Can someone give me an in-depth explanation why Summoner is arguably the worst DPS?

[Ardan]

Snip.

Summoning in past FF's have generally involved summoning a creature, sitting through 30 seconds to 1-2 minutes, (not kidding) of attack animations and then actually seeing the damage. This is coupled with either a huge MP cost or a state of vulnerability. Unfortunately summons are just phased out in the latter portions of the game, because it takes so much MP to use and just aren't efficient for killing things. Ironically black magic gets the job done much quicker, cheaper to use to boot.

It was only until FF10 that summons were controllable. Fun to use, sure. But they were borderline useless in the latter half of the game. FF11 had SMN as a class as well and it was a humongous letdown. Weak, inefficient and really only one niche skill. Summoner isn't really iconic in any way.

[Sen_Terrechant]

Summoning in past FF's have generally involved summoning a creature, sitting through 30 seconds to 1-2 minutes, (not kidding) of attack animations and then actually seeing the damage. This is coupled with either a huge MP cost or a state of vulnerability. Unfortunately summons are just phased out in the latter portions of the game, because it takes so much MP to use and just aren't efficient for killing things. Ironically black magic gets the job done much quicker, cheaper to use to boot.

It was only until FF10 that summons were controllable. Fun to use, sure. But they were borderline useless in the latter half of the game. FF11 had SMN as a class as well and it was a humongous letdown. Weak, inefficient and really only one niche skill. Summoner isn't really iconic in any way.

Whaat? Aparently youve never seen the Summon LB train wreck bosses in the endgame.

[Ardan]

Whaat? Aparently youve never seen the Summon LB train wreck bosses in the endgame.

In which FF? Certain summons are exceptions like Knights of the Round, Hades, Doomtrain, Cerberus and Eden I guess. That's out of the hundreds of summons available. I can't really say FF10's summons were particularly useful. Unless it's against the Dark Magus Sisters or Dark Bahamut where you pretty much need a meat shield to take the ultimate attack. That, or just use Rikku's insanely overpowered Mix overdrive.

I can't think of any instance where using summons would kill things faster late game over other methods.

[Akiza]

In which FF? Certain summons are exceptions like Knights of the Round, Hades, Doomtrain, Cerberus and Eden I guess. That's out of the hundreds of summons available. I can't really say FF10's summons were particularly useful. Unless it's against the Dark Magus Sisters or Dark Bahamut where you pretty much need a meat shield to take the ultimate attack. That, or just use Rikku's insanely overpowered Mix overdrive. I can't think of any instance where using summons would kill things faster late game over other methods.

I can't think of a single Final Fantasy game where players only controlled one character either. In single player Final Fantasy games players controlled five players and the summons were as strong as a player character. The reality is no Final Fantasy game gave players a boss level summon generally the Summoner's summon monster looked like the boss summon but was only as potent as the player character.

I can't think of any instance where other methods killed things faster over using summons.

[Viridiana]

I can't think of any instance where other methods killed things faster over using summons.

Seymour Flux.

Also, Martial Arts + Ninja.

Also, CT5 Holy.

I'm sure I can think of more. . .

[Ardan]

Seymour Flux.

Also, Martial Arts + Ninja.

Also, CT5 Holy.

I'm sure I can think of more. . .

FF7: Mime + Support counter with LBs, 4x Cut

FF8: Aura + LBs for days

FF9: Anything over summons

FF10: Tidus, Wakka, Rikku

FF11: Anything over Summoners

FF12: Any ultimate weapon + haste, bravery etc.

Hell, some of the games punished you for using summons like Viridiana said: Seymour Flux, Ultimecia etc.

[YanderePrincess]

In single player Final Fantasy games players controlled five players and the summons were as strong as a player character.

Most FFs give you 4 characters. A few give 5. Others only gave 3.

In most FFs, summoners were simply aoe nuke spells (or an aoe buff or aoe heal/res). It didn't summon the entity as a separate character you could control. FFX is the first one I can think of where the summoned being is used directly rather than "summoned for one turn only" and it was stronger than the party as a whole, in theory (depended on the exact summon used).

[Akiza]

Most FFs give you 4 characters. A few give 5. Others only gave 3.

In most FFs, summoners were simply aoe nuke spells (or an aoe buff or aoe heal/res). It didn't summon the entity as a separate character you could control. FFX is the first one I can think of where the summoned being is used directly rather than "summoned for one turn only" and it was stronger than the party as a whole, in theory (depended on the exact summon used).

In an MMO a permanent pet can't be stronger than a party as a whole that would insanely op. SE can make the Summoner have a Dot phase and a bursts phase by transforming into Primals.

Summoner still should have higher single target damage then the Black Mage unless SE goes the WoW route and have the Summoner repent for turning to the Dark Arts and return to their spiritual routes like how some Warlocks repented and converted back to Shamans.

[YanderePrincess]

In an MMO a permanent pet can't be stronger than a party as a whole that would insanely op. SE can make the Summoner have a Dot phase and a bursts phase by transforming into Primals.

The point is, to really keep Summoner in line with what it has traditionally been in past FF games, it would just be a reskin of Black Mage with summoned beings showing up only long enough to blast a nuke on a target, then going away. It wouldn't even be a pet class at all, just a "Nuke things" class. Honestly, in this respect, FFXI's summoners were more akin to traditional FF summoners.