I vastly prefer our new trance abilities while waiting to summon our next pet as opposed to manging *poisons.* We now get to call down torandoes, sandwich enemies between stone slabs, and get up close and personal in melee range with Ifrit’s dash. If you prefer dots to this, I’m sorry but summoner was never for you in the first place. I’ve played FFXI’s summoner and while waiting to use my next pet ability I can heal my trusts or throw out black mage nukes. The thought of using dots never crossed my mind while playing it in that game.

If you do not consider 6.0’s summoner a real summoner then there is really nothing left to say. The logic being used here is so reductive that basically every job is just “a string of animations.” The dot version of this job should have never existed, because now there are people with a skewed perception of what a summoner is. The simple reality is that FFXIV’s affliction warlock looked boring and was torture to play.

Other longtime FF vets like myself who have been waiting for the past 8 years for summoner to be added to FFXIV finally have our class, which newer players are also extremely excited for, just after Sage and Reaper. The older FF games will forever serve as both a thematic and mechanical basis for recurring jobs like this one.