Summoner feels really, really dumbed down now

[dinnertime]

Alienation is never a good thing. 6.0 SMN is a departure from what the job once was for the past 8 years and to no surprise people are unhappy because something they've played all those years got completely changed.

Was it for the best? Maybe, but they could've done so much better. The job was known to be clunky and in ShB the job mechanics were all over the place so I expected they'd simplify it instead to reduce headache.
But now the playerbase is more divided than ever with people enjoying the simplicity in favor of job fantasy, while the other half is unsatisfied with how much of the gameplay was stripped off.

[aveyond-dreams]

Alienation is never a good thing. 6.0 SMN is a departure from what the job once was for the past 8 years and to no surprise people are unhappy because something they've played all those years got completely changed.

Was it for the best? Maybe, but they could've done so much better. The job was known to be clunky and in ShB the job mechanics were all over the place so I expected they'd simplify it instead to reduce headache.
But now the playerbase is more divided than ever with people enjoying the simplicity in favor of job fantasy, while the other half is unsatisfied with how much of the gameplay was stripped off.

The truth is that the alienation occurred back in 2013 when the classic Final Fantasy job we knew for the past several decades was twisted into a warlock clone. This then caused even more problems when this game is a lot of people's first FF and they got fed a completely wrong idea about the job. To those that for whatever reason preferred the poison mage of the olden days, perhaps their energy would be better directed into dreaming up new dot caster job concepts and asking politely for that instead of endless complaining about Summoner.

Nevertheless the mood in game is significantly more positive than in the forums. Summoners are everywhere these days and nearly each group df has dropped me in lately usually has 1 or 2 when I'm not the Summoner myself! Never seen anything like it. Level 90 content is especially a joy seeing people's primals show up. 8 years too late for my taste, but it makes me feel warm inside regardless. Almost as if listening to "old SMN mains" was applying selective pressure repeatedly to the point that the job was far removed from basically every other job in game, pushing it all the way to the brink. Naturally doing that isn't sustainable, and now it's pretty much the best it's ever been.

Could definitely use some more primals, but they'll get around to it at some point whether as glam or new trances. I only wish that all those years ago that this was the job I could have started ARR with, seeing as it's the one I ended EW with. Big thanks again to the dev team for being able to realize this vision at the highest point of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark storyline. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years have in store.