SMN adjustments....seriously?

[Divinechild]

And I do Sincerely apologize if that comment seemed overly harsh but,
I wouldn't redact it.

[Malamasala]

Play previous FF games, then play this one and wonder what happened to the powerhouse SMN was!

It doesn't need to be a powerhouse. It just needs to be decent. The job is BARELY as active as a WAR job without abilities. You engage, wait on timer, BP, repeat. It really would have needed all that fun stuff from FFX. Defend, Cast spells, etc. so that you had an active role.

While I'm not in favor of making each avatar a job, since it would just mean we all only play the SAM or BLM avatar, I do think they really needed a set of abilities on their own not on global timers.

For a melee SMN, you don't know much about melee SMN. Shell Crusher is twice as effective for def down as garland of bliss. Shell crusher = 25% def down for 60-270 seconds. GoB 12.5% def down for 60-120 seconds.

I actually don't really try and lower defense with melee at all. Either I fight something so weak I don't have to, or it is big and nasty and I don't want to melee much at all.

[Xaven]

0/5 merits in Spirits, Why would i waste merits in that when i can apply them in my Phy dmg acc mag acc and dmg that i have done so already.

[Divinechild]

Having to explain why smn should be improved or play a more integral role in game play mechanics to anyone that claims to like smn or be a smn is mind boggling.

[Saiken253]

While I'm not in favor of making each avatar a job, since it would just mean we all only play the SAM or BLM avatar, I do think they really needed a set of abilities on their own not on global timers.

I want more traits for each avatar, basic ones would be fine like: DA/TA, Attack Bonus, maybe Martial Arts?(they all do smack with their Hand-to-hand damage), More MAB? Crit Bonus? Auto-enspell damage?(though what would happen to the 2 that already exist, same goes with Auto-spikes and what would happen to the ones that already exist, but i'm personally fine with no auto-spikes because there's only ice/fire/shock spikes; but could make interesting ones like dispel spikes and the like). Make something interesting for each one.

Lastly, and probably the biggest thing that would improve SMN, is individual CDs on our BPs. It's entirely possible, and it would bring SMN closer to the other jobs than where it currently stands(no, it would not make SMN overpowered, it would actually make it comparable to the other jobs) because we also have to manage our MP just like BLMs and BLUs do. They can spam a lot of spells(especially BLU) in a much shorter time-frame that SMN can and deal far superior damage, but their MP would drain just as fast. SMN would then be in a similar situation, but we really only have 3 BPs each pet that can deal any respectable amount of damage(T4 nuke, lvl70 BP, and Merit BP).

[Saiken253]

I just had an interesting idea.

What if we could have a JA that would use our pet's TP to do either 1 or both of:

Give the next Physical BP Extra Damage based on TP used

and/or

Give the next Physical BP skillchain properties

if it were both, it would be similar to BLU's Chain Affinity. Thoughts?

[Toukai]

I actually wouldn't mind giving each avatar specific job types. Like, make Garuda a thf, trip attack traits, TH II (at least), evasion bonuses, and maybe an en-aero effect to boost her melee. Make Ifrit a warrior, with berserk like Ward pact, DA, and let his DA effect phys blood pacts. Levi a Whm/Rdm with more enfeebles, slowga and maybe, paralyga? I don't know, would offer more diversity and be useful for diff situations. Make shiva a blm and give her more M.atk i guess, sleepga and ice spikes more effective. And a little more control in the avatars actions so we don't just stand there and look pretty while we wait for a blood pact timer.

I like to melee on my smn (when i solo mainly, sadly my smn doesn't get much use these days) and pretty much all of the avatars feel kind of samey. If im soloing in aby for the giggles, either Ramuh or Garuda for the crit hit ws's, if im using a m.atk set, I use shiva for heavenly strike.

[Saiken253]

That was my thinking as well. Could model them after the primes. Hell, I wouldn't mind doing a lvl99 SMN quest(further expanding the already huge SMN story) to unlock the "full potential" of our avatars : basically drawing further power from the avatars and making them behave like their primes. This could also be a way to give them Job-likenesses and a new powerful BP. I wouldn't even mind it if to unlock each pet's full potential that you would have to do it individually for each one.

[Fyreus]

This is true, and also the fact that they have no sub job somewhat also negates the natural -PDT avatars have. They're going to have lower VIT, AGI, DEX, HP etc. due to no sub and the fact that they are Black mages. It used to be the same with older jug pets like Carrie. They were weaker than charmed pets of the same level, so they weren't reliable to use for much outside of farming EPs.

I suspect avatars were made Black mages as a purely balancing measure to begin with. Making them anything else could have proved problematic in that they'd have "side effects" like Double Attack, Store TP, Killer Effects etc. They need rebalancing again in my opinion.

The natural -pdt is a strange thing... even though they say that, the fact that my blu/drk can wear far less -pdt and slap on a few hundred def and survive better makes me wonder if they knew what they were doing giving a half the stats needed to do a job especially since CC was made around the same era. Before the 2 traits were put in place avatars would still take huge damage on mobs that were our level or higher even by a few levels which was lame.

Also, giving avatars extra stats/traits isn't problematic as they already gave carbuncle traits since RoZ and there are gears designed that give them stats/traits. If they would split avatars into different types and go back and do what they said they'd do during Toah (iirc they were planning on making more physical or non magical type avatars but trolled us with 2hour avatars) then there wouldn't be too much to complain about

[Divinechild]

The situations that call for Smn don't call for it meleeing. Nobody cares what you do in free time or on fodder mobs.

I laughed my ass off when i saw this. Sounds like smn is such a last rate job at this point(in terms of Dev attention that is), that you use it for a hand full of fights and then throw in the back of a trunk somewhere.

No offense Neisan i just thought it was hella funny.