How to play Summoner

[Razushu]

The selling point is definitely H2H. The only weapon type I consider interesting. And don't let any PUP tell you they should have gotten Alexander... that dat swap just fills your screen so much that it is annoying.

What?! They're saying that?

[Tarage]

Summoner is a support job. We cure, we buff, and we assist in DD. We are a versatile job that can solo, but we are not designed to be heavy DD, nor are we designed to be all support.

There's nothing more to say.

[Dallas]

A whole thread devoted to hating me because they haven't posted thousands of times in every other thread. Awesome!

There is only one playstyle. Everyone bragging about playing half the job is also dealing half the damage. What do they have to show for it? A few fights that no one is dumb enough to melee.

I say 99% is melee-able. They say 1% is melee-able. The difference is skill, with the higher damage always going to the melee SMN.

[Tarage]

A whole thread devoted to hating me because they haven't posted thousands of times in every other thread. Awesome!

There is only one playstyle. Everyone bragging about playing half the job is also dealing half the damage. What do they have to show for it? A few fights that no one is dumb enough to melee.

I say 99% is melee-able. They say 1% is melee-able. The difference is skill, with the higher damage always going to the melee SMN.

You have quite the ego buddy. Not once did I mention you. I don't care how well you DD as a melee SMN, you're still doing it wrong.

Seriously, you must be one sad fellow if you feel the need to puff yourself on a forum like this.

[Secondplanet]

i see smn as a job that no one can write a guide on cause its really a job that is invented by the player using it, the more of an imagination you have the more options you can find in this job, from tanking NM's/mobs when needed to helping the party in a time of need, this job can allow a person who knows it well to play almost any roll even if for only a brief moment and in this game a brief moment most times can mean the difference between winning and losing.

[Dallas]

You have quite the ego buddy. Not once did I mention you. I don't care how well you DD as a melee SMN, you're still doing it wrong.

Seriously, you must be one sad fellow if you feel the need to puff yourself on a forum like this.

Here's a helpful hint: I'm not looking for any tips how to play the job worse. Troll all you want, at no point will I be acknowledging your playstyle as anything but a subset of mine.

[Tarage]

Here's a helpful hint: I'm not looking for any tips how to play the job worse. Troll all you want, at no point will I be acknowledging your playstyle as anything but a subset of mine.

It's cute that you think I'm a troll. Are you so far gone that you don't believe that people don't look at you in awe? That perhaps the pedestal you have placed yourself upon is a creation of your own inflated ego?

[Razushu]

It's cute that you think I'm a troll. Are you so far gone that you don't believe that people don't look at you in awe? That perhaps the pedestal you have placed yourself upon is a creation of your own inflated ego?

Not just his, his mommy tells him he's special every morning.

[Karbuncle]

Figured I'd throw my 2 cents in here!

As already mentioned theres 2 sides to SMN, one is commonly and easily accepted due to general bias of 2005 style gameplay (SMN mage), and one is more harshly criticized and rarely accepted due to 2005 Style gameplay (SMN Melee)

The biggest problem with SMN melee is that, even with a B Skill, We lack the proper acc/atk to do decent damage, and even more-so we lack great weaponry, staves are literally the worst weapon class in the game for damage, behind even clubs/Hammers.

But theres another side to that. IN Abyssea a lot of our Weaknesses can be made up for via Atma and Cruor buffs, like our Low HP, STR, and DEX. Using atma's like VV/RR/Apoc help balance out our TP Gain (Regain+2), Our STR, and our Damage through crits, while also effecting our pets (BPs like PC, FC, and Ramuh's)

This really only works on mobs and NMs that do not possess devastating AoEs, or AoE magics like Paralyga or Silencega, for Obvious reasons, and the key to an intelligent Melee SMN is to know which fights would be more productive melee, and which would be more productive Mage.

-----------------------------=====================================

Now on the Mage side.

The Mage aspect of SMN comes from its support job, WHM or SCH. The biggest problem with Mage role is that Cure IV rarely cuts it these days, and any WHM should already be doing this task, better than you. SMN mage-Aspect really only works if you're with crummy mages, or are the single mage in your party.

Cure IV's, and -Na spells are nice, And we have a slew of Defensive Support Bloodpacts like Earthern Armor, Hastega, Healing Ruby II, etc.

Problem is a lot of our Unique buffs (Stoneskin-ga, Blink-ga, etc) are being spread about to other jobs via SCH and /SCH. Which makes SMN use a lot of its uniqueness and SE is not really giving it back to us. Earthern Armor is similar to Sentinal's Scherzo, ergo not unique (though they do stack)... Hastega is our only true unique Buff still, even then its nothing a Haste-Cycle can't accomplish.

Both aspect of the jobs roles are based on archaic 2005 gameplay styles that stuck with a community reluctant to change, both have positives, and both are flawed in some ways.

when it boils down to it, the SMN job is flawed itself, Masters of none and Mediocre at all doesn't really translate well in an MMO, why bring SMN when xxx job does xxx better? etc.

Our one true mastery is Hateless Damage, and its that, similar to THFs TH, that has kept the job mediocre over the years. Its the same reason Elemental WS's are generally Weak, SE has an undying need to balance a job so hard it becomes useless.

Elemental Weaponskills have 100% accuracy, therefor they mostly suck and are unusable dribble, in the same light, SMNs Avatars provide Hateless spike damage, as such we lack any other meaningful aspect to the job.

Luckily for us, Fights where our hateless ranged damage is vastly useful (Voidwatch) are coming back to light. The SMN job is nice in a lot of ways, But it needs work.

[Tarage]

"It works in Abyssea" is a poor argument, because lots of silly things work in Abyssea. Abyssea is the exception, not the rule.