SMN rework idea

One thing I’ve been wanting is for summoners to return to a more classic feel from the older final fantasy games. Large area abilities that usually had unique effects. As the pet aspect of the EGI hasn’t been wonderful to say the least, I thought about how this could be changed. The current rotation feels a little stale, since the ability to augment the pet and still maintain rotation seems a bit cumbersome. I don’t want the Egi’s to go away, but rather would seem them transition to something more like totems, or auras. They would operate like minions following the summoner around, not directly affected by combat. Instead they provide additional damage and effects based on the summon. In effect we would have access to multiple egis that would give flavor and more unique effects in battle. As with Bahamut and Wyrmwaves, the egis would attack as we performed actions, resulting in increased damage and not needing to constantly monitor or transfer if we choose to attack another target. The new egi’s would have two abilities. One unique trait that can either impact what we do, or what the party experiences which would be activated by using devotion, now on a 1 min timer. Followed by enkindle which would Summon forth their primal form to deal their ultimate ability, now required one dreadworm trance in order to perform. And only resets on Bahamut summon.

Ifrit - keeps radiant shield, and activates inferno as usual (however, animation changes to primal Ifrit when enkindle is used)

Titan - earthen ward changed to damage reduced by 20% for 5 seconds. Earthen Fury creates an area of affect around the caster which reduces damage to anyone in area by 5% for 10 secs. (Primal Titan appears and earthen fury illuminates area)

Garuda - Keeps contagion, and keeps aerial blast (Primal Garuda appears to cast ability)

Ramuh- Could have an additional dot that appears along side ours. Dealing extra damage overtime for longer fights and to help with Fester, giving it increased potency. His enkindle could be an ability that causes additional damage to tick every time one of our dots goes off.

Shiva - Frostbite can be attached to the party, very similar to radiant shield, however, instead of increasing physical defense, it will increase magic defence. Obviously diamond dust will be her ultimate ability.

Leviathan - Whorl- causes all active dots to reset. Enkindle would be Tsunami.


I feel this would make us feel more like an actual summoner, with additional EGIs that we could then change out as needed, and not just feel like only one works. Also one final thing. PERHAPS, the animation for the attacks be relegated to behind the summoner only. This way, individuals in melee range aren’t affected as much, as this can be an issue. Thoughts? Let me know. Potency numbers are just for show and not actual numbers to be considered mind you.

We do not need more Egi right now. We need Bahamut and the current Egi to work properly first. I don't expect SE to fix them this expansion but they're more than likely the priority at this point so I want them instead to focus on consolidating our buttons and making room for new abilities that focus entirely on synergy and making you care about your pet being around and getting around their clunky behaviour.

To that end here's what I would change about the current kit:
- Allow Aetherflow and Aethertrail to coexist at the same time, including during DWT.
- Combine Rouse/DWT/Bahamut into one cooldown that does all three depending on context. Rouse/DWT when Bahamut isn't available and DWT/Bahamut when Bahamut is. This reduces how often Bahamut appears too. We need DPS spread throughout our kit if he winds up clunky still, but this definitely hurts. All would share Bahamut's duration of 20s so you can comfortably fit in Aetherflow/Tridisaster.
- Combine Enkindle and Enkindle Bahamut, including sharing cooldowns. Remove the Enkindle part of the Ruin IV proc and instead make Enkindle a 60s cooldown with Enhanced Enkindle.
- Remove Sustain and bake the regen effect on your pet into Energy Drain or Physick.
- Remove the DWT bonus effects like instant Ruin III and the Tri-Bind boost. Tri-Disaster no longer resets either.
- Make Tri-Bind a proper AoE spell with 50 potency and Blizzard II's MP cost. Change the name and remove the Bind effect.
- Rework Ruin spells so Ruin III/IV are only available during DWT or when the current Ruin IV proc happens. Ruin IV will be instant cast like Ruin II still. They automatically replace Ruin I/II while under either effect. Nerf Ruin II's potency so it's weaker than Ruin I. use a similar potency gap for Ruin IV compared to Ruin III.
- Shift all the pet cooldowns around and normalize their cooldowns to be the same length.
- Move Contagion and Radiant Shield's Magic/Phys Vulnerability Up debuffs onto DWT as the third debuff, based on what pet you have out. Bahamut would have Vulnerability up and Titan would give Damage Down. Replace them both with DoT effects with Ifrit's having weak potency/duration with no additional effects while Garuda's would be stronger and can proc Ruin III/IV on each tick once you gain the trait.
- On that Ruin IV proc, don't let it trigger unless it hits an enemy in combat. This and the last two changes eliminate pet swap openers.
- Only let Bahamut trigger Wyrmwave on spells. Never on abilities of any sort, and make sure he stands still once summoned.

The result:
- Mostly returned to HW SMN, but without the mess it had on our rotation. The DWT or Bahamut burst windows every minute is similar to what we had then but more lenient than what we have now.
- Still needs meaningfully distinct filler badly.
- Clunky pet abilities have been phased out, but this leaves us with very little pet interaction at all.
- 4 Buttons freed up (Rouse, Bahamut, Sustain, Enkindle).
- Nerfs everywhere. Lost 260 potency from needing to hardcast DoTs every minute, which is about a tenth of the total losses Bahamut suffered, plus there's the contributions the current Ruin III adds now that are also lost unless Ruin I is given a potency buff to the same amount. Ruin III/IV need to hit hard (needing around 80-100 potency over their counterparts) and Wyrmwave would absolutely need a potency buff to compensate for all the lost procs. Hell I'd potentially argue to allow Deathflare to be used during Bahamut himself without ending his phase to make up for the lost Akh Morns, just so the loss is mostly from the cooldown shift and Wyrmwave change.

Where to go from here:
- We need a personal defensive cooldown badly. I'd suggest a Cover with our pet to split damage between us. Ideally lacks the range requirement of Cover though. During Bahamut it would simply be treated as damage reduction instead.
- Lots of room for traits and filler buttons that change up our rotation a bit, preferably in ways that interact with the Egi that don't touch their current state too much. Ideally Bahamut's getting that QoL first before its brought down to the Egi, but the Egi themselves may have to wait till 6.0 so I'm hoping for some futureproofing here.
- Since we get Bahamut less often now, make his presence felt more to make up for it, maybe by altering Fester/Painflare's animations when he's out with a small trait boost?