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

[Kevee]

Care to point me to a Summoner/Caller that didn't have Summon/Call?

You didn't say that. You said that "Summon" was their only command.

I liked the part where you ignored my evidence to the contrary on Eiko and Garnet. Besides that, whether a strategy was ultimately better to dual class with is irrelevant to the theme of the Summoner job.

Eiko/Garnet are evidence towards my point. They weren't better off summoning, and in fact it was a detriment to the whole party because of the way buff mechanics worked in 9.

It's not, if you think part of the theme of Summoner is to be "powerful."

I never said it was and I'm not sure why you're trying to claim that I did. I said "the summoner's main source of damage output was his or her summon". With the exception of perhaps Rydia (which is debatable depending on the level you got into Bahamut's cave at - and even then, throughout the vast majority of the game her Calls outclassed her black magic by a very large margin until she gets the -3 spells) and borrowing abilities from other Jobs this has always been the case.

That's my point. A summoner's main source of damage is, more often, not summons. Not for Rydia, not for Yuna, not for Eiko/Garnet, and not for Tactics summoners. 3 is unique in that it was their only command, iirc, and I never played 5 or 6.

None of that has anything to do with the core issue I have with the thematic change which is, again, a switch from elemental and burst to death, decay and disease.

Death, decay, and disease has off-and-on been a part of the theme. RE: Rydia, off-classing, Lich/Doomtrain/Hades/Etc summons, and biggest of all, FFXIV. Which, you know, is itself a FF game and makes an example towards that type of Summoner.