Being a Summoner can be disheartening these days :/

[Mirage]

It's kind of cute that some of you think you're not pidgeonholed into a very small selection of staves. Either you have a perp staff, or you have a "make avatar stronger" staff, or you have a melee summoner staff. Where is the variety, really?

[Karbuncle]

Cure Potency Staff. You have 4 Weapons more or less, 6 if you're really hardcore (Pure MAB Staff like Delve-Craftable, and Macc/MAB like Delve Point Staff, and a Dark M.acc Set for Impact's added effect, which SMN can use and is quite nice for some Delve bosses if you're /sch). This is still more than most DD.

IDK who's side you're on(Or if you're on any at all lol), so I'll clarify that I'm on the side that pretty much wants SMN to not become another "RMED or gtfo" job, which personally, it is right now, as no one cares about anything but your SMN Skill or your ability to competently use Shock Squall...

Plus, IDK if the definition of Pigeonholed has changed lately, but having a 6+ Staff variety for the hardcore is Pigeonholed, does that make melee Dragonholed?!

[Babekeke]

Cure Potency Staff. You have 4 Weapons more or less, 6 if you're really hardcore (Pure MAB Staff like Delve-Craftable, and Macc/MAB like Delve Point Staff, and a Dark M.acc Set for Impact's added effect, which SMN can use and is quite nice for some Delve bosses if you're /sch). This is still more than most DD.

IDK who's side you're on(Or if you're on any at all lol), so I'll clarify that I'm on the side that pretty much wants SMN to not become another "RMED or gtfo" job, which personally, it is right now, as no one cares about anything but your SMN Skill or your ability to competently use Shock Squall...

Plus, IDK if the definition of Pigeonholed has changed lately, but having a 6+ Staff variety for the hardcore is Pigeonholed, does that make melee Dragonholed?!

To me, the thing that affects me more than anything else, is inventory space. Especially since magian staves can't be stored on porter moogle.

Right now I Use Chatoyant and Soulscourge. Chatoyant is basically the Jack-of-all-trades staff for SMN. -3 perp, cure potency, dark accuracy (for drain/aspir as well as impact when /sch).

But I can't remember the last time I played SMN outside of WoE right now, so I don't need the SMN skill build as much.

[Alhanelem]

I don't understand why you insist on doing this on Staves when Grips fit the bill perfectly

Grips don't fit the bill perfectly. Unless grips say "Avatar: DMG+X on them" (good luck with that) they arent worth it. A +stat animator like item isn't going to solve summoner's problems. A perp - grip, on the other hand, would free the weapon slot to perform other purposes, like the ones I'm suggesting.

The thing grips should be doing is having the things like perp- and bp cooldown - to free both weapons and other gear slots from those things.

Grips alone won't solve our problems, especially if they don't open up gear choice elsewhere. The things they seem to want to do with new items are things that should be done by simply buffing the avatars.

(yeah perp grips would do the same, but why create perp grips when you already have perp options available and instead do something on grips which really helps) and do the dmg increase instead on grips)

Because the grip slot is a better place to do this- it frees up a more important item slot from having to be used for it- it makes more sense to take an item that's already about doing damage and have it help your damage more, than it does to take an item that doesn't have anything to do with damage basically and making it start doing that.

1) It's wrong that Delve didn't do much about staffdmg: Yaskomo's Pole rates @ 150dmg that's around 50 above MYTHIC at the moment, that's a whole lot, if you'd translate that to the avatars. So tell me why they wouldn't say "delve or gtfo" if you have way less dmg on other staves for Avatars

Staff got the smallest overall increase in the delve weapons- Some weapons increased in damage by nearly double the commonly used weapons before the expansion. The staff damage increased by less than 50% of the most used melee staves.

Maybe you guys don't realize tihs, but it's common in other MMOs for mages' weapons damage directly affect their magic, rather than baving low/no damage and having stat buffs. Under this design, weapons usually have a much more meaningful impact to your performance than when they're simply stat sticks.
Imagine if WHM cure potency and blm nuke potency was based on weapon damage- All you'd have to do to cure more is get a stronger weapon. It makes things a lot more straightforward.

Obviously, its a very drastic system change, but it's one I have a preference for having played other games (such as FFXIV0 that do it this way.

(yeah perp grips would do the same, but why create perp grips when you already have perp options available and instead do something on grips which really helps) and do the dmg increase instead on grips)

Inventory space would certainly be a nice bonus to come from this as well.

[Infidi]

Sooo... about 'dem new upcoming SMN AMMO items in the new version update... Maybe they're adding Grips AND Throwing items? XD

[Arciel]

looking forward to the new gear but also hope we get some fundamental gameplay changes to suit the current playstyle.
based on last info it seems SMN will only be getting at least 2 ammo slot pieces purchasable with bayld and plasm.

a grip would also make sense because we don't have that many options available. Vox for that +3 skill or if you're looking for refresh/perp theres Oneiros Grip which is pretty nifty.
then again the last thing SMN probably needs is SE telling us to get a grip

[Babekeke]

The plural part of the statement is what makes me hold my breath a little. When we were told we would be getting a new grip, they said 'don't worry, there won't be lots of avatar-specific ones'. However, noone said this about ammo items. Hopefully there's 1 for physical and 1 for magical, and nothing more.

Edit: or 1 for BP rage damage +10%, and 1 for BP ward duration +10%

And they're better both have 50 MP on them.

[Mokeil]

It would be nice if we could get a quick clarification about this grip/ammo thing. Are we getting both? Was it changed from one to the other? Was this just a slip while typing? I'm fine with any of those, but it would be nice to know!


What I'm hoping that what they mean here by stating there will be multiples is that the items (grip or ammo or whatever) will simple be available at multiple item/content levels. As in, each will do more or less the same thing, just that one from higher content levels will offer higher boosts.

The idea being that a smaller boost <item> easily available from, say, Bayld, would be used to give Summoners the leg up they need to get into Delve in order to work on the higher end boosting <item>.


I guess we'll know the answers to all of these questions for certain in a week... (And then 2-3 weeks after that once people have gotten the items and done testing to know what the "Boosts Avatar Performance" on the item description actually means....)

[Dekusuta]

You know, even without Alternator, Puppets were way ahead of avatars already interms of flexibility.

Originally, the trade off for having a more flexible survivable pet was the pet timer, but with Deus Ex Automata the gap was pretty much wiped out. And their other 1hr ability they are proposing for pups is supposed to grant puppets the 1hr abilities of their respective puppet jobs.

Summoner's don;'t come close on our naked pet. I do feel a bit miffed that they think we're only upset by the Alternator buffs.

That's the straw the broke the camel's back, a back with a long line of grievances they haven't bothered to address.

[Babekeke]

It would be nice if we could get a quick clarification about this grip/ammo thing. Are we getting both? Was it changed from one to the other? Was this just a slip while typing? I'm fine with any of those, but it would be nice to know!

As I understand it:

The grip that they mentioned was supposedly coming from delve (bought with plasm). This was supposed to be alternator-like boosts to all avatars in general.

The ammo(s) are from Bayld, and by pluralising it, I get the impression that they will be more specific (hopefully not to each avatar, but maybe to ward/rage or phys/magic, or potency/duration)