Job Vision: Watch paint dry

[Alhanelem]

Calling it something else would have allowed it to stack

lots of things with different names give the same effect. Refresh, every drink under the sun, FoV buff all want a word with you.

[Malacite]

Speaking of hastega, why is that still our only unique buff?

I mean honestly, there's no real good reason to bar Accession + Haste at this point. If SMN is the only reason SE can come up with, then that just shows how much trouble SMN is really in.


Separate timers would be great, but there's a lot of potential for abuse there, especially in abyssea where MP isn't an issue.


I'd love to see avatar's stats scale up with summoning skill instead of just job level for one thing. How about fixing it so avatars don't lose TP when not actively engaged with an enemy? The list just goes on really...

[Elidani]

The point in telling certain jobs not to melee is so that enemies are not fed godly amounts of tp with least amounts of damage. i.e. If your melee smn/rdm/whm/blm...etc...you are hitting for very little damage per staff swing. You aren't doing much damage at all. At the same time though, you are feeding TP to the mob which allows it to use those horrible JAs available to mobs called *my party just wiped.* Hence the reason most people get bent out of shape over mages meleeing.

On a personal note, I don't really care one way or the other. When I am in a party or alliance I try to play my job as the situation calls for whether I am a mage or not. It simply all depends on what is most beneficial to my team, because to me the only reason to be on a team in the first place is to help, not hinder.

[Leonlionheart]

Elidani knows whats up.

Mages shouldn't melee in team play.

[Malamasala]

Elidani knows whats up.

Mages shouldn't melee in team play.

And when you've made the perfect team, you'll notice healing on SMN is not needed. And we are right back on my initial post, watching paint dry as we do nothing. Melee isn't desired, Healing is pointless.

I agree with you when you got a crappy team though. Then you do not want mages to melee.

[Korpg]

And when you've made the perfect team, you'll notice healing on SMN is not needed. And we are right back on my initial post, watching paint dry as we do nothing. Melee isn't desired, Healing is pointless.

You forget the whole reason why the SMN is there. They are there for 2 things: Deal TP-less damage and to hold a pop set.

Does dealing TP-less damage worthless? Heck no. SMN is the only job that can do it. And holding a pop set is more important than wiping a party/alliance because you feel like whacking a mob. But you don't have to stand back and do damage from afar on most stuff. Go ahead and melee on Aquarius. Just don't melee on Isgebind (seen too many people wipe on that Dragon because they had too many melees on it. That dragon is not zergable yet).

I agree with you when you got a crappy team though. Then you do not want mages to melee.[/QUOTE]

[Alhanelem]

This was also in that announcement in bright red writing. Not saying it won't happen, just pointing out that even SE is saying it isn't written in stone. I hope that they do implement the changes they *envisioned,* not only as a SMN, but as every other job I play.

may

The key word here is "may." They already have their ideas at this point, it's game balance or design/implementation problems that could change things, or input from the community. No, it's not set in stone, but clearly they have a plan laid out. But by all means, continue to play the semantics game.

The point in telling certain jobs not to melee is so that enemies are not fed godly amounts of tp with least amounts of damage. i.e. If your melee smn/rdm/whm/blm...etc...you are hitting for very little damage per staff swing. You aren't doing much damage at all. At the same time though, you are feeding TP to the mob which allows it to use those horrible JAs available to mobs called *my party just wiped.*

That's why you learn which mobs have "My party just wiped" and which ones don't and adjust your behavior accordingly. The best players are the ones who are able to adapt themeselves accordingly to changing circumstances. Things aren't as black and white as you portray them to be.

[Elidani]

I never said it was black and white. I was simply stating that is the way most people play the game. As for meleeing on smn during a party, I have it pretty easy. The linkshell I am with is fairly laid back and we do w/e during Aby exp parties. During serious events we do what we need to to help the team as a whole. We don't usually have smn out unless we mean to use the avatars. I guess it helps when many of the members also play smn and whm. They understand the difference between the two. Personally I mostly soloed my smn to 66, because I refused to be a subpar whm. My point in stating the info about tp is because that is how it was explained to me a few years back when I asked the same question about why my mage isn't allowed to melee even though I can weild a weapon. I'm quite happy in the frontlines as my dancer or on the backline as my whm. SMN I simply prefer playing that as a soloist job or strictly during stress-free ls parties. It makes the game more fun if I am not stressed about being told how to play my job.

[Sasaraixx]

I must be in the minority on this, but I do not find SMN boring and I've been playing this game for a long time. I can understand the OP's point about "watching paint dry" between BP's but it *appears* that our timer limitation is going to be addressed in the near future. If we can get the timer down to 30 seconds, without it costing a ridiculous amount of extra MP, then I think the issue will be fairly well addressed. (By the issue, I mean being bored in between BP's. There are other issues that obviously need to be addressed.) Splitting the Blood Pacts into 3 or 4 categories would help even more so. I don't think that each BP should have its own timer or that each avatar should have separate timers. Splitting into damage - enfeebling - enhancing/healing would be nice. You could possibly break up the enhancing/healing into separate categories or split damage into physical and magical. Either would be a nice boost.

Everyone has their own idea of how SMN should play. Personally, I don't want to melee on my SMN. I don't want to nuke on my SMN. I have BLM, SCH and RDM for that. I'm perfectly fine with providing support healing from /WHM, /RDM or /SCH and if more healing is required I'll switch to a healing class. I play SMN to *summon* That is all I'm concerned with when I put on that pointy horn. I'm cautiously optimistic that the coming updates will allow me to focus on that.

Now there are plenty of other issues that need to be addressed. Avatar DOT, BP delay (buff hopefully incoming), avatar's favor, Ward potency, and I'm sure I've forgotten others. These are the areas I'd like to see SE focus on.

I also don't want to have to sub WAR to give my avatars double attack. They should have it naturally. I shouldn't have to sub BLM to improve nuking damage. They should already be powerful. Our subjob should be used to provide utility to the party and ourselves (MP recovery, survivability, etc). SE decided not to give us native spells and magic skills and that may have been a poor design decision. I don't see it changing after almost 10 years and I'm fine with that.

And perhaps it's because FFX was my first Final Fantasy game but I liked that the Aeons were all unique, not just in their elements/attacks but also their stats. (I know. I'm a late comer to the series!!) I can definitely see the advantage of all the avatars being roughly the same as it allows you more flexibility in which avatar you use. If Shiva was clearly the best nuking avatar, then there would be less reasons to use Garuda or Titan for that purpose. Even acknowledging that, I still wouldn't mind a little variation. Fenrir, Carbuncle and Diabolos have some nice unique quirks. I'd like the other avatars to as well. This could be done by giving them their respective avatar's favors and removing the penalties or just giving Shiva extra tiers of the MAB trait or Garuda a higher evasion rating. Again, that is just a personal wish of mine

[Dallas]

Cure IV on one of 2 mage combinations that has no native Fast Cast: SMN/WHM, BLM/WHM. Worst cure whore ever.