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The thing about the boots that make NO SENSE is that.... Blackmage went from one good option for boots (same stats so one option) to two good options. While summoner now has one bad option
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SMN got absolutely destroyed this patch. I thought we would at least walk out of this patch with no changes made; instead, they nerfed us horribly, from multiple angles. They did nothing to alleviate any of the problems we have, of which we have many.
Like... what? Why?
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Bumping the thread, hopefully keeping it in the public eye.
^_^ I even registered for the forums JUST for this thread. :x
Purchased the game not too long ago, and Arcanist is my first class. I'm almost level 50!
Arcanist has been really fun. I love how I can DPS while also being a clutch healer, a battle resser, or an off-tank.
When I got the Summoner upgrade, I thought "oh man, now we're gonna bust out the summons and go to town!"
... instead, I'm just sitting here, spamming my Arcanist DoTs and occasionally noticing that my pet died again :x
I'd argue that the only real "engaged with your primal" experience as SMN is when you're tanking with Titan-egi...
... and even then, it's more because the UI is so terrible, than because you're actively managing your summon.
(Honestly! You can't use petbar skills while casting your own spells? Heck, gettin' Titan to respond to move commands is rough!)
There have been a lot of good ideas in this thread so far.
:x But really, anything that makes you care about your pet as more than "auto attacks + Contagion" would be fantastic.
As a final note, can we all take a moment to remember this image from the 12 Sept post #156?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Crevox
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Ideas for changes
Prerequisite 1) Minor spell buffs based on egi
This one is ripped from an earlier post in this thread. Have the spells gain additional affects based on which egi is summoned. For example, casting Ruin with Ifrit-egi summoned could give an X% boost (stacks Y times, Z duration); and casting Ruin while Garuda-gi is out gives an X% boost to spell speed (stacks Y times, Z duration).
Prerequisite 2) On-summon effects
Completing your summon spell results in an effect.
Example: Ifrit-egi Summon III targets the floor. When summoned, PBAoE column of flame.
Example: After summoning Garuda, her first X autoattacks leave a DoT debuff on the enemy.
(These "on-summon effects" have a cooldown of some sort.)
~ ~ ~
Now combine the above two ideas!
Egi Twisting (Light, we'd need shorter cast times...)
Constantly switching which Egi you've summoned for rotating effects. Example:
Fight starts. Summon Ifrit.
1) Summon Ifrit on boss location. Column of flame does burst AoE damage.
2) After X Ruin casts, Ifrit's effect gives a stacking DPS-% buff with Z duration.
Switch to Garuda.
3) Summon Garuda. Her first attack or two leaves a DoT on the boss.
4) After X Ruin casts, Garuda's effect gives a stacking spell speed buff for Z seconds.
--- remember, your DPS-% boost from Ifrit's buff is slowly ticking down
--- when Ifrit left the field, his column of flame PBAoE started recharging
Switch to Ifrit.
5) Summon Ifrit for more column of flame damage.
6) As you cast Ruin, regain Ifrit's stacking DPS-% buff
--- Garuda's spell speed buff is slowly ticking down
--- now that Garuda is gone, her "DoT on next attack" effect starts recharging.
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Tying "on-summon" recharge to buffs?:
A graceful solution to recharging.
If you DO NOT have Ifrit's "DPS boost" buff, then casting Ifrit gives the flame column.
(So if Ifrit dies and you immediately resummon, you still have his buff. No column of flame).
That way, after you switch to Garuda, all you have to do is watch for Ifrit's buff to run out.
As soon as it does, switch back to Ifrit for the free column of flame PBAoE.
(And now you're watching for Garuda's buff to fall off, so you can resummon her for the autoattack)
~ ~ ~
Even if it's something small like this, it makes you CARE what summon you have out.
This also creates the opportunity for more interesting summons.
They could release Ramuh-egi and Leviathan-egi that have exactly the same attacks as Garuda-egi...
But what if Ramuh-egi cast a group-heal when summoned, and granted a "decreased damage taken" buff on Ruin casts?
And what if Leviathan-egi cast a group-wide movespeed buff when summoned, and a small mana regen mechanic to Ruin?
Suddenly, you're faced with Interesting Choices through-out the fight.
Lots of adds spawning, like Aurum Vale's final boss or Garuda feathers? Toss Ifrit on top for burst AoE.
Coming up on a phase where there's tons of things to dodge? Get Leviathan out there for your very own Shurelya's / Talisman!
High damage phase? Help your healers out and bust out Ramuh for a quick Medica/Succor equivalent.
o_o We would have UTILITY AMG.
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Completely different idea for change
Fester is, like, our signature pew pew nuke as a SMN, right?
Right now it's tied only to our three main DoTs.
Why not also/instead tie it to our pet's attacks?
Example: Garuda adds one stack of Windburn on autoattack, up to 5 stacks.
Fester consumes Windburn stacks to multiply its damage by [1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5].
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Very useful post, I completely agree.
I experimented a little bit and was quite disappointed myself, hopefully this will get seen to !
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*casts necromancy*
The issues continue. This thread remains as relevant as it always has been. Keep in mind that this continues not to be about our DPS, it's about poor class design, bad quality of life, and SE scamming Summoner fans into playing a warlock. As for the rest, you can just read the opening post.
It was announced (again) that at the first level cap raise, we are getting leviathan-egi and ramuh-egi. Level cap raise will probably come with the expansion.
What could these two possibly do that Garuda doesn't? The way this class is designed, it's all about DPS. It's going to be very difficult for them to design them in such a way where they are all situationally doing better or worse amounts of DPS depending on the fights, especially with Garuda already having pretty much the king of potential abilities (Contagion). They could give Ramuh like some super nuke or something, but I'd be really disappointed if their answer to new egis is "let's just make them do tons of damage, now they so good."
They couldn't even balance Ifrit; we are now at patch 2.25 and Ifrit remains a trap for summoners. He's just bad. I'm not looking forward to SE's future developments with leviathan and ramuh, unless they decide to do some heavy duty class changes to fix Summoner, but I remain hopeful of them doing anything positive.
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:O evil necromancer!
SE are a bit screwed really. IMO they had two options, make all Egi DPS but keep the elemental wheel (which would cause issues with CNJ and THM) with each Egi doing the appropriate elemental damage, or give each Egi different roles (which is what they have gone with).
The problem is, there are only so many roles that can be fulfilled, and they're all taken already. Titan is tank, Ifrit is melee dps and Garuda is ranged dps. They can't add a healing Egi without stepping on SCH's toes. They could maybe add a buffing Egi? and a Debuff Egi? but that still leaves an Egi without a role.
So it's anyones guess really how they will resolve this. If they add more DPS egi, there will always be one that is ultimately the best. I think keeping the elemental wheel would have been smarter but oh well.
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Buffing egi and debuffing egi sounds interesting, even if it just means we can weave between our summons mid-battle with swiftcast (yay more skill cap). However, the way SE designs DPS classes is that they are like 99% focused on "deal damage and nothing else" so I don't really see it happening. Utility is rare and few/far between (Summoner has rez, Bard has songs).
With the way it's currently designed, it all comes down to "which pet does the most DPS?" Right now our options are Ifrit and Garuda. Garuda does more than Ifrit. GG Ifrit, you're useless. I wish this wasn't the case, but that's just the way SE has the game designed at the moment. When they add the new pets, the same question will be asked, and we'll probably just end up adjusting accordingly.
I don't really mind the pets having different/diverse skillsets, or different roles in combat, but when one pet's role is "deal damage" and the others are "not deal damage"... you're not exactly causing us to make interesting choices.
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I'm all for different Egi. Unless they make fights that require a certain Egi skill be used I can't see them doing much about Pet utility. So various ways to do damage would be interesting.
I.e.
single target
multi target
AOE damage.
With each Egi benefiting their niche damage.
Swift Summon would be nice to have if things require Pet Swaps instead of wasting Swift Cast.