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

[Crevox]

by the power of bump I restore thee topic to the top

[Klive]

I've started calling the summoner, S.I.N.O. (Summoner In Name Only) due to this seems to be how people feel about the summoner.

Anyways, the issue with the S.I.N.O., in my humble opinion, is the player were expecting something different. The summoner ended up being taken off the MMO dot/pet class checklist. I think, the player just expected better of SE when handling a class/job that FF was renown for.


My biggest issue is the job quests. In other job quests, there is a reason I'm learning spells/abilities. For example, SCH I'm learning spells from my Fairy and my quests are to help her regain her memories so she can teach me more magic. The S.I.N.O., I still have no idea why I learned Fester and Tri-Disaster. After I fought the titan-egi followed by that random summoner guy, it rewards me with Fester. My though on this was, why? Where did I learn this spell from? Did I find it in my pocket? Same thing with Tri-Disaster, why did going out looking for that random summoner guy teach me Tri-Disaster? What do these spell have to do with summoning? The quest created questions and that is failing in storytelling. I though SE was big on storytelling.

[shinros]

Exactly Klive hence why I am disappointed with the summoner quests from a lore standpoint. It was pretty much here is your pet off you go oh and you got a crazy summoner following you have fun!

While with the black mage they tell you where the powers come from and how they are connected to the void and you meet some interesting friends along the way who actually teach you the black magic spells. Plus the story surrounding the person who makes you one is quite sad too.

[Yamo]

does anyone else feel that the pet ai needs to be better? I mean, I play on ps3 and its really hard to try controlling the pet when first of all, you cant command it while you are casting and its kind of a pain to switch from 1 bar to the other to try to give it commands. I have become a lot better with the gamepad, but I feel like I could do so much more if I had mouse. I had lost my pet in countless battles just because the stupid thing just stands in the middle of an aoe and when I give it a command to move out of the way it takes so long for the damn thing to take effect that he just dies. Also, I believe heals from the summoner himself should have double potency effect on his pet. Sometimes I feel like it takes to long to heal it.

[Crevox]

does anyone else feel that the pet ai needs to be better? I mean, I play on ps3 and its really hard to try controlling the pet when first of all, you cant command it while you are casting and its kind of a pain to switch from 1 bar to the other to try to give it commands. I have become a lot better with the gamepad, but I feel like I could do so much more if I had mouse. I had lost my pet in countless battles just because the stupid thing just stands in the middle of an aoe and when I give it a command to move out of the way it takes so long for the damn thing to take effect that he just dies. Also, I believe heals from the summoner himself should have double potency effect on his pet. Sometimes I feel like it takes to long to heal it.

The only real issue is the clunkiness of ordering it. You can't give it orders while casting, and there's a few other quirky things too... for example with Garuda. If you order her to use Contagion -> Aerial Slash, by pressing one after another, she won't use Aerial Slash after Contagion. You have to wait for Contagion to finish, wait for her to execute an auto attack, THEN command her during the auto attack and she will use it afterward. This causes even more issues when you use stuff like Contagion and then use Enkindle. They won't activate their ultimate skill and Enkindle will be wasted.

There's more clunkiness and issues with the pets, but yeah, ordering while casting is a big one that is just a pain. It would be nice if they were more responsive in general and obey your commands quicker (even for simple things like telling it to attack a different target often causes it to sit there and do nothing for a couple seconds before attacking again).

[Warlyx]

I've started calling the summoner, S.I.N.O. (Summoner In Name Only) due to this seems to be how people feel about the summoner.

Anyways, the issue with the S.I.N.O., in my humble opinion, is the player were expecting something different. The summoner ended up being taken off the MMO dot/pet class checklist. I think, the player just expected better of SE when handling a class/job that FF was renown for.
.

my guess is tha SE wanted another healing class, and wanted a pet class too , so created sch and attached smn afterwards....because creating a new class + job is a lot of work (quest , gear ....)

so SE killed the need for a dot , pet class in 1 hit , oh and added a healing job on top of that.

how to kill 3 birds with 1 stone? arcanist , dots pets and healer!

the problem is that dots ok , healer ok , but pets? fail to deliver

[Crevox]

the problem is that dots ok , healer ok , but pets? fail to deliver

And fail to deliver on the SMN fan's desires and wishes.

[Crevox]

bump... still hoping SE has at LEAST some balance changes planned for 2.1, nothing but big feature announcements (that have already been stated) over and over so far

[Kevee]

bump... still hoping SE has at LEAST some balance changes planned for 2.1, nothing but big feature announcements (that have already been stated) over and over so far

What is out of balance?

[Samuraiking]

What is out of balance?

A lot of things.

I have leveled DRG recently, and while I think DRG class is about perfect, and in much better shape, I noticed my SMN does a ton more dmg than my DRG; it's just not as fun to play. The pet AI is terrible. The customization (turning off certain skills) of pet bar is terrible. The obey command sucks. The overall dmg potential needs to be lowered and we need to be given a little more burst. Yes, Fester is great, but I have to apply dots first, so it's not as easy to kill a bee in AK as it would be on DRG. Still, the ramp-up dmg trade-off is nice, it just sucks for burst fights. There are more things, but I am stuck to 1000 character limit.