Suggestions to fix SMN.

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Originally Posted by dmuller30

Stop giving us stuff for elementals . . . . WE DON'T EVEN USE THEM! Well at least I don't keep them out I just siphon them, I don't see any SMN in my group even using those things.

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I actually love my elementals, they are the best thing if i need to create distance between the monster and me fast with minimal effort. Just summon one, let it auto attack to get monster off you and then you RUN till a safe distance to summoner a proper avatar.

Elementals have potential. Did some testing awhile back though that was disappointing. iirc some problems were they used worse dmg formulas than players for dmg, they ran out of mp, and min recast time was huge no matter how much gear you had. If you made the spells have the same formula as players and allow all recast gear to count with no cap might be some cool stuff you could do

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Originally Posted by Secondplanet

I actually love my elementals, they are the best thing if i need to create distance between the monster and me fast with minimal effort. Just summon one, let it auto attack to get monster off you and then you RUN till a safe distance to summoner a proper avatar.

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With a good fast cast set you can cast a proper SMN as quick as a spirit well at least I can. But I mean I do a ton of end game stuff with 2 other SMN and we don't ever pull them out maybe siphon but that's about it. But I do see your point I have used an elemental to escape once or twice but that was very long ago. But there time could be used on more useful things like giving use better stats for the avatars we actually do use, upgrading their buffs etc.

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Originally Posted by Urmom

Elementals have potential. Did some testing awhile back though that was disappointing. iirc some problems were they used worse dmg formulas than players for dmg, they ran out of mp, and min recast time was huge no matter how much gear you had. If you made the spells have the same formula as players and allow all recast gear to count with no cap might be some cool stuff you could do

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They do have potential but unless they get a major face lift they aren't going to be useful which is sad because they could do well against escha mobs that are weak against their elements. This whole job needs a face lift. . . .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dmuller30

They do have potential but unless they get a major face lift they aren't going to be useful which is sad because they could do well against escha mobs that are weak against their elements. This whole job needs a face lift. . . .

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The Light Spirit is one of the more useful ones, but the biggest problem is that it doesn't gain access to higher Regen Spells, and it can't be controlled. People have been asking for a while to give SMN the Dual Spirits, and it would be AMAZING if you could actually issue commands. Also I REALLY wish that they'd give the Light Spirit Protectra and Shellra. PUP gets it with their WHM Auto...

I will agree, as well, there are a lot of things that SMN could greatly use either by fixing previous wards, or giving newer ones that make up the difference. >_> But I've also posted a few things other things I'd like to see. *CoughFenrirsstupidmoonphasestuffcough*

So, I see that SMN is on the block again. I am wondering what it is this go. Hopefully it'll be something that takes the wards and a few of more recent Rages (Diabolos -Blindside, Cait Sith - Regal Gash) up to the levels they should be at 76+

Summoner has always been a job that I really enjoyed playing, but couldn't help feeling it was an incomplete concept. It has been adjusted over the years and has become a LOT better than it use to be, but it still feels like the job is missing a lot of things. The main issue I have with the job is that most of our avatars are never used other than niche situations or for a ward and released 2 seconds later. When was the last time anyone actually used Titan for damage or his favor? Leviathan? Diabolos?... Cait Sith? When was the last time you wasted your 1hr on Odin? What are elementals even suppose to do other than be a siphon slave for life (excluding light for pro/shell V)? To truly fix SMN, you have to revamp the foundation it's built on.

Summoner adjustment ideas:

• Stop adding useless bloodpacts.
  RNG damage that may miss entirely and RNG death that WILL miss are useless and an insult that someone actually took the time to add them.
• Avatar's benefit from their favor:
  This should have always been the case.
  
• Ward recast reduced to 5 seconds.
  Faster buff times. No point in a 20~ second recast when wards are non-damaging. The 1 issue I could maybe see is Cait Sith's tp reset.
  
• Thunderspark equivalent for all avatars:
  If anything from the list happens it needs to be this. Thunder is not effective against everything...
  
• Add Tier VI elemental magic and additional effects to our merit Bloodpacts:
  Additional effects would still make our merit bloodpacts useful and give more reason to merit one over the other.
  
• Avatar's Pressure:
  A new ability that is tied with Avatar's Favor. Instead of adding a buff aura to your avatar it adds a debuff aura. Favor/Pressure overwrite each other and share a timer. Adds a reason to use different avatars and it would be very easy to Implement.
  
• New pet command: Bloodpact: Assist [1 min recast, can't be reduced]
  Summons a temporary avatar along side your current avatar and attemps to open/close a skillchain. The idea is to list rages such as Flaming Crush, Predator Claws, Volt Strike, ect... and picking one would summon the corresponding avatar to use the bloodpact and disappear after. Using Predator Claws and choosing Assist: Flaming Crush would result in a light skillchain for example.
  
  You could do some fun combos with apogee to include magic bursts also!
  Mountain Buster > Assist: Rush > Geocrush to magicburst and stun!

Avatar Adjustments:

Carbuncle

• Holy Mist: additional effect defense down.
• Dia II/III aura with Avatar's Pressure.
• New Ward that acts like Lux. Gives enlight and increased resistance to dark damage.
  Carbuncle is now useful as a defense down debuffer.

Diabolos

• Raise the potency of Noctoshield. I can literally match the potency naked as /rdm and beat it with gear.
• Change Pavor Nocturnus entirely... Death always misses and Fenrir can already dispel multiple buffs for a lot less mp.
• Pavor Nocturuns: Lowers the target's accuracy and attack. Also lower's magic accuracy and magic attack if the target is asleep.
• Remove the time/day RNG from Dream Shroud. Make it a constant +15 MAB and MDB
• Drain II/III Bloodpact: Rage.
• New Ward that acts like Tenebrae. Gives endark and increased resistance to light damage.
• Bio II/III aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Diabolos could be a tanky avatar with phalanx, bio, attack down, and drain.

Garuda

• Wind Blade: Additional effect silence.
• Flurryga II ward. RNGs and CORs need love!
• Gravity ward
• New Ward that acts like Flabra. Gives enaero and increased resistance to earth damage.
• Evasion Down aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Garuda is already one of our best avatars so shes does not need much. Flurry to buff rng needs to happen.

Shiva

• Rush: additional effect magic defense down.
• Heavenly Strike: additional effect magic evasion down.
• Store tp ward
• Sleepga II ward.
• New Ward that acts like Gelus. Gives enblizzard and increased resistance to wind damage.
• INT down aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Shiva could be a great mage focused support this way.

Titan

• Breakga Ward
• Regain Ward
• Magic Shield Ward
• Geocrush: Applies a DoT that deals 25% of the total damage dealt. (Weaker version of a helix spell)
• New Ward that acts like Tellus. Gives enstone and increased resistance to thunder damage.
• Rasp aura with Avatar's Pressure. (-30 hp/tic at max potency)
  Titan would be a supportive Avatar focused on DoT damage.

Ramuh

• Thunderstorm: additional effect paralyze.
• New Ward that acts like Sulpor. Gives enthunder and increases resistance to water damage. (Replaces rolling thunder)
• Accuracy Down aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Ramuh is already a great avatar so he needs very little adjustments.

Ifrit

• Meteor Strike: Additional effect plague.
• New Ward that acts like Ignis. Gives enfire and increases resistance to ice. (Replaces Inferno Howl)
• Attack Down aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Ifrit is already a great avatar so he needs very little adjustments.

Leviathan

• Drain samba ward (like Fenrir's Heavenward Howl)
• Grand Fall: additional effect poison.
• Spring Water: adds a stoneskin effect. (like Afflatus Solace)
• New Ward that acts like Unda. Gives enwater and increased resistance to fire damage.
• Magic Attack Down aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Leviathan would be a supportive avatar focused on healing.

Fenrir

• Heavenward Howl: Remove moonphase from calculations and only gives mp drain. (Goes with the Leviathan adjustment)
• Lunar Bay: Absorbs damage dealt to HP.
• Eclipse Bite: Additional effect steal 1 beneficial effect.
• Lunar Cry: Remove moonphase from calculations for a flat -30 acc and eva.
• Ecliptic Howl: Remove moonphase from calculations for a flat +30 acc and eva.
• Blind aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Fenrir is held back mainly because the moonphase can render his wards useless.

Cait Sith

• Level ? Holy: No longer misses and deals the same damage on all rolls. Additional effect based on dice number.
  1-3: No additional effect. 4-5: Blind. 6: Sleep.
• Regal Gash: Increase damage and change skillchain properties to Light/Fragmentation.
  Garland of Bliss > Regal Gash > Regal Gash for double light
• Regen IV/V ward
• Raise and Reraise III wards.
• Magic Defense Down aura with Avatar's Pressure.
  Cait Sith is a joke avatar in most cases because of poor physical damage and RNG rolls on magic damage that could miss entirely. She is only useful for Reraise and occasional strats abusing tp resets.

Atomos

• Reduce the time it takes to use Deconstruct and Chronoshift.
• Increase the amount of buffs transferred.

I agree with most of these. More AoE Pacts outside of Astral Flow would be extremely nice, but some of the Wards and such don't make sense. Regain is light based spell and Magic Shield is a Darkness base, so they don't really fit with Titan, and Geocrush already has an Additional: Effect Stun (Another DoT Might be Useful though). Leviathen's Drain Samba would better fit Fenrir or Diabolos, and Springwater also has an additional effect already of removing quite a few debuffs including Petrify. Likewise some of the pressures are a little more useful than others. Fenrir's blind effect is overshadowed by Ramuh's Acc Down, and wouldn't it be better for Shiva to receive MAB- since she gives MAB+ and give Levithan MACC- , and Titan maybe a DEF- pressure if Geocrush is going to get a DoT added? Like I side, I like and agree with many of these. The Moonphase and Midnight/Day has always sucked. Maybe give Titan a Max HP ward, or Perhaps a Slowga II effect somehow? I'd also like to see Pacifying Ruby get a major boost to the Enmity- Effect it gives. Oh, Increase the number and tell us how many buffs get removed with Lunar Roar

More stealing from jobs with very little already. New ideas would be better.

Also surely Titan should be the tank, not Diabolos.

Square said long ago the reason why the avatars didn't benefit from their own favors was because they didn't want people to favor 1 element or avatar over the other. Same reasoning for a lot of other problems.

If I could change favor for the better, i would have it as a choice to pick which target the favor emits from, the summoner or the avatar. Selecting the avatar is the same as how favor works now.

If you place the favor on the summoner, it gives the summoner that specific avatar's favor as a dispellable buff that any avatar can benefit from. For example you summon ifrit and use his favor for double attack. You then summon leviathan who now benefits from double attack.