Why are summoners so neglected?

[Silkerin]

I like how in the live letters instead of questions like: "will the devs be open to sugestions to make smn feel more like a summoner class?", "why shield oath isnt given at lv 30?", "why they insist of not giving any potency to pld's flash?", "wont they give bards their mobility back so players who chose bard on 2.0 can still feel like they are playing the class they chose?"; and other questions like that, we get instead for the live letters questions related to peaches and stuff that was already answered in previous live letters... makes me think they pick the easy and dumb questions from the threads on purpose...

Still, I am all in for Nalien's suggestion, it would help a lot the issue of the "feel" of the smns, hell, if it is a lack of funding the reason, make it a mogstation thing, it will be an annoying yes, but still, it isnt something "necessary" to the class and purely cosmetic. of course i will rather have it be an option in the game from the beginning but hey...

while talking about egis, tbh i would like to have at least 1 more egi, a support one, maybe a moogle king egi, that can give tp and mp like a brd or mch, of course its dps would be lower compared to other egis and slightly lower when it is singing/dancing, but no other kind of buffs to the party, as buffing the party would feel like something a sch fairy should do, and it still would somewhat fill in what a smn could do in previous games, as some summons had a secondary or purely support effect. I say this because of the situation i have in my static, the bard doesnt really want to play bard or mechanist anymore, because as they said, "they chopped off their legs and turned them into a bowmage", but since it is the only 2 classes that can give tp and mp, she is stuck with it, but having that option on smn might allow for her to switch to another class.

Also i still want more skills/spells that interact with the egi :P

[Nalien]

while talking about egis, tbh i would like to have at least 1 more egi

I kinda feel like they could remove Egi as pets completely... Would completely destroy any comparison to XI, just replace the Summon skills with their respective Egi abilities... Rework all the existing skills as I've described, so each one corresponds to a specific Egi, then have Enkindle function like Kassatsu on select abilities... Instead of Summon I, you have Garuda-Egi in the form of Contagion, while Summon III becomes Flaming Crush. An Enkindled Flaming Crush is just straight up Inferno, even opens the door for more Enkindles; Enkindled "Shadow Flare" could be a joke Zantetsuken...

IDK, more work than it's worth IMO, you'd need to completely rebalance the entire Job to make up for the lost pet damage, but at this point the Egi just feel really lackluster and pointless... You have Contagion or soloability which pales in comparison to Warrior or Scholar... If trash packs in dungeons were scaled to die quicker, Ifrit-Egi and Radiant Shield might be more potent than Contagion, but I don't think that's the world we live in, Contagion + Bane > anything else... Rather than a fourth pet, I'd say just rebalance what we currently have... I think Machinist works a lot better as a pet Job currently, both pets have a clearly defined purpose, I'd actually quite like to see them get a Knight type autoturret, which upon Promotion provides damage mitigation, with Hypercharge applying a Drain Samba style effect for a sort of Regen effect... Summoner could work on a similar principle... The main problem is Bane/Contagion... It makes Summon I both the best single target pet and AoE pet... I'd say drop Tri-Bind, make Contagion the Lv40 skill, give Summon I something else and give the current three pets clearly defined roles as single target focused, AoE focused, and support/tank focused. Perhaps have Summon IIs Enkindle be an Asylum style effect, rather than a second Shadow Flare... That's useful for solo and potentially has a small niche in party content... Could change Earthen Ward too, and I guess Landslide? Though the other two skills are pretty much required for him to hold hate solo...

Although... As I said, not fond of cross-class skills for the most part... Summoner having Quelling Strike isn't right IMO... I want the same effect done in a way that is unique to Summoner... Shadewalker (wow, such unique), but limited to my pet, achieves the exact same thing as Quelling Strike, but in a way that fits Summoner, and potentially frees up Summon II to work solo (any of them, really) with less enmity skills... He can still be a tank, but you'd free up some room for more support oriented skills that could benefit people in grouped content. Kinda wish Sustain was just a stance that constantly drained MP to heal/channel your enmity to your pet... That 10s duration is just irritating...

[Silkerin]

I kinda feel like they could remove Egi as pets completely...

to remove egis they would need then to introduce in the same expansion an actual pet job, which, it seems wont ever happen because they are afraid people will be bad with it.

and i doubt they would ever rework a class so much again like they did with warrior

[Nalien]

to remove egis they would need then to introduce in the same expansion an actual pet job, which, it seems wont ever happen because they are afraid people will be bad with it.

Hey! We still have Scholar and (to a far lesser degree) Machinist!

But yeah, like I said, too much work to bother with really, best bet is hoping they rebalance the pets to have clearly defined roles... Do hope they'll eventually give us more pet Jobs though... We finally have three Jobs for every stat (bar Piety), I need a Vitality Pet Job and Strength Pet Job to be satisfied at this point... Beastmaster could make a nice tank, with the pet doubling as MT/OT stance, having the Beastmaster tank with the pet getting stuff like Cover for mitigation... Not sure about a Strength Job though... Strength based Necromancer? Might be too similar in theme to Dark Knight, but also might satisfy those who wanted DPS Dark Knight... Perfect for a Scythe wielding Job really...

[FeliAiko]

I kinda feel like they could remove Egi as pets completely... Would completely destroy any comparison to XI, just replace the Summon skills with their respective Egi abilities...

I had an idea like this once, except the Carbuncles (i.e. Summon I and II) would stay. Instead, Summon III becomes Flaming Crush (works like Fester, while a buffed Tri-Bind becomes the L35 skill), L40 gives you a Titan-themed skill, and L50 gives you Aerial Blast. That then leaves Spur as the L45 skill (but I'd change it to do something else, in order to differentiate it from Rouse). Since the Carbys would still be around you won't lose Contagion (Shining Wizard in this case) and you still get a Tank-type for solo stuff.