For players who favor Summoner

[Neonii]

For people who play summoner a lot what inspired you to level it and why do you enjoy playing it? What is your SMN story? As a young level 20 I was exploring the world and in Buburimu Pen I saw a guy running around with Fenrir and I was hooked. I made up my mind then and there that I would be a summoner. Folks in my ls at the time made a point of telling me how difficult Fenrir was to obtain. However, there was no stopping me I unlocked it as soon as I could and the rest is history. On a side note the first time I ran to Jueno there was a goblin following me and strangely enough it was a high level smn who saved me. At the time as far as I was concerned that just sealed the deal. I have to admit I was very disappointed in the early days as a young smn I got stuck healing in the dunes. I considered picking another job to be my first 75 ( I was around level 72 when the first level cap increase came in). I have had my doubts but I got stubborn about it. I believed smn was capable of greatness I still do.

[Dallas]

Carbuncle Mitts + light staff = free bodyguard while fishing. That's my story.

[RAIST]

I orignally was a WHM... then a MNK... then a RDM..... I couldn't make up my mind for the longest time. Eventually settled on BLM. After all the CoP/ZM strats we used in LS that really made good use of SMN, I decided to give it a shot. Man, did I ever regret chucking my first carbuncle ruby that was a random drop in xp party years before. That thing was a bugger to refarm later.

It's been a lot of fun. I was one of those rare ones that actually got into parties around SMN NOT being a main healer. Dual SMN setups were just plain fun. Slaughtering imps in the mire using BP chains. SMN duos on goblin pets....good times. Didn't take long to get hooked on it. And at 90 now, there is so much that can be soloed with it. I had to have help with my first 3 WSNM's when doing them on other jobs...since hitting 90, I've unlocked the rest soloing the fights with SMN (well, not ranged since I retired RNG at 51). SMN is just such a versatile job it's always baffled me how it got treated over the years...

Not sure if it's the one I spend the most time on (do a lot of stuff in Aby on NIN now too), but it's certanly one of the top 5.

[Malamasala]

Always liked Shiva. Thought I'd keep playing Final Fantasy by using her as much as possible.

Never been as disappointed in my life. With the high standard set by FFX, Summoners seemed to be heading for perfection. Controllable pet, customizable pet, strategies involving nuking yourself and blocking... and then I got FFXI Summoner that was summon, BP, release, look stupid for 1 minute.

I stuck with SMN the first years 2004-2005 with the mindset "The job is obviously unbalanced. SE will adjust these things in the next update." 2006-2009 it was more of a "I'll stick around and see how many years it takes SE to get their ass out of the chair and do something about the job". 2010+ I've just attempted to get SE to give a single reply about why they ignore the job, having completely given up on any fixes to ever happen.

I'm just taking the ride to 99 now to see if they'll accidentally fix the job at 99 with some awesome pacts, or if I should just quit right there and then and do something productive with life.

You got to give SE credits for making the worst game ever, and still keeping me playing just because I can't grasp how someone can be so incompetent at a major company. Maybe it was their plan all along... make the game so bad, people won't know how to react.

[Soundwave]

When I was a newb I saw this summoner in good old AF1 and saw him bust out Fenrir and do Ecliptic growl, I was hoooooked. I cared for my summoner above all other job/gear, only sad thing is SE ignores true summoner updates.

[Zaknafein]

Anyone who played any of the FF titles b4 11 should <3 smn, and if they did, and still don't like it then they are bad!

[Zindel]

I have always loved SMN in the Final Fantasy series. I was able to finally say to myself. Yay a male summoner. So I brought the game and unlocked SMN. I went against the grain of being the cure bot. I didn't get all the Avatars at first. I knew as a SMN it would be a greater accomplishment of getting the Avatars as a summoner (while contributing and not leeching the fight).

So many parties, so many levels with just Carbuncle (as I quickly learned at level 1 the elemental spirits were no replacement for an Avatar). The time spent capping my Summoning magic each level (after all if you are going to have just Carbuncle he better be have capped SMN magic). There were no mini trials, no boost that the jobs have now. Just the desire to play and not be a cure bot.

How I wish my favorite job was something better... but we knew SE hated us when our JSE was bums rags while everyone else gained awesome looking gear. We knew our fate was sealed after the years of being promised new avatars we got the joke which is Odin and Alexander. At least my SMN is very powerful compared to my second favorite job... RDM. :mad:

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Carbuncle Mitts + light staff = free bodyguard while fishing. That's my story.This is actualy the exact reason I started to level smn. I some guy fishing with carby out and though it was cool.

[Soranika]

Old thread but I wanna share. o:

When I joined FFXI, I didn't know what direction I was going to go in. I first started as a typical thief, then blm, and finally settled on WHM before any job hit level 10. Took three days for me to decide on what to level. I had already had my eyes set on unlocking summoner because I've always loved the job. I joined with two friends at the time so I was in the whole FFX mode that I could be a summoner and they'd be like my 'guardians'. Of course, it was solidified when I saw a summoner with that cute, blue, radioactive looking squirrel that we all know as carbuncle. I would always squeal when I saw it and that's how I got hooked.

My friends left so I lost the whole "I'm gonna be just like Yuna" mentality, but the LS I was in made my life as a summoner a lot painless than others would have thought. Helped me get my carbuncle mitts and tagged along for each avatar fight so there was a time that I felt like putting the job away, even to this day. I haven't been hugely disappointed by SE's lack of attention to the job, but more so to people's misunderstanding of what they think SMNs are useful for and not, at the fact that they treated with more seriousness and like a job than have fun with it and explore which playing style work for them.

[Tannlore]

The first day I started playing ff11 was back on US release. I remember walking outside of Sandy to start leveling up with my friends when I saw a jp summoner skilling up outside. The moment I saw the game had summoner, I was instantly hooked on it. The avatar that did it for me? Fenrir. I HAD to have him. I was a white mage then, so I did my research and found out (back then) that white mage was the way to go sub wise for summoner. So I plowed through whm and as soon as I got it to 35 I jumped to SMN and it's been my main since about the second month of the game.

After I took it as my main, I instantly ran into the old stigma of it: cure battery and good for nothing else. I drove me nuts so I ended up soloing my way to 75. When I look back on that, I'm actually glad I did it. I learned more about how my job worked and my avatars behaved that way then I would have ever in a party situation and talk about annoying lol No book burns, no rings, nothing to boost your XP. Just me, Carby, and bombs.

It was fun times playing it back then, working with others on trying to figure out what did what. Translating JP sites to find out what the higher level Bps were or trying to gleam some sort of knowledge from them about what affected our avatars and such.

[Arciel]

Final Fantasy fans have a lot more lore to relate with when it comes to Summoners.
After all, Summoners' have a very rich history in FF and quite a number of stories revolve completely around summoners or summoning.. so it has a special place of reverence for me.

I guess it sounds silly but on the day I unlocked Summoner I texted my friend saying "I've done it.. I have.. become.. a Summoner" (Yuna quote for those not in the know)

So anyway in XI it was a very different Summoner experience but I still enjoy it a lot. There is a lot that was once magical about this job that no longer is... like the pretty avatar glow, the rarity of being able to summon celestials, and then certain elementals, and then fenrir.. and so on.

In a way this was designed as a status symbol job, but a lot of that is now gone.. which is a bit of a pity. But we're evolving as a community as well..
Gone are the days of free carby only, running around in Austere and AF1, soloing bombs and such.
Gone are the symbolic days of obtaining Carbuncle Mitts, or Bahamut's Staff, or Evoker's Ring
Abyssea doesn't exactly help, since it outclasses pretty much all old gear in many areas...
Truly, the only SMN pinnacle that is still legendary is the Nirvana - whether you agree that it's useful or prefer to melee, its symbolic of a Paragon of Summoner Excellence.

I wish the game had more challenges for SMN tho.. Something along the lines of Waking the Beast would be cool.

In other words, I think I did play this job because I like the feeling of being revered as a master of magical beings lol. Also that the pets will do everything for you (manager ethos). Quite honestly every online game I play I've mostly deviated to pet classes (eg. in D2 I was a necromancer, druid and trapassassin lol) so I guess I like managerial roles in battle lol.

[Zemarin]

Because summons are what Made FFXI what it is today?

[Kimara]

6 or 7 years ago (stopped keeping track x.x) I started playing the game in ragnarok I had previously been on caitsith before that but wasn't there long. My story is almost the same as Tannlore's I saw another SMN and I fell in love instantly. It would be my only level 75 job for the next 3 years. I dedicated all my time to it and it is still my best geared job today. Thats pretty much it :3 it's still my main and my favorite and it always will be <3

[Myrrh]

I started playing Smn because I started FFXI as a Whm. When I hit lvl 75 Whm I was looking to level another job but I was lazy with gear so I picked Smn. I had not known at the time that I'd have come to enjoy the job so much and take such a large amount of pride in it.

[Babekeke]

I started out as a RDM (since that's what my wife picked for me, along with my char... I was trying to get her interested in ffxi) then moved to WHM to 30, then I liked DRG because of the wyvern, but as a taru I didn't really have the stats or money to be a good DD, so I levelled THF to help with farming. Then I quit and gave away all of my items and gil.

When I returned I didn't have enough cash to carry on with THF or DRG, so I figured SMN was the cheapest option (and I was right- even at 75 most of my gear was R/E with only the HQ staves being particularly expensive) so I took SMN all the way to 75 beating Maat on my 2nd try (first was a no-meds dry run).

I still love the job, but with abyssea requiring procs for all NMs and us having no natural yellow or red procs, I found it on the back burner for all but exp parties. Now because of this my summoning magic skill is way under cap (with gear I can just about hit the cap for 90). I hear it's the best job for in Voidwatch, but my group is mainly just 4-man, so we haven't really tried any of it yet.