and still have access to contagion since radiant shield and contation aren't in the same ability slot. Both pet buffs are on a really low cool down as well and they aren't weak by any means. Embolden is also on a 2min CD and it gets weaker over time. It's good but I think you're over exaggerating its power. Just wait and see how it plays out.

[Dyvid]

First you can edit your post to get around the 1000 word limit.

Second for the main post I think you might be confused on Devotion. It works similar to Enkindle were you use the Aetherpact ability to command the Egi to perform Devotion. This ability will increase the attack and healing potency of any party members in the 30y radius of the Egi by 5%. It will also reduce the damage taken by those party members by 5%

You state the English tooltip is wrong but what makes more sense, Egi would buff one random player in the 30y area or buff all members in that radius? Just because it's in Japanese doesn't mean that it's right.

[Katsu78]

You state the English tooltip is wrong but what makes more sense, Egi would buff one random player in the 30y area or buff all members in that radius? Just because it's in Japanese doesn't mean that it's right.

To be fair Brotherhood only buffs physical dps. and for what it's worth the tooltip I saw for devotion was in english and was party wide.

I would've brushed off the Japanese tooltip if the person playing at the event didn't use the ability. They used Devotion, and stated it was single target.

[Dyvid]

I would've brushed off the Japanese tooltip if the person playing at the event didn't use the ability. They used Devotion, and stated it was single target.

Not sure which person you are referring too. I just looked on the JPN side of the DPS boards and they are as confused about the tooltip as we are and the videos they reference are Mr. Happy. I'm going to go with my gut on this one and think it's party members.