SMN in serious need of a balancing adjustment

I've played SMN since it launched and is my favourite job still. HOWEVER some jobs are in desperate need of balancing to be as useful as current meta jobs like BRD GEO COR, I would like to see SMN become better in it's support role, it has the tools but are terrible in their potency aside from a small handful like Hastega II or Earthern Armor. I don't know if the devs even read these things anymore but if so can we please get a potency increase to at least compete with the likes of the other support classes? Maybe not as potent as BRD songs since BRD has always been the go to for strong buffs, but putting SMN up there so we actually get picked to go to events like Sheol C farming if there is no BRD would be nice. As it stands currently SMNs are only used in a small amount of content for niche uses. There was a time years ago when all jobs started getting new adjustments every month to rebalance everything and I feel it is really needed again.

SMN is already plenty powerful.

I agree with you Cloudius smn def needs a bit more work when it comes to both bp in terms of balance.

Rage wise I am not asking for more dmg but a lot of avatars are essentially useless in this category, ifrit is quite far ahead in terms of dmg compared to the rest, I personally love leviathan and cait sith but in no sane world would any party ever let me use them for “dmg dealing” to do let’s say example: 20k when I have an avatar that can do 50-70k etc it’s just very uneven to the point we ifrit everything, single dmg and aoe ramuh the rest. I never thought I see the day they would give us an avatar weaker than carbuncle but then came cait sith….. the only other aoe avatar with a really bad dice luck mechanic that makes it impossible to use this aoe in a reliable way.

A lot of avatars don’t even have 99 bp but cait sith might aswell not have hers since the dmg is so close to the level 1 it’s just a waste to even try for those scratch attacks or aoe making her a rr and Lullaby only pet.

If I recall correctly leviathan last bp rage is like lv 70 like a few other avatars their bp never got updated past 70-75.
I am just asking for balance here in dmg between avatars not for more dmg overall since ifrit does well but it be nice to use different avatars and deal similar dmg then just spam 1 and only option, some avatars like siren maybe ramuh/siren under certain party buffs geo/cor buff situation can possibly do some ok dmg but a smn alone knows ifrit does x2-3 the damage the rest can achieve alone makes it hard to justify using anything else at this point it’s just laughable.


Then you have ward which has like let’s say 7-10 bp that are so useless to use due to the crappy buff and mp cost that they are essentially there to collect dust, fenrir and diábolos are by far the worst in this category with low potency and some absurd mechanics that don’t currently help out the bp locked behind moon phases and time of day for a minimal effect it’s like dnc mp samba it’s their for show since the potency is so low no one ever uses it una reliable way, which makes you feel like what a waste all these abilities/bp we don’t use more because we lack good potency gear or a simply more updated 2022 take on what the bp should really do, when your sub job can cap higher potency than the actual main job that’s kinda sad :/ anyone who currently plays smn knows this is not opinion this is a fact that bp wards even thou it does have some good ones there is a lot of very sucky useless ones and that we need all avatars to get new bp to match ifrits current power rage wise so that we are able to freely use our favorite avatars in battles and some adjustments on a lot of wards with weird detrimental mechanics. otherwise what’s the point in questing all these avatars to simply spam 1-2…..

Lastly please make Odín bp atleast a 100% up to VD mobs its such a waste of 2h to use this and still have ep evade….it should kill everything not just maybe or based on mp cause even at 100% it still misses and if you want people not to abuse it then limit this to 6-10 monsters and make it kill anything even IT but not work on nms I don’t think anyone is gonna kill 6 apex crabs/1h and be like woot game broken. But right now it’s another dust collector when it could atleast be used to save the party from agro in a fun way.

If Alexander is gonna stay @30 seconds then don’t make the ability decay if so then make 1min like absorb spells that sucked prior the decay update.

I am sure I am missing something but honestly the job is def unbalanced in these regards I def would love to use my fav avatars and deal same dmg or even close to what ifrit can do now.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

SMN is already plenty powerful.

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i'm not talking about how powerful it is, sure it IS powerful.... every 21 seconds where melee can pump out the same WS damage every few 5 seconds. i'm talking about buffing SMNs wards until they are as useful as BRD/COR/GEO, then maybe we will be taken to events other than aeonic burns.

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Originally Posted by Clou777

i'm not talking about how powerful it is, sure it IS powerful.... every 21 seconds where melee can pump out the same WS damage every few 5 seconds. i'm talking about buffing SMNs wards until they are as useful as BRD/COR/GEO, then maybe we will be taken to events other than aeonic burns.

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The difference is SMN can do it from relative safety (unless you approach it the way I do...) much of the time, whereas melee are always in harms way.

And I'd rather be known for my power than being a buffer. I spent most of the first decade of the game's existence fighting against the notion that SMN was just a weak WHM imitation with a lot of MP.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

The difference is SMN can do it from relative safety (unless you approach it the way I do...) much of the time, whereas melee are always in harms way.

And I'd rather be known for my power than being a buffer. I spent most of the first decade of the game's existence fighting against the notion that SMN was just a weak WHM imitation with a lot of MP.

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i've mained smn since its launch, i remember the pains we had to go through, still there is no reason for the wards to be as weak as they are in 2022.

SMN is fine if you ask me, it could use maybe a few potency buffs here and there like earthen ward and noctoshield as prime examples, but SMN has a wide variety of buffs, no limits on how many it can apply at once and avatar’s favour. All while also providing decent damage from a safe distance and generating basically no enmity.

Having more of our wards scale off summoning skill rather than just effecting their duration would go a long way to fixing things. That or just making it so that SMN buffs are all unique and stack with their magic equivalent would make a huge difference (noctoshield stacking with phalanx would make it infinitely more useful even with its lower potency).

They have the answer right infront of their eyes. Turn Alex and Odin into normal avatars, its about time now and that would open up a lot of options. Odin would be the DD and Alex could be our best healer. Then you go back and adjust the effects of other avatars and give each a unique niche either thru buffs or unique damage style.