I thought people might be exaggerating about SMN

[TheMightyMollusk]

Is it popular based on it's merits, or is it simply being used a lot because it's the class that got the most changes?

And how many people just leveled it to also level scholar for the healer role quests? Like me?

[Jin-]

It's horrible. And everything under 86 is even worse. This job has no depth at all.

[Wolwosh]

Why do people keep saying it has a good foundation *at level 90* to build upon?
Reaper and Sage have a complete toolkit and they are actually new, they haven't been around since ARR ������
Do we have to wait until level 100 now for it to feel good?

[Dahlinea]

LV90 SMN literally plays like any other LV60 job in the game right now. Get any other job, queue for a LV60 dungeon and you'll get a feeling of LV90 SMN complexity.

Currently, SMN is just a very low effort job with almost no downside to how you play it and flashy stuff.

[Sarevok_Thordin]

I like the current SMN simply for the fact I can actually play it and am not in an utter minefield of oGCD CDs and clips.

Before there was no way I'd have touched it.

[Escalon]

I dont understand how people can defend the current state of the SMN, since if anything, it shows the trend of the game, making everything "dumber" and more "streamlined" so we can accommodate every person no matter how much they suck for the sake of a subscription, be it classes, dungeons or pretty much everything that is not Ultimate and Savage.

If you disliked the old summoner, great, you sucked on that class and that is literally OK, we all have classes we are not good at, I'm bad on MNK and its also OK.
But I don't demand the class you are good at to be dumbed down so I can play it and thus taking all of your skill on that class and literally throwing it out of the window.

You cannot make a game that makes everyone happy, you just can't. But you have to chose what demographic of your playerbase you will cater to.
SE is clearly going for the most casual playerbase because those people will pay their subscription for absolute mediocrity and not complain.

Heck, the whole expansion is a great example, dungeons are corridors with square/circle arenas for bosses. Big zones with soo much detail a desert looks more interesting (Elpis is the only exception, well, to a degree) tons of reused gear sets with at best updated textures, Music that is all over the place and a story that makes StB look good with its pacing.

/rant

[TheMightyMollusk]

Heck, the whole expansion is a great example, dungeons are corridors with square/circle arenas for bosses.

This is almost every dungeon since Snowcloak back in ARR. It's not remotely new.

[Anhra]

Old SMN was for me just a Bard with a Pet following arround. It is way more fun to play as it was before, but it still feels somehwhat incomplete.

IF current SMN has any issues, its the amount of useable Skills from Primal/Egi summons in general and the fact that most of them are just 50 shades of Ruin. At least give them something more fleshed out, not just put in fancy animations as a placebo.

And it would also be great if the summons would be more impactful, instead of having to yeet one out one after another instantly, give SMN some room to breathe, like 5-10 seconds or so and compensate it with increased potencies. Also, replace Egis with Primals at least a little earlier in the game, like lv80 (which can be explained that our experiences in the Eden Raids gained SMN sufficient knowledge to summon actual Primals, from a lore perspective).

Also, another great idea for current SMN, would be adding something like the "rushed summon" which the xelphatol final boss does (where he summons Garuda to do only one single attack) for Primals we dont have yet, like Ramuh, Odin, Diabolos and so on, which could consume one or even multiple Summon crystals and put them immediately on CD (for example, summoning Ramuh would put Ifrit and Garuda on CD when theyre avaiable, but as compensation, he uses Judgment Bolt and then the skill stays on CD for a very long time, like 3-5 Minutes or so).

[Mortime]

It feels super awkward to play. Having your defensive and group buff tied to carbuncle makes using them at certain parts of your rotation impossible. I mean some might say that it's a matter of skill, you gotta know the fight and all but to them I say put a sock in it. It's annoying as all hell to not have access to some parts of your utility just because you are at certain damage phases.

[SherlottaEryut]

Personally, I don't think its that bad... I just took into account that it's just not as complex as before, so it's harder to digest its now-simplicity. At level 90 I especially find it satisfying to summon the 3 giant elementals.

The issue is, a lot of the player base were yearning for SMN to be more simplistic... The old saying goes, be careful what you wish for because that's exactly what they got and unfortunately quite a few people dislike the change.