I thought people might be exaggerating about SMN

[Kranel_San]

I like the new summoner more than the old summoner because it introduces a new playstyle and has a different design and approach.
People are whining because it doesn't fill two or three hotbars, which is ridiculous.

[Sarevok_Thordin]

The only thing I DON'T like about new SMN is getting Golem's rear end in my face every so often.

Obscuring mechanics.

[Thoosa]

Old summoner had a long opener which was a build up to bahamut etc, that if you screwed up or got interrupted by mechanics made it painful and put you behind.

Death was a huge punishment - you couldn’t just get up and carry on like BLM or RDM and it meant a huge dps loss - it felt like a maximum effort and low reward job.

Also imo it didn’t feel like a real summoner, a dot job with some occasional pets.

New summoner is way better, much less button bloat and actually summons things.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Got SMN to 90 and haven't really played it since, but I really enjoyed it. Fun just throwing primals at the enemy.

[BaconBits]

New summoner needs something more than just throwing 100 instantcast Ruins in varying flavors of Mountain Dew.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Yeah, if we wanted to spam one damage spell forever, we'd play a healer.

[Jin-]

I like the new summoner more than the old summoner because it introduces a new playstyle and has a different design and approach.
People are whining because it doesn't fill two or three hotbars, which is riducolous.

New play style how? There's barely any mechanics to play with it. It's spamming that one colourful button without any variation

[Imoen]

I don't think it's dead.

Let me start by saying I do like that it looks like an actual summoner now, sucks you have to wait so long for it. It also sucks my job got deleted though. As clunky as it felt I liked the older play style, death was punishing but generally I just try not to die in the first place.

When I first saw the trailer I was excited, that feeling evaporated quickly. Early levels feel weird, the Egi's attacks, specifically titan and ifrit are annoying with the way they work when they come out. I'm not going to position them properly to get the biggest bang for my buck, just make them attack like the big kids on the target instead of from their physical location. Also might as well commit to action replacement, just delete Gemshine and Precious Brilliance and make them function exactly the same as demi, if you are going to keep the job like this.

Idk I guess I was kind of hoping they would expand upon the demi idea as opposed to just checking off a summoned being list. Like being summoned less often but more impactful, or like differences between them beyond just "this one sticks my feet". Idk what I'm trying to say honestly. I just wish they were more impactful and I could make some choices. Like instead of having Carby giving me a personal shield why can't they give an effect upon summoning that maybe suits one situation more. Like "AOE" or "Damage reduction" "Single target" "Dots" etc.. Perhaps I don't need to go down the list of all summons. Perhaps I could chose to summon the one that fits the situation, perhaps I can clip Bahamut or Phoenix early with another summon if the situation demands it. How about deleting my rez ability and instead make Pheonix's astral flow move give someone a re-raise effect for 15 seconds that would also raise instead if they were already dead? Why can't the summons be an oGCD so I can play with hotbar switches based on that summons kit during that short time? or do it via action replacement?

Idk I just feel like there is a ton they could have done here and instead we got this. So I mean it's w/e it's fine, but it could have been more. I find it a bit lackluster personally. Again though I do like the theme of actually being a summoner now. I just wish those summons were less frequent, earlier, more impactful, and I could be making more meaningful choices on what to summon and when.

Anyway might sound like I'm complaining a ton, I'm not. I'm simply a bit disappointed with it, I'll continue to play it more than likely since it's basically been my main go to since 2.0 launched. I'm too lazy to proof read this right now. So hopefully it makes some sort of sense.

[Skyclaw726]

New summoner is fine. I don't get a headache playing it anymore.

[24spencer]

SMN feels like what its rotation should be when you're synced down to level 50 and they just forget to add anything new to do for the other 40 levels