I like playing SMN and I like everything they put out in the last Live Letter

[Zaft]

Well, considering summoner doesn't appear to be designed as a burst DPS class like black mage (although I'm not so sure anymore considering these changes), I see no reason why they couldn't have gone with the former.

One of the major problems with SMN in raid environments (amongst others) is that they have very little burst, and I imagine they're trying to alleviate that issue with this change. Fester can only go so far, especially when the enemy doesn't spawn in a location where it can be Bane'd.

[Craiger]

I, along with many others, like SMN the way it is right now... I find them boring, but I like they way they work. They just simply needed something more interesting than Ruin/Ruin II all the time, and some burst damage.

They're giving SMN that, which IMO makes them a lot more appealing just because of that, and the Dreadwyrm Trance made it even more interesting.

*Sorry for this part*
Deleted

[Spellbinder]

There could be slightly more interaction with the pet, but you haven't even seen a single new pet action...

I keep seeing this, and I have to keep repeating myself. Yoshi-P has made no statements of new pet abilities.

Listening to the Japanese (not the English interpreter because she kept making mistakes), he said rather than adding pets, in the long term it'd be better to focus on adding to the summoner him or herself. The English QA summary also says as much.

...instead of adding more pets, we felt it better to give more use to the job by adding actions to summoner.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post2975182

Adding actions to the summoner, not the pets. Maybe they will throw us a bone in 4.0 or in a later 3.X patch, but I would rather be pleasantly surprised than raising a fuss on the forums later because of false assumptions from a poor translation.

Edit to fix link.

[Craiger]

I keep seeing this, and I have to keep repeating myself. Yoshi-P has made no statements of new pet abilities.

Listening to the Japanese (not the English interpreter because she kept making mistakes), he said rather than adding pets, in the long term it'd be better to focus on adding to the summoner him or herself. The English QA summary also says as much.


http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post2975182

Adding actions to the summoner, not the pets. Maybe they will throw us a bone in 4.0 or in a later 3.X patch, but I would rather be pleasantly surprised than raising a fuss on the forums later because of false assumptions from a poor translation.

Well, I'm sorry. I haven't read through all the posts on there. Didn't think there was that big of a mistranslation.

My post is BS now lol.

I still stand by the fact that they look very interesting though... It's going to be very different opinions on it ofc, but I honestly don't care how a job is "supposed" to be, just about how fun and engaging it is to play.

You should know that, not everyone wants it to be more about the pet though... I keep hearing about everyone wanting it, here on the forums, but in the game, a lot of the ones that play SMN right now (and others too), like them right now, and actually want them to give this amount of focus on the summoner itself.

It's the same with all jobs pretty much, we've seen tons of people complain about the additions for every job, but there are a ton of people that like them, but just don't post about it here. Need to respect those people that like it too.

[Arkann]

I used to be in favor of pets using abilities instead of us, and then Garuda started wasting her Enkindle 99% of the time (I click it, it goes on cooldown, nothing happens), and decided using Contagion 5-6 seconds after I clicked it, usually after one or two DoTs fell off. Egis are so slow and irresponsive in this game that making them use abilities instead of us would likely make me throw my computer through the window.

(That's also why Contagion needs to be moved from Garuda to us. Bard will have a similar ability that extends/strenghtens Venomous Bite and Windbite,so...)

Oh, and the only thing I didn't like in the SMN presentation was the animation for the Dreadwyrm Trance. Looked like a huge dead fish head floating above us, like the DRG Limit Break. The rest was brilliant !

[Havenchild]

2. Tri-Disaster (new one) that applies Bio, Bio II, and Miasma at the same time. (Note that Yoshi-P didn't say it costs aetherflow, that was a fumble of the interpreter)

Didn't Bayohne say..

*The stream shows off a video demonstration of summoner actions. Please note that all action names are tentative.

We’ll be making various adjustments to summoner which includes an action that simultaneously applies Bio, Bio II, and Miasma effects in exchange for Aetherflow, an attack that deals magic-based damage, and two other new actions at level 60 that will largely change your current rotations.

The ability Tri-Disaster has had its name changed to Tri-Bind since the effect didn’t make sense with the original name. In exchange, the aforementioned ability action that applies all three DoTs will be known as Tri-Disaster.

[Spellbinder]

Didn't Bayohne say..

Listening to the video, this is how it was described.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZf7vBdsVu0 (Pleasenote I skipped the parts where the interpreter was speaking).

エーテルフローを消費する範囲攻撃、さらにバイオ、バイオラ、ミアズマの三つを全て同時にかけるアクションとか、新しい魔DDとかですね、ダイレクトダメージ魔法とか、あとは新しいその６０になってからローテーション、その今までのスキル回しに加えてくる二つのアクションなどが用意されます。
**Edit: I feel silly because I could've just looked at the JP QA Summary. Here's their's for comparison

エーテルフローを消費して放つ範囲攻撃、3つのDoT（バイオ／バイオラ／ミアズマ）が同時にかけられるアクション、
新しい魔法ダメージを与える攻撃、レベル60になってからのスキル回しに影響する新たな２つのアクションなど、さまざまな調整が加えられます。

Breaking this up we have:

エーテルフローを消費する範囲攻撃 - An area attack that uses aether flow.

さらにバイオ、バイオラ、ミアズマの三つを全て同時にかけるアクションとか - An action that casts Bio, Bio II, and Miasma at the same time.

新しい魔DDとかですね、ダイレクトダメージ魔法とか - A magic direct damage attack. (The single target one in the video)

あとは新しいその６０になってからローテーション、その今までのスキル回しに加えてくる二つのアクション - Two actions that will be added to (or rather affect) your rotation at level 60.

[FelixWindwright]

Thank you OP for having the guts to post a Positive SMN thread! I also agree with you and eagerly await the changes.

Gleeful Summoners unite!

[ManaKing]

I think the general sentiment is that smn's mechanics are perfect only that the delivery is somewhat underwhelming.

I'm sure if the dreadwyrm trance involved turning the egi into the animation of bahamut's head and akh morn is cast by the egi, they would have been much happier.

Not me. I'm excited to get flips and shit animations for my SMN. SMN has the most underwelming party presence from a visual perspective. I want to jump into the air and throw lazers! BLM > SMN as far as the cool factor goes with magic. Having anything to keep up with them makes me happy.

I still stand by the fact that they look very interesting though... It's going to be very different opinions on it ofc, but I honestly don't care how a job is "supposed" to be, just about how fun and engaging it is to play.

You should know that, not everyone wants it to be more about the pet though... I keep hearing about everyone wanting it, here on the forums, but in the game, a lot of the ones that play SMN right now (and others too), like them right now, and actually want them to give this amount of focus on the summoner itself.

It's the same with all jobs pretty much, we've seen tons of people complain about the additions for every job, but there are a ton of people that like them, but just don't post about it here. Need to respect those people that like it too.

I agree.

I like minions as much or more than just about anyone and I totally played SMN in XI, BUT think about what SMN was like without a subjob. It was literally you summon pet, you put pet on mob, you tell pet to do something twice a minute, you stand there. You really weren't a mage even though you had the largest MP pool because you didn't have native magic spells other than summons. SMN/WHM was a thing because there was a lack of people willing to heal and SMN were just that bored.

Think of every game that ever had a SMN in it. That wasn't their entire job. Most are some combination of WHM or BLM that were born with a horn or from some bloodline that lets them ALSO cast Summons. In FF6 you had to have the crystalized corpse of the summon equipped in your possession to be able to summon them and you could only have 1 per party member. It wasn't until FFX that summons would even stick around and Yuna was most certainly the WHM for your party.

I'm ecstatic that I'm not saddled with healing duties as a SMN and that I'm a DPS. Egi usually do about 1/3 of my damage and I generally think of them as my best DoT. If anything Dreadwyrm Trance makes me feel more like a higher tier SMN because I can summon the powers of Bahamut, generally one of the later summons in a FF game, and drop damage on my enemies like I've always done as my SMN in other FF games. This feels more like SMN than it has ever been in this game and I think they are going the right direction with it.

[Cebo]

Adding new Egi's was not the ideal solution, no matter how much people clamored for them. We could get 4 new Egi's, but if we could only use one, we would essentially be leaving a good portion of our summons collecting dust in our spellbook. It would also be incredibly difficult to balance all Egi's as more and more come out.

I love the new Bahamut Trance, and the next step is for Square to have us channel other primals as well. These don't have to necessarily be DPS actions. Instead of "Tri-bind," why not have it be a Shiva channeling spell that casts an AOE Diamond Dust that roots enemies? Still as useless as our old Tri-disaster, but now with more flavor! A Phoenix summon spell could be added that casts a combat raise without the Weakness debuff, giving SMN's some unique party utility. A Golem/Alexander summon could add a brief shield buff for the party. And for balance purposes, these channeling spells could cost us Aetherflow.

By going this route, Square could add more classical "summons" without them being restricted to our "egis"