SMN vs BLM

[Garotte14]

As for people's comments on summoners... it truly is vexing that groups tend to leave out certain classes. DRG and SMN are some of them. My main is SMN -but- my secondary is PLD and let me tell you, a decent SMN can trump an average BLM anyday when it comes to DPS.

A skilled SMN can out DPS an average BLM? Well duh. A skilled BLM can out DPS an average Monk. Hell, a skilled War can out DPS a lot of crappy DPS classes. But an equally geared and skilled BLM can out DPS a SMN. When comparing two classes you should always put them on equal playing field. That includes gear and skill level. As to your other comment, DRG is left out of most groups because it pulls roughly the same numbers as Ninja, but has zero raid utility. And SMN is left out of most groups because of their MP problems and the fact that their best utility (Battle Raise) is pretty much useless in final coil because of the effect it has on their already dire MP problems. Can groups still get by? Of course. But its just preference.

[Neuflune]

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My point was this: [ Because SMN are 'unwanted', they tend to work harder to learn their rotations and control their summons. ]

Nowhere in my post did I say that SMN trumps BLM on burst damage. As a tank I've seen better DPS for SMN than BLM running the same content, except in important raids such as Coil. I've even had to tank for "ice" mages... BLMs who use nothing but ice skills. Seeing as the TS will have to progress through endgame before getting through Coil, I'm talking about everything else but Coil. As for DRG, even during Coil 1, I've seen PFs with nothing but Bard and BLM slots so the exclusion isn't all because of Final Coil.

Edit:

Totally my bad. I read my post again and realized how that sounded like.

I meant to say that as a tank, I've come across many decent SMN and only average or below average BLM. If I could choose, I wouldn't run duties with those BLM -just because they are BLM-, which is what exclusion does. Parties assume that BLM > SMN just because of the class potential, but from what I've seen there are better SMNs than BLMs. I've wiped in Pharos Sirius with BLM in dreadwyrm gear because they ignored the mobs and used 1-target skills on the boss only, I've run with ice mages, I had a coil clear with a BLM that had DPS so abysmal even though it was his main class that the rest of us had to pop potions every now and then just to make up for that; but as I've said it may be dependent on my data center, or I could just be really unlucky.