Rant of SMN's Aetherpact ability

[Osmond]

I thought it was a good ability to use, yet I just wondered what were they thinking when they thought of this on how it works? Playing through shisui, I thought well if I highlight on the tank it'll give the tank the buff, but it kept going towards the healer. I was smh wondering wth was going on, why won't it go to the tank? Later on messing it a few times I ended up coming to the conclusion that well if I place the pet towards the tank it'll go towards it....cool, but there's a problem. It was going to plan until a dps was beside the tank and it went towards the DPS, had another "wth" moment cause now it goes towards one that is closest to the pet.

Ended up saying that this ability is awful the way it was implemented. Why would they make the pet choose which to give devotion effect that is closest to it rather than letting the player command the pet to give it to that particular player? Or maybe i'm missing something.

[TheChemicalCat]

it's a pitifully minor buff that only applies to one party member and you can't even directly control it. Devotion should either give a bigger buff on the 20% side, or even affect everyone. Or it could have different effects depending on the Egi because why not.

[Kuzonoha]

I could be wrong, but I think SE wanted to assert pets having this power of utility and control when in reality it appears to be awfully restricted (not 64 yet, but likely will be later today maybe) The duration is short while the benefits are nice, the duration is short, and I think the bonuses should be a little higher. I anticipate this skill to be better balanced in the future.

[Vallhallix]

So far all the healers i've run with loved it when it landed on them ^-^

[Iromi]

Not only does this buff need to be adjusted, but with how important pet response timing is..it needs to be fixed. I seriously have to spam Contagion for a good 10-15 seconds for it to go off...Garuda is useless with how unresponsive the actions are

[Kurando]

This is a good action for the SMN, however definitely either the effect of it needs to be increased or the duration. Being able to choose the target would be a nice bonus, although it's not too difficult to position the summon in the right place if necessary (but time consuming). The amount of SAMs I've seen have benefited from it quite well, and occasionally works defensively in a pinch.

[Claviusnex]

This is a good action for the SMN, however definitely either the effect of it needs to be increased or the duration. Being able to choose the target would be a nice bonus, although it's not too difficult to position the summon in the right place if necessary (but time consuming). The amount of SAMs I've seen have benefited from it quite well, and occasionally works defensively in a pinch.

I agree it needs some type of buff. However the lack of being able to target a specific player makes it pretty useless. I have a choice of either wasting DPS repositioning the egi to try and hit a moving target or just spam it and hope a player is nearby. Getting both of these issues resolved would make it a good and useful group utility function.

[RLofOBFL]

it's a pitifully minor buff that only applies to one party member and you can't even directly control it. Devotion should either give a bigger buff on the 20% side, or even affect everyone. Or it could have different effects depending on the Egi because why not.

I am gonna be blunt with what i think. SMN is already the third highest DPS alone. You should be lucky they even gave 5% buff at all. And 5% is not nothing anymore, as basically every single buff was nerfed to the ground. Raging? 10%. B4B? 15%. Brotherhood? 5% phys only. Embolden? 10% with 2% drop off every 4 seconds. Disembowel? 5%. All the classes that have these buffs do less damage than 70 SMN. And BLM gets nothing of that sort yet only deals a SMIDGEN more damage.

But I agree it would be helpful if you could choose the target.