How I would fix SMN.

No really, hear me out:

1 - Remove the dots and tridisaster. They are annoying, and now that SMN entirely relies on them not only for the festers but the ruins makes hunts, large scale fates and possibly future content with a lot of people hitting the same target absolutely unviable for SMN. In my last Frog boss fate I couldn't do a thing because my dots would never land. I had a lot of fun with my 4.5k damage Ruins III. There should never be certain content where a class is entirely useless, this is garbage. If they release stuff like Eureka 2.0 or Baldesion Arsenal 2.0 we are in for a bad time.

2 - Remove bane. Give Fester fixed damage.

3 - Give us Aetherflow back nobody needs energy drain let alone syphon (let us have it like SCH, able to use it in combat only, so we aren't hurt by downtimes as much). You can keep the 2 stacks and Aetherflow at a 30 sec CD. That seems fine.

4 - Give DWT/FBT 2 charges just like EAs. That way we are not forced to press it every time it's on CD and we can delay it or precast it sooner if the situation requires it.

Obviously, buff up potencies to make up for the loss of dots and bane.

SMN is no longer annoying.

No, rip out aetherflow. Aetherflow by itself is a bad mechanic and was never good in the SMN's rotation as a bulk cooldown for other cooldowns. There is no reason to keep an awful mechanic because the current system is also awful and doesn't solve the fundamental problem of SMN having too many oGCDs, it just means we can use it at any time which is okay, but doesn't fix the underlying issues. If Aetherflow is to be kept around, it should work like lillies and be a 15, 20, or 30 second recharge per stack of resource that can be banked or spent at will, but removing it outright makes more sense given the shift of SMN away from its 2.0 ACN roots and towards being an actual summoner. The mechanic was always an interaction with the DoTs, so if you're going to remove the DoT interaction, then get rid of the old framework based on it as well.

Because this (might) be boring by itself, emphasize summons more by speeding up the summon rotation. Combine DWT and DB into 1, and advance them to happen more often, say every 40 seconds instead of minute, and consider expanding options used during summoning.

What about the pets? Right now, the changes to pets don't feel quite right to me.
Previously, if you sent in Titan-Egi to get the first hit in, the enemy npc would focus on the pet, leaving you free to cast. Its a mechanic thats been around in mmo's since the glory days of old EQ.
Now, if you send in your pet (Titan), the enemy immediately goes after you and doesn't focus on the pet. Would it really hurt the devs hurt to add a "Taunt" command to the list of other pet commands (sic, stay, etc)? It would make Hunts, Fates and Leves less of an annoyance. Just sayin' :)

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Originally Posted by Taranok

No, rip out aetherflow. Aetherflow by itself is a bad mechanic and was never good in the SMN's rotation as a bulk cooldown for other cooldowns. There is no reason to keep an awful mechanic because the current system is also awful and doesn't solve the fundamental problem of SMN having too many oGCDs, it just means we can use it at any time which is okay, but doesn't fix the underlying issues. If Aetherflow is to be kept around, it should work like lillies and be a 15, 20, or 30 second recharge per stack of resource that can be banked or spent at will, but removing it outright makes more sense given the shift of SMN away from its 2.0 ACN roots and towards being an actual summoner. The mechanic was always an interaction with the DoTs, so if you're going to remove the DoT interaction, then get rid of the old framework based on it as well.

Because this (might) be boring by itself, emphasize summons more by speeding up the summon rotation. Combine DWT and DB into 1, and advance them to happen more often, say every 40 seconds instead of minute, and consider expanding options used during summoning.

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The point of this thread was to make SMN a little bit more edible with very slight adjustments that could come in this expansion. If you are going to change the class entirely I would also propose different things. In fact, the very first thing I'd do is get rid of the egis entirely, but that's not realistically going to happen in ShB let's be honest here.

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Originally Posted by OldeWolfe

What about the pets? Right now, the changes to pets don't feel quite right to me.
Previously, if you sent in Titan-Egi to get the first hit in, the enemy npc would focus on the pet, leaving you free to cast. Its a mechanic thats been around in mmo's since the glory days of old EQ.
Now, if you send in your pet (Titan), the enemy immediately goes after you and doesn't focus on the pet. Would it really hurt the devs hurt to add a "Taunt" command to the list of other pet commands (sic, stay, etc)? It would make Hunts, Fates and Leves less of an annoyance. Just sayin' :)

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Yes , the fact that I am unable to use a pet as a tank is the biggest downfall of all summoner. It was the essence of playing SMN in the FFXI Online days. Sent your pet first to slaughter while your DPS down the mob down as much as you can before it comes running towards you and finish it. I an only level 54 but I found group of mobs really difficult to survive as a SMN. While my SCH can heals and survive for days, my SMN gets mowed down pretty quick. It comes down to an issue that was mention multiple time before. We have too many skill on GCD. So I get a wave of 3 enemies (MSQ stuff), I burned all my cooldown to get it down which leaves me very little for the next wave. By the time the 3rd wave is in, I am praying my cooldown are done so I can burn them all again.

Seriously, I had to switch to SCH to be able to do some quest. I just stand there and spam BIO, Ruin II all day while throwing an occasion heal. I can do this for a very long time. My ability to survive is bar to non compare to SMN. If we are going to be frail, we need more DPS to compensate. I think getting rid of some of the GCD would achieve that.

The problem is everyone has their own opinion on how Summoner should be in FFXIV and less on what SMN is in FFXIV.

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Originally Posted by fogboundturtle

Yes , the fact that I am unable to use a pet as a tank is the biggest downfall of all summoner. It was the essence of playing SMN in the FFXI Online days. Sent your pet first to slaughter while your DPS down the mob down as much as you can before it comes running towards you and finish it. I an only level 54 but I found group of mobs really difficult to survive as a SMN. While my SCH can heals and survive for days, my SMN gets mowed down pretty quick. It comes down to an issue that was mention multiple time before. We have too many skill on GCD. So I get a wave of 3 enemies (MSQ stuff), I burned all my cooldown to get it down which leaves me very little for the next wave. By the time the 3rd wave is in, I am praying my cooldown are done so I can burn them all again.

Seriously, I had to switch to SCH to be able to do some quest. I just stand there and spam BIO, Ruin II all day while throwing an occasion heal. I can do this for a very long time. My ability to survive is bar to non compare to SMN. If we are going to be frail, we need more DPS to compensate. I think getting rid of some of the GCD would achieve that.

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I mean, SCH is a healer. Tanks can also pull large groups of mobs and burn them down without dying. All DPS, and I mean all of them, have varying degrees of trouble soloing groups of mobs, and this has been true since ARR. SMN was an exception to this because of Titan-Egi, now it's the same as all the other DPS in that it can't aoe large groups without a very strong risk of dying. It just comes with the territory of not realistically being able to increase your effective health at any point in the fight.

How I would fix SMN?
Increase our DPS.

Even though I enjoy playing SMN, it's not exactly the easiest DPS class to play. Unfortunately, it's also not even the top 5 DPS class in the game, far below both BLM and SAM from the latest FF Logs. Playing a difficult class with punishing DPS is a bit unfair.