SMN rework that makes more sense.

All caster DPS jobs build up to their more powerful spells. So why does SMN open with the more powerful ones and then goes downhill from there? If the point is for the player to have access to powerfull damage dealing for openers I get that but it can be done in a way that actually makes sense.

Solar Bahamut doesn't make any sense and doesn't even have any lore to justify its existence in FFXIV and honestly it just feels like key dangling by the devs just to give the impression of having put something new into the job without actually having put much thought into it.

Bahamut, Phoenix and ((whichever Third higher summon that is not Solar Bahamut)) should be built up to instead of being rotation openers. Therefore, this is my suggestion:

- Garuda, Ifrit, and Titan should be THE OPENERS and the higher ones should be the ones to be unlocked.

- Just ONE of the lesser summons could unlock one of the higher ones instead of having to use the three lesser summons each time to unlock one of the higher summons.

- Using Ifrit could unlock Phoenix (being both fire summons and Ifrit being mostly big damage-focused unlocking Phoenix as the healing summon to balance each other out).

- Using Garuda could unlock Bahamut (Both winged summons and lore-wise both being the top of their respective tier. Garuda being quick low damage dealer and then Bahamut being the top damage dealer to balance each other out).

- Using Titan could unlock (NOT SOLAR BAHAMUT WHICH IS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY) either Alexander or Odin (who btw didn't even get an Extreme so why not bring him into the fold) both of which could use the same color palette they gave Solar Bahamut in their visual design and ACTUALLY give the player a summon that feels new, not just a re-skin of Bahamut with an almost identical toolkit.

- As for Physick, either upgrade it or get rid of it already since it is completely useless at higher levels as it has been for several expansions. It could have a Phoenix theme for it to make sense as Phoenix is the healer summon and replace Lux Solaris (again, because Solar Bahamut doens't make any sense and even less for it to heal).

Yeah this is another dead horse beating SMN rant mostly but the changes I propose, as copium-fueled as they read are not so radical or far-fetched to be implemented realistically.

The job as I envision it would still work pretty much the same but these changes would make it make more sense and be more satisfying to play in my opinion because having to use the three lesser primals each time makes for a very long and un-dynamic rotation whereas using just ONE lesser summon to unlock a higher one and giving the player the freedom to pick which pair to go for, provides more versatility options to strategize for different situations.

You may now post your replies telling me to seek help or for me to shut up about this already. XD

The devs have said they want to focus on job identity in 8.0, so now’s the time to put out ideas! :) While I like the idea of building up to demis, my concern is that your setup would pair one gem to one demi, and make it harder to add new summons in the future, as it disrupts the current triad of gem summons we have now. And one of the things most SMNs have been begging for, for years now, is more summons.

The idea I prefer that I’ve seen a few people propose slightly different versions of is essentially this… first and foremost, add in Levi, Shiva & Ramuh, with their own unique spells & animations. Then split all 6 gems into their astral and umbral teams. We have a Solar (Light/Hydaelyn) now, so we’ll probably get a Lunar (Dark/Zodiark) for balance. Then give us a button, similar to BLM’s Transpose or PCT’s Subtractive Palette, that switches between the Astral and Umbral teams, changing the gem summons (and their respective buttons) to their appropriate groups. So you could pick which team you want to start with, depending on what type of mechanics you’ll be dealing with.

So the eventual rotation could look like:
Solar > Umbral Gems > Bahamut
Lunar > Astral Gems > Phoenix
with the option to start in Solar or Lunar.

Or if you prefer a build-up to the bigger demis, maybe:
Bahamut > Umbral Gems > Solar
Phoenix > Astral Gems > Lunar

Although I figure it would probably end up being the first one, since all the big damage is in the 2-minute window, and the devs seem to be keeping to that, at least so far. They’d have to make both teams pretty equivalent potency-wise, so that it’s not a DPS loss to choose the “other” team, but better to choose one team over the other just due to mechanics. But keeping the gems as triads (even if they would need to be rearranged slightly to fit their teams), leaves it open for more triads/demis to be added in the future without a ton of extra buttons. Either way, it seems like a fairly long rotation, but at least it offers a lot more variety to it than what we have now with:
Solar > Gems > Bahamut > Gems > Solar > Gems > Phoenix > Gems

Honestly, they could just add Levi, Shiva and Ramuh, without any fancy astral/umbral rotation and I’d be perfectly content at this point. I like the rhythm of new SMN and it flows well. This is just what my ideal would look like.

Oh yeah, adding Levi, Ramuh and Shiva would be the dream but i don't think they'll give us that though. At least not on this expansion.

It would make a lot of sense to eventually have an Astral/Umbral phase. i like that.

In an older thread I even pitched how each of those three new summons could work in order to feel different form the 3 existing gems. However, if at this point in time or in this expansion, the idea is just to add ONE more summon only, the pairing of 1 gem and 1 demi seems reasonable and dynamic enough to me if we are to have the 5 existing summons plus another one (NOT Solar Bahamut). The demis should feel "earned" in some way instead of being openers followed by the gems. That feels backwards.