Summoner: An action or a dot?

[MariaArvana]

Thought there would be more support for one attack summons, interesting that there's not.

If you want to get technical, Summoners are in fact -summoning- all the time in FF14, its just not something huge and flashy is all outside of trances.

Also honestly, one and done attacks are boring imo. Trances & egis are much more exciting because there's a whole ton more interactivity with them than just pushing a button and watching a fancy animation. Which also quite frankly, wouldn't work in FF14 anyway. People already complain about certain Lb3's blocking AOEs from being visible due to how grandiose their animations are(Caster LB3, AST LB3), there's no way any form on 'grandiose one and done' animation would capture the same majesty as old FF summoning without causing the same issues, meaning their 'grand attacks' would basically be on the same level as Enkindle; a small, quick animation that would be a disservice in trying to emulate old FF SMN. (which also brings up the point that part of the fun of old SMN was seeing these ridiculous 30s+ animations, where in FF14 a pack could easily be dead before such an animation could finish.)

I also found infinitely more fun with FF10's & FF12's summons (and FF13's, to an extent) than any of the old FF's purely for the same reason; having them stick around and actually feel like they're fighting with the party is much more fun personally.

[Amnmaat]

If you want to get technical, Summoners are in fact -summoning- all the time in FF14, its just not something huge and flashy is all outside of trances.

Also honestly, one and done attacks are boring imo. Trances & egis are much more exciting because there's a whole ton more interactivity with them than just pushing a button and watching a fancy animation. Which also quite frankly, wouldn't work in FF14 anyway. People already complain about certain Lb3's blocking AOEs from being visible due to how grandiose their animations are(Caster LB3, AST LB3), there's no way any form on 'grandiose one and done' animation would capture the same majesty as old FF summoning without causing the same issues, meaning their 'grand attacks' would basically be on the same level as Enkindle; a small, quick animation that would be a disservice in trying to emulate old FF SMN. (which also brings up the point that part of the fun of old SMN was seeing these ridiculous 30s+ animations, where in FF14 a pack could easily be dead before such an animation could finish.)

I also found infinitely more fun with FF10's & FF12's summons (and FF13's, to an extent) than any of the old FF's purely for the same reason; having them stick around and actually feel like they're fighting with the party is much more fun personally.

The irony is that the pets that stick around like demi bahamut/phoenix block the view more than a 5 second 1 time attack by a Summoner would. No one is asking for the 1 time attack summon to go through a 20 seconds attack, Heaven on high had the right idea; quick 3 second attack that looks great then they disappear. Of course it would be balanced so they don't cover the screen like that, it would be a smaller version and would appear more naturally on the field.
What you're describing with FFX, XII, and XIII is Beastmaster. Next time they make a FF mmo I'd really like them to release both Summoner and Beastmaster at the same time so people understand the difference. Square enix seems to be cannibalizing Beastmaster with Summoner in every FF since X for no real reason, they should separate them.