Summoner and the upcoming changes

[Rabin]

Very disappointed with the new SMN. It has been seriously crippled compared to the way it was, anyone denying that really needs help.

I haven't used it much and have been maining SCH instead in early access on my other character.

Removing the pet heal (Sustain) was silly. The whole point of having a pet was that you could heal it up when soloing. The DoTs are now totally underwhelming too.

Too much nerf-bat, not enough added to make it worthwhile.

[Sunako]

I get lvl 70 yesterday and i feel like stack management is more punishing than ever before. Gameplay is totally different. Summoner is like totally different class than before. Still dont know what would be the most effective way use bahamut and contagion and aetherflows etc. Gameplay also feels interesting no idea how overpowered/underpowered it really is before you can compare numbers against other classes.

[Neela]

(...) Gameplay is totally different. Summoner is like totally different class than before. (...) Gameplay also feels interesting (...)

First of all gz for the dragon :3

Second although i liked the way HW summoner was to play with the prio system rota and dot-management, im personally really looking forward the 180 degree shift - I like trying out new things which are completely different than everything before ^^

Vacation will end 2morrow can't wait to jump in as well... finally

[TraeSnow]

snip

Isn't the point of Titan to "tank?" I mean...the tooltip for Titan is "Summon a tank-type pet" so I guess everyone expects a tank to be summoned? Titan just has more HP as his "tank" not defense. This went well with Sustain because Titan has NO defense - just a large amount of HP and Sustain healed for maxhp%.

Even more so, I'm not sure about others, but my Titan egi died during the 63 job quest. Considering that a summoner's egi is a large portion of their damage, simply "letting your egi die" is a dps loss.

Not trying to call you out or anything, these are just concerns for leveling. Titan has always been the LEVELING egi or solo content. Since everyone is LEVELING, we are feeling the nerfs hard, but when everyone hits 70, titan won't be used anymore, just like 60 cap - and neither will Sustain. Sustain was basically only used when leveling or soloing fates/content anyways.

[Neela]

Sustain was basically only used when leveling or soloing fates/content anyways.

I agree with the leveling part but not on the part that it became useless afterwards - i personally used it in pvp and savage quite a lot as well... .___.

[TraeSnow]

I agree with the leveling part but not on the part that it became useless afterwards - i personally used it in pvp and savage quite a lot as well... .___.

I agree in certain instances it is viable, but a majority of the time, your Egi gets healed from AoE heals, enough to keep it alive if it does get killed. I mean sure, there were certain times where sustain was used, but it was rare.

[PotatoTree]

The new SMN kind of sucks to play. Not being able to do aetherflow while in trance is just so bad. It make the job fight itself, you have multiple abilities pulling in different directions. I don't care if it does a billion dps or anything, it just isn't fun to play. Not being able to do AF abilities in trance is just so freaking boring. And why does doing trance when I have Summon Bahamut available erase my Summon Bahamut stacks? Like how clunky can you make this job?

I also don't like the new shadowflare, I don't like Devotion (a tiny buff to one player closest to the pet? WTF. Make it AOE or targetable).

They should just go back to the old SMN but add in bahamut and the tri-d proc.

And put my goddam dreadwyrm timers and AF stacks back on my buff bar. I don't want to look at the stupid gauge. Before everything was in one convenient location for me to easily look at.

I used to like SMN but I'm definitely switching off. It's only good now in PvP.

[Tsukaasa]

I'm currently lvl 68 and i love the new gameplay, ifrit being of use now ^^. But yeah that's too bad the remove of sustain, titan is just useless now, i do solo content with ifrit/garuda and my chocobo :s.
Frankly the changes on contagion and radiant shield are great, now i can use both of them according to party composition or if it's solo target or aoe i must do.

Also the buff tri-disaster does on ruin is really nice (when ruin 4 procs <3), and the fact that dreadwyrm transe reset the timer allows some cool things ^^.

I can't wait to get my hands on bahamut >_< and the lore of the new quest is really good ^^. So far i love what they have done in this expansion.

I forgot to mention, the pets seems to be a lot more responsive now and they fixed the bug where "if you hit enkidle and the mob dies before the egi does its attack", the timer of enkidle now is NOT on cooldown, that's great ^^. (it's as if you never pushed the button)

[Neela]

It really seems the new smn is kinda polarizing - some love it, the others hate it... ^^ For me polarizing is a good sign, it shows SE really made a difference this time. I'm honestly sry for those who can't get used to it - loosing something you like/love is never easy : /

[Talec]

I am aswell one of those people who love the new summoner. Tough I have to admit that I didn't play mine before SB, so I cannot realy compare to the Situation pre-patch.

However, I have to strongly take a word to all People that are complaining right now:

1. I am lvl 65 right now. I can count the times my Titan egi died on me on one Hand. Seriously, what's wrong with you guys complaining about this? Summoner was in soloplay completely overpowered with an Egi that tanked all the Mobs and never died! As a SMN you were able to do dungeons solo, which no class (except warrior maybe) was able to. That was not working as intended und thus had to be adressed. All SE did, was to bring all DPS to equal terms.

And what are you doing anyway that your Titan egi dies all the time? I dont even use Titan but Garuda and it never dies. Are you pulling the whole map? If so: You are doing it wrong. Get over it. SE doesnt want to do us Mass-Pulls anymore. Just look at the huge AoE-Nerfs and you'll get it. So if you attack one after another, none of your egis will ever die! If it is low on health after several monsterpulls, just re-summon it. Problem solved. I really think people are exaggerating about this.

2. Compared to the other classes I played (namely DRK, RDM and BLM) I can tell you: Every class has been hugely simplified! My DRK (was my Main before SB) is now terrible boring to play! Compared to him, my summoner brims over with complexity. The Rotation with either aetherflow or bahamut-stacks are challengeing and make for a nice variety of Rotation and gameplay. It may be no more that complex as it was before, and yes I admit that it sucks if you have to cast aetherflow with 2 bahamutstacks once you messed up the last aetherflow stack(it's kinda wasted then) but all in all, summoner still is very nice to play. And on lvl70 Bahamut will again add a lot of complexity to the class. Other classes get a simple non relevant GCD Skill at lvl70...

Q: I have one question to all summoners, who like and accept the new mechanics and are leveling currently: Do you use Garuda or Ifrit-Egi? With the new changes made, I cannot decide which one is the better option on current meta.