Yeah but that's what it required Iromi,

You needed specialized equipment to even run the thing, otherwise just having it out sucked your MP dry.
I remember Corbunkle couldn't even beat simple mobs at lower levels. The only thing you had back then was the other summons, and you had to go through a complicated quest and very hard instance just to get the other ones.

Consequently the only way they could get groups was to sub WHM and act as a half assed healer. But healers were in such short supply they still had a nich. But they were far from anything noteworthy. Sure the 2hr ability was good, but having a really powerful 2hr, meant you could only use it once ever two hours.

I started as a Red Mage and went to 75th with it, and decided to give SMN a try, I was warned left and right about how gimped the thing was. But I figured you know, sometimes people exaggerate too much...

Then I actually went through all the trouble to get the Summons and wow what a PoS it was. It was hell working the thing up from scratch when you didn't even have any of your own spells other than what you sub, and even getting it to middle levels you literally had to sub WHM to even get a group.

Sure it looked cool on the surface, but wow actually playing it really sucked badly. It was anything but powerful or a Summoner.

Eventually after seriously struggling to get the thing to level 40 I finally gave up and said... nope no more... this thing is a worthless PoS, that only looks kewl while getting its rear end handed to it.