SMN - Why it is not a very interesting job and not a good upgrade from ACN

[shinros]

Final fantasy X summons useless? You can build them as the most OP things ever just like the main characters. The good thing about X was the fact that anyone can be OP in that game.

Plus my summons in IX hitting for 9999 damage like everyone else along with vivi's doomsday.

[BloodPact]

Final fantasy X summons useless? You can build them as the most OP things ever just like the main characters. The good thing about X was the fact that anyone can be OP in that game.

Plus my summons in IX hitting for 9999 damage like everyone else along with vivi's doomsday.

Yes, in the latest part of X summons were useless. Summoning meant calling back the entire party for the aeon to take their place. Why have 1 character do 9999 when you can have each member of the party do the same? The only usefulness in that situation would be summoning before an unavoidable 1 hit KO attach, which means you'd sacrifice the aeon instead of going to Game Over, and for that a lv1 aeon would suffice.

[Xiozen]

Anyone know of a way to strengthen the summoned egi? I mean, let's take two different summoners, one in full AF, the other in full Darklight, will the summoned egi be strengthened based on the gear equipped by the master?

I ask this because coming from FFXI where gear clearly denoted strengths benefiting the summoned avatar, this isn't the case in FFXIV:ARR--i would love to have gear added into the game that actually makes the summoned egi stronger... is this possible and if so, why not look at implementing it as a viable gearing (iLvl) option?

Does adding pet enhancing gear on top of iLvl offset or take away from the master's ability to appropriately gear themselves? I would say no, but I'm just asking, perhaps a Dev can look into this.

Thanks!

[shinros]

Yes, in the latest part of X summons were useless. Summoning meant calling back the entire party for the aeon to take their place. Why have 1 character do 9999 when you can have each member of the party do the same? The only usefulness in that situation would be summoning before an unavoidable 1 hit KO attach, which means you'd sacrifice the aeon instead of going to Game Over, and for that a lv1 aeon would suffice.

Yeah but I had the choice and the summons are strong sometimes I just do a run where I use anima or shiva to murder all the dark aeons and the super boss. Its fun. They are only "useless" if you don't invest in them. Plus in IX all my party members did 9999 damage garnet does not have to heal a round? Throw a hellfire or megaflare in their face.

Plus anima limit break is the most OP thing ever.

[Crevox]

Anyone know of a way to strengthen the summoned egi

Stats on gear are inherited by pet, snapshotted on summon, ignoring any temporary modifications.

[Hawklaser]

For that matter, why do we have bio? Who the heck used that?

I actually used it quite frequently, as it was often one of the stronger and more reliable spells around the time you got it.

As to the reason why it shows up on ACN which branches to both SMN and SCH is likely due to XI's SCH being focused on DoT/HoT spells outside of its stratagems, and also due to Rydia the first Summoner in a FF without a job system. She was essentially a BLM/SMN character, and she had a spell called Virus or Bio depending on which version of FF4 you played. So this is likely them trying to go back to the Black Mage like Summoners instead of the White Mage Summoners of late, while also trying to not step on the toes of Black Mages.

[Crevox]

While someone (or SE) said something about White Mages using stone/aero because of FF3 or something, I believe SMN's DoT gameplay style and possession of spells like Bio exists solely because they wanted another caster DPS class, specifically one that uses DoTs. People just also wanted Summoner, so they decided to merge the concepts (which they should not have done).

[Duelle]

The thing is Summoner does not play at all similarly to ANY Summoner in ANY Final Fantasy. This is the only job where this is the case, as the majority of others play similarly to previous jobs (Scholar is the other exception, but it got owned just as Summoner did by that stupid base class and their rushed need for a specific gameplay style/role to be fulfilled).

Warrior says "hi", as that wasn't a self-healing tank in any of the previous FFs. The warriors aren't throwing fits that WAR doesn't play like FF1's Fighter, by the way.

As far as getting "owned", I don't know what to tell you. SMN was built on ACN's framework and there's not much helping that now. Where the job needs actual help is more in things like command input for pet abilities being completely separate from command input for player character abilities, better pet AI for the three egis (Ifrit's pathing should be set to be directly behind the target mob, Garuda's pathing should aim to be next to the SMN), a much better pet UI, and greatly reduced damage from all types of AoEs.

[Crevox]

Warrior being tank is not a big deal. It still swings a giant two handed axe and does various axe attacks offensively. It just happens to also play the tank role, however that doesn't change much in terms of its fighting style. Warrior can also DPS quite well if you run it with STR accessories and such.

Summoner, on the other hand, never used DoTs, and doesn't even fight primarily with summons in this game.

[Crevox]

SMN was built on SCH's framework and there's not much helping that now

By this I assume you mean ACN.

Regardless of that, changes can be made to help it. I would say it's silly to expect an entire remake, but changes can still be done. My main post explains a lot of things.