
Originally Posted by
Babekeke
I agree with everything else in your post, however, I get the impression that you've never taken a SMN to abyssea.
#1 bringing a SMN to abyssea will usually mean that you're losing out on a proc job instead.
#2 If you're fighting a mob where the procs don't really matter, and you simply want to duo with a mage and a melee, you can make the fight considerably easier by making that mage a SMN.
A prime example I have of this is when I fought Awahondo (sp?) in uleg. A friend asked me to help him to get a caller's earring, as I have THF. He only has BST and mage jobs, so it was a toss up between whm and smn. I asked himk to SMN as it would speed up the kills. With the usual atmas of MM and some MAB, the avatar actually did more damage than my THF (mob hits hard and fast, and has hundred fists, so I went geared and atma'd for evasion, not DD).
The mob might have died just as fast if I went geared/atma'd for DD and he went on whm, but taking a SMN certainly did NOT make it any harder.
Another example: I'd love to see a mnk & whm strategy for Cuelebre. A SMN can solo it, many SMN can kill it faster. melee DDs do little for it.
I'm sure there are many other examples out there, but certainly adding a job that can do huge spike damage without dealing TP or taking hate, will never make content harder.
Sorry.