This games balance in DPS has come full circle now. For those who have denied it or for those afraid to admit it, SMN is currently the weakest single target DPS (Not including BRD). This is absolutely undeniable and it is hard to argue with it. Before you post a reply telling me that SMN is right up there with MNK / DRG and NIN or SMN is equal to BLM. Please read what I have to say first. The first part of this post is just anecdotal, just to fill you guys in on the progress that SMN has seen since the beginning of the game( You can skip this paragraph if you want) :
I played back in 1.0 and got every class to 50 so when ARR came out there was only one new class for me to play, Arcanist. I picked up my first book and started playing the class exclusively for the first part of 2.0. Parsers were extremely inaccurate at this point and no one really knew a sense of balance. BRD’s were erroneously strong and SMN’s were considered to be the weakest DPS by the community. I knew this wasn’t true. I spent hours and times perfecting how I would play my class, I put numbers on papers and parsed vs. other people. Every time I did a dungeon as SMN vs any other DPS class things just died faster, I knew SMN was the strongest DPS class in the game – But no one believed me. People used to argue with me all the time telling me that they were weak. Then something happened in Patch 2.1 – SE Removed Thunder from SMN’s cross class. This was a direct 12% Nerf to SMN’s damage, a whole DoT that could be contagioned was removed and the community was extremely confused as to why SMN was getting such a huge hit then SE said it “Summoner is still the top DPS class in the game” (excuse the misquote). This Mantra, that SMN is top DPS has not left the community ever. On the same Patch both MNK and DRG received significant Buffs. This was the start. MNK was the top DPS this patch, but it hadn’t yet been fully drawn out. Keep going down the line to Patch 2.3 where BLM’s received a buff and this was when they became a much stronger DPS than SMN. On Average they would destroy a SMN in a parse. Then DRG got a few buffs in 2.4 and Ninja was released. Ninja was obviously much stronger than SMN and DRG in perfect conditions was a little bit stronger as well( Though there never existed perfect conditions for DRG). Now here we are, Patch 2.45. DRG’s have been Buffed to match the level on MNK, NIN and BLM and well SMNs? Left in the dust.
Now of course there are a lot of other things that make SMN even weaker in comparison to their other DPS counter-parts:
1. Mana Management – Every Job has to deal with some sort of resource management but no Job is as severally effected by it as SMN. Resources haven’t really been all that important until we arrived at 2.4 where almost every coil fight involved a lot of uptime. All the DPS were running out of TP and SMN was running out of Mana, the only difference is that ONLY the SMN was typically running out of mana while every melee in your party was burnt on TP this made using Paeon a lot more efficient than using Ballad for a single DPS. It became a lot more efficient for SMN’s to use Energy drain to upkeep their mana which was another big dps loss.
2. Itemization - This is HUGE, where secondary stats can have a huge impact on your DPS SMN loses out big time. Spell speed for SMN is among the worst stat in the game for any class, even worse than Parry is for tanks( That is saying a lot). The returns on every point of spell speed is extremely depressing but for some reason SE keeps feeding it to SMNs. Looking at just mere weapons alone : Viel of Wiyu, HA Book, Ironworks Book, DW Book - All of them have Spell speed on it! Why would SE even think this would be a good idea? The hardest weapon in the game to get has Spell speed on it, a dead stat, a stat that only effects how fast your ruins go out and does nothing but cause you to lose more mana. What were you thinking SE? Casting gear this patch is typically a tossup between choosing from Accuracy of Spell speed the amount of Det and Critical in a SMN’s best in slot is extremely low. This problem is so real and the impact can be felt.
3. Accuracy – This isn’t as big as the other two but SMN requires more accuracy than its counterpart caster. Pets need to be able to hit from the flank otherwise they lose out on a lot of DPS having to aim for more accuracy also hurts what secondary stats a smn can allocate.
Just to recap (TL;DR) :
Not including resources or itemization SMN is the weakest DPS class in the game (Not including BRD as they are DPS/Support and will easily contribute more dps to the raid than any other class in the game). I feel like people are going to want to argue with me on this – But it’s true. Given equal stats and equal gear I promise you that SMN will fall short 30 or so DPS from the other main DPS Classes
Mana issues make the spread even bigger, as battles get longer and more drawn out the bigger the gap that SMNs DPS will have in comparison to other classes.
Itemization effects SMN’s a lot. As we draw closer to i130 we will see that SMN’s will continue to fall behind in dps.
I have been waiting a very long time to post this, I felt the decline of SMN’s the moment that BLM got overbuffed. I kept my mouth closed because I believed that SE could see balance and would make the appropriate decisions to keep SMN up to date, but it never happened. Actually the opposite happened the gear in 2.4 was a kick in the face to all those who strived hard to play SMN. We have found ways to increase our DPS to stay competitive, from Auto-attacking to using Ifrit (a very risky move in some fights). We have spent countless amounts of gil on Poison pots just to squeeze in a few extra Deeps. But it has to stop somewhere, We have to make a stand. DRGs got buffed because they cried out for it, Nin’s got nerfed because people cried out for it, same thing happened to MNK and BLM buffs. If we don’t say something then us SMN’s will forever be weaker than everyone else.
I know a lot of SMN’s may want to argue with me, I’m not saying you guys are bad. I’ve seen some excellent SMN’s play and just flat out lose in DPS to average MNKs or to average BLMs. This can’t continue happening –SMN NEEDS A BUFF.
I am no game designer, and while I have thoughts and ideals of my own as to how I would buff SMN I think it would devalue what I’m trying to say here in the main post. SMN’s or people who don’t even play SMNs please help us out, make it known that we are weaker and make it known that SE has to do something about it.
Just a small note, In 2.4 I switched mostly out of discontent with the path SE had laid out for SMN but also because It was something new. My love for SMN is still very real and my desire to see them as a competitive DPS is very strong.
Originally Posted by Prototype909
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