Why are summoners so neglected?

[Shurrikhan]

I think they just need to make a whole new job called "Beastmaster"... because that appears to be what some of you want...

You some of you don't want the classic Final Fantasy Summoner... you want a Beastmaster instead... or a Petmaster class.

Those are not Classic FF Summoner or Summons.

On top of that those will wreck the current Summoner job in a way that will torque off the general Summoner population (who plays the job now)... in THIS game.

While I understand superficially linking different naming conventions to make it more Summoner Thematic, and perhaps a graffical upgrade...

... in no way can I possibly justify any kind of major mechanical rework of the job from the ground up, either Lore wise or Gameplay wise.

The class is powerful, viable, and fun to play.

Regardless of how pet-centric the prospective or current SMN population may want the job to be, SE has specifically made pets a thing within the job. And they have done so with all the fluidity of Wanderer's Minuet on release (a far cry from the livable clunkiness that is current WM). They are slow to respond, especially in movement, incapable of jumping or replacing queued skills in favor of ones for which timing is more crucial, have shit AI, cannot aim a knockback, can scarcely chase, and take up two otherwise piss-dull on-cooldown caster-synergetic skills, Spur and Rouse, just to use the third and only interesting caster-synergetic skill, Enkindle.

I doubt that allowing for mechanical improvements to that system, while it might pave the way for a more pet-centric or -synergetic job in the future, or offering more interesting alternatives to Spur and Rouse would be met negatively by most other Summoner mains...

[Mhaeric]

They are...incapable of jumping or replacing queued skills in favor of ones for which timing is more crucial

Slight nitpick: They are unable to do this on their own, but via a macro while using Obey the SMN can achieve this for them.