New SMN is a mind-numbingly boring one-button job

[Imoye]

New SMN has nothing to do with the old one, and SMN mains have been deprived of a unique playstyle which they've been playing for up to 8 years.

The more I think about it, I'm genuinely upset at the new SMN. I've never played anything so one-sided and with no no depth or complexity. To think that this is what SMN has become is quite disturbing.

I don't understand how Yoshi P could completely erase a playstyle and not do anything to restore the playstyle into - at the very least - another job. Imagine having played summoner for almost a decade only to be screwed so royally over.

[Rolder50]

I agree, I was a summoner main in Shadowbringers but I dropped it after, oh, about one or two expert dungeons on the new version. A job that plays itself is just plain boring.

[tearagion]

I levelled it with an open mind on EW release and the only positive I managed to glean from such an experience was that I got SCH to level 90 at the same time. A complete failure of a rework unless your only metrics were accessibility, reducing difficulty, and reducing (not removing, only reducing) pet frustrations.

[SargeTheSeagull]

This may be copium, but I think they may be trying to add some complexity in 6.08 since it wasn’t announced until last week after everyone complained about smn. Yeah, Yoshi P didn’t mention summoner changes but I just want to hope.

[Snowdove]

I dropped Summoner because it just wasn't interesting enough. And I love caster classes.


But SMN is just too boring, and I say that as a not-too-good-player.

[Rolder50]

This may be copium, but I think they may be trying to add some complexity in 6.08 since it wasn’t announced until last week after everyone complained about smn. Yeah, Yoshi P didn’t mention summoner changes but I just want to hope.

I highly doubt they would make any actual mechanical changes before 6.1 at the absolute earliest.

[aveyond-dreams]

New SMN has nothing to do with the old one, and SMN mains have been deprived of a unique playstyle which they've been playing for up to 8 years.

The more I think about it, I'm genuinely upset at the new SMN. I've never played anything so one-sided and with no no depth or complexity. To think that this is what SMN has become is quite disturbing.

I don't understand how Yoshi P could completely erase a playstyle and not do anything to restore the playstyle into - at the very least - another job. Imagine having played summoner for almost a decade only to be screwed so royally over.

You're correct in that new SMN has nothing to do with the old one. The old one was barely worthy of the name Summoner but it is false to assume that "old SMN mains" were united in any way shape or form. There are plenty of SMN mains who consider this version to be the best the class has ever been and I'm proudly one of them after having a horrible experience with the job back in Shb.

The true issue is that they let the failed design continue on for 8 years too long when it was clear to no small amount of people from the start that turning Summoner into a poison mage with summons as a side gimmick instead of the focus of the job wasn't going to work out-especially when Heavensward started the trend of stacking more and more things on top of Dreadwyrm Trance to the point in Shadowbringers where death became extremely punishing to a degree that just wasn't seen in other jobs.

The complexity argument is an interesting subject. Personally, I did consider old SMN complex. Because I felt like I was fighting more against my keyboard and bad gameplay mechanics than the actual boss in front of me. It is also a valid argument that the complexity of the class came from its needlessly convoluted systems and that it was otherwise "simple" when all of that was taken away. In either case it was an unfun experience for more people than fans of 5.0-X SMN are willing to admit.

Given the explosion of new SMNs that occurred at the start of EW and shows no sign of decreasing anytime soon, it is unlikely they will ever revert these changes, seeing as they clicked really well with the vast majority of people. For every main who dropped the class, 10 new ones took their place. Old SMN was ultimately an outlier job who gave niche a whole new definition when you look at how every other job in this game plays.

If you direct your ideas to the appropriate support/job concept thread, there is a chance they will be considered for a future caster job in 7.0 though, which can hopefully embrace what little mechanics actually functioned properly from old SMN and not reintroduce things people already rejected.

[tearagion]

lol

Be sure to ignore this person, don't fall for their trap they only want to waste your time.

[VorpalSpork]

Because we needed yet another new summoner is too easy thread.

[aveyond-dreams]

It's been far too long since the changes were announced for people to still be on this topic. By this point last expac I had already made my peace with what classes I liked and didn't like, but this scenario seems to be more of a case of people who just aren't reading the room properly. Their energy would be better spent coming up with new ideas for jobs instead of complaining about changes the majority people already fell in love with.