SMN - boring and neglected
Apart from the obvious issues (need to do an excellent rotation to match the DPS of a mediocre RDM or BLM), there is a more pressing problem for me in 4.x:
I am bored. Seriously.
Yes, the 3.x SMN rotation was difficult. Carefully choosing when to pull your DWT was cruicial for being an effective DPS. Since Aetherflow abilities are now completely cut off in DWT, this has gone. And yes, so has the fun. I miss it. Spamming Ruin-3 all day is BORING.
I don't blame the RDM for being able to rez - this is central of what a RDM is supposed to be, and the job has every right to have it. However, when the SMN has (vastly) inferior DPS compared to BLM and RDM, I expect something in return, which would be utility. The weak Devotion, which also is next to impossible to target to a specific player, does not cut it by a wide margin.
To end my post with something constructive, here are a few ideas:
- Restore Sustain. This is not raid-relevant, but it would make Titan-Egi somewhat useful again.
- Make Ifrit-Egi USEFUL. Not useful as in "for one fight in a series of twelve, in a specific situation (T11)", but _actually_ useful as a general-purpose pet. Radiant Shield could be something really good, but it needs much more oooooompf. Also, Titan-Egis dies way too often (esp. without sustain) - fix that. Make him move around quicker - it is way too slow.
- Restore the two DoTs at least to the potency the three DoTs previously had.
And, most importantly, this is NOT something you devs can delay until 4.2. Obviously, a lot of time has already been let pass since 4.0 without doing anything substantially, and lots of people are already switching jobs.