Job Manifesto discussion RE: Summoner

[Razushu]

Vision
Mystics who conjure avatars to fight by their sides, then sit back and enjoy the show while paying close attention to their MP as their minions deliver devastating blows to adversaries and provide aid to allies

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.

Example Adjustments

A new ability that expends an additional amount of MP to shorten the recast time for blood pacts.
Introducing the avatars Cait Sith and Atomos.

So it seems SE has decided how it wants Summoner to be played, and where they're planning to take it. It's fairly clear that SE wants us to rely on our avatars, while we manage our MP. As such topics of discussion like, SMN melee, spirits, and buffing the master(in any way) are probably going to get ignored(and not just because they tend to turn into flame wars). An ignored thread gets us nowhere.

With that in mind, I would like to start a discussion, in hopes of it providing feedback to SE and maybe getting some from them. I'd like to leave the bickering out of this thread in hopes of building a thread that SE may actually read and respond to. WE all know this job needs a buff, and I'm hoping the people who come here love the job as much as me, and as such will help me start a reasonable discourse.

What I want to discuss is, Summoner present and future in line with SE's vision for the job. I would like it if this discussion was civil, thought out and productive, mainly concerning buffs to avatars and concerning avatars(as this seems to be the focus of any upcoming update to SMN).

SE has given us a great starting point, by proclaiming a desire to fix Blood Pact delay. However while this could be the biggest concern for Summoners, there are still things like Ward potency and Avatar DPS that could use addressing. Feel free to suggest or critique anything that comes to mind in this regard, but keep in mind the goal here is to be heard by SE. So please no off topic flaming or posts, and please no SE bashing here.

If you want to discuss melee or spirits, take it somewhere else, SE doesn't seem to be interested in them right now. And as it stands there's enough threads concerning them.

My apologies for the Wall o' Text introduction.

Tl'DR - Discussion about SMN in line with SE's vison in hopes of them reading/responding. Please leave other avenues of thought to be explored in the other threads it's already happening in.

And now on with the Discussion.

SE is finally addressing the Blood Pact delay issue, they seem to have learned from past missteps in buffing SMN. Since going past 75 cap SE have been quite kind to SMN, and as such it's looking like the upcoming update will be a genuine buff to us. Plus new avatars(bonus!). I'm hoping the Blood Pact delay ability is a stance, that gives a 25% reduction in delay that adds 25% to the cost of the Blood Pact. I would also like to see an adjustment to ward potency, they have fallen further behind since 75 cap.

SQUARE ENIX's replies:

First off, thanks for all the opinions thus far, and we wanted to let you know that we passed them to the supervisor in charge of the upcoming changes and had him take a look.

Please understand that we cannot answer all of your questions in one post and some answers may be vague, because this is all content that is still under development.

Please bear with us as we will continue posting about this and other jobs!

※I believe there are a lot of players who are interested in the effects and duration of “Blood Pact” so I plan on addressing it in the follow-up post. (I understand that some of you may be disappointed about this, but please be a little patient!)

Please provide specific details on the effects of “a new ability that expends an additional amount of MP to shorten the recast time for blood pacts.”

For example, we are thinking about something like, “reset the recast time by expending a set amount of MP.” As we have stated in the threads for other jobs, this is just one example.

There is a possibility of the effects being changed drastically, so please keep posting your feedback.

I would like Blood Pacts to be changed to the charge format.

This would drastically change the operation of Blood Pacts, so we have no plans of making this change. We plan on adjusting the timing of Blood Pacts by adding an ability that shortens the recast time.

Is it possible to interlock the avatar’s attacks with the summoner’s weapon skills (as in Wyvern’s breath)?

Being able to issue commands to avatars is a unique advantage for summoners, so it is best to initiate avatar attacks through the summoner’s commands.

I would like the pet command “Stay” to be added.

We have no plans to add the “Stay” command outside of beastmasters.

I would like unique stats added to each avatar, such as increased attack for Ifrit and increased evasion for Garuda.

By implementing different stats for each avatar, we are afraid certain avatars will be selected disproportionately frequently and the variance of avatars will be limited. There is a possibility of being able to alter the stats of avatars by equipping gear, but basically we would like avatars to be chosen based on their elements.

I would like En/Spike effects added to avatars.

This might be good. We will think about this.

I would like the elemental resistances that avatars have to been given to party members.

This is pretty similar to Avatar’s Favor. What about adding this effect through merit points?

Any possibility you can enhance the Evoker’s Ring?

If you have to surpass a challenging quest, then we will look into it. Simply just enhancing it would be a bit hard to justify.

Let summoners use the weapon skills for staff that can only be used by specific jobs/support jobs.

We understand how you feel. We received similar requests for other jobs/weapon skills and we will be looking into it.

We got a chance to speak to the main summoner himself on the topic of Blood Pacts.

• MP Consumption

The MP cost for Blood Pact: Ward abilities are set rather high because the effects they grant are AoE; however, they are designed to elicit a higher level of benefit when used to support a party.

• Effect duration

As we’re sure you’re aware, depending on the level of your summoning skill, various enhancement bonuses are added to your Blood Pacts. These bonuses make it so ultimately you will see a very noticeable difference in effect duration when compared to other magic spells and abilities. If your skill isn’t fully leveled and you feel that the duration is too short, we recommend raising it up as you will experience quite a significant increase. With the upcoming level cap increase we will be extending the effect duration even further.

• Effect

In regards to magic/abilities that elicit a similar effect to Blood Pacts, we believe that Blood Pacts have significantly high stats, effect duration included. However, with the level cap increase from 75 to 90, these stats have increased further and we would like to look into adjusting the areas where the balance is off. Please continue let us know your feedback especially for the Blood Pacts you feel need adjustments.