Prelim 5.0 SMN Feedback & how the rework is going against improved downtime design

[Karshan]

People said similarly to the changes before 4.0 was released. SMN was the least played job globally until 4.1.

History is not on your side with that kind of thinking, Danielle. That's why we're being more proactive this time. People have genuinely reached out to me pleading for there to not be a repeat of the Stormblood launch for Summoner. That is why we are putting efforts into solving and understanding things now, staging our guides and resources early while making them more accessible, and providing the feedback we can.

I SOOOOO remember that. "you'll see, they can tweak it before 4.0 hits". But the tweaks didn't come and the media tour tooltips were quite final, and we had to wait 4 months and painful savage progression before seeing some light. Granted that we got too much light after that with overbuff. I think the nerf on DOTs is precisely that : a quick fix reserve. If SMN lacks a bit comes 5.0 (doubt it with ruin changes but hey), put the dots back to 50 a tick for 5.05 to apease angry mob and then make a true change in 5.1

I was first exited about the changes cause didn't like the gates (don't like how sometimes transe can get in the way of the golden rule : AF. ON. CD.);
I was extatic with the first glimpse of the tooltips, but soon realized the inconvenience : the shared timer of the transes.

So I did get the "use AF whenever I want" thing I wished for, but actually it's because the old Golden rule just shifted on Trance...

It still will feel less clunky cause AF is parallel and not sequential, but yeah downtime might be a problem. On DWT it's ok as long as the boss comes back in time for Deathflare, but if it happens on FBT, most likely at least one PhoeniMorn will be missed.

Edit : also, nice in depth analysis, thank you for that. The prepull preparations part is indeed quite troublesome...