SMN Needs a Clearer Role and Modern Update

SMN really feels like it needs a real update. The job has an identity crisis right now and does not feel especially strong at damage or support.

I don’t expect SMN to be top-tier DPS, especially since avatar damage is generally safer than melee damage. That’s fair. But SMN should still feel viable outside of very specific setups or Astral Conduit.

Calling SMN a niche job does not really solve the problem. A niche still needs to be valuable, and right now SMN’s unique strengths feel too limited to justify how far behind it is in damage, support, and general utility.

Blood Pact timers are still the biggest issue. Even with heavy investment, SMN is usually waiting around 20 seconds between major damage actions, while other jobs can weapon skill, self-skillchain, or burst much more frequently. A 10 to 15 second Blood Pact timer would not make SMN overpowered. It would just help the job feel modern.

And yes, SMN has Wards and Avatar’s Favor, but that support does not come close to BRD, COR, or GEO. Favor is also awkward because it depends on keeping the right avatar out, while SMN often needs to swap avatars for different pacts. Meanwhile, BRD, COR, and GEO all bring stronger support while still contributing real damage.

BRD can Savage Blade for 40k to 70k, COR can put out strong weaponskill damage, and GEO can nuke respectable numbers on skillchains while still providing powerful support. If those jobs can support and still contribute meaningful damage, SMN should not be held back this hard just because it has some utility.

SMN does not need to be the best DPS or the best support job. It just needs both sides of its kit to matter. Right now, the damage is too delayed, pet scaling feels outdated, the support is not strong enough to justify the delay, and the job feels too niche.

I love SMN. I just want it to feel like it belongs in modern FFXI without relying almost entirely on its 2-hour.

I agree SMN is underpowered and lacking in various regards, but BP timers are not the issue. The minimum BP timer is 15 seconds as I recall, and that effectively means an ability use every 7 seconds between both BP categories. When I play solo (/SAM) I am ready to WS right around the time or sooner that my BPs come up, for solo SC+MB. I don't have an issue with the frequency, I just have an issue with how unimpressive the abilities are in the current era.

The issue is really just the limited ways SMN can increase its power and it having to do far more to get far less benefit than other jobs (like anyone that can use Savage Blade, which is comparatively trivial to enhance.

Perosnally what I would do is get rid of the restriction about buffs and healing applying to summons. SMN would get substantially stronger if GEO bubbles, bard songs, etc actually affected their summons. As things are right now, SMN benefits the least from other support classes, with COR being the only one that can really enhance them- and that comes at the cost of NOT enhancing non-pet jobs.

Agree, if support buffs actually hit pets, then our pets wouldn't be so terribly under powered.

I think 15 seconds is too long a delay, and the Mewing Lullaby nerf for repeating that just make it worse.
If you are focused on dealing damage, you effectively can only WS OR MB once every 16 seconds. (delay between activating BP & it going off)
Other jobs can get their delay down to 4 or 5 seconds fairly easily.
This could be remedied by making each individual blood pact have the 15s cooldown instead of sharing the same blood pact: rage/ward cooldowns.
That would render it the same as a BLM nuking. You can't spam Thundaja every 5 seconds, but you can Thundaja > Thunder 6 > Thunder 4 in a MB window. And be ready to repeat the process when the next MB window opens.

SMN could also use a major buff to its Avatar's Favors & Wards. SMN simply can't compete at all with BRD COR or GEO.
I consider BRD & GEO as having largely overlapping buffs. Nothing really overlaps buffs with COR though.
Nothing else gives store TP, or save TP.
We at least have comparable Double Attack+ or Crit rate+ but those typically aren't the rolls anyone uses anyway.
Cait Sith's Favor with Store TP+40~80 (based on favor level) would be so much better than Magic Defense Bonus+10~38 (guessing on the low end)

SMN did have it's moment in the sun when Aeonics came out (and kind of still do) for people who are farming Aeonic weapons.

But I get it, making a job useful for some content (like SMN vs Aeonics or BST vs Bumba RP farm) just doesn't make the content fullfil a role in a standard 6-person party.