Garuda might lose Contagion.

[Bigcat9715]

Here's one idea that I came up with that I haven't seen posted yet and I want your guys thoughts on.

What-if they made it where you only have one pet, but it has the chocobo mechanics of being able to switch stances, like Ifrit stance, Garuda stance, and Titan stance. And it can switch to them on the fly.

example: you have your pet in the ifrit stance and he just got hurt and only have a small bit of health left. All you have to do is steady, Garuda stance, obey, sustain, contagion if it's up, Ifrit stance, then sic to send them back out there.

I really want your guys thoughts on this, because this seems like a much better way to balance out the egis.

[alsims2007]

The time you waste constantly repositioning your summon is time not spent attacking the boss or dodging.

And using the 'Place' command results in Ifrit NOT following bosses which move. He'll remain rooted for the duration of the fight, so again you'll have to send him back after the boss after each reposition.

Dont place ifrit. Just use heel/return (he returns to you who is safe) then use obey. I did this with titan-egi to tank the cyclops fate in coerthas. It was funny how that worked I just had to make sure titan was always between me and the boss. He would die if he had to go through the hit box to get back to me. But that was for fun, to many things to watch besides watching if ifrit needs to return for a sec.

[coldreactive]

I've had a summoner who quit summoner because he thinks that it's just a Warlock clone from WoW. He's upset that the summons aren't more... summon-like, like FFXI.

[Camalott]

idea

Never really thought of it. From a purely mechanical standpoint, it would remove any subsequent MP drains from having to summon different Egi's mid-battle - and the cast timers associated. However, I think it would make them TOO accessible as a collective. I know, it's never good enough - right?

Granted, yours is an infant idea that would need fleshing out before we could go full nerd mode and tear apart its merits and failures like a pack of vultures with down syndrome.

Still think it's neat though. Kind of like the idea I saw of making a Combat SMN who wears the Egi like a suit of aethereal armor. Neat to think about, headache to balance.

[alsims2007]

Well I remember the more extensive math on it being something along of the lines:
T6 = Ifrit, T7 = Garuda, T8 = Ifrit, T9 = Garuda.

I say ifrit for T9. Just by attacking he is safe for lunar dynamo range, for iron chariot thermiotic one quick heel then obey takes care of pet stacking and I find that easier than placing garuda multiple times who also cant attack while moving. Golem phase is the only questionable phase where garuda my be better since ifrit has to chase down golems. P3 is insignificant, and p4 is similar to p1. Also any aoe(meteor stream) he gets hit by is insignificant, reduced damage plus the aoe heals keep his topped off

[Bigcat9715]

However, I think it would make them TOO accessible as a collective.

Hmmmmm, what if there was a 1 min CD between stances? Still too accessible?

[Airget]

Could just have the stance use aetherflow lol. In essence that is a 1 min cooldown but allows for changing a few times within that minute however Aetherflow would still have it's use for Energy Drain, Bane and Fester.

They could add one stance called "Aether Summon" when active able to use one aetherflow charge to instant summon a pet with no mp spent (doesn't use GCD)

That would basically be the only perk of the ability to switch to another summon however the summons themselves would have altered skills.

Each pet would be given 1 aetherflow cost ability
Garuda=Contagion (increase DoT Duration)
Ifrit= Hellfire (AOE dmg)
Titan=Barrier (temp def up)

So one potential rotation could be summon Garuda, enter "aetherflow Summon" stance, apply DoTs, use 1 aetherflow to contagion, use another aetherflow to bane, then use another aethflow to switch to Ifrit to increase overall dmg.

Of course maybe you don't need to use "aetherflow summon" stance because you have swiftcast active but at the same time you would be spending MP to summon the pet so it does become a balance of determining whether or not you need the MP or not.

I think honestly, between all the ideas, this one could potentially work the best without having to cause a total revamp for the job since at it's core the above simply does this

-Creates more utility around using Aetherflow
-Allows additional pets to be released and decreases risk of them being useless

[Buff_Archer]

Here's one idea that I came up with that I haven't seen posted yet and I want your guys thoughts on.

What-if they made it where you only have one pet, but it has the chocobo mechanics of being able to switch stances, like Ifrit stance, Garuda stance, and Titan stance. And it can switch to them on the fly.

example: you have your pet in the ifrit stance and he just got hurt and only have a small bit of health left. All you have to do is steady, Garuda stance, obey, sustain, contagion if it's up, Ifrit stance, then sic to send them back out there.

I really want your guys thoughts on this, because this seems like a much better way to balance out the egis.

People who don't play Summoner would never let us have that.

[Bigcat9715]

People who don't play Summoner would never let us have that.

What? It would actually get people to want to play SMN. I barely see any SMN running around anymore.