The whole Summoner "has been re-worked" is sad

[LunaHoshino]

Personally, this made me excited to actually give SMN a try. I was initially turned off from it after finding that we couldn't use Carby as a SMN, but this whole Bahamut thing looks new and interesting and fun and makes me want to try playing the class.

[Kikosho]

The only Egi that needs a re-work is Ifrit. They buffed him, but he's still not nearly as viable as Garuda to dps with.

Ifrit is much better dps than Garuda and has been for a while.

[Belhi]

I've seen two major complaints in this thread.

1) Summons lack diversity and I want more.

2) I play a Summoner so I want my summons to be the major source of my DPS.


In answer to 1:

Diversity in pet classes is exciting on paper and as far as cosmetics go is quite possible. In actual functionality and stats though its an entirely different situation. People point at WoW as an example of diversity. The thing with WoW though is Warlocks almost exclusively use only one demon pet based off spec in almost all situation because its the optimal one. Hunter pets are functionally almost identical. They have a basic attack and then a buff ability that is a common group buff that multiple other specs and classes do as well and said buff is effectively passive. Hunter pet diversity comes from appearances.

No one will use an inferior pet and balancing many pets to be diverse and all equal is an unrealistic goal and one I have never seen a MMO successfully do.

In answer to 2:

Designing gameplay around pet classes where the pet is the primary source of damage has a couple of pretty difficult challenges.

Firstly is the issue of gameplay. If a pet is doing the majority of the attacks are they all dependent on commands from the summoner or are they automated? If the pet does too much of the work the summoners play style will be dull and require little effort on the summoners part. If the pet does require direct control to attack the summoner is stuck managing their own positioning and actions at the same time as managing their pet because of the second issue, the AI.

Pet AI is always a limiting factor on pets. Pets stand in AoEs, attack things you might not want them to attack and generally don't think much for themselves. Pets in MMOs are notoriously stupid. Devs adapt for this by doing things like giving pets immunities to particular attacks and passive and active controls that can be set. However if the bulk of damage is coming from said Pet things like survivability become extremely important. If the pet dies or suffers negative status effects the pet class is screwed. If the pets are practically immortal it allows the pet class to ignore mechanics other classes cant which then becomes a balance issue. Either the pet class is balanced around fights with mechanics they can ignore in which class they will likely be underpowered in fights without such mechanics or they are balanced the other way in which case they become overpowered in the ignore mechanic fights.


In the end I'd say the best bet is for people to wait and see what they actually have done/have planned.

[Cakekizy]

What about just making pet immortal, unless owner dies? Casters still have to dodge AoEs.

[Akiza]

They did re work Summoner they gave us the ability to channel Bahamut which is cool. I hope they give us the ability to channel other primals as well and do a trance with the other 6 Primals. This is what Summoner needed.

[melflomil]

All the skills for Summoner as well as other jobs won't be shown until E3 which is a few days before early access. Bahamut Invocation is cool since it adds bursts.

Akiza said something positive? Is the world going to end in a few days?

[papichulo123]

why is it sad that move was so badass dudes

[Raine86]

Could Having a Group of summons sest of like Titian Garuda and Ifrit is your fist summon and have a second group like Ramuh Leviathan and Shiva as a Second Summon (so you would have two at the same time)would that not work ? (just an idea)

[Seiko769]

you mean worthless? ohh nooooo

p.s ff 6 7 8 9 10 12 will like to speak to you about worthless summons.

p.s.s i forgot about 4 rydia's summons were horrible compared to her op black magic

~taps your shoulder~ I believe Anima and the Magus Sisters from the international version would like to have a word with you on uselessness. Heck even normal Magus Sisters without the 6 hit ultimate were game breaking

[SirSaber]

Come on SMN guys ! You get to Summon Bahamuts Head ! Get 3 Bahamut ether stacks and use the al mighty Akh Morn !

Isn't that enough?