Summoners: Please give us actual summons to make us feel like a Summoner please.

[LineageRazor]

While I hold the unpopular opinion that the Egis look cool (seriously - I think they look exactly like a summon would look if summoned using a geometry textbook XD), I agree that the SMN job wasn't well put-together from the get-go. This seems to me in part because they seem like the devs wanted to build a damage-over-time DPS, realized they didn't have a Summoner job in the game yet, and decided to tack on a pet.

I think I would have preferred it if Summoner was more old-school about summoning - big, flashy spells that summon a primal, have them do their thing, and then vanish. There'd be no need to worry about the world becoming cluttered with too many huge pets, all or most summons would actually be useful, and we could have as many summons as we wanted, at one spell per summon.

FFXI is the only other Final Fantasy with summons as pets, and Summoner wasn't well put-together in that game either (it spent most of its tenure as a glorified healer). X and XIII had PERSISTENT summons, but in those cases the rest of the party went away and it was pretty much a solo show with the summon vs whatever you were fighting - obviously not workable in a MMO. All the rest of the FFs had summons that appeared, did their thing (that thing could be an attack, or a buff, or a heal, or whatever), and then left, and I think that model could work in a MMO, as well. Heck, they could even keep the whole DoTs/Ruin thing going, and have the summons be on oGCD cooldowns!

[Nighthawky2010]

While I hold the unpopular opinion that the Egis look cool (seriously - I think they look exactly like a summon would look if summoned using a geometry textbook XD), I agree that the SMN job wasn't well put-together from the get-go. This seems to me in part because they seem like the devs wanted to build a damage-over-time DPS, realized they didn't have a Summoner job in the game yet, and decided to tack on a pet.

I think I would have preferred it if Summoner was more old-school about summoning - big, flashy spells that summon a primal, have them do their thing, and then vanish. There'd be no need to worry about the world becoming cluttered with too many huge pets, all or most summons would actually be useful, and we could have as many summons as we wanted, at one spell per summon.

FFXI is the only other Final Fantasy with summons as pets, and Summoner wasn't well put-together in that game either (it spent most of its tenure as a glorified healer). X and XIII had PERSISTENT summons, but in those cases the rest of the party went away and it was pretty much a solo show with the summon vs whatever you were fighting - obviously not workable in a MMO. All the rest of the FFs had summons that appeared, did their thing (that thing could be an attack, or a buff, or a heal, or whatever), and then left, and I think that model could work in a MMO, as well. Heck, they could even keep the whole DoTs/Ruin thing going, and have the summons be on oGCD cooldowns!

I agree..to summon the big flashy primals to become part of party while the summoner disappears. Also even though Im not really a fans of the EGIs, I was disappointed when there no RAMUH & LEVIATHAN egis.

[Auryan]

I think I would have preferred it if Summoner was more old-school about summoning - big, flashy spells that summon a primal, have them do their thing, and then vanish. There'd be no need to worry about the world becoming cluttered with too many huge pets, all or most summons would actually be useful, and we could have as many summons as we wanted, at one spell per summon.

FFXI is the only other Final Fantasy with summons as pets, and Summoner wasn't well put-together in that game either (it spent most of its tenure as a glorified healer). X and XIII had PERSISTENT summons, but in those cases the rest of the party went away and it was pretty much a solo show with the summon vs whatever you were fighting - obviously not workable in a MMO.

I don't mind the way the egis look. I appreciate the weird little spin they have on the primals. My problem is more on how they perform; they just mostly spam auto-attacks with some occasional commands. It doesn't have the feeling of awe that you're commanding a fragment of a godlike entity.

And I like how they decided to go with Bahamut. Made me wish we could get gauges for all of the primals instead. Keep them flashy and make them different. An Elder trance that will be used to summon the elder primals (Bahamut, Warring Triad, etc) as a powerful finisher. The Elemental gauge are for summoning the lesser primals that deal damage or provide group buffs.

I know that is just a dream, but if they keep the direction they're heading with the summons as temporary pets, I'll be pleased to see them add more Demi summons.

In regards to XI, you said it well. I think this may be a case of nostalgia or something, but I don't remember XI's being the most amazing incarnation of the job. I remember SMN from XI being a half-assed WHM throughout most of the time I played with it. It's mostly because the entire job revolved around the summons and their long cooldowns. After those killer avatar moves and group buffs you literally had to wait minutes doing nothing for things to come off cooldown. That's sort of why they were so dependent on their sub job (usually as WHM). The summoner itself didn't have an identity outside of the pet. They nailed the look and flavor of the job, it's too bad when it actually came to playing as a SMN, it was lackluster. In XIV, it almost feels like the reverse situation of XI's. Where the player is given more attention and power, which is for the best. I just want more summoning options like Demi-Bahamut.

[FoxyAreku]

But we have a real summon.

It took multiple expansions, but we got one.

Won't object to more, though.