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

[Yukiko]

Well...
I hoped Summoner having powerful or useful strong summons (not pets).
The downside is to have super long cast time to prepare runes or some magic circles...

SE thrown away the design of summoning because of their actionRPG gamestyle with solely relying on avoid mechanics!

[MartaDemireux]

What matters is if SCH from FFXIV is more fun than in FFXI.

Actually, here I have to disagree. What matters is if SCH in FFXIV is fun to play period. In FFXIV they made SCH a healer. Does it function well as a healer? Yes. Is it fun to play as a healer? Depends on the person but I think it is.

The problem is coming into FFXIV expecting things to be a direct improvement from FFXI when every FF is proven to be a different game. If you come into FFXIV expecting SCH to function the same as in FFXI as both healer, DPS and support then you'd be sorely disappointed (as you seem to be). But if you come into FFXIV expecting SCH to function solely as a healer, you'd probably be less disappointed as it does so quite well. I'm not saying SCH in FFXIV is perfect but it's good at what it does.

In FFXI I played WAR for a long time because I liked playing DPS. Sure it wasn't top DPS but it was good at what it did and it was fun to me. I was hoping it would be DPS in FFXIV when I saw MRD using axes but was disappointed when I got the game and saw all the enmity abilities. I decided I wouldn't even touch it. ARR comes along and I decided I'd try it since I hadn't before but with the mindset that it was a tank. I have to say I had fun playing it. It functions very well as a tank in XIV.

I know many people didn't do research on ARR's classes/jobs and just saw "Oh, ACN has pets and a book I'll give it a shot!" and when they found out SCH came from it they were disappointed. I do get that, but they went into it with the wrong mindset. I know it doesn't help that the healing job comes from a DPS class as well but you'll have that. It's the same story for people coming into FFXIV from FFXI expecting BLM to have all the elements or for ARC to be RNG instead of BRD. Coming into the game with the knowledge that CNJ uses half the elements and ARC is a BRD would have saved them a little disappointment probably if they were expecting to become that job after getting to level 30.

[Akiza]

If Summoner's summoned Primals by preparing runes or magic circles the cast time would have to be 7s to make it balanced and drain 2000 mp.

Right now Summoner's are summoning the Primals in the form of high spirits but the appearance of them suck Ifrit Egi - looks like a chicken with horns.
Titan Egi - looks like a bunch of chicken nuggets.
Garuda Egi - looks like green flying chicken.

[Exstal]

Why do you always ruin an interesting train of thought with something worthless?

[MartaDemireux]

Right now Summoner's are summoning the Primals in the form of high spirits

I thought it was proven via lore that SMN essentially molds the current pets out of 3 crystals (the ones that spin around them during summoning). They fuse the crystals together with aetheric and elemental energies. Since they're only using 3 crystals they get a much different looking pet from the primals while still maintaining a similar appearance. The reason the primals look the way they do is because of the tens of thousands of crystals the beast tribes use in their summoning. They would look much different than they do now with even more crystals used. The problem is that the more crystals you use, the more they look like their primal form, the less control over them the user will have.

I could see them adding a stance via job quest when the level cap is raised in order to use more crystals in your summoning. The stance would weaken the user, strengthen the pet, and make the user have less control over the pet for a more primal looking egi, similar to the ones that assist in the EX battles. Perhaps they'd gain actions to coerce their pets to do their bidding by sacrificing their Aetherflow stacks. Normally have no control over the egi, use of 1 stack gains you control for a short period of time, 2 stacks for a bit longer period of time, 3 stacks for even longer period of time. Or perhaps you could directly use just one attack per Aetherflow charge.

[LOLyYOUcryin]

I main a Summoner so I know how the Egis were designed. Ifrit -attacker pet, Titan- tank pet, Garuda- attacker pet no elemental wheel. Garuda is used more often then Ifrit because she has the strongest single target damage as well as mp efficiency

lmfao wtf did i just read? i used to play smn. until i got good at the game.

[Illa]

Got good? You're playing a PLD. So much skill involved in Main Tanking. Such Skillz; Such Snoozing; Such Boring.

[Raestloz]

Instead of commanding Egi as "pets", I really wanted to see Summoners as commanding the power of the Primals themselves in a sense that, for a brief moment (perhaps only 3 seconds), they summon in the manifestation of the Primals themselves to do some good smacking.

Maybe like, they summon in Ifrit and we do a ka-me-ha-me-ha with Ifrit's shade forming around us, culminating in "Ifrit" shooting the fireball. That'd be rad.

Instead we get a potato. Man, eff potatoes.

[Danbo05]

Why is this thread still alive? LET IT DIE!

[AmyNeudaiz]

If Summoner's summoned Primals by preparing runes or magic circles the cast time would have to be 7s to make it balanced and drain 2000 mp.

Lmfao wut? This got to be the worst balance suggestion posted on these forums bravo.