Quote Originally Posted by Greedalox View Post
To be fair, XI summoners weren't allowed to summon until (71?) in groups, and were just WHM's with big mana pools and little heals, only taken when groups were tired of waiting 4 hours for an actual healer. I wouldn't exactly call that a success. Then they were buffed to the point where they'd one shot stuff. Still not good design.
In the lower levels, yes, they were glorified healers with small heals and big MP pools. But in the 50's is when you start soloing bombs and beastman (beastmaster) pets (low HP, high exp, hit like trucks but avatars/summons took less dmg than players). Then at some point (for me, Boyahda Tree) you team up with beastmasters using fenrir's eclipse bite in pet parties. After that it was more bomb kiting. I definitely took that 50+ route after having to heal because it was more fun and you were a SUMMONER abusing things summoners could do, and not just cast heals from your subjob to be allowed access to a party for experience points.