Quote Originally Posted by Lavieh View Post
Snip.
SMN never had insane damage and it still doesn't in XI's current state. Their only perks were consistent, hate-free damage, which is primarily why they were preferred for the kite strategy for Vrtra. As for support it became arguably garbage when Blue Mage and Scholar came out... until Alexander was released. For a couple years SMNs were pretty much only used for Alexander's Perfect Defense because it was that insanely overpowered. With proper gear a 99% damage reduction for 90 seconds was immense and was pretty much mandatory for any burn strategy on stuff like Absolute Virtue and Pandemonium Warden back in the day.

SMN was never really stellar at anything. Alexander gave SMNs a spotlight that really only lasted for a brief moment before they were kicked out of the party for a DPS after they've done their job.