Enjoy Summoner before it gets nerfed...

[Buff_Archer]

A lot of those Summoners you see getting a good kill/death spread, aren't simply brand new PVP players being suddenly enabled to gank pro's left and right. Many of us had experience PVP'ing with that class in Secure as the only available mode at the time for half a year, which is where I mained Summoner with Scholar as my secondary (as a straight up healer, and/or saboteur/distractor). With Slaughter mode having mechanics that were less Summoner friendly (especially considering the array of options available at lvl 50) Summoner was at a disadvantage, and many of us had to shift to BLM to stay competitive. Which was fun but which I personally didn't have optimized as much as SMN based on experience level so me as BLM in Slaughter was > me as SMN in Slaughter and yet it was < me as SMN in Secure prior to that.

Back when we had Secure mode only and it was more about capturing and holding flags, vs kill shots- I had matches where the damage I put out at flag conflicts ended up being over twice what any other DPS had on the scoreboard across all 72 combatants, and working with a party I'd get health low across the crowd, my teammates with skills that proc'd off low HP took care of kill shots, and so that wouldn't be reflected as kills for me on the scoreboard but that was fine, I knew the part I played and our teams won which was our goal.

Slaughter mode meant if we were able to get kill chains up enough to get battle high/fever as summoner we could use cometor the same as BLM, but getting to that point without others getting the kills first was more difficult. No fire3 instants for us. BLM had a major advantage over SMN, and most SMN's who could swapped to BLM though in many cases they didn't quite play BLM as well as they had played SMN before in Secure, and this includes me as well, I had a bit of a learning curve when it came to PVP BLM.

Seize mode has Summoners being viable again and so you're seeing a return of experienced PVP'ers returning to the class they were familiar with, and that's why you're seeing Summoners stand out again vs. in Slaughter where they were marginalized. So if you see a scoreboard where Kisada got 19 kills, that's because he's good at his role as you'd expect someone experienced with that job and with PVP from before to be. My best as SMN was 13/1, but I also had good healers supporting me in my group, and I've had several hundred games to learn PVP. And Kisada is just a level above me right now, and that's why he gets more kills on SMN than I do, skill and experience discrepancy since we're both on the same class and can't blame that for being the difference. If we'd mained a different class all through since FL Secure came out, we'd probably be getting these numbers on those classes instead and people wouldn't question it. I've seen matches where people in a variety of roles- DRG, NIN- are getting a high number of kills, but since it's just the one of them in the match people don't say- oh no it's DRG that's OP nerf that! They think what a good player. But it's no different here, getting ganked by a DRG or NIN or SMN, the technique is different but the speed is much the same.

Difference now is the people skilling in melee and other roles are still playing those roles, and doing about the same; Summoner is seeing a return of skilled players to that role and now you see them doing well for the first time in awhile, because those of us capable of doing well at SMN are playing it again.

[Houston009]

With Slaughter mode having mechanics that were less Summoner friendly (especially considering the array of options available at lvl 50) Summoner was at a disadvantage, and many of us had to shift to BLM to stay competitive.

You only needed Cometeor in Slaughter, in which both BLM/SMN had. Getting kills may have helped BLM (although wasn't too hard as a SMN), but you only need Cometeor to rack up kills.