Is Summoner currently fun to play?

They used to be great. Before the terrible 5.0 job redesign, it was possible to tank through the pet and I found the job to be my favorite. Now, it's just alright...I have trouble playing the SUM without thinking back before 5.0 and missing what it used to be.

They simplified a lot with summoner, right now it's one of the top DPS Classes the last major balance adjustment got rid of 5 OGCD abilities that had to be weaved in their burst rotation along with a damage buff that put them from above RDM to above BLM. It was kinda a half-assed redesign but a lot of other classes received the same kind of treatment I'd say this expansion was more focused on story content then end game combat which is kind of a shame.

I think Summoner is still fun to play after 5.1 but it's pretty simplified. I still like 4.1 Summoner better though because of its flexibility and it rewarded you for playing smart. Old summoner in general also felt like everything in its toolkit actually meshed well with each other.

I’m always jealous of their phoenix fire. But have a biased against casters since they’re usually not my cup of tea. Red Mage being absurdly boring

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Originally Posted by Renkei

They simplified a lot with summoner, right now it's one of the top DPS Classes the last major balance adjustment got rid of 5 OGCD abilities that had to be weaved in their burst rotation along with a damage buff that put them from above RDM to above BLM. It was kinda a half-assed redesign but a lot of other classes received the same kind of treatment I'd say this expansion was more focused on story content then end game combat which is kind of a shame.

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You really should stop talking about matters you don't understand especially if you really think the current iteration is "simplified". EAs on the GCD easied CPM and weaving in the opener (4 OGCDs there btw). The job was already above RDM even when both were bottom of the barrel for DPS and even now both jobs are close in ST potential after 5.2. SMN is not above BLM in full uptime. The job's strengths right now are precisely why it's anything but simplified and why in certain cases it can have advantages.

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Originally Posted by Cythil

I don't really care about how well Summoner is performing currently as long as it's not the absolute worst by a large margin. I just care whether or not it's fun to play in it's current state. The job interests me for few reasons. Firstly, leveling Scholar along side it seems like nice benefit in case I want to give healing a shot and the class fantasy of being able to summon Bahamut just seems awesome. Also to a lesser extent just cause I find AoE DoTing satisfying so Bane seems nice.

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If you enjoy being a lock for every single raid group regardless of how skilled you are simply on the basis of playing summoner, sure.

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Originally Posted by Nemekh

You really should stop talking about matters you don't understand especially if you really think the current iteration is "simplified". EAs on the GCD easied CPM and weaving in the opener (4 OGCDs there btw). The job was already above RDM even when both were bottom of the barrel for DPS and even now both jobs are close in ST potential after 5.2. SMN is not above BLM in full uptime. The job's strengths right now are precisely why it's anything but simplified and why in certain cases it can have advantages.

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You should stop going out of the way to personally attack me in an attempt to gas light me over an opinion when you clearly have a bias to the class if you cannot agree to disagree with anybody like i know for a fact you cannot do - it shows how inflated your ego truly is you are welcome to your opinion but if you want to be so authoritarian about your outlook go for it but what you are doing is clear witch hunting and harassment, My Lodestone and information is private so your opinion isn't even based on any type of Educated information it is purely driven by your feelings.

looking at log information Summoner has a ton of advantages that other classes do not have, their CPM was cut down significantly inside of their burst window.


Patch 5.1 Notes : Your opener will see yourself pressing up to 6 buttons lesser at the first minute.

Having spoken to over a dozen summoners about this, some of them had mixed feelings about the balance changes some feel like the damage output is very welcome but are displeased with the simplification of the rotation, then there is some that defend that the changes are perfectly good for the class and nothing is wrong with the changes, then there is the ones that believe that the class needed a damage bonus with the old rotation and the class now is doing damage output similar to what it's old complex rotation should have done to begin with. My opinion of it is in the last opinion i feel like jobs with high complexity should benefit from higher damage output, i don't like the idea of simplification followed with a damage buff - this shows a lot of imbalance issues in end game content such as content that has Omni-Directional bosses where the damage bonuses from melee do not compete properly with the exception of Samurai as missing an positional is a very minor damage penalty, and having extreme rewards built into their kit with very little risk and high mobility.

I feel like this is the same with Summoner right now, and i honestly would much rather prefer people play what they like then worry about whether or not it is the absolutely best or not.

The Question you should be asking yourself OP is if you enjoy it more then the other classes and if you do then sure go for it.


So we are both wrong about the amount of abilities cut down in the rotation.

To primarily answer OP's question, any job is okay and fun as long as you enjoy it yourself, but additional to Summoner is that it is fun if you are willing to put in the time to understand its systems.


I'll have to disagree that Summoner has been simplified simply because of a reduction in CPM. The gap between a bad, okay and good Summoner has grown wider than it was in Stormblood as its systems have become a lot more involved. Gone are the days where setting your pet on Obey is practically sufficient to perform as Summoner, Egi Assaults are yet another cooldown to manage, and are gated in ways that are unique to the Summoner due to the pet system.

If we're comparing Summoner to other jobs, it's probably the least simplified job coming from Stormblood, and coming from pre-5.1 changes. Other jobs have received changes that alleviated a lot of their punishing aspects and lost a lot of their extraneous buttons that were a relic of the past.

Melee are simpler than ever, Ranged are still ranged albeit in need of adjustments, Healers and Tanks have had their rotations reduced that their players are asking for a return to some complexity. Casters are like Ranged in that aspect where they really didn't change coming to Stormblood, but Summoner needed the changes in 5.1 to reduce the overloaded kit they got in 5.0, for better or worse.

Damage-wise I've never been a strong believer that you can have a single quantity that defines how "difficult" a job is, nor that it should be a strong factor in its balancing.

Personally, I like SMN now more than pre 5.0, I couldn't really get into what it wanted, now, pretty much love the class, Don't like ressing though, so yeah, I do it anyway. Fun is always subjective soo there is no right answer to your question. Just give it a go a bit, it may grow on you or it may not. It's all up to you boo.

Personally, I think it's an absolute chore to play. Used to love SMN in XI or other titles and I really like that we got more summons but the pet changes are just bad and so are the million buttons you have to press. It feels gutted and clunky. Shame for such an iconic job. I hope Yoshi and his team can figure out what to do with it.