What in the name of anything @ Atomos

[mattkoko]

Not going to lie, I am no smn but my main is drk and I was pretty surprised with what I was able to steal with absorb-attribute. The only mobs it did not seem to work on are those that resisted the absorb spells all together. I hope this information is useful considering it seems that they both work the same according to the dev team . So as long as it is not an aura or resistant to absorb type spells, it should work, even on bosses.

[Rakshaka]

Excellent; now we have a dispel ability that can be used without having to burn a ward pact. This is assuming that the blood pact that Atomos uses will behave in the same way as Zantetsuken and Perfect Defense, in that it doesn't cause any blood pact timer to go on cooldown. I'm doubly glad that I have a fast cast gear set now, seeing as how the only constraint on how often we can summon Atomos seems to just be recast time.

I often see people complain the most when the new toy that we get isn't some new game breaking overpowered thing. I think people should instead focus on the thing that makes this job special, it's versatility. Whenever I get on any job besides smn I almost immediately miss it, because on those other jobs I don't have an infinite number of tools at my disposal. We can do physical damage, we can do magical damage, we have party wide buffs (many of which are unique to us), we have varied debuffs, and some of the most awesome looking abilities around. When I get a new tool for my smn toolbox, im not looking for a hammer that's bigger than the one I already have; I'm looking for a new tool to add to my collection.

Granted, some of the tools at our disposal are broken, and NEED to be fixed (e.g. ward buffs that stopped gaining potency after level 75; please dev team, throw us a bone and adjust their potency based on avatar level), but I hope people can start appreciating the job for its variety of abilities.

[Zeargi]

Excellent; now we have a dispel ability that can be used without having to burn a ward pact. This is assuming that the blood pact that Atomos uses will behave in the same way as Zantetsuken and Perfect Defense, in that it doesn't cause any blood pact timer to go on cooldown. I'm doubly glad that I have a fast cast gear set now, seeing as how the only constraint on how often we can summon Atomos seems to just be recast time.

I often see people complain the most when the new toy that we get isn't some new game breaking overpowered thing. I think people should instead focus on the thing that makes this job special, it's versatility. Whenever I get on any job besides smn I almost immediately miss it, because on those other jobs I don't have an infinite number of tools at my disposal. We can do physical damage, we can do magical damage, we have party wide buffs (many of which are unique to us), we have varied debuffs, and some of the most awesome looking abilities around. When I get a new tool for my smn toolbox, im not looking for a hammer that's bigger than the one I already have; I'm looking for a new tool to add to my collection.

Granted, some of the tools at our disposal are broken, and NEED to be fixed (e.g. ward buffs that stopped gaining potency after level 75; please dev team, throw us a bone and adjust their potency based on avatar level), but I hope people can start appreciating the job for its variety of abilities.

In the community's defense, clarification was most definitely needed. Most were under the impression that Astral Flow would have to be used, which had it been the case, would have been horrible. A dispel effect with a 1hr recast that removes 1 effect at the cost of all your MP... You can't blame people for being mad. And comparing that to Zantetsuken and Prefect Defense, it's very disheartening, and even more so with the huge delay on putting the avatar out.

It's good to see SMN is at least getting something, but SMN is still far from where it could be. I'm hoping we can steal a DD slot now with this boost to ACC. And depending on how much the +Prep comes to be with the Avatar's Favor and hopefully no buildup, we can be considered for a DD/Support like COR. Of course, I'd still like to see a few of the Avatar's Favor changed, like Ramuh's from CRIT%+ to ACC+ or CRIT DMG+, and perhaps Fenrir's from Magic Evasion to Regain. Ifrit's and Leviathan's Favors might actually be AMAZING now. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what this update shows.

And as you've said yourself, They do need to look into fixing our Wards as well, but maybe also look into making our Rages so they can SC higher than just the basic things. That way we can be part of the party in every way we can.