SUMMONER, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE OR ADD? (EVOLUTION & STAT ALLOCATION)

[Juubi]

Make Summoners Summoners and not DoT Warlocks

[Miiu]

@Duelle
Sorry I understood your text as such. Didn't want to put words in your mouth.

@Carbuncle
It might be because carbuncle helps you voluntarily. At least thats why I remember from the FFXI summoner storyline. If I'm wrong please say so. It has been way too long since I did the quest.

The chococomparision is a good example of how screwed up the whole summoner class is (not saying I'm for talent trees (dunno maybe I am)). A companion that everyone can get has more attention to playstyle than the one "Pet class" we have.

[Ryuko]

@Duelle
Sorry I understood your text as such. Didn't want to put words in your mouth.

@Carbuncle
It might be because carbuncle helps you voluntarily. At least thats why I remember from the FFXI summoner storyline. If I'm wrong please say so. It has been way too long since I did the quest.

The chococomparision is a good example of how screwed up the whole summoner class is (not saying I'm for talent trees (dunno maybe I am)). A companion that everyone can get has more attention to playstyle than the one "Pet class" we have.

One thing that personally bugs me is how stupid pets are. For example, I've seen fairies MPK groups because they automatically toss a heal once a pull is made or hate reset happens. You'll see Garuda run off like a mad-woman if you don't put her on Steady in AK and a Succubus manages to hit her.

But the most annoying thing to me is when you fight Hydra... Egis can be targeted by the ground AoEs. By the time you see the red circle is on Garuda and instruct her to move out (or just tell her to 'follow' you), it is too late... the Egi will be hit, get the DoT, and die... every time. There is a delay on what you tell your pet to do... Oh, and you need to wait for the animation to 'finish' before you use Enkindle. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty all the 2hour (5 min) abilities work this way... It's very annoying as a healer with Benediction. I have to wait until my little twirl goes off. lol

[Duelle]

One thing that personally bugs me is how stupid pets are. For example, I've seen fairies MPK groups because they automatically toss a heal once a pull is made or hate reset happens. You'll see Garuda run off like a mad-woman if you don't put her on Steady in AK and a Succubus manages to hit her.

I agree with you, but that should be filed under issues with pet AI, and I hope that aside from complaining about the appearance of egi at least some of the posters here are giving feedback to SE on pet AI and the terrible UI we're mired with.

To be fair, they didn't really explain Carbuncle very well at all. I was super surprised by that. I might go back through the cutscenes and refresh my memory to see if there is a better explanation than I can remember.

From what I recall, Carbuncle is the manifestation of your strategems as an arcanist. If you wanted to put it in modern terms, he'd be really close to a computer program you created yourself (following a guideline set by the arcanist's guild). The main thing to keep in mind is that carby has a sort of guideline for it (hence why it has a clear shape and is used en-masse by everyone who picks a grimoire). Instead of 1's and 0's your construct if made through a combination of geometric patterns drawn by you on your grimoire and aether.

[Ryuko]

I agree with you, but that should be filed under issues with pet AI, and I hope that aside from complaining about the appearance of egi at least some of the posters here are giving feedback to SE on pet AI and the terrible UI we're mired with.

I've seen these "I HATE HOW SUMMONER PETS LOOK" threads pop up more than any other criticisms. There were a few "SMN don't have any burst -- this is stupid" threads during the first week... I guess until people realized we have ways around that and SMN sustained damage is more than enough to make up for our lack in burst when killing adds ASAP. (Fester charges are more than enough to pull your weight on Titan heart, for example... and planning to Bane and spreading DoTs as soon as adds spawn on Garuda will make up for the lack of burst there.)

People also complain about Egi damage without actually parsing to see how much damage the pet actually does. I can't give an exact estimate, but a pet definitely does more than 10%. A summoner's damage is already pretty high... it's usually the pet that sets a summoner's full damage over other players with equal gear. Keep in mind that your pet's stats SEEM to increase with YOUR gear. (Or at least the HP from your VIT does... I haven't strictly parsed pet damage with gear on/off.)

The most legitimate complaint/criticism that I hear involves the fact that summoner operates VERY similarly to an Affliction (DoT spec) warlock in WoW. It's true... although the lore is different... but I can't think of a great 'fix' to this since this is a game that encourages you to ALWAYS be doing something (very rarely do you just 'stand still' like in FFXI). If anyone can think of a great fix to the "Summoner = Warlock" complaint that actually works with this game, please speak up now. Saying, "I wish our pet did more" isn't enough because standing there and commanding a pet just isn't going to work in a fast-paced game like this. We aren't playing FFXI anymore. =/

[KokonoeAiyoko]

I would have leveled Summoner to 50 already if was actual traditional FF Summoner and not FamiliarER. It's just not really fun spamming debuffs and using something so small and not threatening with the reputation of Summoner.

[Engineer]

I've seen these "I HATE HOW SUMMONER PETS LOOK" threads pop up more than any other criticisms. /

Its Because Final Fantasy has always been about the Summons looking like eye candy. Yes they dont have to be BIG, but the fact they are so small and look like Cute Chibi baby versions of the primals is what people dont like.

As a summoner, the Summons should look like they can protect you, not the other way around. They look like Fancy Minions.

Most gamers understand that having the actual primals as pets dont make sense for the XIV lore, but SE could have made the look of the Egi more Full & Detailed.

I wish SE would have gave us actual summons that they werent going to use as Primals (Ixion, Valefor, Belias, Mateus, Fenrir, Quetzalcoatl ETC.)

There were a few "SMN don't have any burst -- this is stupid" threads during the first week... I guess until people realized we have ways around that and SMN sustained damage is more than enough to make up for our lack in burst when killing adds ASAP. (Fester charges are more than enough to pull your weight on Titan heart, for example... and planning to Bane and spreading DoTs as soon as adds spawn on Garuda will make up for the lack of burst there.)

Summoners arent very good at killing adds quicky since they dont have reliable insta damage moves. Their efficiency against adds are very situational and Inconsistent. Agaist Titans heart, sumoners dont really have a problem. The problem comes more from SMN trying to get players out of the stone titan incases them in.

The aether flow charges arent always there, and still very situational unlike an archers AOE bow, or a Lancers AOE jump. SMN has to pre dot adds, and by then 2 other DD could have taken then down 3 times.

Enkindle Should be reduced to 60 Seconds recast to fix this.

People also complain about Egi damage without actually parsing to see how much damage the pet actually does. I can't give an exact estimate, but a pet definitely does more than 10%. A summoner's damage is already pretty high... it's usually the pet that sets a summoner's full damage over other players with equal gear. Keep in mind that your pet's stats SEEM to increase with YOUR gear. (Or at least the HP from your VIT does... I haven't strictly parsed pet damage with gear on/off.)

10% is very low. The actual Summoner should do 20% of the Pet Damage Since its called a Summoner. The majority of the damage should come from the pet.

Should have been like Scholar, Healing is Number 1 and Dots are 2nd. Pet damage should be number 1, and Dots 2nd.

You can tell something is wrong when when a "Summoner" can perform very well without their pet.

The most legitimate complaint/criticism that I hear involves the fact that summoner operates VERY similarly to an Affliction (DoT spec) warlock in WoW. It's true... although the lore is different... but I can't think of a great 'fix' to this since this is a game that encourages you to ALWAYS be doing something (very rarely do you just 'stand still' like in FFXI). If anyone can think of a great fix to the "Summoner = Warlock" complaint that actually works with this game, please speak up now. Saying, "I wish our pet did more" isn't enough because standing there and commanding a pet just isn't going to work in a fast-paced game like this. We aren't playing FFXI anymore. =

Here is what i think is best.

Pets should do 80% of the Damage while the dots cover the rest.

Fester should be performed through the pet like enkindle and do various things depending what pet is out. Garuda does the norm single target damage fester already does, Ifrit could do a Cone damage version, and Titan can do a PBAOE version which generates more aoe hate.

Moving forward with the level cap increase summoner should only get abilities that involve the pet.

Summoner should Perform through their pet, while dots coming from the summoner should act as a bonus in overall damage.

[SirSaber]

Ehm I don't know if anyone said this before me so sorry if I repeat it.

How about this;

Add a last skill to Egis that when used will grant them more % power from their respective primal forms for a short duration.
This will result in the Egi actually taking a more Primal form for that time duration.
The duration should be like 60secs in fight mode and having a kinda loong cooldown too.
Also this temporary evolution should give the empowered Egi more Dps, something like 15-20% more.

Like this summoners would have a little extra be it dps or egi looks and it would not hinder / irritate people in cities since the form
Goes off the moment battle is over etc.

It's kinda like the new Mega Evolution from pokemon, it's temporary, powerfull but not too much, good looking and enough

[Alan-ere]

Give us a proper summoner lvl 3 limit break instead of pawning us off with blm meteor!!

[ArmachiA]

You should never, ever let your pet do significantly more damage than you as a pet class. That's... not really feasible. The AI of a pet is too erratic, too unpredictable (Even with a fairly smooth AI like WoW's my pet as a hunter still has some stupid as hell glitches). There's no way to control the exact damage you want it to give (Can't shut off certain abilities, like in WoW when I went solo I would turn on my pets Provoke, but in groups I could turn it off) it's either turn of everything and micromanage, or turn off nothing and have them do whatever they want whenever they want... and with the AI that varies in success. If your pet does way more damage than you, there is no reason for you to even be in there. No one will want to bring a SMN anywhere who has to rely on a glitchy AI to do all the Damage.

That's not a solution, thats a bigger problem.