Quote Originally Posted by Ariomi View Post
It's like a 20 dps difference with Hali, Bard being only slightly lower, and if you are looking at exdeath and neo, Summoner is in the same situation with Red Mage.

Red Mage and Bard bring much more utility, and bring better, or similar amounts of dps.
Quote Originally Posted by Tsumdere View Post
Once more average players begin to reach those fights, you'll start seeing averages very similar to Alte Roite.
Good points on both of you. I concede.

I wonder one thing about the balancing process....looking at Red and Black Mages, the BLM puts out heavier numbers, but the RDM was really pulling away in the beginning due to the mobility. Do you think that SMN has some similar issues on top of potency problems? Things like the delay of Wyrmwave, Bahamut prioritizing following the SMN over attacking, etc? Is BRD doing something similar because they can just sing and dance around mechanics and not worrying about any of these things? Sort of like a "stronger in practice than on paper," or "weaker in practice than on paper," in the case of SMN? It feels like their actual utility is hard to use or not practical for most party compositions.

Unfortunately, I'm finding leveling Summoner to be absolutely painful at this point past 60, myself. I'm sure it doesn't "take off" until 70 like every other class, but I really feel the changes from HW to SB with 60 SMN more than the others (and level sync feels especially brutal on SMN, for some reason, but that could be my imagination because I'm not used to the sudden emptiness in abilities).