We have finally come full circle, SMN's need help!

[Ryans]

Never said that they have less uptime then BLM. Just that they aren't as mobile as people say. You're pet can still attack even if your dots are up? Most of our damage comes from our DoTs. Our pet is 25-30% of our DPS. It's a huge DPS loss if they fall off for any extended period.

30% of your damage that is controlled by a computer and doesn't make mistakes. That is more than melee DD's auto attacks. Having 30% of your damage constantly going is huge.

[DarkmoonVael]

30% of your damage that is controlled by a computer and doesn't make mistakes. That is more than melee DD's auto attacks. Having 30% of your damage constantly going is huge.

Where as i agree with you that the pets damage contribution is huge, it is also a liability sometimes. Pets dying decreases your damage by a large amount (yes the counter argument here is keep the pet alive, but this does seperate the excellent summoners from the rest). Also the pet, when controlled by the computer (guessing you are referring to the pet on sic?), makes some very very very bad decisions. Garuda on sic, and your dps will decrease due to the A.I.'s use of contagion being less than optimal. Being able to change the position of the egi via place command during battle is also another slight skill tester of the summoner, as having to change where they are to take account of what phase the fight is in and where aoe's are going to go is sometimes needed.

And for the topic, summoners really seem to be less than optimal in this patch, especially in Final coils. Whereas they bring some utility to the group, and the ability to resurrect to push progression is needed, the tail off in sub-optimal mana management really pushed down the summoners viability. Too much emphasis on spellspeed in the gear is hurting the summoner. Also the uility they do bring to the group is overshadowed by the scholars presence in the group (disclaimer, i raid as scholar, but summoner is by far my favourite dps class, and is the class i always go back to as my second class), and in the raids, it is usually my responsibility to use virus at the right time, raise first etc. some other groups may do this differently, but as far as my raid group is concerned, the summoner is there to raise as a last resort, as their dps is needed more where pushing those phase progressions. Clutch raises are heavenly on summoners, but its not what they should be doing all the time .

All in all, their dps does need a little buffing, as well as getting better mana management for end game raids as they currently stand.

[Atomnium]

The two jobs should not do equal dps, BLM needs to be higher dps in order to stay viable when compared to summoner.

*huge sigh*

I Can't believe this thread turned into an huge BLM vs SMN war, this is kind of pathetic to see arguments coming from a main blm so the smns doesn't get any sort of buffs... You should be more focusing on asking a total rework update on BLM, mainly because of this :

Is kind of sad when you are an huge Final Fantasy fan and know how far more complete and complex the FFXIV-BLM should be. BLM need a real revamp.

Meanwhile, I'm personally well-informed that a good and lucky BLM will out-dps a good SMN and I couldn't care less to say the least xD.
Would I welcome the return of my Thunder? Of course! but what I really need as SMN is slightly more freedom on my mps management for long fights (even more when the said fight include a crazy amount of adds x.X).
Oh... And less Spell Speed on gears please >.>;;; Seriously SE, If you plan to continue the huge vertical gears progression, at least you should test them with every jobs ^.^;

[Akiza]

*huge sigh*

I Can't believe this thread turned into an huge BLM vs SMN war, this is kind of pathetic to see arguments coming from a main blm so the smns doesn't get any sort of buffs... You should be more focusing on asking a total rework update on BLM, mainly because of this :

Is kind of sad when you are an huge Final Fantasy fan and know how far more complete and complex the FFXIV-BLM should be. BLM need a real revamp.

A total rework of Black Mage would make the Summoner obsolete. SE would have to take the poisoning line of spells from the Summoner and give them back to the Black Mage. Then they would have to give the Summoner another skill line to have a complete Black Mage.