Summoner - Class feedback - complaint

[GamerChef6]

Summoner is an awesome class, especially when teamed up with Monk and Dragoon, but with other DPS classes with AoE abilities and White Mages' Holy, Summoners don't stand a chance. I view our role similar to a K9 Police officer. We are partners. We work together, and I like that.

After reading everything in this thread, one thing no one has really mentioned how Summoners get pushed out of the DPS race with other the other big AoE classes Black Mage and Archer, and sometimes even White Mages. Aesthetically, I agree egi's could look much better but I understand the lore. Additional quests to prove the power increase of the egi would be my solution because with an increase in power would merit an enhancement to the look and would stay true to the lore. Change our Limit Break to where our pet is sacrificed to summoner the real deal. It would be nice if our limit break was more individualized to the Summoner Class.

My concern is the balance mentioned a few times in here. (continued)

[GamerChef6]

Tonight, and many nights recently, I noticed that I could have all my dots down and a Black Mage at the same Item Level as me (i101) come in with a single Flare and take the entire mob, which had all 5 of my DoT's (Bio II, Miasma, Miasma II and Bio with Shadowflare down and using Bane) to 1/2 HP. BOOM. So now, all my DoT's are at half time, thus effectually halving or more than halving my DPS. Then follow that up with a Fire II and poof, no mob and useless DoT's since they maybe got 7-10 tics of damage in. And that is a big maybe. If the mob was over 4 enemies, I didn't have enough time to even get 3 DoT's on the additional enemy(s) with a Bane (if needed to spread those DoTs out) thanks to Flare and Fire II. To top that off, they get to use Raging Strikes for a 20% increase to damage for 20 sec on top of increased fire damage from Astral Fire III and the Magick and Mend II basic attack bonus of 30%?

[GamerChef6]

Finally, this can become somewhat limitless for them with Convert and Astral Ice III restoring the MP quickly to the point where it can be done every 2 mobs or even every other mob if done right. Well, superb job to the Black Mages for managing all of this damage bonuses and their timing to meet out major burst damage, but needless to say as a Summoner, you start to feel useless. Doesn't seemed balanced to me.

[GamerChef6]

Archers have done the same thing with Rain of Death having such a short cooldown. Bards can shoot of Rain of Death so fast that their damage outpaces our DoT's as well with instant cast and a 2.5 sec recast. The only downside is the 200 TP cost. Oh wait there is a 15% chance that Rain of Death is free with the use of Wide Volley (another Instant AoE with instant cast, 2.5 sec recast and 160 TP cost). Once again, this is especially effective when they couple it with Raging Strikes with 60 seconds earlier earlier cast due Trait bonus.

[GamerChef6]

And finally, the White Mage who, if with a good tank, can cast Holy in Cleric Stance. Needless to say 2-3 Holy's and DoT's are useless again. With a 3 sec cast (only 1 tic of DoT's gained for the Summoner) and a 3.5 sec recast, major damage again. Its only downside being the MP cost, which is not important if they are getting their free Cure III's and the tank isn't needing much healing. And don't say you haven't been in dungeons were minimal healing was needed on trash mobs giving the healer amply time to switch to Cleric Stance and get a couple Holy's in there. We have all seen it.

[Exstal]

I see more issues with Balanced Damage

Balanced damage is when in a fair situation the damage of the classes isn't horribly skewed. As such, Black Mage are supposed to be the kings of AoE, with Bard being an odd one. Considering that Summoner, in most cases, is top DPS in most raid encounters and quite a few non-raid ones, it's only fair that they don't top in all areas. Monk and Dragoon have no such potential to AoE as well as Summoner certainly not even close to Black Mage and, in some cases, White Mages.