Job Vision: Watch paint dry

[Xellith]

I wouldnt mind some new stance for SMN that when activated the smn becomes rooted to the spot and....

"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL" Would be neat kicking a mobs face in controling my avatars position and abilities in battle at the cost of losing control of my character. Your character getting attacked could cause you to lose focus and therefore your avatar becomes AI.

Then again PS2 limitations and all...

[Malamasala]

I've never liked the idea of direct control, but I wouldn't mind some lended functions from FFX. Like giving you a set of actions to perform. Defend, to take less damage, Heal, to regenerate health, Swap, to turn into another pet without being released between and keeping the hate level, etc.

And if you want to explore the Elemental Siphon path, you could always expand this to Elemental Affinity job ability or something that unlocks all spells for a given element on use. The issue here (apart from possibly stepping on toes) would be that you can't have an avatar out AND summon a spirit to do this. So for avatar focus, you need this ability to give you like 5+ min of spell access after releasing the spirit. But you could also combine it so that keeping the spirit out used the spirit MP instead of your own when casting spells. That way we'd almost see a use out of spirits after a decade.

There is a lot of solutions. You just need to pick one that doesn't read "Lowers BP:Rage damage by 25%, increases MP cost by 25%, gives STD20, disables Reraise" on the abilities. I'm quite sick of all the extra penalties attached to everything. I mainly only use Siphon, because it is the ONLY ability without penalties attached.

[Daniel]

summoners have plenty to do, maybe your just not very good at it. On top of that SMN is stronger than just about any other DD in the game, 1400-1800 Wind blades on bosses outside of Abyssia, additionally after I do each one it can tank the mob for a bit til it dies relieving stress from tank.

[Alhanelem]

It said right below the part OP quoted that they were adding an ability to allow you to pay extra MP for the privilege of having a faster BP timer. Did you just not read this part or what?

[Malamasala]

It said right below the part OP quoted that they were adding an ability to allow you to pay extra MP for the privilege of having a faster BP timer. Did you just not read this part or what?

Uhm... It said "example" not "We promise to do this". It also said "ability" which could translate into "every 20 minutes" if they go Random Deal on us. Imagine that "fantastic" update. Every 20 minutes you can shave off 5 seconds on BP timer... but wait, it costs 250 MP, because else it would be overpowered.

I'd also like to remind you that they said 2006 that we are going to get new avatars that we can keep out LONGER than our current ones. We got 2 new 2 hours that stay out about 5 seconds during a ready animation... I just don't listen to them any longer.

The sad part is that they've never listened to me either. Of course, why listen to someone who wants to help when you can sit and ruin your game on your own.

[Malamasala]

summoners have plenty to do, maybe your just not very good at it. On top of that SMN is stronger than just about any other DD in the game, 1400-1800 Wind blades on bosses outside of Abyssia, additionally after I do each one it can tank the mob for a bit til it dies relieving stress from tank.

You are delusional. If dealing 1500 damage steals hate off tank and makes your pet tank a while, what happens if a melee WS or a BLM nukes? Mob goes for them... at which point you should ask yourself why you have a tank that isn't tanking. The only thing your example shows, is that Summoner excels in bad groups who don't know how to play.

And I'd like to hear your "plenty" of things to do. I kind of can guarantee that you can't list any that doesn't run into subjob territory, at which point we aren't talking SMN, we are talking subjobs. I separate those two categories, which is why I can safely say Summoner, as a job, are very inactive. (Summoner, as I play it, is more melee oriented so I'm actually more active than what I argue about. I just know we aren't all melee Summoners in here)

[Razushu]

Uhm... It said "example" not "We promise to do this". It also said "ability" which could translate into "every 20 minutes" if they go Random Deal on us. Imagine that "fantastic" update. Every 20 minutes you can shave off 5 seconds on BP timer... but wait, it costs 250 MP, because else it would be overpowered.

I'd also like to remind you that they said 2006 that we are going to get new avatars that we can keep out LONGER than our current ones. We got 2 new 2 hours that stay out about 5 seconds during a ready animation... I just don't listen to them any longer.

The sad part is that they've never listened to me either. Of course, why listen to someone who wants to help when you can sit and ruin your game on your own.

Vision

We intend to make it easier for avatars to wreak havoc upon enemies, but also emphasize how vital the act of managing the source of their magical powers is to summoners.

This to me pretty much translates as were getting something like

A new ability that expends an additional amount of MP to shorten the recast time for blood pacts.

They say example as in part of what they're gonna implement.

[Razushu]

And I'd like to hear your "plenty" of things to do. I kind of can guarantee that you can't list any that doesn't run into subjob territory, at which point we aren't talking SMN, we are talking subjobs. I separate those two categories, which is why I can safely say Summoner, as a job, are very inactive. (Summoner, as I play it, is more melee oriented so I'm actually more active than what I argue about. I just know we aren't all melee Summoners in here)

Why shouldn't plenty to do go into subjob territory, they're part of the job or we wouldn't be able to equip them. Are you saying that a DRG can't use hasso and call DRG a good DD as Hasso is a /SAM ability. The subjob system enabled SE to be a little lazy in some cases when designing jobs and SMN is the best example of that, In other FFs SMNs had avatars,aeons eidolons etc. to do big damage and they also had access natively to healing magic. SE left this out because we could access these magics from subjob, which has lead to the identity crisis we see today where people will say "I'm not healing anyone, it's not native to the job" but will happily insist on meleeing and use /job traits like Hasso and sneak attack to improve it.

[Dallas]

Make the job less boring. Melee as /WHM for the red procs you can't get otherwise, keep healing, and make simple minds EXPLODE!

[Babekeke]

It said right below the part OP quoted that they were adding an ability to allow you to pay extra MP for the privilege of having a faster BP timer. Did you just not read this part or what?

Exactly, people only read what they want to read.

Uhm... It said "example" not "We promise to do this". It also said "ability" which could translate into "every 20 minutes" if they go Random Deal on us. Imagine that "fantastic" update. Every 20 minutes you can shave off 5 seconds on BP timer... but wait, it costs 250 MP, because else it would be overpowered.

A very pessamistic view, but I DO see where you're coming from, since SMN have been screwed over for years.
However
This (to me) says we're getting a stance, which will either cost us x mp/tick while the stance is active, or reduce BP timers by X% but increase BP cost by X%. My only fear is that they might add some nerf to melee power while this stance is active. If not then swing away and use WS to control that MP just like they want us to XD (because resting between BPs kind of negates the benefit of being able to use BPs faster!). Unless the mobs are aspirable, then /sch might be a viable option with a good haste and dark magic build.