SE, don't nerf SMN's DoT potency. Remove Tri-Disaster's Reset Mechanic First.
Tl;dr is the title.
To be clear, I get why SE is targeting Summoner's DoT potency specifically. The problem SE is trying to address with SMN's DoTs is directly tied to their engine, and fight design. SMN is a DoT focused class, and how much damage a DoT does is determined when they are applied, which allows the caster to 'snapshot' any buffs on themselves and any debuffs that affect the damage dealt on enemies that apply at the time, even if those effects wouldn't last the whole duration of the DoT. This can result in DoTs artificially gaining their benefits past their intended duration. Their high total potency also allows them to scale up to multiple targets extremely well, particularly at two or three, where it's easy, if not ideal to rotate between DoTs on those targets.
Clearly, this is something that's inherently exploitable. Exploitable as all hell. There's a reason SE has generally tried to remove DoTs from all classes that don't 'need' them. Used well, they can spike your overall DPS in a multitude of situations. Used poorly, you lose DPS over time due to clipping them too early.
That said, SMN isn't the only one who's benefited from this mechanic. This has been a problem with Bard as well in the past, but Bard historically had a secondary mechanic that benefited massively from these effects. Crit-based procs. This was the Bloodletter reset mechanic of Heavensward/ARR turned Repertoire in Stormblood that they all know well and love, but the core of it was simply "Get bonus if DoT ticks crit". The result? During HW, but SB especially, Bards would refresh DoTs whenever a crit-based buff was applied, or about to fall off, and ride the increased crit-rate far past what SE intended (there were exceptions, of course, but generally you were in the purple range if this is explicitly what you were doing).
SE's solution in 5.0 was to finally decouple Repertoire from Crit, and upgrade Bard's filler weaponskill potency with the new Burst Shot while leaving Iron Jaws alone, which was more than sufficient to tip things in favor of not snapshotting early, even before the 5.1 changes. Bard's DoT potency nerfs were intended to balance the song buffs. BRD's opportunity cost for snapshotting was already altered in favor of not going for it just because the cost of giving up a Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow for Iron Jaws is significant.
SMN also has a track record of being underwhelming or over-performing for similar reasons as Bard, partially because of their DoTs. There are some primary reasons for that, one of the standout cases is happening right now (TEA), and A2S back in Heavensward too was perhaps the most egregious example, as Bane & Gobwalker Vul Ups were insanely synergistic. However, Bard is one of the weakest DPS currently. So, then, why do I feel SMN, who is currently the top DPS class in pretty much every metric that matters to a raid group, shouldn't get a nerf to their DoTs? Clearly we can't buff its filler, so wouldn't nerfing their DoTs work?
Well, yes, duh. However, I don't think it'll remove the problems that will keep SMN in the state it's been lately. And, personally speaking, I like DoTs. My fear is SE will pile on nerfs to Miasma and Bio then attempt to remove them entirely. Particularly as people clamour for egi & Demi reworks and removing or splitting Arcanist (SMN's base class, which is marked as a DPS role for a reason) into SCH and SMN only. To me, those, and carbuncles are what make Arcanist work. It's part of their identity, and that identity just happens to split down two equally valid job paths.
Aesthetics aside, Nerfing the DoTs wouldn't solve the problems I'm worried about.
There's two reasons just mucking with DoTs doesn't address SMN's snapshot issues. The first, and most obvious of these, is Bane.
Bane is free. And the elements that make Bane strong are absolutely something to be afraid of. That said, I feel it is in its most balanced state since its inception. Its current potency reduction and lack of Aetherflow cost is what makes it useable. It honestly felt like the skill was bugged to always apply full potency in Heavensward, and in Stormblood it was so weak that it wasn't worth using over Painflare at all. If current SMN needs an AoE nerf, I'd personally hit Outburst. It doesn't need much, and Bane and SMN's DoTs don't need to be weaker here when it's relatively easy to tune Outburst to account for their baseline. Garuda's Egi Assault I and Painflares are part of their burst, and that seems to be appropriate at the moment, so lowering their floor seems like the better option, if possible.
That gets us to the second problem with SMN. The one I feel needs addressing. Tri-Disaster.
Tri-Disaster is too good, simple as that.
No. Really. For the purposes of snapshotting, this is a 1300 potency (1k total DoT potency + 300 on application) ability. This thing hits almost as hard as Technical Finish, is available three times as often AND doesn't take up a GCD. So of course you're going to line it up with burst cooldowns if possible. Barring specific instances forcing different management, there's little reason not to align them directly with other raid cooldowns. To me, toning this skill down is the first thing SE should do.
That said, people are going to try to align DoTs with Raid buffs regardless. So, in practical terms, what each Tri-D does is free up two GCDs for more Ruin IIIs or Outbursts at some point per use, which makes it worth an effective 250 potency (subtracting the initial potency on Miasma III from the potency on Tri-D) + 400 Single Target (650 total) or 180 AoE for those GCDs in practice.
How does that compare to adjusting SMN's DoTs? Well, if SE does what I think they're going to do, and drops both DoTs to 40 potency/tick, it would be a total loss of 800 (10 potency x 2 DoTs x 20 ticks a minute x 2 minutes) on their initial target, and 320 for each additional target off of a Bane, over the course of those two minutes. If they go lower than this, then there's other things I would do, but this is most likely what they will do. It's already happened in Stormblood and 5.0, after all.
Thus, as it turns out, removing Tri-Disaster's Reset mechanic actually comes close to nearly solving this problem. Reducing Ruin IV to 280 alongside this would be equivalent to the DoT nerfs on a single target in this case. For AoE, the most likely culprit would be to target Outburst by reducing it to 80 potency, which should be more than sufficient.
That all said, there's another reason I'm advocating removing the reset mechanic, because it hit's SMN's two-target DPS spike by a metric ton. SMN's two-target rotation gets knocked down by a grand total of 1300 (800 from hardcast Ruins + 600 Tri-Disaster potency - 100 from Miasma IIIs), as you can abuse the Tri-Disaster reset mechanic to get two extra uses every two minutes on two targets, specifically by alternating between Tri-Ds and Hardcast DoTs every 30s. Removing the resets cuts out two Tri-Ds in that instance. I'd wager the reset mechanic is solely responsible for the large gap between SMN and other DPS in there. Nerfing the DoT potency would have a larger impact (1600 over the same two minutes on both targets, to be precise), but that nerf scales with each target. The reset mechanic only matters for 2-3 targets, after which Bane takes over. It doesn't solve the problem the reset mechanic creates in fights like TEA, in A2S, and similar two-boss fights (Such as Eden Verse Garuda & Ifrit) going forward. It's the reason O12 was designed the way it was. Nipping it in the bud now makes it far easier to adjust SMN long term, and, to be frank, SMN never needed this mechanic in the first place. Hell, I'd argue that if SE wants to nerf SMN's DoT potency even more than 10 potency on each DoT, this would allow them to adjust that nerf to a more appropriate level and target the most problematic aspect remaining in their kit, short of a full DoT-tick rework that addresses snapshotting ala WoW.
Given all of that, to me, it seems obvious that removing the Tri-Disaster Reset mechanic should be the first nerf given to SMN. Not the only one, but definitely the first. It helps that it is relatively easy to do for a mechanical change mid-expansion, too.
What are your thoughts? Agree, disagree? I'd appreciate the input.
EDIT: I've decided to put this to a poll with some potential alternatives. Here it is: https://www.strawpoll.me/19390301
Look at my response here for more clarification that addresses some arguments if needed.
