Quote Originally Posted by dinnertime View Post
Yes, badly. It's the 2nd worst-performing DPS in the game.

I feel like they didn't take account the damage old SMN does in the background (DoTs and pet auto attacks) with this rework.
There will always be low-performing DPS jobs compared to others, that's not a point in the current design. I'm repeating myself but as it stands, I don't think SMN shouldn't do much more DPS than Bard or Dancer, especially when balancing it with RDM (as BLM is a different type of job).
Sure difficulty might have some subjectivity to it, but I don't think SMN should hit as hard as RDM currently does when RDM isn't as mobile, and has more depth to its rotation and optimization than SMN (and RDM isn't that deep either, mind you). I don't think it'd be fair that in a Savage environment if an "easy" job would hit harder than a more complex job twhen both are played optimally. That actually was SMN's problem in 5.0, it was harder to optimize (due to clunky gameplay) and it performed poorly DPS-wise, before 5.1 addressed this issue (and it was the same early Sotrmblood too I think). I see people saying having an "easy" job outDPSing a "harder" job isn't an issue, I don't agree at all. Rewarding great DPS performance through overly-simple gameplay is a gateway to jobs getting more and more similar and easy with no flavour, identity or anything.

SMN should have tweaks in its rotation to get a higher skill ceiling that would justify a DPS buff in my opinion, which wouldn't be very complex to implement. Toning down the instant casts for Bahamut for instance. Making the SMN Primal choice according to the fight mechanics much more rewarding, introducing more micro-management (for aetherstacks and Ruin IV for instance). I see a lot of room for SMN to grow to keep it attractive and easy to understand and play casually, but offering more depth in end-game content.