Quote Originally Posted by Engineer View Post
Scholar is also designed from the Arcanist base, but still has healing as its main. Why cant Summoner have Summoning as its main and dots second?
You mean aside from it being based off a DoT class? SCH doesn't use some of the ACN spells since their role is healing, not DPS, and they need to focus on that in the content that matters. SMN, as it turns out, is DPS, and as such the majority of the ACN abilities do play a bigger role for SMN than SCH.
the Traditional Summoner gameplay
Which doesn't work in an MMORPG. Much less in a modern MMORPG with a faster combat system.
which was all about the Pets, and using the Pets to deal the Damage
False. Rydia had black magic with fancier graphics. Garnet had black magic with fancier graphics that lasted close to two minutes before the damage was even calculated. Yuna's aeons replaced the party until the end of the battle or the aeon died. FFT's summoner was once again black magic with fancier graphics. FFXI's summoner had gimped pets that were laughably weak and had costly upkeep.

There is some variety in interpretation, and much like Blue Mages you don't lose ANY of the job's identity so long as the elements are there (Monster skills as magic for BLU, Ifrit, Titan, etc. for SMN).
The pets were the Main focus of the class, and should be since its called Summoner.
You've already admitted that pet classes are hard to balance, and I supplied the other half of that equation because the more you put on the pet, the harder it is to balance said class. You'd go back to throwing darts on a board and hoping you end up with something not broken and not OP.
While Summoner (XIV) doesnt perform through its Summoning to deal all the damage. Instead deals its damage through Dots that comes from the master.
Because it is built on the framework of a class that is focused on DoTs with a pet providing additional firepower. Given the design philosophy and the correlation between classes and their respective jobs, the design makes sense.