SMN 5.1 Job adjustments

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Originally Posted by AdamWarlocke

I will have to agree to disagree. It's a fecking PET job - so it has to mean something to BE a pet job because the whole point of the job ARE ABOUT PETS helping you do damage. That's the very definition of what a summoner IS. You may as well have Yoshi P/SE just get rid of the normal pets and turn the job into a straight up caster 90% of the time and just summon Bahamut/Phoenix for the "big guns" instead ala Machinist. Like I said before: how it plays now is beyond what it's supposed to be in the game's lore, so basically they broke their own dang lore by turning summoners into something isn't anymore. It's why I much prefer Red Mage and Scholar these days - both have solo survivability (scholar more so) than the current so-called summoner when it comes to soloing content AND leveling. In fact; I would argue that the Scholar job class is EXACTLY what a summoner SHOULD BE - despite the fact it has only ONE actual summon other than Seraph - and no, I can't count Selene since she's pretty much Eos with a different color now in Shadowbringers when they gutted her into an Eos clone.

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It shouldn't be. in FF a summoner is NOT a pet job, it's a demi calling job, they only did a pet job because they didn't know better at the time (and every mmo needs a pet job to appeal to some public). Currently as of FF inheritage, they're going the right way with Bahamut and Phoenix. What they should do, is design a REAL, SEPARATE pet class, and then yeah they can take all your advice regarding pets cause you're right, they don't know how to do a pet class.

That and SMN was only a pet job in like...FFXI, right? That and FFXI SMN had a bad rep too for how it was designed. Everywhere else it's basically just a (usually more potent) BLM with cutscenes. The new direction FFXIV SMN is going is definitely more inclined to what it is traditionally.

Not even in FFXI was SMN a pet job. You could only keep avatars out for a short time because keeping them out strained your MP, it was basically have them make a move, maybe leave them out for a few seconds then desummon. Only carbuncle could be kept out indefinitely and that was with special rare gloves. Proper pet jobs in FFXI were beastmaster and puppetmaster.

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Originally Posted by Namir

Not even in FFXI was SMN a pet job. You could only keep avatars out for a short time because keeping them out strained your MP, it was basically have them make a move, maybe leave them out for a few seconds then desummon. Only carbuncle could be kept out indefinitely and that was with special rare gloves. Proper pet jobs in FFXI were beastmaster and puppetmaster.

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You got me remembering that job on FFXI. That brings back memories, but yeah not even close to a pet job, just a support/solo job at best. Interesting job though once you get specific gear to manage your MP(Yinyang robe..Please SE bring that into this game). Made them more useful post WotG or Seekers, but pre-CoP, Fenrir was the ship. That doggie was a must for parties.

Should've, could've, would've.... SMN is what it is.

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Originally Posted by Dyvid

Should've, could've, would've.... SMN is what it is.

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Indeed : an iteration not true to Final Fantasy ; the name have you expect something different. Hear me I wouldn't mind a SMN that was this way in any other franchise (teso, wow, whatever). Here, it's Final Fantasy. Name comes with a legacy and expectations. You expect a final fantasy summoner not just the name summoner that could mean various gameplay, no a lot of people want a FF summoner : summon temporarily a big, cool looking entity, that does a big flashy move with big damage, then goes away.

Doesn't go well with MMO styles at first thought (imagine pushing one button every 20 seconds only), yet they managed to make something that looks like it AND is adapted to MMO, in the shape of Demis (they dilute the big flash on 20 sec but you feel powerful when they are here and that's the point, how it feels). I would even have them launch their nuke only once but twice the power (something like 1000 smn eq. potency)

What I do understand also, is that there is quite a number of people as well that want a pet class and that's perfectly fine. All I say is they sacrificed SMN on that alter, and it's time they stopped. That's why I'm advocating for, next expansion, a new class that would be a pet class, and make SMN free of that "specification" burden & go full demis. If some people say "but then it's just a flashy BLM" ? Yeah that's what a FF SMN is, that's what a lot of people expect and want.

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Originally Posted by Karshan

Yeah that's what a FF SMN is, that's what a lot of people expect and want.

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Don't forget that if we're being reductive, RDM Is also just a BLM that weaves multiple elements. Hell, there's not much difference between a Ninja or Samurai at that point. It's mostly style and aesthetics. And yet I don't really see people complaining that any 2 DPS jobs are too similar.

It's not about what you're doing, it's how you're doing it, as well as some super nifty animations while getting there. This is why I personally focus on saying that when I want a redesign of SMN in the next expansion, I want the class focused around trances. Sure, it will be very similar to Black Mage doing that since it would mostly be direct damage shenanigans, but the texture of the trance system is completely different than how a BLM works. Between that and higher mobility, the 2 could even be focused around big numbers but feel completely different.

And that's all that matters when designing classes.

The thing that amaze me with how SE deals with SMN is that the job gets to be turn a complete 180 degree every expansion. From 3.X to 4.X to 5.X, job have never stay exactly the same. While I think it keeps the job being somewhat more exciting to play, I have also always hated the new iteration at the very beginning every time because of how bad it turned out to be and requires more fine tuning patch after patch.

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Originally Posted by Miziliti

The thing that amaze me with how SE deals with SMN is that the job gets to be turn a complete 180 degree every expansion. From 3.X to 4.X to 5.X, job have never stay exactly the same. While I think it keeps the job being somewhat more exciting to play, I have also always hated the new iteration at the very beginning every time because of how bad it turned out to be and requires more fine tuning patch after patch.

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To be fair, Machinist got hit by this, BLM got hit by this, now NIN got hit by this. Meanwhile, over in MNK land, they're basically asking for it to happen because the job is stuck in stagnation hell with the devs not really sure what to do with the class and their fumbling about in the dark while not changing the core rotation is also annoying that community.

What's really bad is 5.1's rotation was broken, in a weird way. Reducing the cooldown of trance means that you will innately advance ALL of your trance cycles by 3-5 seconds now. You can sit on it, but you probably won't outside of party coordination shenanigans. Which means Enkindle starts wandering, Aetherflow starts wandering, and Devotion, especially, will constantly come up during FBT now.

The class is...better? But it still has serious design issues and by fixing one problem, it introduced a completely different one.

And, now that EA 1 and 2 are their own GCDs, there is next to no reason for DWT to exist as it does, because you can easily get off all the oGCDs you need to during Egi Assaults. This is good, but it also further highlights how absolutely terribly designed DWT is at the moment, accentuating the necessity of merging Demi-Bahamut into DWT at this point.

Ultimately, I'd go so far as to say it more or less is proving Summoner definitely needs a major, ground-up rework like what Machinist got. But it's no longer a horrifically over-busy job with a ridiculously tight rotation that takes a lot of skill to execute. It just is also....well...broken, just in a different way.

Thankfully, the nature of how it's broken can be accounted for with player skill, and even if you don't account for it, the class is still functional, but all the timers are seriously just not lining up very well from my initial observations.

I'm curious what everyone elses' thoughts are.

I don’t feel much needs to be changed about SMN from a functional standpoint after they fix the current bug. Devotion needs to be moved and it would be nice if Earthen Armor triggered Further Ruin but otherwise SMN is in a fine spot considering the circumstances. You can weave EA into Bahamut or Phoenix but it’s not necessary to take those risks at all with proper EA and DWT management alongside Energy Drain/Siphon, don’t cap either and you’re good. Pet swaps are mostly redundant outside of AoE burst by the current numbers which I’d consider a plus too.

I’m content with this till the next expansion but I do want change regarding pets.

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Originally Posted by Taranok

What's really bad is 5.1's rotation was broken, in a weird way. Reducing the cooldown of trance means that you will innately advance ALL of your trance cycles by 3-5 seconds now. You can sit on it, but you probably won't outside of party coordination shenanigans. Which means Enkindle starts wandering, Aetherflow starts wandering, and Devotion, especially, will constantly come up during FBT now...

...And, now that EA 1 and 2 are their own GCDs, there is next to no reason for DWT to exist as it does, because you can easily get off all the oGCDs you need to during Egi Assaults. This is good, but it also further highlights how absolutely terribly designed DWT is at the moment, accentuating the necessity of merging Demi-Bahamut into DWT at this point.

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I think it feels better from a button mashing standpoint, but these are the two biggest issues for me now. Granted, I've only run a couple dungeons so far, so my opinion may not be worth much yet.

The cds felt like they came up at weird times all over the place and I had a hard time getting into the flow of things rotationally. Additionally, DWT now just feels like two button presses to cast Deathflare. Or three button presses to Summon Bahamut. It's weird as hell.

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Originally Posted by Karshan

It shouldn't be. in FF a summoner is NOT a pet job, it's a demi calling job, they only did a pet job because they didn't know better at the time (and every mmo needs a pet job to appeal to some public).

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The slight problem I have with that statement is due to the fact that despite them "reworking" summoners - which is still @ss in 5.1 - is that some of the quests (especially STARTER arcanist quests) have you send your pet to tank. SE NEVER fixed those quests - EVER. Leveling as an arcanist/summoner is still borked in my opinion. Tried a few fates today at the release of the supposed "fixes" - normal Fates are okay, but it REALLY struggles hard when fighting Boss Fates. Boss Fates that every other class can EASILY kill (SCH included), can still give summoners a bad day. Like I said, if my Red Mage - the one supposedly "weaker" than the BLM and SMN in terms of "damage" - can burn down a Boss Fate FASTER then a Summoner AND survive the fight better than a SMN, then the SMN class is still borked to me. SE really needs to overhaul and redesign the class from the ground up. "It's not a pet job" - then get SE to get rid of the damn egis, apply a gauge to summon Bahamut/Phoenix the same way a MCH gets a gauge to pull off big attacks, etc. egis having piddling damage don't help overall if your rotation still takes abt 2 mins to pull everything off "right" depending on the fight.

I tried it once today and it just felt somehow worse ? How do they keep doing that

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Originally Posted by AngelicSnake

I tried it once today and it just felt somehow worse ? How do they keep doing that

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I have a feeling they didn't even test the "changes" themselves before they implemented it, and rely on live feedback to see if they screwed up or not. As it is, I've given up on being a Summoner for the rest of this expansion. The headaches playing as one aren't worth it this time for now.

I love it. High difficulty high rewards. Big numbers only come if you play perfectly.

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Originally Posted by Alym

I think it feels better from a button mashing standpoint, but these are the two biggest issues for me now. Granted, I've only run a couple dungeons so far, so my opinion may not be worth much yet.

The cds felt like they came up at weird times all over the place and I had a hard time getting into the flow of things rotationally. Additionally, DWT now just feels like two button presses to cast Deathflare. Or three button presses to Summon Bahamut. It's weird as hell.

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If you DWT just to cast Flare you really need to learn the job again.

Everything definitely feels disjointed. I have a hard time telling whether that's just a period of adjustment that needs to happen to what will be a new rotation of skills, or whether it really is off. Nothing feels like it should line up right now.

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Originally Posted by ksuyen

If you DWT just to cast Flare you really need to learn the job again.

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What do you use DWT for now that we easily weave with Egi Assaults and Ruin IV procs? It resets Tri-D, but that's passive on hitting DWT. There's no damage boost anymore so Ruin IIIs and DoTs are the same damage when used inside DWT as they are outside DWT. Using the entire duration just delays Bahamut.

I'm genuinely curious what there is to do inside DWT now.

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Originally Posted by Alym

What do you use DWT for now that we easily weave with Egi Assaults and Ruin IV procs? It resets Tri-D, but that's passive on hitting DWT. There's no damage boost anymore so Ruin IIIs and DoTs are the same damage when used inside DWT as they are outside DWT. Using the entire duration just delays Bahamut.

I'm genuinely curious what there is to do inside DWT now.

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This.
Outside of resetting Tri-Disaster, now there's absolutely no reason to stay in Dreadwyrm Trance for its full duration, making it feel "redundant" (detrimental, even).

With these changes, it should have been reworked to integrate Demi-Bahamut into it (like Firebird Trance).

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Originally Posted by Alym

What do you use DWT for now that we easily weave with Egi Assaults and Ruin IV procs? It resets Tri-D, but that's passive on hitting DWT. There's no damage boost anymore so Ruin IIIs and DoTs are the same damage when used inside DWT as they are outside DWT. Using the entire duration just delays Bahamut.

I'm genuinely curious what there is to do inside DWT now.

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It reduces 2.5s casting time which makes weaving instant Ruin3 for single or outbursts for AoE before the time runs out worthwhile.

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Originally Posted by ksuyen

It reduces 2.5s casting time which makes weaving instant Ruin3 for single or outbursts for AoE before the time runs out worthwhile.

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Yeah, but now that the Egi Assault(s) are classified as spells (thus, subject to GCD), you can no longer "weave" them alongside Ruin III/Outburst.

After a lot of thought, I pretty much came to the question "Why should I be using Ruin 3 when I have any other option?"

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Originally Posted by ksuyen

It reduces 2.5s casting time which makes weaving instant Ruin3 for single or outbursts for AoE before the time runs out worthwhile.

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Outburst is the only time it's even worth considering sticking around. DWT provides no practical benefit in the overwhelming majority of situations where you can use it, and for the few sections where you can make use of instant ruin 3s and outbursts, you, well...stay in DWT.

Your point is fundamentally invalid, there is no reason for DWT to exist as implemented, even without it the class is so full of instant GCDs that it may as well have every 2.5s GCD be instant at this point. While I've not used it in real content yet, I've not been hurting for movement outside of me personally panicking trying to make sense of a rotation that is constantly doing everything in its power to drift every single cooldown at all times.

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Originally Posted by Pip_Medio

After a lot of thought, I pretty much came to the question "Why should I be using Ruin 3 when I have any other option?"

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Basically if you know you need an instant GCD, you can bank egi assaults or ruin 4s. That's about it.

need an advice to use pet skill after patch, i used to double weave these skill in DWT to prepare ruin 4 for bahamut summon, but now it on GCD and that technique doesn't work anymore and i feel i use less pet skill in my rotation now, only chance i have to use them is when i am moving

Phsyx is still trash and heals for less than 900/gcd
Bane still reduces dot damage to 60%
Previous pet casted abilities are now on the GCD......
Aetherpack still requires an EGI... and can wiff.. and still takes ages for the pet to decide to cast it
Titan armor still requires 1) a target 2) wasted GCD to summon titan, 3) a charge, and now 4) another GCD to entice titan to cast it...
Enkindle can still wiff
Bahamut still moves instead of casting waves

Overall the class went backwards for some minor potency increases.

So after I played around with it for awhile here are my thoughts. I feel like it's became oh so much slower. We now have far too many GCDs and no real flow. I do like Egis doing more damage (Except you titan. Because once again no one really cares about you, prove me wrong.) and such. But once again, I lack the understanding of why not just you know... Have our pets do the EA instead of us having to spend not one, not two. But four GCDs on it. It's made the rotation far slower then before. Sure, it was a pain to press something like sixteen buttons or so, that quickly. But this.. I really dislike what it has became. There is now thing that really adds to the class. We are nothing but a GCD class with two dots that are so minor. Remember when the dots were important and not just kinda tossed on and if they drop they drop? I feel like our dots should carry far more weight then they do. But at this point, we might as well drop them and focus more on out Demis. I still am unsure why one isn't even tied to a Stance like firebird. Firebird feels really good, has a nice flow and changes two of your spells to match the stance. Something I felt was really good. So why did they not merely do that, put the EA back on the pets, and lastly make our dots worth while to even have to keep up. Maybe I am just crazy, but wouldn't what I just said fix the mess of a class it became instead of making us purely GCD? Anyways, that is my two gil on the update.

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Originally Posted by Atamis

Phsyx is still trash and heals for less than 900/gcd

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THIS ^

This is basically why our survivability on solo content (most especially on Boss/Mini-Boss Fates and some party content) is close to zero. SMN Physik does NOT scale the same way a SCH does that it's a retarded ability on a summoner. Quite embarrassing when your own Chocobo can out-heal you in a pinch. Hell, a Red Mage's Verrcure out-heals a SMN's Physik every single damn time no matter what. If a Red Mage's VerrCure can scale as they level, why can't a SMN's Physik?

Why the hell does SE bring in some so-so "kinda good" changes to SMN, but then "balances" it with a lot more BAD ones that it makes the class a gorram CHORE to play with now, why SE?

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Originally Posted by ShariusTC

need an advice to use pet skill after patch, i used to double weave these skill in DWT to prepare ruin 4 for bahamut summon, but now it on GCD and that technique doesn't work anymore and i feel i use less pet skill in my rotation now, only chance i have to use them is when i am moving

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Literally use Egi Assault like you would Ruin 3. You can bank it, or spend it normally, but it's basically at worst a side-grade of Ruin 3, and is probably a slight upgrade before factoring in ruin 4 procs. The pet queueing apparently was massively improved (or it wasn't changed and they removed error throwing from it) so you can actually EA 1->Aetherpact->Enkindle->EA2 and it will execute those abilities in that exact order, just not necessarily instantly/ Hope that helps.

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Originally Posted by AdamWarlocke

THIS ^

This is basically why our survivability on solo content (most especially on Boss/Mini-Boss Fates and some party content) is close to zero. SMN Physik does NOT scale the same way a SCH does that it's a retarded ability on a summoner. Quite embarrassing when your own Chocobo can out-heal you in a pinch. Hell, a Red Mage's Verrcure out-heals a SMN's Physik every single damn time no matter what. If a Red Mage's VerrCure can scale as they level, why can't a SMN's Physik?

Why the hell does SE bring in some so-so "kinda good" changes to SMN, but then "balances" it with a lot more BAD ones that it makes the class a gorram CHORE to play with now, why SE?

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Wrong. The issue is that Physic DOES scale like Scholars. It scales off mind, not int, and summoners after level 50 don't get any mind.

Yeah, the class is that screwy.

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Originally Posted by AdamWarlocke

THIS ^

This is basically why our survivability on solo content (most especially on Boss/Mini-Boss Fates and some party content) is close to zero. SMN Physik does NOT scale the same way a SCH does that it's a retarded ability on a summoner. Quite embarrassing when your own Chocobo can out-heal you in a pinch. Hell, a Red Mage's Verrcure out-heals a SMN's Physik every single damn time no matter what. If a Red Mage's VerrCure can scale as they level, why can't a SMN's Physik?

Why the hell does SE bring in some so-so "kinda good" changes to SMN, but then "balances" it with a lot more BAD ones that it makes the class a gorram CHORE to play with now, why SE?

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Meh, BLMs don't even have that crappy heal as our only spammable heal was removed in 5.0 (rip Drain). BLMs only have their AoE Sleep and Manaward now for self-sustain.. SMNs have a healing DoT in Firebird Trance and now a shield equal to Manaward (clunky to use sure, but equal mitigation).

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Originally Posted by Numenor1379

Meh, BLMs don't even have that crappy heal as our only spammable heal was removed in 5.0 (rip Drain). BLMs only have their AoE Sleep and Manaward now for self-sustain.. SMNs have a healing DoT in Firebird Trance and now a shield equal to Manaward (clunky to use sure, but equal mitigation).

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I'd take manawall and aetherial manipulation over earthen shield and not having the ability to rapidly move from one location to another, but getting a terrible heal of like 2.5% of my life every 3 seconds for 7 tics.

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Originally Posted by Taranok

Wrong. The issue is that Physic DOES scale like Scholars. It scales off mind, not int, and summoners after level 50 don't get any mind.

Yeah, the class is that screwy.

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That still doesn't make me all the way wrong since you basically already confirmed that no longer scales PAST lvl 50 due to a "change of internal mechanic". SE should've retooled Physik into ANOTHER heal ability that scales off of INT at that point then like "Physik II" or something that switches the skill into a new mechanic like how other SMN abilities get upgrades as they level. If I have to make a guess, Physik is probably one of the OLDER abilities that never get a numeral upgrade for SMN'rs.

WTB a complete SMN redesign/overhaul.

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Originally Posted by Atamis

Phsyx is still trash and heals for less than 900/gcd
Bane still reduces dot damage to 60%
Previous pet casted abilities are now on the GCD......
Aetherpack still requires an EGI... and can wiff.. and still takes ages for the pet to decide to cast it
Titan armor still requires 1) a target 2) wasted GCD to summon titan, 3) a charge, and now 4) another GCD to entice titan to cast it...
Enkindle can still wiff
Bahamut still moves instead of casting waves

Overall the class went backwards for some minor potency increases.

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lol, I forgot we have a heal. I removed it from my hotbars completely and it was so long ago I had forgotten we even had one. That's just a sad waste of a skill.

So you can't start fights with Egi Assault. This is really annoying.

Dreadwyrm Trance is hilariously pointless. This is really annoying.

Nothing really flows, and everything just feels sloppy.

Egis need to go, Dreadwyrm trance needs to go; hell, you could even get rid of aetherflow at this point. It's clear that none of this works, and just as clear that the dev team has no interest in making it work.

Just rework the class around summoning temporary demi-primals. Those at least feel cool, even if they're a touch clunky at the moment.

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Originally Posted by Kiteless

So you can't start fights with Egi Assault. This is really annoying.

Dreadwyrm Trance is hilariously pointless. This is really annoying.

Nothing really flows, and everything just feels sloppy.

Egis need to go, Dreadwyrm trance needs to go; hell, you could even get rid of aetherflow at this point. It's clear that none of this works, and just as clear that the dev team has no interest in making it work.

Just rework the class around summoning temporary demi-primals. Those at least feel cool, even if they're a touch clunky at the moment.

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I REALLY would like to agree you since it seems they're going in that direction, except I can't see SE going the extra mile to RE-DO arcanist from the ground up since egis are hard-baked into the leveling quests - most especially where the quest specifically tells you to USE your egi for some specific tasks. One of the ways SE pretty much FAILED when they got rid of enmity from pets - especially TANKING PETS - is that it broke the damn quest when after you first get your first tanking pet and the quest tells you to SEND IT AHEAD OF YOU to grab aggro - but instead all of it goes straight to you - I know, I checked. Everything is now on a downward slant with how it's clunkier than ever. They may as well just get rid of SMN (because SE has zero idea on how to fix it) and leave SCH the hell alone, and maybe actually make an original pet using class from the ground up.

At this point, they should just make SMN a straight up caster version of MCH and make each spell cast fill a gauge to summon demis - end of story.

I wouldn't mind having SMN trances operate sort of like MCH's meter, but a little more front and centre for the entire playstyle.

Basically, press a trance button, and a timer starts and your meter pops up. Demi primal pops out, starts showing off as it sets up a big flashy attack, oldschool summon animation style. Your skills get primal-infused bonuses, and using them fills the meter. When the timer runs out, the meter is drained, the demi-primal throws out a huge, flashy attack with potency or effects enhanced by the amount of meter filled, and then you move on to your next trance.

Or, you know, do literally anything. Just not what we have now.

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Originally Posted by Kiteless

I wouldn't mind having SMN trances operate sort of like MCH's meter, but a little more front and centre for the entire playstyle.

Basically, press a trance button, and a timer starts and your meter pops up. Demi primal pops out, starts showing off as it sets up a big flashy attack, oldschool summon animation style. Your skills get primal-infused bonuses, and using them fills the meter. When the timer runs out, the meter is drained, the demi-primal throws out a huge, flashy attack with potency or effects enhanced by the amount of meter filled, and then you move on to your next trance.

Or, you know, do literally anything. Just not this.

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I very much like that idea: having a MCH-like trance gauge PER "egi/demi" for different effects with a 20-30 second field time and 50-60 second recast time EACH with its own solo cooldown kinda like a bard's song so you can summon any one of your choice.

Now if only SE would actually LISTEN... then that's a different matter entirely.

While I like the Egi Assault changes, they really do feel awkward in SMN's current gameplay design. They don't seem like a good fit with 5.0 SMN. It would fit a lot better with 4.x and below style SMN because it requires buildup for Dreadwyrm Trance which gives you time to use all of your Egi Assault stacks, but I guess now I just skip Dreadwyrm Trance entirely for my opener so I can dump all the Egi Assault stacks? That and Dreadwyrm Trance not having synergy with Egi Assault really does feel weird. A lot of SMN abilities just don't flow well after the 5.0 rework.

Honestly almost everything about SMN felt awkward after they scrapped Aetherflow and Aethertrail. They should just bring it back already.

Tried out new SMN. Somehow it feels worse and more awkward. Double weaving is gone, since there's pretty much nothing left to weave. DWT is "just why?" at this point. New pet damage is good and EA and EA II feel impactful, but now Ruin III is "cast this when you have nothing better to do".
Bahamut and Phoenix still think they need to stay glued to me all the time, and that's bad.

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Originally Posted by AdamWarlocke

I very much like that idea: having a MCH-like trance gauge PER "egi/demi" for different effects with a 20-30 second field time and 50-60 second recast time EACH with its own solo cooldown kinda like a bard's song so you can summon any one of your choice.

Now if only SE would actually LISTEN... then that's a different matter entirely.

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In fact, by compartmentalizing elements of the Job's playstyle to individual trances, you can deal with aspects like raid utility without compromising its performance as a whole.

For example, imagine a Titan trance that did lower DPS, while also having its big flashy finisher (and potentially the abilities used to fill the meter) debuffing enemy damage output or buffing allies' resilience. Instead of being a single buff/debuff skill, but rather a 20-second trance, its utilization would provide a suitable penalization to damage output in exchange for the added utility, while also being optional in its usage, meaning the SMN's overall damage output and viability at higher levels of play wouldn't have to be compromised.

I don't understand how they manage to keep making the job worse, but somehow they manage to do it. CDs don't line up, as someone mentionned, Devotion comes up after Phoenix trance... DWT is even more useless than before. I'm sometimes left waiting for the egis to actually use EAs and pop the Ruin 4 procs just to move on with demi summoning... This job just fights itself. I suggest whoever is in charge of SMN gameplay at Square takes some lessons from any other job gameplay designer (except MNK). The job needs to be reworked.