Elemental Mastery needs to unlock much earlier

[MellowMink]

I’m aware that opinions on Summoner are a touchy subject on the forums, but I think something that both fans and opponents of the newer job design can agree on is that the trait Elemental Mastery should be available much earlier than Level 86.

Whether it’s good or not, arguably the most improvised decision-making that Summoner currently has at the highest-level content is determining the order to use primal summons in, particularly because of each summon’s secondary ability that notably differs from the others: Ifrit has a one-time gap-closer and melee combo, Titan has a recurring oGCD attack, and Garuda basically has a hard-casted Shadow Flare that’s automatically placed around the enemy; knowing when to use these is very situational and dependent on the current instance. You probably don’t want to use Garuda’s ability if the boss is currently moving around a lot, and you probably don’t want to use Ifrit’s ability if there’s a period of time where you want to stay away from the boss, yet not using these abilities entirely is a DPS loss if you just use Ruin III instead; those are just a few example factors.

…Until you reach Level 86, the only non-potency differences between the primal summons are the cast and recast times for their associated raw attack spells; of those, two are instant-casts, so it’s really more of a case of determining when you’ll be standing still enough to use Ifrit’s hard-casts, one of which can be Swiftcasted but at the cost of not having an easy raise if mistakes happen. This is an absurdly high level to have not one but three of the most mechanically unique actions appear, and not only does that mean that new players will need to stick with a rotation where there isn’t much on-the-move decision-making with the primal summons until the job is nearly capped, but this also makes most instances in the game not have access to those either, many of which max-level players will end up doing in daily roulettes.

I feel like it’s pretty sensible that the trait unlock much earlier since it currently offers the job’s most complexity in terms of nonlinear rotation components, even if it has to be swapped with something else or some new smaller trait be added (like maybe adding a second Ruin IV charge, but whatever it is, Square Enix can figure something out) in its former place. This would also be a pretty simple change to make before any much larger job changes potentially happen, I feel. Any particular disagreements with what I wrote above though?

[Ralt21]

I will always see new summoner as rushed homework. And elemental mastery at lvl 86 is one example as to why i see it. Getting it at lvl 52 or 56 is much better or i would go even futher and add that skill at lvl 50. Just lower the pontancy, tone down the animation, Give it different name and then we can have it upgrade at lvl 86.

Now all we need is to make energy drain fit mechanicly with the job and finish it with something more for the later lvls.

[MercuryD]

I will always see new summoner as rushed homework. And elemental mastery at lvl 86 is one example as to why i see it. Getting it at lvl 52 or 56 is much better or i would go even futher and add that skill at lvl 50. Just lower the pontancy, tone down the animation, Give it different name and then we can have it upgrade at lvl 86.

Now all we need is to make energy drain fit mechanicly with the job and finish it with something more for the later lvls.

Honestly, I'd say between 50-60 would be fine.
The attacks we have for it can be changed to Garuda: Friction, Titan: Tumult and Ifrit: Radiant Dash/Radiant Plume. I.e., instead of them being the tank busters for the respective primal they can be taken from the raid-wide spam.

I'm overall content with this incarnation of the job, as I have been since 2.0, but I can agree making astral flow abilities available earlier is a good idea.

[MellowMink]

Honestly, I'd say between 50-60 would be fine.
The attacks we have for it can be changed to Garuda: Friction, Titan: Tumult and Ifrit: Radiant Dash/Radiant Plume. I.e., instead of them being the tank busters for the respective primal they can be taken from the raid-wide spam.

I'm overall content with this incarnation of the job, as I have been since 2.0, but I can agree making astral flow abilities available earlier is a good idea.

This is a pretty solid idea since then you would have more mechanical variety for a larger percentage of instanced content and the actions still upgrade into something more powerful later; thanks for replying with this!

[ThorneDynasty]

The problem is that at level 90 it plays like a perfectly good level 60 job. Elemental Mastery feels like it comes so late for lore reasons only, with nothing to fill the gaps until then.

[SieyaM]

I would also love to get rid of the ruin spam at lower levels. Why doesn't gemshine just cast Stone, Aero, Fire at lower levels instead of renamed ruins?

[MellowMink]

I would also love to get rid of the ruin spam at lower levels. Why doesn't gemshine just cast Stone, Aero, Fire at lower levels instead of renamed ruins?

The variations do have different cast times, recast times, and potencies, but they can also get repetitive at lower levels when there’s not much else to help mix them up save for occasional weaves of things on higher cooldowns like Addle, hence why I think that Elemental Mastery needs to be unlocked at a much earlier level. I’m definitely down for the common attack spells also getting more variety to further distinguish them from Ruin.

[CasterSvarog]

Tbh the only thing that would hold this idea back is damage numbers. From what I’ve heard at level 70 or so, SMN is really, really strong. So something will likely have to give to bring those down to the lower levels.
Personally I’d sacrifice Enkindles damage and either give it an extra charge of have the cooldown be reduced at at around level 80.
Otherwise, I would love to see the elemental mastery trait be available sooner. The difference between level 85vs86 is staggering

[MellowMink]

Tbh the only thing that would hold this idea back is damage numbers. From what I’ve heard at level 70 or so, SMN is really, really strong. So something will likely have to give to bring those down to the lower levels.
Personally I’d sacrifice Enkindles damage and either give it an extra charge of have the cooldown be reduced at at around level 80.
Otherwise, I would love to see the elemental mastery trait be available sooner. The difference between level 85vs86 is staggering

I wouldn’t mind having weaker versions of those actions unlock earlier, just as long as that gameplay variety in general is made available at a notably earlier level than 86.

[Amenara]

The problem is that at level 90 it plays like a perfectly good level 60 job. Elemental Mastery feels like it comes so late for lore reasons only, with nothing to fill the gaps until then.

Literally this. Move all of the current SMN abilities to 1-60 and add more things from 60-90.