[Pole] Do you want to see the summoner class reworked?

[dday3six]

You are wrong about SMN in tactics, it was a top pick if you are trying to form your "best team" a SMN is a must with a wizard.

Tactics as in the original PS1 game? Summoner was awful due to overly long casting times, and mediocre damage. The best team abused OP NPC's, 97 Brave and 3 Faith, Haste and Speed, Dual Wield, Throw, Blade Grasp and the Calculator job. It pretty much cleared any encounter before a Summoner could even finish a cast. If a player was nose to the grindstone, they could even powerlevel most of it from punching your own party on the first node, once they got access to the map.

[Mimilu]

If someone asks you what the best casting class in FFT is and your answer isn't Wizard/Black Mage with the Math/Arithmatics skill you are wrong sir.

Dancer was the best class in Tactics because of spinning. :-D

[dragonfire8974]

So basically Rydia and Yuna were summoners with additional skills from other jobs, while in Tactics and FFXI summoner was totally pet based class with identity artifact. So it has been 50/50 as far as history concerned between SMN being a pet based job and mixed job. Using this as a reference doesnt favor the mixed SMN class to persist.

Your math is off. Tactics and tactics advance do not equal 3, 4, 5, 9, 10. That's 28%

[Sen_Terrechant]

Your math is off. Tactics and tactics advance do not equal 3, 4, 5, 9, 10. That's 28%

Furthermore Tactics was NOT a totally pet based class. Anyone that thinks that never even played Tactics. SMN in tactics was basically a BLM with bigger AoE spells and some status effects.

[Exstal]

So basically Rydia and Yuna were summoners with additional skills from other jobs, while in Tactics and FFXI summoner was totally pet based class with identity artifact. So it has been 50/50 as far as history concerned between SMN being a pet based job and mixed job. Using this as a reference doesnt favor the mixed SMN class to persist.

Games where SMN was pet based: FFXI, FFXIV
Games where SMN was akin to BLM: All other games they appeared in

2/X (where X > 5) != 50%

[Sen_Terrechant]

Except that the identity issue is an illusion made up by people who don't seem to grasp that summoner never had a fixed identity to begin with :

Dwill i love you. Marry me.

[Mimilu]

Furthermore Tactics was NOT a totally pet based class. Anyone that thinks that never even played Tactics. SMN in tactics was basically a BLM with bigger AoE spells and some status effects.

And longer cast times and the disadvantage of not being effect by Calculator's skills.

[Dwill]

Dwill i love you. Marry me.

I am already taken both in game and out, sorry to disappoint!

[Kalamari]

Had an idea for Summoners:

Pet swapping for advanced SMNs to maximize dps. It could work like this, instead of dealing instant damage Ifrit Egi's ultimate could be a powerful dot, now if you quickly summon Garuda Egi she not only extends the duration of IE's ultimate but DOUBLES it.

In return when she extends the duration of dots, GE applies a debuff which greatly increases the targets vulnerability to IE's melee attacks.

This would give our two dps summons strong synergies with one another, and give SMN a reason to actually keep summoning during combat. Maybe also give summoned pets a short damage buff after they are summoned?

Another idea: When you summon a different Egi, the old one does NOT immediately disappear, but remains active for another ~10s or so. Now the twist would be that each summoning costs alot of mana (maybe about 15% of max mana), so maintaining both pets indefinitely would not be possible, but would result in a short period of very high burst damage when you maintain both Ifrit and Garuda Egis at the same time while buffing them both with Rouse and Spur.

[Siegurd]

I would like to see the SMN class focus more on the summons rather than casting spells that fit more aesthetically in the Black Mage or Dark Knight arsenal. Virus, Bio and Miasma are not what come to mind when I think of summoners. I'm not even sure why they're part of the Arcanist and Scholar kit either.

My suggestion for a rework would be:

- Rename the Bio, Miasma, and Virus to something that fits better with Summoners/Scholars like Astral Burn or maybe something avatar inspired like Shiva's Frost.

- Add all the elemental avatars and allow us to swap which ones we have set to Summon I/II/III. You could expand this "Summon Menu" to Sch so they could use their carbuncles.

- Rework the buffs that you use on your Egi to increase their damage so it also graphically turns them into miniature versions of the full avatar model for their duration.