It seems to me that part of the very versatility enjoyed by SMN and mentioned on every summoner argument thread is the thorn in the side of those evokers who want to approximate other jobs in performance. How best to buff a job that has access to almost all buffs in the game, most of the cures, most of the nukes, etc? Could it be that SE sweats this as well but knows how quickly things could go overboard?

I'm not a summoner, so I don't know what I'm talking about, but had a couple ideas I was flirting with, Stances and Specialization.

You can make the argument that each individual summon (be it spirit or avatar) is its own stance, because it excludes abilities not inherent to that pet. Still, summoners can switch between them rather quickly, losing little but the Avatar's Favor effect - which as mentioned is a bit of a mess of popular vs unpopular buffs. Why not put more emphasis on the summoner? Give 'em a set of heavy-recast "stances" that would focus their summons but make them more limited in other areas. Of course, this would be stealing the entire job concept of the Scholar~

As long as we're borrowing from other jobs, how about a wild re-envisioning akin to Blue Magic points wherein a growing summoner can specialize into particular roles or affinity with their avatars? Imagine: 1 Evocation Concentration point for every 10 points in Summoning skill. A whole category of Merit Category 1 type boosts. Become the Spirit Master by lowering their recast timer and boosting their spell potency! Ravage your enemies with combat avatars pumped up with extra haste and double attack! Put on a funny hat and pretend to be a white mage by boosting potency of defensive buffs and avatar cures!

Actually, that sounds like a lot of fun, for at least the first month until someone figures out the 'right' way to spec and everyone follows that. Guess it's an MMO, can't be helped. Thoughts?