How to play Summoner

[Karbuncle]

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

Everyone in the game knows this >_>

[Dallas]

I love the "only in Abyssea" excuse. No one is allowed to talk about the 8 years of L75 content, obviously. Those Grounds items? Nope, we'll call them "trash mobs."

"The ONLY way to play SMN is the one that is justified by the few NM in Voidwatch. Oh, and we're going to immediately deny the existance of Voidwatch the instant it becomes zergable. Just like Abyssea."

There's an awful lot of exceptions to a really worthless rule. I wish people posted in job forums proportionately to the amount of time they play the job. We wouldn't see the Voidwatch only crew again until November.

[Lordscyon]

Have full refresh buffs and you can have your pet out for days!
for Summoner NO MP= No Love

[Bubeeky]

I like playing summoner from the back, pickin' my favorite avatar at the moment and watchin' sparks fly...then again, my main is whm, and smn is more like a hobby, only to be used rarely for serious events lol

[Arciel]

I love the "only in Abyssea" excuse. No one is allowed to talk about the 8 years of L75 content, obviously. Those Grounds items? Nope, we'll call them "trash mobs."

"The ONLY way to play SMN is the one that is justified by the few NM in Voidwatch. Oh, and we're going to immediately deny the existance of Voidwatch the instant it becomes zergable. Just like Abyssea."

There's an awful lot of exceptions to a really worthless rule. I wish people posted in job forums proportionately to the amount of time they play the job. We wouldn't see the Voidwatch only crew again until November.

You can go back to your cave, silly Lv1 RDM troll.
Voidwatch has always been zergable. People don't do it because they build lights.

For that matter, SMN is great because they can keep up damage without TP, without hate issues and without the resist issues most jobs are beginning to face again because they don't have extreme Atma-level buffs to back them up.

Still, regardless of whether you zerg or hold Voidwatch NMs to build lights, theres no place for a melee SMN in there.

[RAIST]

I would have to say this thread has gotten the most bang-for-the-buck from Karbuncle's 2-cents.

It really all boils down to the playstyle you and your friends feel most comfortable using. I would hazard a guess I am most versatile on SMN out of all my jobs, except maybe NIN. With 240 slots to carry crap, I am a virtual walking armory and am able to swap out gears to change my role quite easily. Couple that with all the macro banks at our disposal now, it's not too hard to swap gears out to try to optimise your better WS.

I have a small group I do a lot of stuff with, 3 of us have SMN leveled. When it becomes necessary, I usually get the honor of going into full battlemage mode as I have the most gear to support that role and still maintain 1 or 2 mp refresh as SMN/WHM with no refresher and no Favor, while the others will take the more traditional BP and support roles. It works well for us. I can set up the skillchain for someone else to close, then the avatars can burst off it.

Again... it's all really situational and according to what you are most comfortable with and prepared to do. Just because it traditionally has been seen as a backline, stay away from danger type of job, that doesn't mean that is the only way to play it--just means that is how most people chose to play it based on the situations they were faced with.

[Secondplanet]

Raist i'm glad to see another smn such as yourself who doesn't categorize this job between 2 different play styles, i posted earlier in the board but got drowned out for bickering that had nothing to do with the topic on hand which doesn't surprise me with these boards. Thats why i say you can't write a guide for how to play this job when this very job is a creation is made by the player using it.

[Draylo]

How to play summoner:

Astral flow > Alexander > finished.

[Korpg]

How to play summoner:

Astral flow > Alexander > finished.

Ask a BLU how to play SMN, and this is what you get.

[Karbuncle]

How to play BLU

Nation > Mog house > Change jobs

I can be sarcastic too