My entire problem is not that SMN is a poorly designed job---far from it, it's actually interesting.

My problem is that a job that relies on DoTs from your books from the Arcanist class, pets as additional DoTs and Bahamut's Deathflare as a direct attack doesn't have any business being called a Summoner. Maybe it should be a Blue Mage.

Meanwhile we have an Alexander minion that looks like a very realistic miniature of Alexander, people posing en masse on their (sometimes oversized) mounts in Idyllshire, and a dungeon boss that outright summons Garuda briefly for an attack. And the prevailing excuses are still lore and "the models are too big". I'm not buying that anymore, SE. You wrote yourself into a corner, and I would love to hear you squirm out of the hole you made for yourself.

I think the relic will be the last thing I ever do with it, outside RP'ing. All this is making me want to get a Black Mage and forget Summoner even existed with all the identity issues.