Why did they make SMN harder to play?

[Furiea]

If you were playing smn correctly in 3.x, it's actually a lot easier now. More punishing, maybe, with the changes to aetherflow, but as far as complexity and actual rotational difficulty, the skill floor is much lower.

as a SMN main in 3.x and now Lv70 SMN.. i absolutely disagree with your statement.

SMN in 3.x was very forgiving.
you can re-cast your shadow Flare to reposition it... (when tank move the mobs around etc)... in 4.0.. a 60 sec cd
in 3.x if you miss any aetherflow gague skill.. you just get delay on the dreadwyrm trance... but in 4.0 you get a delay on both dreadwyrm trance and summon bahamut.
if you use aetherflow while you are in Dreadwyrm trance.. GG. <<< I can't for the life of me figure out why they would do this.

.......remove tri-bind already.

[Angry_Evil]

I don't think it is harder to be honest. Once I got my SMN, to 70, I thought it was pretty easy to pull off if you are paying attention enough. Then again it could also be because of my BLM main in which timing is essential for most everything like a chess game, so I am used to it.

If you were playing smn correctly in 3.x, it's actually a lot easier now. More punishing, maybe, with the changes to aetherflow, but as far as complexity and actual rotational difficulty, the skill floor is much lower.

That what one would think but it's not what we actually see with smn being so low in all percentiles on fflogs. It means players are struggling with dealing decent damage on smn.

[aldoteng]

SMN in 3.0 had to upkeep DOTs 7-8 times per minute excluding Tri-Disaster, and followed a 60second rotation more forgiving on movement.
SMN in 4.0 need only upkeep a pair of DOTs once every two minutes, but follow a 120second rotation less forgiving on movement.

I personally think 4.0 is harder, but perhaps i'm still new to this gamestyle.

[Angry_Evil]

SMN in 3.0 had to upkeep DOTs 7-8 times per minute excluding Tri-Disaster, and followed a 60second rotation more forgiving on movement.
SMN in 4.0 need only upkeep a pair of DOTs once every two minutes, but follow a 120second rotation less forgiving on movement.

I personally think 4.0 is harder, but perhaps i'm still new to this gamestyle.

Even if you are new to it(tho best of us struggling with it) 4.0 smn playstayle is still pure garbage. Clunky and poorly designed. People already wrote enough about its problems so I won't rant too much lol. I'll just wait for patch notes to decide if I should be angry or very angry.

[Angry_Evil]

Oh my god...
>Aetherflow actions are no longer required to inflict an effect on a target to gain Aethertrail Attunement.
It is a step into the right direction but damn...
Literally time to unsub loool
(also dat PvP nerf olol)

[ShaolinMike]

Oh my god...
>Aetherflow actions are no longer required to inflict an effect on a target to gain Aethertrail Attunement.
It is a step into the right direction but damn...
Literally time to unsub loool
(also dat PvP nerf olol)

Well, at least this guarantees that we don't get screwed if we whiff on an Aetherflow skill, which was one of the major issues.

[aldoteng]

Well, at least this guarantees that we don't get screwed if we whiff on an Aetherflow skill, which was one of the major issues.

The one fix they made is the one problem I have the least issues with. I'm disappointed of course, and I wonder if the devs really do not mind SMN being so low in parses? The only one unique utility we provide is Magic Damage Up, useful only in a caster comp.

Is it possible that SMN is parsing low on average simply because it is highly difficult to optimize, and if played to its full potential, its damage is decent? I just looked at fflogs again. SMN is ranked 6th on 90th and 95th percentiles, and then last or second last on 80th and below percentiles. But even on this argument, DRG's multiple buffs should push it ahead of SMN.

And let's not talk about RDM which is just a superior caster in all regards, besides the Magic Damage up utility.

At this point I refuse to believe the devs have intention to really balance the classes.

Of course we can still play something else for the mean time, shrugs.

[Angry_Evil]

Gotta wait for dat 4.2 for ruin3 potency increase...

[Liii]

Gotta wait for that 5.0 job remake again because square is struggling so hard with smn rn.

[Angry_Evil]

Gotta wait for that 5.0 job remake again because square is struggling so hard with smn rn.

oooh I would not bet on it... They had all the chances to make smn amazing in 4.0 but decided to kill it instead.
By 5.0 SMN probably will just be deleted from the game at last