Summoner Revamp Ideas

[SkyHighDN]

Non Summoner Here..... But my wife plays as a Summoner...

While I don't think there is a need for a total revamp on the Summoner, I like the way it is.... I just kinda hope that the EGI's get balanced out for their utilization in the future....

Instead of seeing a summoner with Garuda out at all times during End game.... it'd be nice to see them have to alternate between their summons in battle... Im not sure if that means to tune a fight or two to optimize this, or tune the EGI's so they are all useful

Yes... Titan is a tank, and their is no need to pull him out unless one of the 2 tanks die in end game situations, and if this happens, its probably a wipe anyways....
But... how bout a situation where a primal battle, or coil raid switches from optimum range assault to optimum melee assault... and a good summoner would need to switch from garuda..... to ifrit..... back to garuda mid fight... and swiftcast would alleviate the need to casting time...

Maybe Leviathan comes in as a healing EGI.... so after the big aoe phases like garuda after the jump, titan after the heart... king mog when he summons.... leviathan for 45 seconds would be ideal....

Either way... its kinda dull seeing garuda shooting yellow spit for 10 mins... i'd like to be wow-ed by a cameo appearance of leviathan..... and hopefully this type of alternation will be expanded in the future...... a vanity green ifrit? a complete optional egi like mog? fenrir as an average summon but has a relic weapon like ordeal to achieve, making it a vanity commodity?

[Kitru]

Maybe Leviathan comes in as a healing EGI....

The only way that would happen is if the devs actually wound up adding the hybrid role and decided that SMN should become a hybrid rather than a straight DPS. The situations you're describing are actually the explicit scenarios that the devs would have to implement in order to "require" hybrids, which is what Yoshi has said he wants to do (such that group comp would be 2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 DPS, and 2 hybrids). Until such time, SMN isn't going to get a healing pet because that's what SCHs are there for, not to mention that it would provide explicit utility that no other class could match (and existing Titan's utility is highly conditional since it requires he be around from the start because he doesn't have provoke and all DPS keep their enmity comparatively low since Titan doesn't really have impressive enmity gen; he's also only marginally more durable than an mDPS durable; he's really just there for soloing, much like MNK Fists of Earth).

Barring the inclusion of a hybrid role and the commensurate change for SMNs, I don't really see much need to change them up. There could be some vanity modifications to the Egis, such as the option to turn Garuda-Egi into a Ramuh-Egi or Shiva-Egi, but, beyond that there's not really all that much that the job needs. The only possible tweak I could think of would be creating some kind of self-destruct capability for the Egis that would have them drop an appropriate nuke but cause them to disappear and put their summon on CD (such that you'd summon Garuda, have her kill herself, summon Ifrit, and have him kill himself when Garuda's summon is recharged, and vice versa). The only real "advantage" would be causing the SMN to have a reason to bounce Egis, but that's really all that it serves since SMN already has the ability to access their summons' nukes via Enkindle.

[Mimilu]

There could be some vanity modifications to the Egis, such as the option to turn Garuda-Egi into a Ramuh-Egi or Shiva-Egi, but, beyond that there's not really all that much that the job needs.

I really hope that they don't replace the current Egis with new ones like Ramuh and Shiva and let them be there own Egis, with something that can compete with Contagion. I really don't like that Garuda is the only summons worth commanding (Titan's a tank and shouldn't be used in parties and Ifrit is too buggy and squishy to be used often) and even then, it's for either placing or Contagion. When I compare SMN to SCH, even though most people only use Eos, you have so much more usability and control with SCH's pets. While Titan can remain the same for soloing, I wish they would fix Ifrit's buggy attack, and change both his and the rest of Garuda's moves to actually make them usable and worth controlling.

[Kitru]

I really hope that they don't replace the current Egis with new ones like Ramuh and Shiva and let them be there own Egis, with something that can compete with Contagion.

I could actually see that, assuming that the devs gauge the value of the replacement properly. All SMN pets follow a pretty basic loadout comprised of an ST attack, an AoE, a CC utility/attack, a nuke, and a wildcard. CC/utility could remain identical to the equivalent Egi (though it would probably work best being thematic: Ramuh would probably get stun while Shiva would get KB or bind) and the nukes are all just variations on "big AoE damage on long CD". The only real difference is the wildcard, which can be pretty much anything. They could give SMN a certain level of support capability by giving Ramuh and/or Shiva group buffs akin to Selene and Eos' buffs (e.g. Ramuh increases magic defense by 20% for 20 seconds every 90 seconds; Shiva reduces elemental resistance on a single target by 10% for 15 seconds with a 90 sec CD); as such, Garuda/Ifrit would still be the best straight up DPS pets but the others would have niche functionality for groups (for those previous recommendations, Shiva would be amazing for caster heavy groups while Ramuh would be quite useful for AoE intensive fights).

Even so, that's not really discussing a revamp of SMN so much as addition of new capabilities to expand their given role/functions.

[Mimilu]

...Garuda/Ifrit would still be the best straight up DPS pets but the others would have niche functionality for groups...

What I think they should do with Ifrit is make Radiant Shield a buff he can cast of a selected target or they should just get rid of it for something more suited for a Melee DPS. I mean, he really has no use for it, seeing as he rarely ever gets more enmity then his SMN, so when will he get hit to take advantage of its spike damage. With Radiant Shield as a targetable buff, he will now have more utility, being able to place it on the tanks and it will give us a reason to keep him in Obey so he won't spam Crimson Cyclone and ruin the tank and/or DPS's stuns (that is IF Burning Strike is his default attack, I've never placed Ifrit in Obey to find out...).

[Mimilu]

Blahblahblahblah

Also, I think they could give Garuda an Aero-DoT spell that can be effected by Contagion, just so she can have something else you can command her to use when needed... >w>