Summoner 6.0 Rework (my reimagining)

[dezzmont]

What if they just copied BLM. Put cast times back on Summon spells. You summon the Primal, it does a big AoE attack, then disappears and goes on cool down forcing you to summon another Primal. You do this till you are out of mp which you then use ruin spells to regain mp. Or something.

Ultimately in most FF games summons aren't pets but are 'super spells.' They either show up for a set period to replace your team entirely, or are a one and done major effect for a ton of mana.

Part of the problem is egis don't capture the fantasy of a ff summoner super well, but the fantasy of a FF summoner is rough to put in an MMO because having a job specialize in summons would result in absurd downtime. Its why most (though not all) summoners are also some other job in FF games.

The trances and Demis seem like they capture it pretty well though: Your going through this build up as you get a progressively stronger representation of this giant primal until its there to fight for you for a moment. I would not be surprised if we moved from egis to most summoner aspects of the job becoming demi focused (while I think people love egis and they shouldn't go away, its funny how the job would probably feel MORE like a summoner if the egis were gone and just part of animations you used to cast the egi assault spells, appearing and vanishing for big attacks), but I doubt they would change it to the degree the OP is asking for.

In the meantime, FFXIV Summoner is what it is and removing any major aspect of the job would be just a slap in the face to the people that still enjoy playing it. There are soon to be twelve DPS jobs in the game, find the one you enjoy and run with it.

Summoner doesn't need to be a limited job, it just sorta has two related but distinct problems: The mechanical fantasy and the thematic one.

A HUGE problem with summoner is that its a very iconic aspect of Final Fantasy, and while I respect the fact a lot of people like it as is, you need to understand that in kind summoner as it exists is... sorta a slap in the face to people who enjoy summoner in other FF games? So 'just pick a different job' doesn't really address the complaints here: they aren't that the job isn't fun to play, its that the job doesn't match what people who like summoner as a FF concept want summoner to be, and that is just as valid a complaint in my opinion.

FFXIV is, of course, its own game. And like I said its an mmo so directly porting it to XIV as a 'super-spell' or 'party replacer' wouldn't work anyway. But... it doesn't even evoke (heh) the concept of a summoner very well, compared to say... Red Mage which evokes Red Mages extremely well by even incorporating their melee identity and swiss army knife nature.

Ideally there is room for the people who like summoners mechanically as they are to be happy while still incorporating the 'feel' of summons to the job, but it sorta requires one to recognize Summoner is a huge 'theme fail.' Egis either need to be a bit more of a spectacle, or there should be more summon-esque stuff in the kit. And you don't even really need to change mechanics to make this happen, a lot of this comes down to how the abilities feel, their animations, how information is presented to the player, ect. It wouldn't be that hard to have, for example, egis work exactly the same but have egi assaults (and ESPECIALLY Enkindle) have the egi seemingly teleport to you for you to make it bigger or something and use the ability in a cool animation that makes it clear your pumping your egi up into a demi for a short moment. That alone would be a huge change that makes the job feel more like a summoner. Having Ifrit zoop to you (still where he actually is, just visually on your summoner) and become a demi/trance like effect that looks like the actual (yet still smaller, maybe a ghost about 1.5 times your size) primal casting Hellfire when you hit Enkindle would solve a LOT of the 'job feel' of Summoner without much mechanical overall.