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

[Themis]

Well how would you change the way the summoner would work to make the class more entertaining?

By making it so that you summoned the actual primals, and you'd disappear and become your "pet" and control it's every movement. And SMN would have no DoTs, just big attacks that do big damage.

That's the answer that some would give, or along those lines.

Personally, I find it's current implementation entertaining and perfectly fine given the lore behind the Job (and that's what matters most).

What does need to be done, is a bit more balancing between the choice of egi, especially when more are added. That, and they need to be a little more sturdy or much more easily supported by the summoner themselves. Damage buffs are all well and good, but really, Spur should have been a defensive/healing type of ability rather than a second damage buff, I think. A little more flexibility is something that would make the class more interesting, because variety is always nice.

If I was to suggest something, though, I'd have liked something a little different to a 5min CD "signature" attack and something more along the lines of building up your egi to unleash that attack (and said attack actually doing something a little more than a bit of damage). Also more abilities on egi. 4 at lv50 is a little lacking, especially when one is simply a GCD type attack. It would make using a controller a lot more cumbersome, but adapting to it just takes time.

[Bigcat9715]

By making it so that you summoned the actual primals, and you'd disappear and become your "pet" and control it's every movement. And SMN would have no DoTs, just big attacks that do big damage.

Thats not a bad idea, but there's no downside to it. Your character is basically unbeatable, because they disappear but the summon is on the field. Maybe if they make it so that the summoner is still there, but lifeless and you have to switch back and forth to keep your summoner safe and do damage.