I Love 4.0 Summoner. A lot.

[Yayamaru]

It's actually a very deep class in terms of design. SE is actually moving in the right direction to changing the class into more burst and main character orientated if they can't fix the sluggishness issue of pets. Which is why Bahamut only attacks when SMN attacks. Just need a fix to stop bahamut from following and be more responsive. Best if they can even redesign pets into actual spells instead of microable pets which SE have no plans to fix the sluggishness of them. SE is just not ready to design a pet class at the moment.

Lining up contagion before applying DoTs or summoning bahamut is really really bad though. Compared to 3.0 contagion that extends DoTs duration which you don't really need to care about the responsiveness of Garuda. I just give up and go Ifrit instead.

Numbers just need to be tuned up and QoL fixes. Another fix that should be mentioned is changing the unforgiving death mechanics. My suggestion is let SMN keep their aetherflow gauge even after they die.

Another issue is this class is actually the most boring job at <50. Even SCH has the same number of offensive spells as SMN on top of defensive spells. It's not really a big issue but it might affect new players playing it. A quick fix to alleviate the issue might be just shifting painflare to before 50.

[TsundereImouto]

snip

Try lining contagion up properly once and putting garuda on sic. I know it's taboo to suggest that, but after you line it up properly once you want to use it on cd anyways, and garuda is much better about casting it fast herself than when you order her to do it.

Agreed about low level SMN. Terrible, terrible experience. I hate it every single time i'm forced to do it. The fact that the job isn't remotely enjoyable until the high 60s is just sad.