Some questions about summoner!

[Banawgwa]

How is summoner? I have never played one and frankly don't see an over abundance of them lol... However, their summons look amazing! I love Ramuh :P.

So I was wondering how are summoners solo? Are they used in groups for anything?

I know bst is awesome soloer, but I do not like bst and would prefer to be smn hehe. I have just been curious in unlocking smn cuz summons are nice... But wondering how worth while they are to play.

[Mokeil]

Well... This is a toughie. I'm not sure where to start...

In a nutshell, anything Summoner can do other jobs generally do better and/or faster. We can do a little bit of everything - damage, buffs, debuffs, and cures - but we don't really do any of it spectacularly. Back in the early days of the game, this wasn't such a big deal, since we could often be used to fill in whatever gaps there happened to be in an alliance. However, now that it's reasonable to assume that most players have multiple level 99 jobs, and can just switch around to whatever specialist is actually needed, Summoner finds itself outclassed in many events with very few niches of their own to occupy.

As a result, Summoner is not often asked to many events. The two places we really shine are in Wildskeeper Reives and Walk of Echos. In those two places, our ability to act via proxy (i.e. all our effects happen via our pets and not our characters) allow us to survive where others would die. Even so, there needs to be a lot of us there, as the tactics involved tend to mostly turn into tossing endless pets at whatever needs to be made dead.

As for a direct comparison to BST? We're fairly even in most things. BST gets a pet with more HP and fantastic DoT, but SMN gets the ability to call out pets at will and with fantastic spike damage. Our best strengths are definitely in tackling mobs that do primarily one or two types of elemental damage. There's a thread over here that shows off some of the things we can take on in solo situations.

Now, with everything else having been said... Summoner is still my hands-down favorite job. I've discovered that as the size of the group decreases, the usefulness of a Summoner increases (again, going back to the idea that SMN can fill in missing spots very well, due to the breadth of our abilities). I may not get to take it to pick-up Delve runs, but it's always my first go-to when I'm doing things with my friends. Also, I'll put up our merited Rage pacts as some of the flashiest looking abilities in the game. But best of all? No other job is tied as closely to the lore of what happens in Vana'diel as Summoner is. I'm a sucker for a good story, and I love the way avatar related things are sprinkled liberally throughout the game.

[Artharian]

I'd agree with Mokeil - it might not be the 'killer job' that'll get you invites to all the best parties ;-) but for me it's one of the most fun jobs. I also like to explore (I've been playing for some time but there are vast areas I've never set foot in!) so with a stack of -perp gear on I can run around with an avatar out all the time; this then acts as my defence when I run straight into a true sight NM or similar and gives me the chance to safely teleport out! :-)
I may be a bit different in my playing - my online time and RL commitments mean I solo a lot of the time and I have less focus on end-game but I find SMN to be well suited to me

And yes - I think it looks flashy as well....

Art.

[Deifact]

Summoner is fun. It's been improved over the years from when I first started playing it but there are still problems. The Blood Pact timer is too long for one, Summoner is unusual in the sense that it is a mage that is restricted more by timers than by MP, where as it should be the other way around.

I also feel like the avatars could be made a bit more unique, following on from BST pets, by making them have their own "jobs" and "job traits". Some Blood Pacts just feel like other spells but with a different (or sometimes the same!) animation. For example Hastega. I would like instead for these spells to be similiar to Blu spells in that they often have an unusual additional effect. For example Hastega could give Haste, Enaero and Aero-Spikes and change the name to Emboldening Breeze or something.

But yeah, it definately wins with flashiness!

[Deifact]

Oh and I feel like the spirits are better but could be improved. I like that it is easy now to have spirits out for zero perpetuation cost, so quite often I keep Light Spirit out when I'm wondering around to keep me buffed and healed. However, there are still quite alot of spells missing from them that could be implemented.

[Mokeil]

I also like to explore (I've been playing for some time but there are vast areas I've never set foot in!) so with a stack of -perp gear on I can run around with an avatar out all the time; this then acts as my defence when I run straight into a true sight NM or similar and gives me the chance to safely teleport out! :-)

Oh, man! How did I forget to mention that part?! Unlike all of the other pets out there - charmed mobs, jug pets, wyverns, and automatons alike - only our pet will actively move to defend its master. Yea, it sometimes causes problems (any time slept mobs are involved), but it's saved my butt more times than I can count. Eight or so years ago I even worked a /bow <pet> command into my release macros. No one has ever told me to take em out, so there they remain - a simple act of respect for the beings without whom I would be little more than a WHM2.


There was also this one time (true story!) in Ro'Maeve... I was on the way to an XP party behind the Moon gates when I stopped to re-apply Sneak in what should have been a safe area. My loyal Carby, ever on the look out for trouble, starts moving. Nothing should have been close enough to aggro, but, sure enough, Carby is now holding off a dancing weapon. Then I saw the name of the mob. It was none other than the Shikigami Weapon! (Before Abyssea came along, this guy dropped the hands-down best body piece for Summoners. As a 21 hour repsawn NM with less than stellar drop rate and a weird aggro mechanic, competition for this guy was really fierce.)

Pure dumb luck and my loyal Carby got me the claim over a good dozen or so angry Adventurers that day. I wouldn't have had time to out claim any of the other aspirants for it if I was on any other job. (My party eventually reached me in time to help me kill it, but I was not so lucky on the drop rate. Still, for just that one instant, I was King. )

[Artharian]

I swear Carbuncle has an aggressive streak! I've been waiting in Pashow Marshlands [S] for weather for a staff trial and the little blue fella has run off after Campaign mobs passing through... I've had to release and re-summon just to get him to heel!

Art.

[Archades]

Well duh Squirrels do nothing but cause trouble.