Summoner rework is a huge dissapointment

[Aikaal]

I wonder if they turn carbuncle into just flavor and have him auto attack your current target, similar to how phoenix and bahamut behave, dealing nonexistent damage (like 10 potency). Summoning him, would give you “searing light ready”. Radiant aegis would be a summoner ability.

Summoning phoenix would have a similar effect, where it would give you “rekindle ready” for 2 minutes.

This would turn rekindle into a real ability instead of what it currently is. It would also take away most of carbuncle’s jank.

I'll be honest, I feel Phoenix is an issue... Phoenix support is simply impractical and too rigid. Why is RDM so valuable on the first 30 seconds of P1S is because Magick Barrier is within your control. Hell, I even raise 3 people in 10 seconds during blind prog and we saw further because RDM support is just that good. I get Why Phoenix does more damage but it further shows it makes little sense.
- Phoenix is 80 and Bahamut 70, Phoenix was lesset DPS than Bahamut so you'd get a damage loss so they fixed it by just giving damage to Phoenix. This concept is a flaw in terms of lore. You make Phoenix stronger because it wouldn't make sense but Bahamut is, quite literally, the 7th calamity in your lore and provides more destruction.

I'll briefly open the door on the subject or Summoner lore. But Summons are usually 2 kind of Summons. Supportive and Offensive.
- Carbuncle and Phoenix are supportive
- Ifrit, Titan, Garuda and Phoenix are offensive

Does that make Phoenix weaker in a raid fight? No, it means thematically, you'll have healing mechanics because Phoenix represents flame and rebirth. I mean, P3S has some unique healing mechanics.

So why a supportive themed Summon outperform an offensive themed Summon? That makes no sense. It was a huge let down to see Dreadwyrm Trance gone and merged onto Bahamut. Why Everlasting Flight and Rekindle locked behidn time windows? Of course, because we can do Summon Phoenix which, on paper, is a Bahamut reskin with different damage values. Why not have Phoenix Ability themed skills like an instant raise with a CD, Rekindle, Everylasting FLight that could be some sort of Assize like ability with charges so it's a flex button between the choice of DPS or support. I know it'd be mainly use for DPS option but that's just Assize in general. I get some people would be disappointed in losing Summon Phoenix but if the idea we can't use these abilities is because we should use them on Summon Phoenix. Can... we just have Bahamut on a 60s. We could have Trance back but have it Phoenix themed? I know some people would be bumped out that Summon Phoenix isn't a thing anymore but honestly a lot of people are bumped out they don't have a Trance window now.

I do think we need some sort of Trance/Aetherflow mechanic back. Gameplay should always be the main priority of a job. Esthetic is important but if I can't enjoy to the point I'd rather play another job because of gameplay; that means it's a failure in general. Not complete failure, I do think some of the new changes are a nice beginning. Personally, my idea of rework and the elemental Summons was that the Summon G/I/T themselves was gonna be a pretty long cast (5s cast with 4s recast). The idea behind would be to charge the Summon and regardless that you finish the cast or not, the Summon still goes on and based on the time spent, you'd get a multiplier. Not only that'd be unique to Summoner but that's bring a lot of value to Spell Speed. Summoners always had longer casts on Summon in the history of the game anyways. That would also put some movement restriction which this part was thrown out of the window when SMN rework was made.

I don't know, maybe I'm just full on copium but the lack of communication from the dev teams on the SMN rework is really killing it for me.

[Rika007]

I get Why Phoenix does more damage but it further shows it makes little sense.
- Phoenix is 80 and Bahamut 70, Phoenix was lesset DPS than Bahamut so you'd get a damage loss so they fixed it by just giving damage to Phoenix. This concept is a flaw in terms of lore. You make Phoenix stronger because it wouldn't make sense but Bahamut is, quite literally, the 7th calamity in your lore and provides more destruction.

Leaving the rest of your post aside because that has some good ideas and points, there is just as much a valid lore reason for Pheonix to be more powerful than Bahamut. Pheonix is the primal that literally blew a hole through Bahamut's chest, as Louisouix became the Pheonix primal and defeated Bahamut. Bahamut only was able to bring Pheonix under its control because Loisoux thought the battle was won and relinquished his control of the power, and Bahamut used the last vestiges of it's power to latch onto the Pheonix aether and temper him.

Now leaving the lore aside I do agree that Summoner's support kit needs some reworking. Making Radiant Aegis, Everlasting Flight, Rekindle all useable at any moment within the fight would remove a lot of Frustration and provide a nice little bit of fun to the job. I personally would also love for Radiant Aegis to gain a 3rd Charge and be useable around not just self, but other Party Members, as that would provide for some great opportunities to assist the raid with. (This all being said it does have the side effect of absolutely just making healers matter even less, but that's an entire other conversation).

A rework to Resurrections for RDM and SMN (or outright removal) is also long overdue and desparately needed. If it does stay around. Then an instant cast 2 minute long cooldown would probably be the best bet. I also wouldn't mind some additional flavor added on with maybe a reskin of the spell to be Pheonix like, as the bird literally is all about Ressurection, some fire and feathers springing forth when you use it would be cool.

All this would of course also need something given to Pheonix to make up for the loss of Rekindle, and simply put the only option is another oGCD attack, and you would want to at least try to not just hand it another Revelation, death flare, akh morn, attack dropping from the sky. This would require an animation change which we know only happens during expansions, but I wouldn't mind this being the spot that Summoner get's its first line AoE to represent the rush mechanics in Turn 12, Scorched Pinion.

Do all this and up the oGCD count as well and SMN will feel much better. Get back to 2 Akh Morns/Revelations during the trance phase, get aetherflow back to a 30 second cooldown. Maybe also bring back Pheonix 1-2 GCD combo. I fully admit I do preffer this version of Summoner over Shadowbringers, which I absolutely loathed, but I'm also not blind to the issues. The job needs more, and I think the oGCD department is where it starts. It feels very much like Stormblood Red Mage to me, very bare and simplistic and just missing things, like the dev team was worried that if they put in too much mechanics they'd have nothing to give in the future. Which hey if it follows the same track then I guess we have a near perfect job in 8.0, because while it took them nearly 5 years, Red Mage finally feels truly perfected. Although I wouldn't begrudge anyone for thinking that is too long (cause it is.)