Why does summoning a fairy still take time to cast?

I'm sure this has been brought up somewhere before, but I'm genuinely confused as to why Scholars still have to hard-cast their fairies, which seems to have to be done only once per life. It seems kind of outdated since Summoners have been able to instant-cast their summons for a while now. Is there some specific reason that Square Enix gave at some point for why this is still the case, because I don't see one anywhere?

If there isn't a good reason, it could probably be changed to instant-cast pretty easily in one of Endwalker's earliest patches, but it's just a super weird thing to me. I'd also like for both fairies to do different things again even if they're just slight stat changes, but that's probably a discussion for another thread; it does make the cast time even weirder though since there's no reason to switch between fairies mid-fight, so the initial cast is just a bizarre inconvenience that doesn't really make sense to still have in that regard either.

They could've made Summon Eos/Selene into a single button called Summon Fairy.
They could've made them instant cast.
They could just have glamours for the fairy

But much like everything with SCH, it's left ignored in the shadow of its SMN counterpart.

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Originally Posted by Silver-Strider

They could've made Summon Eos/Selene into a single button called Summon Fairy.
They could've made them instant cast.
They could just have glamours for the fairy

But much like everything with SCH, it's left ignored in the shadow of its SMN counterpart.

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They absolutely should do this. If Selene and Eos have no distinction, there is 0 justification for why it must take up two of Scholar's buttons.

Someone else in another thread said that they believed they haven't changed it simply because they do not want to get rid of the animation, and I completely agree with that. I think they're prioritizing that over the QoL that an instant summon would do for Scholar, which seems par for the course when it comes to anything they do for healers.

Probably because otherwise SCH's pet healing is super free.

And then Sage comes along with Kardia...

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Originally Posted by Nizzi

They absolutely should do this. If Selene and Eos have no distinction, there is 0 justification for why it must take up two of Scholar's buttons.

Someone else in another thread said that they believed they haven't changed it simply because they do not want to get rid of the animation, and I completely agree with that. I think they're prioritizing that over the QoL that an instant summon would do for Scholar, which seems par for the course when it comes to anything they do for healers.

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So they're fine with the animations of hundreds of other skills just biting the dust but for Summoning the Fairy, that's the animation they want to keep of all things?

Screw that. Give me back my Aero 3 animation you cowards.

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Originally Posted by inhaledcorn

Probably because otherwise SCH's pet healing is super free.

And then Sage comes along with Kardia...

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You could argue that Summoner's pet attacks are "super free" too though, since said pets also do base attacks, not just attacks triggered by player actions... and yet those summons are instant-cast rather than needing a few uninterrupted seconds; it seems unbalanced and arbitrary by comparison that Scholar still has casting times for their own pet summons.

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Originally Posted by MellowMink

since said pets also do base attacks,

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Not for much longer...

I dont mind the Casting time on the Summon Fairy tbh. What truly baffles me is how SMN is allowed to have 5 Summons which are all different from one another, yet SCH has 3 Fairies and they all do the same thing. And what makes matters worse, is that you cant even use Aetherpact with Seraph.

But i guess there wasn't much that could have been done about SCH.

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Originally Posted by Anhra

I dont mind the Casting time on the Summon Fairy tbh. What truly baffles me is how SMN is allowed to have 5 Summons which are all different from one another, yet SCH has 3 Fairies and they all do the same thing. And what makes matters worse, is that you cant even use Aetherpact with Seraph.

But i guess there wasn't much that could have been done about SCH.

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everybody knows that sch is peak performance and all it needed was a speed boost.

You don’t have to put both buttons in your hot bar… it’s like people who complain about phsysick… just don’t put it on your hot bar…

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Originally Posted by glamazon

You don’t have to put both buttons in your hot bar… it’s like people who complain about phsysick… just don’t put it on your hot bar…

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The topic is about why the fairies have a cast time despite both fairies doing the same thing, not about the fact there's 2 fairies. Removing one or the other doesn't change the fact you have to summon the fairy on a cast time.

I posted this in another thread:

"Personally, I would like to see the two Summon buttons become useful instead of odd bloat. Summon Eos and Selene should both give a "Helping Hand" buff to the Scholar. Since SMN can switch pets instantly we should be rewarded with something more than just our pet being present for the cast time. I think Eos should grant a 20% increase in potency to our next Healing Spell cast with the Helping Hand Buff and Selene should reduce the cast time, recast time and MP cost of our next spell by 50%. This way we can summon Eos during downtime or the beginning of a raid for bigger shields and use Selene as our alternative to Presence of Mind and Light Speed for a faster revive on a party member, especially if we ourselves have just revived and don't have the MP to spare. Selene would let us use Adlo and Succor after revival too without staring at Physick as our only hope. This means both fairies would still offer the same general kit with only a slight difference on their impact immediately after being summoned. Selene is still a support fairy and Eos a healing specialist without one being glaringly better than the other most of the time."

After thinking about it more it would be interesting if Fey Blessing gave us the effect of "Helping Hand" from the fairy we have out. It would add some interesting utility to a rather lackluster heal.

Why you ask?

That would be because everything that is super awesome about SCH has to be cancelled out by something super lame to keep SCH from returning to God status. If you've ever read up on Napolean Bonaparte, you will notice some similarities between these two military strategists. To over simplify it, they are basically a double-edged sword.

What I mean by that is something like the constant auto regen she brings is negated a bit by having to cast her, and she also costs MP to do so, and triggers the GCD when you do; but I digress her Auto regen is really good, but not so good to absorb the impact of having to cast her mid battle.

Having to cast Fairy Summon mid-fight is more of a penalty. You know you messed up somewhere if you have to do this. It used to be worse. Skills split between fairies forced the SCH to have to switch fairies if the wrong one was out. They had a longer cast time 4.36s iirc. They could be KO'd making you have to resummon. And they would have to be resummoned by you after Dissipation effect ended.

They fixed all that, and there are still issues with the Fairy lol

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Having to cast Fairy Summon mid-fight is more of a penalty. You know you messed up somewhere if you have to do this. It used to be worse. Skills split between fairies forced the SCH to have to switch fairies if the wrong one was out. They had a longer cast time 4.36s iirc. They could be KO'd making you have to resummon. And they would have to be resummoned by you after Dissipation effect ended.

They fixed all that, and there are still issues with the Fairy lol

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To be fair, the thing about the Fairy being killable wasn't as bad as many claim it to be, all it needed, was some proper Defense values and it would have been more manageable.

What's more important, is the fact that the Fairy was also targetable for Spells like Deployment Tactics, which made using it far easier instead of relying on randomly moving Players.
IF that were to make a comeback, it could even influence certain other Jobs positively (if executed correctly), like Monks or Black Mages being able to use the Fairy as a target for the new dash skill/aetheric manipulation.

As for the topic on Skills on Eos & Selene, personally i would like to see Eos getting all the Utility and Healing abilities while Selene, will be more of a Dps Fairy that attacks with Fire & dark aspected attacks (and Skills like Aetherpact & Fey Blessing, get a reversed effect that deals damage instead while you have Selene out).

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Having to cast Fairy Summon mid-fight is more of a penalty. You know you messed up somewhere if you have to do this.

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I would've figured that dying and losing your MP and Aetherflow stacks would be punishment enough for messing up, but I suppose SE thinks SCH should suffer more lol

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Originally Posted by glamazon

You don’t have to put both buttons in your hot bar… it’s like people who complain about phsysick… just don’t put it on your hot bar…

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...My original post wasn't about that, and I never said anything to suggest otherwise with what you just wrote either.

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Originally Posted by Nizzi

I would've figured that dying and losing your MP and Aetherflow stacks would be punishment enough for messing up, but I suppose SE thinks SCH should suffer more lol

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It's SCH. It just has to get punished more severly than everyone else.

Because to be SCH, is to endure suffering.

It's such a good feeling to die to mechanic, get rezzed then you either waste swiftcast on Fairy, or you stand there and hard cast, hoping no other mechanic is about to drop on that spot and force you to move.

If the pet doing the skill is so difficult to pull off, they should just fake it.
Have the Scholar use the spell, and in case of AOEs, handle it as if it was a targeted AOE, with the target being the fairy.

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Originally Posted by Anhra

As for the topic on Skills on Eos & Selene, personally i would like to see Eos getting all the Utility and Healing abilities while Selene, will be more of a Dps Fairy that attacks with Fire & dark aspected attacks (and Skills like Aetherpact & Fey Blessing, get a reversed effect that deals damage instead while you have Selene out).

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I'd love for the fairies to have a number of colour schemes to pick from as glamour. Rename her to Lily and give her back a bit of the oomph she once possessed.
Then add a Tonberry pet that runs around and autoattacks the target by stabbing it with a big knife. Can only have one pet out, so you'd have to choose between your assistant healer or a walking DOT.

I'd remove all pet skills. Make Lily just a flying HOT, maybe randomly Esuna, and using an AOE once 3+ players have taken damage (can be a weak group HOT, too).

Then adjust the Scholar accordingly. That could be easy, just take all the former pet skills and make them Scholar skills.
Or better yet, rework some of those clunky systems.

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Originally Posted by Rilifane

It's SCH. It just has to get punished more severly than everyone else.

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For being overpowered for all of two expansions 6 years ago.

What if... summoning a faerie required casting out of combat but was instant within combat? That could be a compromise between those who want the animation and those wanting to not pay a Swiftcast tax when resurrected mid fight..

There are only 2 ways you lose a fairy without doing so intentionally, moving too far away and dieing, soo yeah it doesnt really make since to be penalized for such casting to resummon, death already comes with a penalty and range tends to be the games fault a vast majority of the time cause the damn fairy just cant keep up.

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Originally Posted by glamazon

You don’t have to put both buttons in your hot bar… it’s like people who complain about phsysick… just don’t put it on your hot bar…

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In lower level dungeons like Halitali or Thousand maws your only heal other than Eos skills is physick, so you pretty much have to have a spot for it if you plan on doing leveling roulettes

The cast time for summoning pets should be an Arcanist thing. The fact you're new to the discipline of Arcane Geometry should mean we have to work to bring forth an entity from our Aether. Once we upgrade to Summoner and Scholar it should be instant cast. We have mastered the basics of being an Arcanist by that point and are now delving more into specialized techniques to control our pets to greater effect. No one is going to trip, fall, and stumble if they lose the cast time on their pet once they hit level 30. Instead the current system where Scholar has to cast for Selene and Eos feels very awkward when Arcanist can do the same instantly but forgets how during the transition to Scholar but not Summoner.

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Originally Posted by NobleWinter

Instead the current system where Scholar has to cast for Selene and Eos feels very awkward when Arcanist can do the same instantly but forgets how during the transition to Scholar but not Summoner.

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SE seems really committed on making the supposed "Scholar" job fantasy as unintelligent as possible.
Scholar forgets how to summon its pet instantly, forgets how to use Fester, Miasma and Bane, and also forgets how to use Aetherflow and Energy Drain until level 45 when Scholar suddenly remembers it existed, but can't quite remember how it originally used it, so it just wings it and acts like the kid who didn't read a book in school before presenting his project and just makes up what he thinks it's about.
This confusion that Scholar has about it's own knowledge is only continuing in Endwalker, where Scholar will forget how to use Outburst and Aethercharge, along with Ruin II following in Energy Drain's footsteps where Scholar forgets it, goes back to using the base attack and then remembers it learned Ruin II at some point, and then just makes something up and uses it as a different ability.

At this point, Summoner is more of a "Scholar" than Scholar is, because Summoner clearly remembers all that healing stuff it had as an Arcanist and retains the ability to use Physick and Resurrection. Our well educated Scholar though? They can't even remember how to instantly summon their pet!

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Originally Posted by Deceptus

For being overpowered for all of two expansions 6 years ago.

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Nitpick: Depending on your interpretation of ARR as an 'expansion', two or three. For ARR it was Five DoTs & Lustrate functioning under Cleric Stance. For HW it was Indom and Rouse + Whispering Dawn coming into full appreciation. For Stormblood it was Quickened Aetherflow and Fey Union. For all of that it was the Fairy's innate ability to passively heal through the DPS tank meta.

While SCH deserved everything it got from a balance perspective, I maintain that Tank Mastery was the final nail in the coffin on that period. With Cardia in existence I would like some kind of control over Embrace again. Even if it was just some regen-like oGCD that told the fairy to prioritize that target with Embrace while it was in effect.

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Originally Posted by Nizzi

SE seems really committed on making the supposed "Scholar" job fantasy as unintelligent as possible.
Scholar forgets how to summon its pet instantly, forgets how to use Fester, Miasma and Bane, and also forgets how to use Aetherflow and Energy Drain until level 45 when Scholar suddenly remembers it existed, but can't quite remember how it originally used it, so it just wings it and acts like the kid who didn't read a book in school before presenting his project and just makes up what he thinks it's about.
This confusion that Scholar has about it's own knowledge is only continuing in Endwalker, where Scholar will forget how to use Outburst and Aethercharge, along with Ruin II following in Energy Drain's footsteps where Scholar forgets it, goes back to using the base attack and then remembers it learned Ruin II at some point, and then just makes something up and uses it as a different ability.

At this point, Summoner is more of a "Scholar" than Scholar is, because Summoner clearly remembers all that healing stuff it had as an Arcanist and retains the ability to use Physick and Resurrection. Our well educated Scholar though? They can't even remember how to instantly summon their pet!

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If you really wanted to be a chad, it's not the SCH forgetting certain spells, it's them streamlining their old spells because their book needs to hold new spells in it. Miasma gets baked into Bio, and reworking existing spells to be more beneficial for the scholar as a healer, Fester becomes the new energy drain, old energy drain becomes Aetherflow and no longer requires them to draw the stacks out of a monster...etc etc. Which just leaves Bane as the one spell you could argue they forget.

Quality of Life for Scholar would be having our fairy present just for equiping the Job Stone. If we move too far she should show up next to us instantly the same way minions do that get left behind. Now that the fairy is untargetable and unable to die it doesn't make sense that we can exist as a Scholar without it. She's literally in the Job Stone and uses our Aether to manifest so even our death shouldn't be a real excuse. If we revive the fairy should too. The Carbuncles are a complex equation like I mentioned before and make sense for us to cast. The only problem I imagine for fairies to always be present is the times you're playing Scholar and simply don't want them around. Like when you're engaged with housing and it blocks your view, but even then we have placement commands to move her out the way.

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Originally Posted by NobleWinter

Quality of Life for Scholar would be having our fairy present just for equiping the Job Stone. If we move too far she should show up next to us instantly the same way minions do that get left behind. Now that the fairy is untargetable and unable to die it doesn't make sense that we can exist as a Scholar without it. She's literally in the Job Stone and uses our Aether to manifest so even our death shouldn't be a real excuse. If we revive the fairy should too. The Carbuncles are a complex equation like I mentioned before and make sense for us to cast. The only problem I imagine for fairies to always be present is the times you're playing Scholar and simply don't want them around. Like when you're engaged with housing and it blocks your view, but even then we have placement commands to move her out the way.

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But how then will I forget to summon my fairy, realize half way through an instance once I press a fairy skill out of boredom, and get all the comms?

"Huh weird I actually have to concentrate on healing a bit... Hmm, nope tank gear is good, they are using mitigations, what's going on?"