SUMMONER, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE OR ADD? (EVOLUTION & STAT ALLOCATION)

[Kukajoo]

i love this thread
i love your ideas for the egis
if they implemented some of your ideas i might even play summoner

[Fiaryn]

They are not going to make Egis the size of the Primals, or even half their size. It's impractical from a screen space point of view and would obscure a great deal of critical information, to the extent that Summoners would basically be excluded from raiding.

What you may see happen is Summoner call forth a full size Primal for LB3 when job-specific limit breaks are implemented in 3.0, but that's about it.

[Ghastly]

... a 1-4 min unskippable cutscene everytime one is cast?

They don't need a cut-scene, immediate cast (2-15 seconds long) but the damage is huge. It won't be black mage (mind you WHM has a huge damage aoe as well). It will be a big burst summoning while their main skills should prepare the summoning by applying poisons that have different effects depending on the summon.

[Kiara]

It's a tough challenge. I get why Yoshi P and the Dev Team decided to give us Egis (tiny representations that aren't really the actual beings):

* The render / stress on the servers would be too great, if say, hundreds of players all pulled out their High Detailed Summons (like a Real Ifrit or Shiva) (w/ High Poly, High Res Textures, VFX).
* From a story point-of-view it's a challenge: How do you get to "control / summon" Ifrit, and yet you're fighting him repeatedly in, say, Ifrit EX to farm stuff? etc.

But ultimately, I'd say, as a Final Fantasy fan, XIV's version of a "Summoner" is *nothing* like what I equate in my mind with what "Summoners" were in past Final Fantasy games. I know it's an MMORPG, but XIV's Summoner is just a DOT-applying Job.

The DOT-casting Job could've been renamed something else and it'd be fine.

I wish XIV's "Summoner" could be revamped to be something closer to what you might expect from a Final Fantasy Summoner, within the confines of an MMORPG of course. If the actual *Summon* (Creature) is the same across all races, then making *1* special Animation (for their "Big Attack" (like PLD's Hallowed Ground, WHM's Benediction, etc.)) per Summon wouldn't be too bad. That would make it stand out (and move it away from just DOTs). Just my opinion.

[Darkstride]

They are not going to make Egis the size of the Primals, or even half their size. It's impractical from a screen space point of view and would obscure a great deal of critical information, to the extent that Summoners would basically be excluded from raiding.

What you may see happen is Summoner call forth a full size Primal for LB3 when job-specific limit breaks are implemented in 3.0, but that's about it.

Which is why I suggested Carbuncle remain a pet while Primals become brief spells similar to the way Ultima Weapon uses them.

[Darkstride]

* From a story point-of-view it's a challenge: How do you get to "control / summon" Ifrit, and yet you're fighting him repeatedly in, say, Ifrit EX to farm stuff? etc.

I wish XIV's "Summoner" could be revamped to be something closer to what you might expect from a Final Fantasy Summoner, within the confines of an MMORPG of course. If the actual *Summon* (Creature) is the same across all races, then making *1* special Animation (for their "Big Attack" (like PLD's Hallowed Ground, WHM's Benediction, etc.)) per Summon wouldn't be too bad. That would make it stand out (and move it away from just DOTs). Just my opinion.

A brief summon for individual Primal attacks would be fine story-wise. Egis are a sliver of aetherial power that hold the likeness of the associated Primal. Being able to materialize a Primal's power into physical form to unleash a single attack isn't that different.

[Razard]

They don't need a cut-scene, immediate cast (2-15 seconds long) but the damage is huge. It won't be black mage (mind you WHM has a huge damage aoe as well). It will be a big burst summoning while their main skills should prepare the summoning by applying poisons that have different effects depending on the summon.

So not like ff 5-10 at all then?

[Darkstride]

So not like ff 5-10 at all then?

Well, 5 and 6 didn't have lengthy summons they were brief spells. 7, 8 and 9 had the cutscenes but a majority of them weren't 1-4 minutes as you had said. FFX had persistent summons with a grand finale.

I think Ghasty was just suggesting that primals act more as a summon spell than as a persistent pet, which would be more like earlier Final Fantasy titles.

[Razard]

Well, 5 and 6 didn't have lengthy summons they were brief spells. 7, 8 and 9 had the cutscenes but a majority of them weren't 1-4 minutes as you had said. FFX had persistent summons with a grand finale.

I think Ghasty was just suggesting that primals act more as a summon spell than as a persistent pet, which would be more like earlier Final Fantasy titles.

So like Black mages with more particle effects.

Jeez what do you people want?

[Darkstride]

So like Black mages with more particle effects.

Jeez what do you people want?

Are you going to add anything constructive to the thread or are you just here to be negative and try to pick a fight?