Originally Posted by
Ryuko
The only time summoner's 'weakness' shows is against adds that you need to down quickly. We just don't have the burst of other classes (we have to wait for DoTs to build up). This is a legitimate complaint and one I hope is addressed. I understand that people are upset that the pets aren't a higher percentage of our damage.. but I can understand why summoner is built this way according to the mechanics of THIS particular game.
On another note... I've seen people complain about SMN before they even see what they can do. Summoner is a new class. Yes, all classes were 'rebuilt', but many people playing it really had 'nothing' to go by. Slowly but surely, we are learning what it is all about (the rotation is super easy)... and surprise, it's not a straight-up DD like other classes... and I'm not just talking about the fact that we rely on DoTs. We have a LOT of utility other classes don't necessarily get, but we suffer in our lack of bursts. On some fights where a LOT of adds spawn (even too much for an off tank to handle too well), I can throw Titan at these extra adds to tank them for a while. It works wonders. Also, on boss fights (without adds), I can consistently build myself up to 2nd on the hate list with only a few pieces of darklight. I don't run a parser, but this basically means that I am doing enough damage to be 2nd on the monster's hate list. If the tank dies, I'm the one the boss goes after.
If you are building an ideal party (with a nice balance), throwing in one summoner isn't going to hurt the group at all. ARR seems to be all about keeping your party versatile rather than class stacking like it was in 1.0.