Quote Originally Posted by Memoranda View Post
Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but hasn't FF Summoners always felt like an Elememtalist but with Summons? You called upon Shiva for ice, Ifrit for fire, etc. Obviously an MMO can't just have a job where you Summon pets and let them do literally everything, so when new Summoner summons the elementals they bestow upon us some of their power for our spells. To the best of my knowledge Summoner has never had damage over time spells in their toolkits, and those DoTs I hated because it never felt like I was really playing a Summoner. If y'all want DoTs, ask them to introduce Green Mage or something.

The fact that the rotation is way easier is just icing on the cake. Many DPS jobs feel like they're only getting more complex these days, and I welcome not having to default to Red Mage if I want to play a job that doesn't require planning everything out ten abilities in advance based upon whatever the boss is doing.
Final Fantasy XI would like a word with you. When you summon avatars, you can use them to heal the party, cast buffs, enfeebles, and attack enemies with strong physical or magical damage. Ramuh can stun all enemies in range. Garuda can cast large party heals. Ifrit grants attack boosts. Diabolos grants an AOE MP restore over time. So yeah, FFXI summoner is the best iteration of summoner the franchise has ever had, with the summoner controlling the avatar's actions and the avatar dealing all of the damage.