I actually really enjoy the way summoner currently works. One of my biggest complaints as others have stated is our repertoire of spells. The description of arcanist talks about geometry and arcane magic. Our list of spells hardly reflects this. We use diseases and poisons for the bulk of our damage. I think when it comes down to it they just got lazy. MMOs with pet classes are typically necromancers or warlocks and often use affliction magic. One classic spell that was missing from the game? Bio. They took off with bio and ran with it. We end up with bio, bio II, miasma, miasma II, bane, fester, and virus. I personally wish that we got elemental dots like drown, shock, choke, burn, etc. from FFXI even the helix-elemental spells from SCH from FFXI. This would fit better with the lore of the job and would make more sense when we become summoners and are able to call upon the power of pure elemental beings. I do hope that for the expansion we do get more pet focused abilities.
