Revamp Summoner idea

[AlphaFox]

Just throwing my 2 cents in, I honestly just wish Summoner felt more along the lines of Yuna in Dissidia. She did not "summon" them in a traditional sense but they appear only a brief moment to unleash certain attacks. Much like in games past minus the lengthy cut scene each time. I'd say let SCH have the Bio/Miasma and let us go into a more primal type. Like allow us to open a portal in which Ifrits head pops out and breathes fire in a cone, Ramuh brings down a strong bolt of lightning on a target and so forth eventually working our way up to Bahamut in 60+

[Shurrikhan]

Just throwing my 2 cents in, I honestly just wish Summoner felt more along the lines of Yuna in Dissidia. She did not "summon" them in a traditional sense but they appear only a brief moment to unleash certain attacks. Much like in games past minus the lengthy cut scene each time. I'd say let SCH have the Bio/Miasma and let us go into a more primal type. Like allow us to open a portal in which Ifrits head pops out and breathes fire in a cone, Ramuh brings down a strong bolt of lightning on a target and so forth eventually working our way up to Bahamut in 60+

But how would this differ from a BLM, then, except that at best the pet provides a massive HP shield against enemies yet void of party enmity (or dies easily, wasting their abilities), and further obscures one's view of the battlefield?

A temporary pet adds another potential entry to each affectable mob's threat table and some amount of HP for them to waste their attacks against. Short of that, it's just a conical Flare, a TC-Thunder IV, etc. How do you want the gameplay to be actually differentiated, if at all? Or would you rather just have what's currently called SMN be more like what's currently called BLM, etc.?

[AlphaFox]

But how would this differ from a BLM, then, except that at best the pet provides a massive HP shield against enemies yet void of party enmity (or dies easily, wasting their abilities), and further obscures one's view of the battlefield?

Different from blackmage, I honestly wouldn't know how. It would have to be a full on revamp as some skills perhaps require no cast while others do. As to avoid obscuring, I would figure a new animation for the book itself, or much like in the video it could just be used as a portal or summoning gate that allows the summon to do its thing and retreat back. For the most part not being much bigger than the caster itself but I am only throwing the idea, not saying its perfect.

Yuna in Dissidia 012.

[Aomine1992]

SMN should have always been an evoker in my opinion, like taking on powers of primals they summon or other beast....Bringing really strong primals to the field to do their signature skill or something but currently SMN is a horribly designed pet class where the pet is delayed and dies to quickly, and the dot mage thing went away at the start of 4.0 so now we are left with what alot of ppl are wondering what is the SMNs role because it's definitely not dps, it's sustained dmg has taken a dive after contagion was changed, and it's utility is crap because a RDM can do it so much better lol

[IveraIvalice]

Snip

Bro your character would look similar to mine if you were a cat. And had face markings
Like alternate versions with the hair color being blue and red

[IveraIvalice]

snip

When I was thinking how I wanted smn to be in this game i thought of yuna from dissidia as a possible way it could be. That is another cool way it could be done. I unltimately decided it would be better to feel like your controlling a pet, but either way is a similar feel to a classic summoner. The dissidia summon a bit less so but still summoning big things to do a quick big hit, so still cool

Edit: that was quoted wrong

[Jhett_Magnum]

Bumping for 4.06

[TheMazrem]

I'd like to see them remove the pets and replace them with turret-style versions. Make Garuda attack your target with AoE's, make Ifrit use Single Target attacks, and turn Titan into a pet that buffs the defenses of anyone around him at the cost of not attacking.

After that, allow us to equip the "essence" of a primal in our secondary slot. Make Enkindle summon that primal to do a toned down version of their ultimate, and have each ultimate have differing effects.

Everything else could stay mostly the same. Pet actions that were once tied to our pets can become normal actions. Adjust our dps to account for some added utility, and make Bahamut remain in the same place as the turret pet he replaced. Also, Auto-upgrade Ruin>Ruin III. Can keep the Ruin IV as a proc.

If they did the above, or even just the pet-turret changes, I think we'd lose a LOT of the clunkiness this job currently has.

[ChazNatlo]

I like the OPs idea in theory, though Stormblessed has a point that there isn't much going on between summons, if they're just casting thier elemental spells to gain elemental stacks.

Theoretically this could be mitigated by having the summons have a rather generous uptime with the periods between summons being rather limited (presumably with each summon having cooldown equivalent to one or two summons worth, forcing you to change it up, but not gradually narrowing your choices down too far, though you'd have to scale their individual power back a fair bit to compensate, which may contradict the plan to make the summons more special.

Alternatively, give the summoner a few support abilities. You could make room for them by only having one summon button, the choice made by pressing it and casting the element of the summon you want to call forth. (I imagine it would proc all of them like how fast blade can proc either savage or riot blade combos.)

[Neela]

+1 for Dissidia Summons - jump <3