Summoner feels really, really dumbed down now

[Xander_Diabolos]

I'd like to see a version of Summoner where you choose which one to have out and each have their benefits/drawbacks or maybe replace useless ones when you get to certain levels.
Level 5 Carbuncle > Level 60 Bahamut
Kinda like how Straight Shot upgrades to Refulgent Arrow for Bard.

Make Ifrit single target damage for bosses
Make Titan give shield/defense (for solo)
Make Garuda AoE damage for large pulls
Add Ramuh for a stun option (even though it only works the first time)
You could still have Pheonix for some heals/revive and remove Resurrection (I mean red mage doesn't get it until 64...)
Would be cool to see Fenrir as a summon as well... just saying...

[Exodus-E]

I'd like to see a version of Summoner where you choose which one to have out and each have their benefits/drawbacks or maybe replace useless ones when you get to certain levels.
Level 5 Carbuncle > Level 60 Bahamut
Kinda like how Straight Shot upgrades to Refulgent Arrow for Bard.

Make Ifrit single target damage for bosses
Make Titan give shield/defense (for solo)
Make Garuda AoE damage for large pulls
Add Ramuh for a stun option (even though it only works the first time)
You could still have Pheonix for some heals/revive and remove Resurrection (I mean red mage doesn't get it until 64...)
Would be cool to see Fenrir as a summon as well... just saying...

So much wrong here...

1. Adjusting Titan-Egi so it no longer fulfills a "niche" role (i.e. barely used at all) was the right choice in this rework.
2. Most status ailments (such as stun) don't work on bosses, so this would only fulfill a "niche" role (which I'm highly against).
3. Unless you could "glamour" them (complete with their own visual effects), I completely disagree having summons tied to specific ("niche") tasks.
4. The Fenrir we fought wasn't a Primal, ergo, we can't create an Egi/Trance/etc. out of it (it must be lore compliant).

Come to think of it, most of your ideas boil down to reverting SMN back to how it used to be pre-6.0.
And again, unless you could glamour them all (complete with their own visual effects) regardless of their "role", I completely disagree with your takes.

[Imoen]

snip

I disagree that they can't have roles or niche tasks. This only really works if there are more summons though, or if we summon less. I don't honestly understand why we need to poop out a primal from a checklist every few seconds to feel like a summoner, but I digress. Granted none of this would even be remotely possible as of right now, since they have committed to this build, but...

Summoning - you could remove the Fire/Wind/Earth thing and instead replace it with a Light/Dark or Light/Dark/Dynamis, the name isn't really important here just the function. You then split the Summons into those categories that apply. You have an AOE and a ST option in each category, and keep the Catastrophe spell around for goofing up in an AOE situation by pulling an ST focused Summon and vice versa for Rite in goof up ST situations. Finally you make it so you can only summon one from each category each cycle, just as it is now. Potency on signature attacks upon summoning would remain AOE and flat across the board. So the adjustments for AOE specialization and ST specialization would come in the form of potency differences, along with function from the rite/cata and astral flow abilities.

For button bloat and to deal with the category situation of adding more summons, for controller you click your "light" summon button, then have it replace your Light / Dark summon buttons with the options available from that category. So pressing the category button the first time would be a GCD then the summon from the category would function as an oGCD or vice versa the category ability could be an oGCD, followed by the summon which is then a GCD.

You can then start adding interesting passive smaller buffs/debuffs upon summoning to the various summons. Some may work better in solo situations vs party situations etc... but if you did what I said above then it doesn't make any of them useless. They all have a use, they will all be seen depending on ST/AOE situation. The key is to keep them all useful, so for example if you wanted a good party buff on one, you plop that on an AOE focused Summon, thus you have the power trade off for doing that buff in an ST focused situation. Groups then have to weigh if that buff is worth the power trade off during a particular phase.

You could also have more interesting things on fester/painflare by having summons flavor what they do. His stun example, grabs Ramuh's power, changes the way fester works to apply a stun as well as damage, or Garuda's gives windburn on painflare etc... You could maybe activate that with energy siphon or something... and just keep energy drain for the stacks.

Anyway, none of this is possible the way it currently got set up, and these were really quick ideas. I'm simply pointing out it's not impossible and all it takes is some creativity and obviously balancing.