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

[Exstal]

Akiza wants SMN to play like end-game Spiritmaster

Video proof

[Crevox]

Simply commanding a pet to do things and nothing more would be the most boring gameplay that I can imagine.

That's exactly the gameplay we have right now for the majority of encounters in this game. After we command it, we play warlock and go DoT rotation time.

[Wolf_Shay]

That's exactly the gameplay we have right now for the majority of encounters in this game. After we command it, we play warlock and go DoT rotation time.

What was meant was by playing a class that effectively ONLY relies on the pet means that the character just stands there, doing nothing, simply managing all the pet's attacks and abilities. Either the character has to disappear, or become immune to attacks, or the pet has to take on an absurd amount of HP and take the damage for the Summoner.

I keep hearing that the class should be all about buffing the Egi, and letting the Egi do all the work...so you have to manage the Egi's HP extensively at the cost of your own, and then if the Egi dies, you have no method of protecting yourself.

I think I'm missing the part where playing a Summoner means being half-capable.

[Wolf_Shay]

My point dames and gentle-fops: the class is called a Summoner, not a Shapeshifter, not a Synthesist, not an Animist. You cut your teeth on the ways of transmuting aether as an Arcanist, even going so far as to summon a lesser being from crystal to serve as your ally. But Arcanists, Summoners, and even Scholars have to employ magicks of their own, because no self-respecting tactician would dare hedge all their bets on a single card. You buff your partner, command its actions, and if it falls you slap a Bind on your enemies and call the blighter back to action.

[Spellbinder]

...But Arcanists, Summoners, and even Scholars have to employ magicks of their own, because no self-respecting tactician would dare hedge all their bets on a single card...

That's why they've given us a hand of cards (e.g. Ifrit, Garuda, Titan) with more to come in the future (Ramuh, Leviathan, etc.). Furthermore, during the recent Niconico Choukaigi event, they mentioned that the Egi will be readjusted in light of the fact that more Egi will be added in the future.

Case in point: Although the Summoner does employ magicks of its own, its role is to summon, hence the job title Summoner. If you're going to give a Summoner five or six different entities to summon, but only one of them is useful, the design is flawed and needs to be reevaluated. I'm glad the developers will be making changes in the future. I just pray the changes they make are good ones.

[Akiza]

I hope they make good changes as well and not just buff Egis damage.

[Akiza]

Aion Spirit Master is still the best pet class in MMO's. The pet changes physically depending on the players level and you can equip a variety of skills on your pet.

[Euphe]

I have a SCH and I love it, but I won't touch SMN. Rolled a BLM instead. I think overall the whole SMN job is not very interesting. They should have made ACN more about DoTs (essentially staying what it is now), then made SMN more about pets and SCH more about heals (which it's a perfectly fine healer already). SE really fudged up in terms of SMN imo. They are re-working the class soon so hopefully it will be made to be more about pet dps rather than DoTs (again this should be an ACN's duty). In the end I'm not even going to play SMN until they re-balance/fix this job. I'm happy having my SCH and I'm happy with the BLM mechanics (even though they could use some tweaking as well)... Sadly SMN is just a dust collector in my job closet...

Some ideas to make pets more interesting (bare in mind that I haven't even touched SMN so I apalogize if I say something that is already there):
Ifrit-
Give him an ability to boost skill speed (much like SCH fairy)
Give him higher resistance to all type of dmg
Make his stun stronger or delete it

Titan-
Make it so he can help mitigate group damage better
This could be in the form of his own version of protect (that IS stackable with Protect) or by giving him a blinding ability

Garuda-
She is supposedly just fine that way she is from what people are saying...
BUT if they were to change her they could make it so she is more centered around boosting your caster dps more
since she is long ranged

Regardless of whether or not people agree with what I've listed the point in this matter is that they should make it so you are using your summons during fights. Instead of just summoning once and that's it until it dies why not go for something that would encourage summoners to be more diversified in deploying their summons to grant the team as a whole an easier battle. That way not only will summoners be bringing good dps to the table but also vast utilities that can ensure a smooth fight even during group hiccups. In my book that would redeem summoners and make me more inclined to roll/play one later down the line.

[YanderePrincess]

I really hate to be "that guy" but summoner feels like an SE dev was watching tons of warlock videos from World of Warcraft and said "screw it, let's do one of those thingies" instead of making a summoner class mostly about the power of the SUMMON.

They tried a Summoner class mostly about the power of the summon in FFXI. It became half-level main healer with a giant mana pool.

[YanderePrincess]

Aion Spirit Master is still the best pet class in MMO's. The pet changes physically depending on the players level and you can equip a variety of skills on your pet.

I actually think CoX's Mastermind (Think that was the name of the class) was the best pet class in an MMO.