Summoner ~ Updating Avatars & Elemental Spirits. Blood pacts, wards, and spell list.

[Korpg]

Personally, they shouldn't allow limits to merits in the first place.

[Malamasala]

I'm sorry, but how would improvement on spirits make any difference at all when you don't have any control over them, or allow anyone to DD at greater distance when you can't do anything until you sic the pet on the mob?

Ever fight a HNM? They do not choose their TP moves, they random them. No control at all, yet you probably wouldn't say no to one AV as a pet. The difference lies in how often it does stuff. If AV only waited 50 seconds to toss Aero IV he'd be quite a lot easier.

The difference between a spirit and a monster is simply how often and how devastating it attacks. Take your average elemental for example. Does it really take 50 seconds for each spell? I tend to feel like they cast more like every 15 seconds. Them casting and being near uninterruptable also helps.

Control doesn't matter, attack frequency is where it is at. You could remove BPs completely, but have avatars attack at insane speeds and TP every 20 seconds and we'd be far better than now. No control, just plain raw power.

In the end we could always just merge Raz and my opinions and we'd have improved avatars who now cast elemental magic every 15 seconds. (I say 15, since it would be random, PUPs are around 20-25 somewhere with selected spells)

[Korpg]

HNMs? All mobs have a list of possible spells/abilities/moves that they choose from. Sometimes, on somethings, they can't choose a specific ability/move until they reach a specific % (see: Cerberus).

The real difference between a spirit and a monster is, you kill one, you summon the other. I'll let you figure out which is which though.

Spirits are not nukers, they don't have the capability to choose spells out of a list, nor should we choose it for them (if we could, we would take BLMs out of their job because we would have hateless and deathless spells, for 0 MP, kindof like PUP but only better).

[Imakun]

It wouldn't even come close to PUP. (A good) PUP is already better than a BLM, let alone a SMN even if we could choose our spirit's spells.
We have no way of enhancing a spirit's Magic attack or accuracy like a BLM or a PUP and their AI plain sucks (hi2u Regen and Haste). >>

Truth be told, I don't even care about spirits. I'd rather have SE focus on Avatars and just forget about spirits. They're mana batteries and I'm content with that.
We have far more important stuff to address than our retarded spirits.

[Korpg]

Yeah, but Mala has already stated that he wants the SMNs to choose the spell from the spirits. That alone would edge out BLMs a little because we can always just resummon the spirit instead of waiting 45 seconds to use the spell again, unless they do a global timer like avatars. Even then, it would edge out PUPs because we can choose which spell to use, instead of the automation choosing their own spells.

It takes PUPs about a minute to buff up the automation to do just as much damage as a BLM, and the only think the automation has over BLMs is the ability to disappear and reappear almost instantly.

[Xaven]

What about having the ability to Blood Pack for the Spirits? I've always hoped they would update some day where i could. almost lvl 99 now and yet 2 see it happen

[JanetDax]

One thing that bothers me about the upcoming level increases is another scramble to deal with perp costs. This is the weakness of SMN in my opinion. I usually wind up ending every fight with carby because anything else burns mana

[Malamasala]

HNMs? All mobs have a list of possible spells/abilities/moves that they choose from. Sometimes, on somethings, they can't choose a specific ability/move until they reach a specific % (see: Cerberus).

Mostly an issue about TP spam. Some HNM have their "use TP at 100%" coding, while regular monsters can get any amount of TP because they have a kind of BST timer that determines how often they check for TP.

Truth be told, I don't even care about spirits. I'd rather have SE focus on Avatars and just forget about spirits. They're mana batteries and I'm content with that.
We have far more important stuff to address than our retarded spirits.

I don't find them important either. I find them an eyesore. Delete them or fix them, doesn't matter to me as long as something is done instead of pretending they don't exist except as some kind of pre-JA to Siphon.

They are equal to dog poo in my eyes. Remove or convince me there is a reason I got dog poo all over the place.

Yeah, but Mala has already stated that he wants the SMNs to choose the spell from the spirits.

I don't remember saying that. While you are probably making stuff up as usual, I won't deny it could accidentally happen that I'd say that. Usually I just say that they should have a guaranteed spell cycle. Nuke > dot > Nuke > dot or dot > Nuke > dot Nuke. The "or" part is so you don't end up with it being good to resummon after each nuke, or screw you over if you have to resummon and make you end up with dot > resummon > dot > resummon > dot.

So yea, less "pick spell" and more "guaranteed nuke in 30 seconds" design is what I want. After all, I don't think you can out-DD a PUP or BLM with a 30 seconds delay between nukes, but you can probably speed up your DD compared to waiting 45 seconds on a BP. (With a good alternative to do BP > spirit > nuke > BP style)

Of course that is my idea from 2005, so it doesn't take into account the new 2011/2012 -BP timer JA SE is adding. When that comes, it is possible my spirit ideas will seem even worse.

[Razushu]

I don't find them important either. I find them an eyesore. Delete them or fix them, doesn't matter to me as long as something is done instead of pretending they don't exist except as some kind of pre-JA to Siphon.

They are equal to dog poo in my eyes. Remove or convince me there is a reason I got dog poo all over the place.

Try not to let them bother you, every job has redundant elements. At least the were given a use, one trick ponies though they are. SE gave them a gimmick to make them feel like part of the team, and for me it works enough that I don't spend too much time dwelling on the meaning of their existence.

How about this that dog poo is full of rich creamy ether, if you rub it all over you you'll refill your MP...... and maybe have smoother skin too.

[Soundwave]

Try not to let them bother you, every job has redundant elements. At least the were given a use, one trick ponies though they are. SE gave them a gimmick to make them feel like part of the team, and for me it works enough that I don't spend too much time dwelling on the meaning of their existence.

How about this that dog poo is full of rich creamy ether, if you rub it all over you you'll refill your MP...... and maybe have smoother skin too.

I'm totally forgetting what you just said right now....