Summoner Rework - Now with 600% more summons!

[Tulzscha]

I think most of us would agree that Egis are underwhelming, Demis are awesome, and the Fester package (much as I personally enjoy it) and damage over time stuff in general doesn't fit very well with the idea of summoning. Lower levels in particular are problematic. And we definitely don't have enough SMN rework threads in here so here's mine! Quick disclaimer: I'm not pushing for this to be implemented in the game, I just have fun making stuff up.

Core Ideas

• Summoning big awesome primals to do big awesome things!
• The option to choose the best summon for any given situation.
• Big aoe, also big support.

Goal: Design a version of SMN that fits the core ideas listed above without deviating too far from current SMN while also addressing its faults.

Since this is obviously never going to happen and I'm just having fun let's go nuts and start by scrapping half the job.

Step 1: Free Up Design Space

• Split SMN from Arcanist and SCH
• New pre-SMN class: Evoker
• Options:
  1. Leave SCH by itself
  2. Introduce new job to take SMN's place
  3. Have Evoker evolve into two jobs (SMN+Sage) instead of or in addition to Arcanist

Now we can start fresh, so let's establish a base and get some summons up in here.

Step 2: Evoker Class

• Single abilities from summons
• Results may vary
• Make the most of random summons
• Class Start: Gridania

Summoning magic is very much its own thing and is 100% about calling on beings to do your bidding. In previous games characters could use summoning magic in addition to black and/or white magic, but since those are their own jobs in FFXIV I'm going for as pure a summoner as I can.

Evokers (taken from FF3) use summoning magic but not very well, they don't have complete control over their magic. Translating this to FFXIV they can't harness specific summons for specific purposes and instead call on a summon's power for a single attack at a time. This makes a perfect precursor class to the SMN.

Evoker Class Abilities

• Lvl 1: Summon
  2.5s cast | Summons a random primal to damage a single enemy (begin with only Chocobo and Ramuh - they both make sense for the starting location)
• Lvl 3: Convene
  1.5s cast | 10s recast | Summons a random primal to assist a single ally (Carbuncle or Sylph)
• Lvl 4: Confine
  Instant ogcd | 30s recast | Remember your last Summon or Convene. Generates one Magicite Shard
• Lvl 4: Recall
  Instant ogcd | 10s recast | Consumes a Magicite Shard to activate the Confined Summon or Convene
• Lvl 5: *Additional possible summons [quest for Ifrit]
• Lvl 6: Echo
  Instant | Call on your last summon (or random if there isn't one) in a weakened state
• Lvl 7: Rouse
  Instant ogcd | 5s recast | Consume 1 Magicite Shard to buff your next summon ability
• Lvl 8: Summon II
  2.5s cast | Summons a random primal to damage multiple enemies *very early aoe because this is an aoe class*
• Lvl 10: *Additional possible summons [quest for Titan]
• Lvl 12: Convene II
  2.5s cast | 20s recast | Summons a random primal to assist multiple allies
• Lvl 15: *Confine Mastery [trait]
  Confine generates an additional Magicite Shard
• Lvl 18: *Recall Mastery [trait]
  Using a Magicite Shard (in conjunction with your summoning power) grants you Empowered Magicite.
• Lvl 18: Harness Magicite
  Channeled | 30s recast | Consume all Empowered Magicite for a barrage of primal abilities based on those Confined, 2s per magicite consumed. Cannot move while channeling (changes later).
• Lvl 20: *Additional possible summons [quest for Garuda and Asuna]
• Lvl 25: *Enhanced Summoning
  Summons gain more powerful abilities

Evoker Resources

• Mana
  Used to cast your spells, not a big deal (yet)
• Magicite Shards (2 max)
  Generated all at once by the Confine ability similar to Aetherflow, spent individually on Recall and Rouse
• Empowered Magicite (2 max)
  Generated individually by consuming Magicite Shards (replacing them) with Recall and Rouse, spent all at once on Harness Magicite. Must be spent before generating more Shards

In essence it's not too different from how SMN has played before. Here's a breakdown:

Ruin > Summon
Physick > Convene (but it's useful!)
Aetherflow ability > Confine
Ruin II > Echo
Fester/Bane > Recall/Rouse
Outburst > Summon II
Aetherflow resource > Magicite Shard
Dreadwyrm Aether > Empowered Magicite
Bahamut > Harness Magicite

No dots (yet), more useful support ability, more impactful stuff early on.

This is going to change quite a bit in the transition to a SMN who has mastered the magic and no longer has to deal with random summons.

Step 3: New (and Improved?) Summoner Job

>Boom
>Lvl 30
>Big quest chain
>Lots of story
>You're a Wizard Summoner now, Harry!

What to look forward to:

• Choose your summon
• Use their abilities
• Build up to even bigger summons
• Blow up the universe

Simple in theory, difficult building into a fun and engaging job for an MMO, but let's try it anyway. We're going to need to turn those Evoker abilites that no longer fit into something more useful and get some permanent summons to use them, but first: Role Actions.

Changes to Role Actions

• Fewer slots than abilities, have to choose your loadout
• Resurrection added
• Throughput abilities (like Aetherpact) added
• Possibly limit which abilities can be chosen together

Some big changes to affect multiple classes here. Now instead of being taxed for having a niche ability like Resurrection whether you use it or not, you can choose to dump it for something more useful. And if utility isn't needed at all, grab a group-wide dmg buff.

Summoners get a similar loadout system for their summons to reduce button bloat, there will be a lot of them.

Lvl 30 Summoner Abilities and Changes

• Minor Summons: Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Ramuh, Asuna
  Gained from lvl 30 quest chain, choose 2 with the loadout system (more later)
• Each summon has a 2.5s cast time, 60s recast, comes with an effect (usually aoe) and lasts until cancelled
  They also come with the visual effect of a translucent summon enveloping your character, mimicking your actions
• Summon I & II, Recall, Convene I & II, and Echo all change based on which summon is active; they remain the same if you don't have a summon active
  Summon I & II will always be damage abilities, Echo will always be instant, Convene I & II will be some kind of utility
• Confine dismisses your summon for a Magicite Shard
  It's instant and ogcd so you don't feel so bad about using it, but it forces you to use at least a couple different summons
• Recall activates a Confined primal's summon ability
  Or could repeat a used ability at instant speed instead, not 100% sure what to do with this one
• Rouse and Harness Magicite remain the same

In a nutshell: Your abilities mostly do the same things but you have permanent summons, no more randomness, and thus a rotation for each summon. They won't be too complicated with only a few abilities - the complexity comes with all the options and different sets of abilities to remember.

Now then, new stuff!

Summoner Job Abilities past 30 (no particular order)

• Enkindle
  Instant | 120s recast with 2 charges | Powerful summon ability
• More Minor Summons: Leviathan, Ravana, Bismark, Unicorn
• Able to equip up to 4 different summons
• Magicite Shards increased to 4
• Confine recast reduced to 20s
• Can move while channeling Harness Magicite (60% speed once a max of 3 Shards are unlocked, 80% speed with 4 - that's a permanent change after the max # of shards is unlocked)
• *Entranced [trait]
  Your summons' abilities generate Trance (new resource - a bar that fills up), Harness Magicite generates the most
• Major Summons: Bahamut, Phoenix, Alexander, *Shinryu
  Alter your abilities like Minor Summons but more powerful, no Wyrmwave because your abilities become their abilities. Consumes 80% of max Trance + all Empowered Magicite (must have at least 1). Confined summons determine which you get. 5s duration per Empowered Magicite consumed. Magicite Shards are left intact
• Deathflare
  Instant ogcd | 10s recast | Spend 30% of max Trance for burst dmg, transforms to Enkindle ability for major summons (Akh Morn, etc)
• *Confining a major summon gives you 4 special magicite for summoning Shinryu
• Summon Shinryu
  2.5s cast | 30s duration | Must Confine a major summon to use | Super Crazy Powerful, cannot be confined

Overall not too many buttons to go on your bar, but lots and lots of options and alternate rotations based on which summons are used. Note that the recast for Minor Summons is 60s while Confine is 20s, so you'll only need to use 3 while you can slot 4 unless you Confine one immediately.

I won't go over every summon's abilities but the idea is they each have a different purpose. Single target, aoe, multiple spread targets, damage over time, burst, sustain, instants for mobility, healing, crowd control, party buffs, all that good stuff. They don't interact with each other directly but there would be some Fester-like gameplay when it's appropriate - applying dots with one or two summons while another deals more damage for each dot on the target, or buffing up with one and bursting stuff down with another.

Summoner Resources

• Mana
  Heavily consumed by Minor Summons, generates faster the more Trance you have
• Magicite Shards (max 4)
  Generated by Confining Minor Summons, spent on Recall and Rouse
• Empowered Magicite (max 4)
  Generated by Recall and Rouse, spent on Harness Magicite or Major Summons
• Trance
  Generated by pet abilities - especially Harness Magicite - spent on Deathflare or Major Summons, passively increases mana regen

How Major Summons Work

• They're all in one button
• They consume 80% of max Trance + all Empowered Magicite (must have at least 1)
• 5s duration per Empowered Magicite consumed (20s max)
• There are 3 different types of Magicite based on summons Confined
  Shards will be dull, Empowered bright and glowy
• Dps = red, Support = green, Major = bright blue
• More dps than support magicite = Bahamut
• Equal dps and support magicite = Phoenix
• More support than dps magicite = Alexander
• Any major magicite = Shinryu

When it comes to summoning Shinryu, it's a little tricky. If you use a Major Summon right after Confining with less than 4 Empowered Magicite, the Major Summon won't last long enough to Confine it and summon Shinryu. It's the ultimate summon, it's not supposed to be easy!

Summary

Spend lots of mana for Minor Summons > use their abilities then Confine them into Magicite for more power > Empower said Magicite, building Trance and regenerating mana > Summon up some big bois > wreck face > repeat

[CrimsonGunner]

nice idea,it does feel summoner but as a caster like in final fantasy tactics,they come use their skills and then leave.

[Dracan_Fontom]

Admirable but this idea seems to make Summoner a lot more confusing and busy than it is right now with even more resources to manage.

[Tulzscha]

Admirable but this idea seems to make Summoner a lot more confusing and busy than it is right now with even more resources to manage.

I think it looks way more complicated and busy than it is because it’s a bunch of new stuff. There should be less weaving (more gcd abilities for summons over Egi Assaults), less rigid timing because of the resources and less dot management stuff. It’s mostly just cycling through a handful of summons (that you decide on before an encounter) with a two stage Aetherflow-like system thrown in similar to what we had in previous expansions. Trance being a resource rather than a cooldown is largely aesthetic but allows for a tad more flexibility - generally it’ll just fill as you attack stuff then you summon Bahamut or whatever when it’s ready, the main difference is you have the option to delay Bahamut a bit for a big nuke if something needs to die asap.

Decision making is the most complex part of the job for sure but it shouldn’t be too bad actually going through the flow of playing it. Remembering different summon rotations could also take some time but they wouldn’t be too complex, they’re based on FBT which is 1212 with some ogcds thrown in.

I do think the Magicite system might be broken though now that I think about it. Either way I’m sure there’s lots of room for improvement. Thanks for the feedback.

Here's a side-by-side of the full list of abilities with current SMN:

5.0 SMN -------------- Reworked SMN
3 Egis ---------------- 4 Minor Summons of your choice
Ruin 3 ---------------- Summon
Outburst ------------- Summon II
Ruin 2 ---------------- Echo
Physick --------------- Convene I
Miasma --------------- Convene II
Bio -------------------- N/A
Tri-Disaster ----------- N/A
Bane ------------------ N/A
Egi Assault I & II ---- N/A
Energy Drain -------- Confine
Energy Siphon ------ N/A
Fester ---------------- Recall
Painflare ------------- Rouse
DWT ----------------- Harness Magicite
Deathflare ----------- Deathflare
Summon Bahamut -- Major Summon
Enkindle Bahamut --- Combined with Deathflare
Enkindle -------------- Enkindle

There are fewer buttons in this rework but they interact and change more.