SMN - 2.1 Live

[Eulogee]

So I am just curious what some of you guys think of the summoner changes now that you have had a chance to play. Huge Nerf? Needed Nerf? Dumbed Down? Any major play style changes or stat focus changes? I got to play some today but was not on my normal PC so didn't have FFXIVapp to see what my DPS was at.

I personally feel it was dumbed down some. My guess is that Shadowflare will become more prominent in my rotation now that I have the mana to basically keep it out all the time. I do not think it ended up being a HUGE nerf, and I think one was needed. Not thrilled about the way it plays now, but much less so then I initially thought I would be.

Would love to hear thoughts.

[Sylari]

Numerically the nerf is justifiable. Mechanically it's awful.

I personally feel it was dumbed down some.

I don't think there's really anything to personally feel here: We have fewer buttons to push and are less concerned with mana. There's no nuance, no adaptation or adjustments to make, we just have less to do.

[Madoka]

I keep hitting the hotkey but no thunder is coming.

[Kalandros]

I use Miasma II a tad more, just because its graceful~
And shadowflare you should ALWAYS use anyway.

Also never had much issue with mana, certainly don't have any now either.

[PriyaJugulataris]

I keep hitting the hotkey but no thunder is coming.

This.
Pet's are marginally more annoying but that's really a scholar issue rather than summoner.

[deathstix]

Hi guys,

I did a run of Turn 1 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut and ran into some problems which I've never encountered before pre 2.1...

1. Even when set to Steady, Garuda aggroed Caduceus (the snake boss) before anyone else in my party started attacking... we had to wipe a few times because of this... (so I could only Swiftcast-Summon Garuda just after the tank pulls)
2. At the location where I usually stand during the fight some two hexagons away on a higher platform, I found that I couldn't target my Shadowflare properly on the boss as usual, despite being able to land it somewhere FURTHER away from him (so it's not a range issue). My bard had the same issue with Flaming Arrow.

Apart from that..... I MISS MY THUNDER...... :'(
(well I always enjoy adding that extra DoT to my rotation muahaha)

[xxalucard]

lack of thunder makes it feel like there's nothing to do, and is a significant dps loss. the main thing i do different now is after casting miasma II i throw in a wildcard blizzard 2 while saying "don't worry we got patch 2.1 now." tri-disaster is pretty much useless in PvE since it costs more mp, has a longer cast time, and is less potency than bliz II in aoe situations

[PriyaJugulataris]

*post*

1. Ironically, same thing happened to me, but it was just one wipe.
2. That sounds purely locational, personally have seen no difference in Shadowflares.

[Leigaon]

I figured I would place blizzard on my hot bar in case it came in handy. I kept hitting it thinking "And now we Thunder" though my mana isn't an issue or ever was I just notice I got more of it. I throw out a ruin every now and then more, I need to get use to the pet stance fixes for the new dungeons but that's about it.

[T0rin]

I don't like it. I put Bane in place of Bio, and Bio in place of Thunder. I find myself accidentally Baning targets with no DoTs. :P

The loss of Thunder really feels like something is missing in the gameplay now. More ruin spam does not make for entertaining gameplay. No more multi-DoTing. After I Fester during my RS rotation, I go to Thunder, and just stand there idly pondering the loss. I'm sure my muscle memory will eventually adapt, but it really feels like removing Thunder outright was the wrong way to go with this. That 4th DoT that doesn't get Baned, but does get Contagion'd, cost a good deal of mana but dealt a good deal of damage, was apparently a pretty integral part of what made SMN fun.

But, on the bright side, Blizzard 2 is pretty good. I got to use it a good bit on EX Garuda last night, and it will come in handy in Turn 4. It feels a bit out of place for SMN, but I guess that is kind of what cross-class skills are. I think SMN needs another DoT of it's own. Anything to stem the tide of Ruin spam.