New Summoner looks really nice, but...

[dezzmont]

Oh gross, I just noticed we won't be having any aoe until haukke manor. >.<

I would be more ok with that if it was a game wide thing to discourage people from forcing new healers and tanks to wall to wall, even if I didn't agree with the change, but it definitely stinks that it is just a SMN thing.

[Roda]

I would be more ok with that if it was a game wide thing to discourage people from forcing new healers and tanks to wall to wall, even if I didn't agree with the change, but it definitely stinks that it is just a SMN thing.

Dangerous pulls do a good enough job at that imo.
Don't need to make the gameplay tedious/boring to force us to single target.

A part of the skillset of being a healer/tank is to know your limits, just like it's up to the dps in the group to understand that they can't send one player to solo an add that needs to be focused down by the group.

[Averax]

Fester feels out of place now, could use a new name or effect. It used to gain potency from the amount of dots you had up on the target. The spell's flavor was causing your dots to "fester" and do instant damage. There are no more dots, what is festering now?

[MercuryD]

Oh gross, I just noticed we won't be having any aoe until haukke manor. >.<

The carbies should at least do some aoe even if it's weaker

[Archwizard]

I'm suprised with Aetherflow remaining...

Everything else feels like interacting with the bigger picture, yet the Aetherflow mechanic feels kind of... just there for the sake of...?

I invite you to consider that Ruin 4 as well as Titan, Garuda, Bahamut, and Phoenix all give SMN a hefty number of instant casts. And speaking from experience as a RDM with "empty" skills such as Fleche, Contre Sixte and Engagement, retaining some oGCDs to weave after all those instant spells makes ample downtime feel a bit more engaging.

[Rika007]

I hate to break it to you, but new MCH is kinda a hit. Us nerds on the forums may feel its shallow but most of the playerbase doesn't care as long as the rotation go fwoosh. A good flow to the rotation is going to always be more valued than depth. They aren't opposed concepts, but acting like MCH is this huge failure of a job sorta misses the reality of how that rework landed.

Keep in mind it's not just a hit with the casual player base, it is with the savage raider player base as well. It's the most represented at pretty much all levels of raid clears save speed runs where Dancer takes over as the primary just because of utility. So it's a hit across all levels of players. I think this is a rare situation where when the changed MCH, they made it into a class that very few of the old MCH player base like, but it appealed to such a wide range of players across all skill levels that no one really noticed the loss and bemoaning of the previous MCH mains.

[KitKatnip]

I'm finally on board with the summoner changes. Hearing all the media tour people talk about it makes me feel a lot better.

[Riyshn]

Personally I like the look of new SMN; I agree that it looks somewhat simple, but I also don't think that really matters as long as it's satisfying to play, which imo it does look to be.

I am a little baffled by the decision to reskin some skills but not others, though. Titan shield and Devotion got reskinned to Radiant Aegis and Searing Light, and Ruin/Ruin2/Ruin3 became a straight upgrade trait while Ruin 4 stays a separate button and became AoE, yet keeps the Ruin 4 name? (Also does Ruin2 get a new animation, or does SMN have the most boring ability upgrade possible? And if it does have a new visual, can SCH get it too, please? x.x). And Fester still exists, for some reason? I mean, if Aetherflow is going to continue to be a thing it probably does need a single-target nuke like that, but Fester makes absolutely no sense with the theming of the rest of the job.

My biggest concern with what we can see of the design of the job is actually with the leveling experience. Namely that it... doesn't seem to have one? You have 90% of your kit from the moment you equip the job stone at Lv30, with the biggest change being the addition of Astral Flow at lv66, and nearly everything else being reskins and potency increases on existing buttons with no functionality change. While this does make syncing down to anything 30+ not feel terrible like it does on a lot of jobs, it also means that a new player leveling it from the start just... doesn't have much to look forward to as they level. Summon Phoenix at Lv80 also seems... kinda bad? Like I know media tour numbers are unreliable, but those tooltips as they are show that SMN actually loses potency from it's rotation on leveling from 79>80, because of 1/2 of your Deathflare casts (500p nuke) get replaced by Rekindle (a heal).

The carbies should at least do some aoe even if it's weaker

Nope. Outburst and Precious Brilliance are the earliest AoE skills, and both are Lv26.

[Roda]

Summon Phoenix at Lv80 also seems... kinda bad? Like I know media tour numbers are unreliable, but those tooltips as they are show that SMN actually loses potency from it's rotation on leveling from 79>80, because of 1/2 of your Deathflare casts (500p nuke) get replaced by Rekindle (a heal).

Jesus I didn't even think of that. I guess I just assumed our rotation would be empty where phoenix would be or something... I guess that's what happens when they design our entire kit about being extremely front-loaded.
That's gonna be a huge bummer. :T I really hope they can address that before launch.

[Feidam]

For the first time since SB I am loving the look for the summoner. I am, like others, confused why aetherflow stacks remained a thing. Doesn’t seem to fit now. The class looks spicy now though.