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

[Liii]

Another dejected smn here. Nothing is straightforward in this class anymore and optimization works counter to intuitive play. Whatever goals you had for this class square, unless it was to make it harder to play and less rewarding, or to make room for redmage to shine, you done derped.

[Mapleine]

I shelved it back in ARR after I noticed it was literally a clone of a WoW Warlock. Compete with soul shards, imp style pets and DoTs

If they ever actually wanna make a Summoner I'd be happy to try it again in the future

[Telvorei]

I would prefer a summoning system where we keep aetherflow stacks, use carbuncle as our base summon and build up a bar for energy to summon a demi summon, then use a demi summon. The demi summon will actively drain the bar, and you can order it to "Blood Pact" for powerful abilities. Which also drains the bar. You weave blood pacts and ruin spam to keep the bar going as long as you can until eventually the bar runs out. This makes the demi summon disappear. And then you start over again.

Of course there would be more spells and would go in more depth, but a system like this is what I would like.

[Mapleine]

I would prefer a summoning system where we keep aetherflow stacks, use carbuncle as our base summon and build up a bar for energy to summon a demi summon, then use a demi summon.

Summoners should not be a pet class at all. They should just be about weaving a little bit of black magic/time magic and using aetherflow finishers in different orders to influece a high potency summon every 20-30 seconds. Different summons for different occasions: single target, aoe, short duration, long duration, etc. Could even have support summons in the future with Lakshmi, Phoenix, Asura, etc.

Right now we have a Summoner who cant even call Shiva or Ramuh, its sad.

Pets should be for SCH and eventually BST, not SMN

[Namir]

In my opinion, all of Summoner's problems have always stemmed from being tied to Scholar through their class. Sure, things worked in 2.0 and 3.0, but now in 4.0, Summoner's lack of identity is now quite apparent and harming the flow and development of the job. Summoner's pets are not well developed enough to be called a pet class, nor are we a DoT class as we only have two DoTs now, we are... a ruin spamming machine. They need to finally separate SMN from SCH, leave the virus and disease role to Scholar and give SMN a proper identity and playstyle (and leave the books to Scholars and give SMN a proper weapon while they're at it.)

[paradigmfellow]

I second this. I've been summoner since i started and now... nope. I'm about to hit 70 and then I won't touch it again unless some severe changes are made. I'm no masochist.

It is pretty much what I did. I tried giving it a chance, but I saw myself hating it more and more.

[Neela]

so sad seeing so much of you leaving.... either its understandable by a fair degree... it's just sad somehow q.q

[ShaolinMike]

Going to keep SMN as my main ranged/caster job, but I'm going to be focusing more on SAM until/unless they really give this job some attention.

[koroko220]

Totally agree with OP. Played the game since 2.0, Mained smn from 2.4 to 4.0. It's just not fun anymore and Bahamut isn't enough to make up for it. Red Mage is my favorite job of all time, but I still would have Mained smn if the changes weren't so bad.

[Vulcwen]

I agree with basically everything in the OP. The new rotation is about avoiding damage loss, making sure you don't overlap anti-synergizing skills, rather than maximizing and lining up burst synergy. I think they definitely need to go back to the old system with aetherflow.. lots of things I'd suggest here:

- Bio 3/Miasma 3 durations reduced to 15s/24s, potencies increased to compensate.
- Contagion back to a 15s extension of DoTs (which means it has a 15s window to go off, so it being unresponsive isn't as bad as it's now)
- Flaming Crush gets a fester-like effect, dealing 30 extra potency per DoT.
- Ruin 4 instant cast, upgrades ruin 2 instead of 1/3.
- Ruin 3 potency increased to 200, MP cost increased by a ruin 2 cost.
- Shadowflare cooldown reduced to 30s
- Aetherflow and related skills can be used in DWT and Bahamut, Bahamut and DWT itself are still exclusive.
- Rouse affects bahamut
- Wyrmwave: Auto-attack, 5s cooldown, 1.5s cast, using damaging abilities will reset the cooldown.
- Like PvP, you can use bahamut after each DWT (edited)
- Only 1 ahk morn per bahamut (cooldown increased to 30s).
- MP return from Energy drain increased by the same amount as Ruin3 cost increase (it should give 1 ruin upgrade exactly).
- Tri-bind potency increased to 65
- Aetherpact affects the entire party (I just nerfed utility from contagion, so that compensates)
- Aethertrail timer back.. yes that means the guage needs to be changed (quick concept):