After years of playing Summoner, I'm shelving the job and here's why.

[Nezia]

UH dk in wow suffers from the 4) too. You have some dots but your interaction with them is very lacking and uninteresting, you have your pet but again, the interactions feel very poor, and then you have some direct hits skills who feel underwhelming because there is too much going elsewhere.

But ffxiv has an extra issue that is how bad pet mechanics work here, the pet will not respond to our commands the moment you command it, it takes damage from aoe skills and you have no way to keep him up, it is a utter mess.

They should get rid of SMN permanent pets and turn them into actual summons that only last a few seconds. Or even you only summon a shade of the actual primal(not an egi) that casts some skill and then vanishes(pretty much what they do in other ff games).

Now if they want to keep the pet system they better fix it, which I believe they would have done already, if they could.

[Neela]

They should get rid of SMN permanent pets and turn them into actual summons that only last a few seconds. Or even you only summon a shade of the actual primal(not an egi) that casts some skill and then vanishes(pretty much what they do in other ff games).

Now if they want to keep the pet system they better fix it, which I believe they would have done already, if they could.

yeah the first way would be interesting... give smn a kind of elemental-wheel which change the base-element of your skills -> using skills with a certain attribute could fill your gauge -> if your gauge is filled to maximum -> release a "summon-finisher" based on the ele you filled your gauge with. They could give smn endless primals for summoning this way. could be a refreshing way of ff14s interpretation of smn at all.

or expand the use and synergy related to pets - don't give smn new skills with further expansions but give them to the egis which would make them way more important than they are now... if it is supposed to be a pet cls than focus on pets for real... more than just con & enkindle... : /

[PriyaJugulataris]

*

My dream has been timed summons with minor party buffs building up to Bahamut actually.

Cycle Elements to summon Bahamut, the more elemental summons you have, the higher damage he does (Min of 3, leading to 2 minute cycles?)
Each Summon lasts for 30~ seconds, Enkindle usage immediately makes the summon vanish. Using the Enkindle in the last 5~ seconds of a summon duration gives you swiftcast on your next summon.

The summons would have effects like:
(Numbers would have to be adjusted of course)
Ifrit: STR+ 5%, Enkindle: Inflict Slashing Resistance Down on Target(s)
Titan: VIT + 5%, Enkindle: Inflict Damage Dealt Down on Target(s)
Garuda: DEX + 5% Enkindle: Inflict Piercing Resistance Down on Target(s)
Ramuh: INT + 5% Enkindle: Magic Vulnerability Down on Target(s),
Shiva: STR + 5% Enkindle: Inflict Blunt Resistance Down on Target(s)
Leviathan: MIND + 5%, Enkindle: Mini HoT/Refresh around Egi
Bahamut: Parameters 5% based on elements, Enkindle: Flat Out Nuke

Weave in Dots + Fester/Bane, cut ruin spam.

Gain Utility and diverse rotations based on party, feels more like a "summoner", cuts the ruin bot.