SE we need a Summoner Class

Salutations Yoshi-P~!

I play the character Areeya Jaidee on Lindblum server in your MMO FFXIV! I have been an avid Final Fantasy player ever since I was a young child and I have very much respect for the Final Fantasy games!

I want to start this letter off by giving you a short explanation about why I have gone through great lengths to make sure you receive read this letter

This is a group effort by myself and several of my friends in the Lindblum server LS HiddenPower. We are all FFXIV and Final Fantasy players! There is not a day that goes by where we do not login to FFXIV... unless something in real life comes up O _ o;;

In this letter we hope to give you an understanding of a subject which is dear to our hearts. A subject which is about a class that has been in every Final Fantasy game. This class is called Summoner. My friends and I would like to tell you about our hopes and ideas in regards to Summoner and how we believe it would be best played in FFXIV

The letter from this point gets kind of technical, and for that I am so sorry;; However, it is necessary to the explanation of what my friends and I are trying to accomplish

First off: Please understand that a lot of FFXIV players who played Summoner in FFXI were very sad at how the job was designed and even more sad that they could never tell Square Enix that the class they loved so much was a bad design and no parties wanted to play with their Summoner

And now for the technical stuff


SMN Play Mechanics

SMN, in the opinion of many players I have spoken with, should be a Pet Class. This is important because it is all about the players wanting to have their Summons walking with them and fighting with them. This creates a bond between the player and the Summon. Players who love Summoner love that bond they have with their Summons.

Here is a list to better create that bond:

No Perpetuation Cost: In FFXI it cost mp every game second to have your Summon out and fighting. This mad a lot of Summoners angry because it means we cannot have our Summons out for long periods of time which also means the bond is less and we don't like the game to restrict how long we can visit with our Summon friends

Summon casting time should be a small to medium amount of time. 5 seconds ~ 15 Seconds

Summons should all have their own HP MP and TP as well as stats. Each Summon should have its own unique stat amounts If a Summon casts a Spell then it should use its
own MP when casting that spell.

Summons should be able to walk with their Summoner anywhere. A lot of Summoners from FFXI did not appreciate having to leave their Summons when entering dungeons, towns, or other places in FFXI. FFXIV is a better chance to fix these issues with Summoner

Summon Rank: A Summon should rank up just like a player! The only difference is, the Summon should only need 25% less Skill Points to rank up than the Summoner. The Summon should also NOT be able to rank up higher than the Summoner. Example: If a Summoner is rank 32 then Ifrit can only be rank 32. When the Summoner becomes rank 33 then Ifrit can start getting Skill Points for rank 33. Every Summon the Summoner has will have to gain rank points just like this! This will give Summoner players a lot of fun AND help them feel like they have achieved something important in the game

Summon Abilities and Spells: Summons should have their own unique abilities and spells just like in FFXI As the Summon gains higher rank the Summon learns new offensive and defensive abilities and spells.

Summon Spell Strength: Summoner is a job about looking nice and flashy But also about doing damage to the enemy! Summons need to be able to do good to VERY good damage to a enemy so that the Summoner doesn't become another healing class in FFXIV. In FFXI this happened a lot and made a lot of Summoners VERY angry and upset. Other players would only let the Summoner join their party if the Summoner had a White Mage subjob and only cured the party! Isn't that silly?! Summoner is a special job! It is an advanced job... not a healer So please do not make the Summon a big tough looking Prime that... does sissy baby damage to a enemy HAHAHAHA!

SMN Abilities (A few Ideas)

Summon Prime: This ability would allow the Summoner to call upon the Prime they have a Pact with.

Release Prime: This ability would allow the Summoner to tell his Prime to leave

Defend: This tells the Summon to Defend the Summoner. Example: Titan would stand in front of the Summoner and block a Enemies attack to protect the Summoner!

Attack: This tells the Summon to fight the target the Summoner targets.

MP Transfer: This would transfer 25%~50% of the Summoners MP to the Summon. This would allow the Summoner to help out the Summon in casting spells if the Summon gets too low on MP. This ability has a medium recast timer. 15 ~ 30 seconds

MP Leech: This would transfer 25%~50% of the Summons MP to the Summoner. This would allow the Summon to help out the Summoner in casting spells if the Summoner gets too low on MP. This ability has a medium recast timer. 15 ~ 30 seconds

Enmity Transfer: This allows a Summoner to give all its Enmity to his or her Summon.


SMN UI

Each Summon has it's own Abilities and Spells. So that means the Summoner needs a way to be able to:

A) Bind keyboard and Controller to a menu list of Summon's Abilities and a separate menu of Summon's Spells that appears when Summoner's press the customized keys.

B) Summon Ability and Spell macros so Summoners can make macros of their favorite Summon Abilities and Spells for faster and more convenient use.

C) The FFXIV User Interface needs a Widget to display Pet Class information of the Pet's HP, MP, and TP in real time when a Summon is called.

D) There should be a Menu to view all of the Summoner's Stats just like a player can view their stats.

P.S.: Any CONSTRUCTIVE and positive ideas are welcome :)

I am an alt-o-halic so I agree add more classes!

*SPOILER ALERT*



The problem I see with this is that summons are already an important part of the story, and the circumstances of their summoning would be very out of place in a class, the summons in the story are gods, summoned by massing a large amount of elemental crystals of their type. They are worshiped by the beastmen, and widely disregarded by the eorzeans.

Before adding new classes into the game, the game should work properly 1st off! I can understand your call since I'm desperate for BLU as well. But the battle system and other stuff need fixes badly before adding new classes. New classes usually scratch the balancing a bit.
There will be new classes, SE has no other chance of adding those to keep us satisfied.. but first we really need the game at a decent level.

I love the sound of it Areeyah.. Looking forward to more classes and the ones we have now actually working :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Axl

*SPOILER ALERT*



The problem I see with this is that summons are already an important part of the story, and the circumstances of their summoning would be very out of place in a class, the summons in the story are gods, summoned by massing a large amount of elemental crystals of their type. They are worshiped by the beastmen, and widely disregarded by the eorzeans.

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But Bahamut was in FFXI as a character as well. There are tons of other summons besides Ifrit/Leviathan/etc.

For story reasons, I see that our familiar summoned creatures are a bit deeper than what they used to be. And the lore treats the act of summoning them a little differently. I am more in favor of them eschewing the traditional summoning system/class so that they do not end up being solo power houses.

But summoning will be in the game somehow.. just have to wait and see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Axl

*SPOILER ALERT*



The problem I see with this is that summons are already an important part of the story, and the circumstances of their summoning would be very out of place in a class, the summons in the story are gods, summoned by massing a large amount of elemental crystals of their type. They are worshiped by the beastmen, and widely disregarded by the eorzeans.

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Well, the beastmen CONSIDER them as gods, due to the fact they can physically call them and they have powers. Doesn't mean they're a god, your companion even says they are savage beasts.

Let them balance the current classes/battle system first. I'm sure this class will be released sooner or later.

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Originally Posted by Vicious

Let them balance the current classes/battle system first. I'm sure this class will be released sooner or later.

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This.
Though I really do want to see Summoner added at some point..

Well, tbh guys, this isnt about trying to add the class already, its merely an idea of what Areeya would like to see in a future Summoner class when and if implemented. I think its a nice letter Areeya =D. This can open up to a great discussion on how the mechanics of a FFXIV Summoner can work and what can't work.

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Originally Posted by babycakin

Well, tbh guys, this isnt about trying to add the class already, its merely an idea of what Areeya would like to see in a future Summoner class when and if implemented. I think its a nice letter Areeya =D. This can open up to a great discussion on how the mechanics of a FFXIV Summoner can work and what can't work.

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Yes! Please keep the thread on topic. This is not about WHEN we will get Summoner, this is about WHAT we want Summoner to be when it does release. Few people are naive enough to believe/expect SE will release SMN before the actual game is fully tuned up :D So stop posting ***SPOILER ALERT***(S) :D

I would love to see a Necromancer Summoning Class.

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Originally Posted by BloodLotus

I would love to see a Necromancer Summoning Class.

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YES YES YES AND YES...

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Originally Posted by Krisan

This.
Though I really do want to see Summoner added at some point..

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Yep. SMN was one of my favorite classes in XI. I had a static party and some Japanese people help me fill out my avatar roster way before SE released the solo quests for them that you could do at level 20. I loved the "prestige" aspect of it, as well as the overall utility. I'd welcome the addition of this in XIV.

Me and my boyfriend are really looking forward to a Summoner Class aswell, hopefully they'll add it at some point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BloodLotus

I would love to see a Necromancer Summoning Class.

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O _ o;; I believe that would be cool. That's called a Necromancer. If it means we can have Summoner AND Necromancer then yeah that would be cool :)

Necromancer isn't your typical Final Fantasy class type, so it would be funny to see how SE handled that one. Also most Necromancer jobs deal with summoning bi-ped/humanoid type mobs. SE would have to find out where to get all those "bodies" from LOL!

I really would love a Summoner class. I loved seeing those gigantic beasts next to my tiny lil' tarutaru in XI. I also want to toss my support behind the no perpetuation idea. I really hated that more than anything else in XI, as if the 100+mp per BP didn't drain my MP fast enough.

But then there are so many more pressing issues that I would rather see fixed first, SMN is one good thing that I do have the patience to wait for. (As long as you guys at SE do it right and don't turn it into a glorified support class again.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Krisan

This.
Though I really do want to see Summoner added at some point..

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Agreed. I'd love to see more classes, especially a bard, but I'd like to see the game working first.

I don't care about any of your concept or ability concepts, but...

Yes, I would like a summoner class. I also really like FFXI's concept and design.

As long a the Summoner has a deep and meaningful quest line in order to obtain summons then the lore of the Beastmen can be ignored. Starting off with Carbuncle and Elementals would be a good start.

I'd love to have a Summoner class, they were my favorite job to use in FFT. The summons they add in FFXIV don't have to be the major one's that have been in FF games so far (Shiva, Ifrit, Bahamut, Ramuh, Leviathan, etc.), since they're extremely powerful and it would be weird to see dozens of people running around with each one. SE can make up some minor summons so they could still have the major summons seen as god-like.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Krisan

This.
Though I really do want to see Summoner added at some point..

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I'm with both of these fine gentlemen. Fix the game, then add the juicy extras. Don't repeat the same mistake as someone made in FFXI.

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03/04
「大体良いバランスになったのでバトルバランスは調整終わり」
「召喚士のプレイスタイルは僕達にもわかりません」
といった河本、樋口等の迷言がとびだす。

Some developers has stated yet another... mystery comment.
"Battle balance has become pretty good so we will no longer tune it" (you should be fired...)
"Summoners playstyle is something that we don't understand eighther" (Then why you frigging built something that even the creators doesn't understand eighther hmmm???)

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Source: <http://zeusls.llima.net/download/ffxiupdatehistory.html>

Edit:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BloodLotus

I would love to see a Necromancer Summoning Class.

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I would love to be a Necromancer.

Another BST would be cool *shrug* but it is so easy to solo in XIV, and that was the whole point of the job in XI.

Please make a BST thread. This is about SMN.

i love the BST job too tho, It was my main in XI :)

I can't believe no one has any ACTUAL on topic contributions. ONCE again this thread is not about WHEN we get SMN. It is about WHAT we get from SMN. SE messed SMN up big time in XI. We can get these ideas to SE prior to the job launch and make it a better release.

Stop posting random off topic trash in this thread because you're trying to up your post count.

This thread is for SMN design in regards to mechanics and gameplay. If you cannot understand that then STOP posting in this thread.