Is it worth bringing a summoner to raids?

[s3ystic]

a) If you are a jerk elitist who is only concerned with the meta and world firsts which have already passed, then no its not worth it.
b) If you are a chill (see that i didn't say causal) and awesome player who likes to see people succeed with the job they like the most then yes, its totally worth it.
Take your pick.

From just the player standpoint, go with what you like, if you like the lore and the aesthetics then play the job ... eventually the balance stick with get waved at it again anyway.
However don't silence your voice if you feel there is a problem with the job you love so much, keep talking about it, just don't curb your level of fun because other people have fat mouths.

[jack891]

yes aslong as they use ifrit if the group has 2 melees, ifrit is so good

[Ariomi]

Every job is viable for raiding. The only issue with SMN right now is their death penalty is probably the highest among all jobs.

It is the single highest penalty. Summoner's death alone takes away their pet which is 20% loss of their dps. Even if they re-summon their pet, it counts the summoner's weakness into the pet's stats. 25% dps penalty turns into 45%.

[Pyitoechito]

It is the single highest penalty. Summoner's death alone takes away their pet which is 20% loss of their dps. Even if they re-summon their pet, it counts the summoner's weakness into the pet's stats. 25% dps penalty turns into 45%.

I never even considered weakness affecting pets. Yuck. Someone else has corrected that Weakness and Brink of Death do not affect pets. I assume this is because gear stats are what affect pet stats on summon and not buffs/debuffs.

Unrelated to weakness, maybe it would ease the penalty on SMN if the cooldowns of role skills reset on death (for all classes/jobs). Then they'd at least have guaranteed access to Lucid Dreaming (for mana) and Swiftcast (to re-summon) in emergencies to get back into the fight.

[ChaozK]

Depends on the setup. If you want to run a weird comp with 2 casters, the worth of the smn goes up quite a bit since the garuda egi debuff is basically old foes requiem and boosts other casters.

[Rawrz]

It is the single highest penalty. Summoner's death alone takes away their pet which is 20% loss of their dps. Even if they re-summon their pet, it counts the summoner's weakness into the pet's stats. 25% dps penalty turns into 45%.

When did weakness start affecting pets? Never did in HW. Very easy to see as eos/selene would keep an hp amount higher than yours.

[Ariomi]

When did weakness start affecting pets? Never did in HW. Very easy to see as eos/selene would keep an hp amount higher than yours.

Weakness always effected pets. In heavensward your stats were snapshot on your summon. Meaning if you Summoned your pet with weakness, your weakened stats were fixed onto your pet until you re-summoned them. You could literally run around with a weakened pet for a long time and never even notice.

[aleph_null]

It's not impossible to clear with "weaker" jobs but it'll definitely be harder. Especially considering rdm's ability to help a group recover from multiple deaths, bringing a blm/smn for progression might make your group take longer to clear the raids (this was said by someone who wrote a smn guide and used rdm for progression). It's not a big concern unless you were in the world/server first race or aiming to clear very fast (and we're already past that time anyway).

[Ariomi]

I never even considered weakness affecting pets. Yuck.

Unrelated to weakness, maybe it would ease the penalty on SMN if the cooldowns of role skills reset on death (for all classes/jobs). Then they'd at least have guaranteed access to Lucid Dreaming (for mana) and Swiftcast (to re-summon) in emergencies to get back into the fight.

Would be a large step in the right direction. They atleast get back on their feet regardless.

[Rawrz]

Weakness always effected pets. In heavensward your stats were snapshot on your summon. Meaning if you Summoned your pet with weakness, your weakened stats were fixed onto your pet until you re-summoned them. You could literally run around with a weakened pet for a long time and never even notice.

I think you need to retest this. That was not the case. Also, selene and eos updates their stats after summon. This was fixed when food affected pets. She may take a few gcds but she'll update. Test by summoning without gear and putting back gear. Then use pet skills for a min.

I'll test weakness after work.

EDIT-Tested:

Sure did! Conclusion: Weakness does not affect pets.

Base Stats:


Base Stats with Brink of Death:


Base Physick for sample:


Brink of Death Physick [50% as potent]:


Base Embrace as example:


Brink of Death Embrace [No Change]:


Interestingly, SCHs can have their pets, at least selene, fix their hp from our earlier gear removal discussion. Casting fey wind updates her stats. I imagine the arrow would do the same for ifrit but overall irrelevant to combat.