Summoner’s job identity

[Ryallen]

I like the idea, even if I don't know a thing about balancing or design and can't tell if it'd work in a realistic setting.

Too bad SE won't ever change SMN because, let's face it, that's a shit ton of work to put into a single job that still outperforms most others by a mile. Not to mention all the people who'd be pissed that their main class was changed so drastically that they'd have to learn an entirely new rotation, breaking muscle memory that has been built for almost three full expansions by this point.

[Saefinn]

I like the idea, even if I don't know a thing about balancing or design and can't tell if it'd work in a realistic setting.

Too bad SE won't ever change SMN because, let's face it, that's a shit ton of work to put into a single job that still outperforms most others by a mile. Not to mention all the people who'd be pissed that their main class was changed so drastically that they'd have to learn an entirely new rotation, breaking muscle memory that has been built for almost three full expansions by this point.

This would be my concern. I think SE have backed themself into a corner with this design. The Summoner we have got is an FFXIV equivalent of Warlock in WoW, which is not a bad thing, because I love my Summoner. But I've never considered it a Summoner, just DoT Mage + Pet that later got useful burts. I don't think the job needs a rework, even reworking the animations to include the pets would be kinda clunky to get the feel as many of them are quick to go off. Though taking a leaf out of Deathflare's book may be cool, so you have the power of Primals, so some spells match primal animations better. So existing SMN spells are replaced with Primal themed ones in name, animation and description.

I think if they make Limited Jobs more worthwhile, then I see potential for an alternative solution to the identity problem. Created a Limited Job version that required you to refight (maybe solo versions) of each primal to form some kind of aetherpact, meaning it's own aether you're using to summon apparitions of them, rather than a 'proper' summoning, otherwise it'd not be very fitting of the Warrior of Light. This way they could attempt a job fantasy version of the job to suit and Limited Job mechanics. This avoids screwing with the existing summoner to displease its current following and means at each update they don't need to worry about its conflicting identity between what they created and what people expected originally.