Quote Originally Posted by Riusvell View Post
No, flinging around spells with a primal image isn't a summoner. That's just a mage.
That's...literally what a summoner does. "Mage" is a generic, catch all term for magic user, so it can be applied to anyone that uses magic.

The super dramatic naysaying aside, the argument to whether or not this SMN is a "real summoner" isn't super productive. In any one persons eyes, it has always been a "real summoner," whether you are talking about 2.0 all the way to 6.0.
The main issue is job identity as it moved more and more of its systems away from DoT interaction towards pet interaction. The two systems felt more like they were mashed together and less like a cohesive whole.
The perceived complexity of the 5.0 version was mostly due to unaligned job mechanics and instances of pet unresponsiveness, which I feel like the 6.0 version solved.
Is it perfect? No. Is it a better base? Yes. The most talked about issue is lack of actions outside of the main rotation. Bringing Energy Drain back to 30 Sec , making Ruin IV an OGCD, and giving us a low level version of Astral Flow are a few of the ways I believe some of that kinetic flow can be brought back.