I Love 4.0 Summoner. A lot.

After getting Summoner to 70, something just feels wrong with Aetherflow and Dreadwyrm sharing the same bar for me. Dreadwyrm becomes something that I have to burn immediately when it comes up because of how slow it is. On top of that, if I don't, there's some skills I cannot use because they require Aetherflow stacks and I can't use Aetherflow if Dreadwyrm is up.

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Originally Posted by Blanchimont

After getting Summoner to 70, something just feels wrong with Aetherflow and Dreadwyrm sharing the same bar for me. Dreadwyrm becomes something that I have to burn immediately when it comes up because of how slow it is. On top of that, if I don't, there's some skills I cannot use because they require Aetherflow stacks and I can't use Aetherflow if Dreadwyrm is up.

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With the rotation of 70 you are looking to use the Demi-Bahamut like it was Dreadwyrm on Heavensward, pairing Bahamut with the aetherflow. That way you can alternate between RuinII and the aetherflow skills to maximize the attacks Bahamut can make in that window of time. Using it that way i have found it to be more fluid... The only time it gets clunky it's the time between aetherflow cooldowns, constant R1 or R3 (R2 for movement). Also, since you activate Aetherflow and goes on cooldown you have 1 minute until it comes up again to use Dreadwyrm and pair it with other abilities, or to addapt to the fight if you need to do it.

It just feels terrible to play with the way it is now. Dreadwyrm needs to be its own separate bar, not shared with Aetherflow.

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Originally Posted by Blanchimont

It just feels terrible to play with the way it is now. Dreadwyrm needs to be its own separate bar, not shared with Aetherflow.

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TECHNICALLY, it is it's own separate bar (There's Aetherflow gauge and a Trance gauge). All they would need to do is just add 3 pips onto the Trance gauge to separate it from the Aetherflow stacks.

I've been playing SMN since ARR launch, and the current 4.0 rotation is the clunkiest and most unintuitive iteration yet. Yes, HW SMN was much easier. It was never difficult to reapply 3 DoT's when needed (4 if you count Shadowflare), and to time your cooldowns for Dreadwyrm Stance (Raging Strikes, Tri-disaster, 2 Festers, Contagion, and swiftcast Shadowflare were pretty much it anyway). It was much easier to adjust to boss phases/lockouts since the only timer you needed to be mindful of was your Aethertrail, making sure you added a fresh stack right before a phase change.

Now we have a rotation where it seems every ability is stepping on the toes of another. Can't Aetherflow while in Dreadwyrm -- we have to end DWS early to keep Aetherflow on CD, and make sure we pop Dreadwyrm 16 seconds before Aetherflow comes up again. Can't use Rouse or Enkindle while Bahamut is up. Can't DWS while Bahamut is out. Any time any of these are delayed or off CD, but inaccessible, just screams DPS loss to us. To make it worse, the way Bahamut is designed forces us to save all of our Aetherflow stacks and oGCD's for his phase, which is one of the main reasons we have a 2-3 minute rotation. Otherwise, our rotation would just revolve around DWS every 60 sec (with Bahamut after every 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc. DWS). This is probably the easiest fix for Square -- simply change it so Tri-Disaster and Addle do NOT trigger a Wyrmwave. Bahamut should also stop trying to follow the player and plant his butt still.

On a dummy, after some practice, the rotation isn't that difficult either. But the problem is boss phases and lockouts will mess our timings up much more than any other class, moreso than Heavensward ever did. Any time Aetherflow is off CD, we are losing DPS, but we may not be able to pop Aetherflow because of the duration of Bahamut and DWS. Any time Rouse and Enkindle are off CD, we are losing DPS, but Bahamut prevents their use. This isn't even touching upon how SMN has the worst recovery of all DPS jobs after a player death, or how shitty Devotion is as a party support skill. Or since mana has become so plentiful in Stormblood, we now need to properly juggle between Ruin 1 and Ruin 3 spam to make the most use out of Lucid Dream and bard's regen song.

Yes our DoT's have become simplified, but it is much harder to play this job optimally than compared to Heavensward. You can just look at the variance in SMN DPS in FF logs to see this. With how clunky the class feels, it's not even enjoyable when you do nail it.

After giving it a huge farm to Susano, i must say the only time i felt clunkiness was during Aetherflow downtime. The rest of the fight was as smoth as the ass of a newborn. Even the phases.

does ACT now show the correct dps of smn? .. if not, how much dps about is missing on ACT an average run?

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Originally Posted by Shiroe

does ACT now show the correct dps of smn? .. if not, how much dps about is missing on ACT an average run?

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It can be 200 - 500 if you are using radiant shield. Depends on encounter and your direct hit rate. Fflogs count whole party radiant shield damage as your damage and act can not read direct hits from dots.

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Originally Posted by Sunako

It can be 200 - 500 if you are using radiant shield. Depends on encounter and your direct hit rate. Fflogs count whole party radiant shield damage as your damage and act can not read direct hits from dots.

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thankuuuuu

I've been playing SMN since early access ARR...and its basically Ruin 3 spam atm. I play it in savage...it needs a lot of fixing imo. Anyway I am sure the devs already decided how they are going to "fix" it so discussion is moot. Hopefully they fix it how BRD got fixed ^^