So. Titan-Egi actually feels good now

It may still be the most niche pet option, but the Earthen Armour assault ability is really, really useful in fights where the healers are struggling often and you’re close to death. Definitely an upgrade to what it was before, at least it’s not totally useless like the old Titan-Egi was in group content!

At the same time it is less useful in solo content. Today I ended up playing a mission where I rescue Minfilia, had to fight one tough enemy... as SMN, it wasn't really easy. I would have preferred something that would allow me to freecast now and then, instead of relying solely on DoT damage + Ruin II as I keep running around, knowing that if I am caught I will most likely suffer a great deal of damage (above measily 20% titan shield offers).

I would happily even trade that shield for Physick scalling off Int rather than Mind too.

Seems fine to me as well. Alright there is one thing, the time it takes to summon Titan and then use the barrier takes a while when you compare it to let's say BLM who can use theirs immediately. So you either need to be familiar with the battle so you know when to summon Titan (to have the Barrier ready) or have it out for longer durations. The two charges on such a short cooldown is nice though, if only it also processed Ruin IV....

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Originally Posted by Shirokami

At the same time it is less useful in solo content. Today I ended up playing a mission where I rescue Minfilia, had to fight one tough enemy... as SMN, it wasn't really easy. I would have preferred something that would allow me to freecast now and then, instead of relying solely on DoT damage + Ruin II as I keep running around, knowing that if I am caught I will most likely suffer a great deal of damage (above measily 20% titan shield offers).

**I would happily even trade that shield for Physick scalling off Int rather than Mind too.**

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The little shield is insufficient for any sort of sustained combat, which is what SMN *does*. We're a bit more bursty now (at least I noticed my kill times are shorter if I'm trying), but losing the ability to distract/control (where's our CC??) an enemy is a huge blow to our survivability. And there's no HP gain from Energy Drain anymore. Even Gunbreaker gets a better heal than Physick as it is now.
Add on that our only survival option takes one of our Egi Assault slots, *which does not proc Ruin IV*, and it's just badly done.

The problem with Titan's shield is that, due to how the SMN rotation works now, if a healer is struggling, you either keep Titan up in advance of problems and completely forget about the damage that EA1 does, or you probably won't be able to EA1 on swap because it will be on cooldown.

Whenever you have 2 competing functions for any skill, ability, or what have you, damage will always win. Sure you could make the argument that it helps in niche situations, but you will never have it in a normal run when you need it most when you're running your rotation otherwise correctly to maximize damage, and for that reason, Titan-egi will never feel good for me, just like how spending dark arts to empower dark mind felt like an absolute waste of that mana.

BAHAHAHA, okay man. Whatever you say. Personally I think its a massive step down in every area. Oh boy! It has one ability that can be useful in dungeons and raids now! That requires you to micromanage EVER MORE buttons! Because thats what we needed, more complexity in an already overtaxed job.

The ACTUAL solution to Titan was to give it a toggle that upped its damage along with giving it some form of earthen shield. Make it a comparable option to its brethren where you sacrifice a bit of damage for some utility. Not...whatever this nonsense is.