SMN 5.1 Job adjustments

[Siete]

Except their pets have been far, far more responsive than ours since at least, what, Wrath? For shi*s and giggles I tanked heroics as a Beast Master back in Wrath, with no issues consequent to poor pet responsiveness. Boar's Speed or any of the similar Mists effects or WoD-Legion talents blew our pet mobility and re-activeness out of the water. Heck, their pet bar is just an extra bar; pet skills start there by default, but you can move them to any other hotbar at will. Meanwhile, over ten years later, ShB releases with pets that eat their queued skills, and simply removes pets as actual pets instead of dealing with their issues of responsiveness, which they leave despite their removal as actual units. Hmm.

Hmm?
You haven't used Demonology Warlock, have you?
If your pet can't trace the enemy when you press the skill, the cooldown is consumed and it's done for.
Dreadstalkers bug and never trigger their starting attack if the enemy moves from the point it was standing at.
Imps are uncontrollable.
Pet sometimes decides to stop attacking and stares at the enemy.

[AdamWarlocke]

Hmm?
You haven't used Demonology Warlock, have you?
If your pet can't trace the enemy when you press the skill, the cooldown is consumed and it's done for.
Dreadstalkers bug and never trigger their starting attack if the enemy moves from the point it was standing at.
Imps are uncontrollable.
Pet sometimes decides to stop attacking and stares at the enemy.

I put in my two gil... I personally haven't played WOW since Cata when I quit, but pets back then (Vanilla/BC/Cata) for Hunter and Warlock in WoW were actually worth their salt - that is until the crybabies started QQ-ing and Blizzard started yoyo-ing both classes every other patch/expansion. The pets were just TOO good - I was among the few that actually popularized Rhino bowling in PVP, and the use of the Gorilladin in some dungeons/raids before the QQ-ing happened. The bloody VoidWalker sometimes served as an off-tank/pinch tank on some raids back then when there's a mechanic that an actual tank can't handle - I should know, I used one - and that was because the talent trees aren't the pigeon-holes they are now apparently in BFA when I looked it up.

So whenever I reference WoW in terms of pet mechanics, it's THOSE instances during WoW's earlier storied history that I refer to because that was how they got pets RIGHT. They even had actual GOOD skill trees. From what I've been hearing these days, WoW pets in terms of hunters is that it's more or less for vanity now rather than for strategy as other than a few gimmicks, just about every pet is the same damage-wise. I don't even want to mention Warlocks because it's just sad.

The only strategy in FFXIV relied more on timing and team coordination, etc. Crowd control is a hit/miss in this game due to some wonky AI, never mind the pets you can't even use other than auto-turrets with the occasional "push button here for special ability". If the OCD-DPS crowd in here are just complaining about the micromanaging, then why the eff are they playing summoner? As it is their voice that SE listens to more because "end game", then they may as well get rid of the normal SMN pets and just have Bahamut/Phoenix as limited boss summons when a "gauge" is full like a Red Mage/Machinist. And when you die, you still get a DPS punishment due to not having a pet out because half of your kit RELIED on pets being on the field - most especially dreadwyrm trance. Red Mages and Machinists don't have that downtime; SMN'rs have to rez, then summon pet, and then start their rotation from opener/trance - and you can't even use UNLESS your pet is out.

I still believe they have ZERO idea of how to make a pet class work right in this game. I've switched to Red Mage/Machinist - they don't have that many negative drawbacks, especially Red Mage - currently one of the most "balanced" jobs I've had the pleasure of switching to so far.

[Shurrikhan]

Hmm?
You haven't used Demonology Warlock, have you?
If your pet can't trace the enemy when you press the skill, the cooldown is consumed and it's done for.
Dreadstalkers bug and never trigger their starting attack if the enemy moves from the point it was standing at.
Imps are uncontrollable.
Pet sometimes decides to stop attacking and stares at the enemy.

Played one through Nighthold and Odin/Gaum/Helya. Never once had any of those things been an issue, apart from the Dreadstalker bug occurring once when I popped it with both a pathing break and boss movement. Meanwhile, Beast Master's and its pet controls remained almost perfectly responsive, just dull. (I raided EN primarily as Hunter, MM/BM, and ToS primarily as Arms.)
Admittedly, I've not leveled not touched my Lock since BfA dropped, so if they've broke it since then I guess I have all the more reason to stick with Hunter/Rogue/Warrior.