*Breathes*

Quote Originally Posted by Ibbers View Post
-snip-

and it is a false dilemma to assume we can only choose between either old SMN or EW SMN
That is precisely why the objective of this thread, as I've said multiple times, is NOT to force this choice but to remove it at its root by separating Arcanist and Summoner into TWO Jobs, each with its own identity and toolkit. So there's nothing "eerie" about the fact that the things I say feel like HW Summoner: that's intentional and it's the point of this thread. I will once again take the blame for this misunderstanding because my first post is too long and has not been trimmed yet.

That point aside, the other purpose of this thread is to suggest genuine improvements for an EW Summoner finally free from the bonds of its past incarnations and you and Stellahawke are the first to actually suggest something in this respect, which makes me very happy and thankful. It cannot be denied most other popular suggestions on the various threads really do not offer any kind improvement for Summoner. I'll add my take and discuss your points.

Summoner has two main issues right now and I would start by working on them. They are:

1) Extremely rigid and inflexible "rotation" (lol).
Some people have recently advocated to bring the Elemental Mastery Trait to lower levels, but I believe it doesn't really solve the problem of EW Summoner and actually ends up making it more apparent much earlier while leveling. The issue with lvl. 90 SMN currently is that the rotation is 100% inflexible since you only have 2 filler spell slots (Ruin III + Ruin IV) while the rest is literally "hardcoded", which makes delaying, holding or anticipating anything feel really terrible. If you bring Elemental Mastery to, say, the 50-60 range, you end up locking your rotation even earlier — at lvl. 80, as soon as you unlock Phoenix. The problem is that, with SMN as it currently is, you gradually move from having infinite segments of filler "standard" Ruin spam to zero segments of it at lvl. cap.
The only positive aspect of bringing this Trait at around 50-60 is to make SMN "slightly more enjoyable" at lower levels but it does not offer any chance of improving the Job as you'll still end up with auto-pilot 2 button spam rotation. I feel like what's needed is some breathing room, so you have more control of WHEN to use stuff (provided you don't lose uses in the fight) and you have room to actually add complexity and not merely another recolor of Ruin.

2) Too many leftovers from old ACN which don't fit with anything.
Ruin, Ruin IV, Carbuncle, ED, Fester etc. They just have no business in the new Summoner toolkit and actually provide additional jank (see Radiant Aegis usage tied to Carby). They should all of them be removed to free space for actual mechanics which are more in line with the new Job and interact with its current iteration.

Some things I believe should be addressed:

• Remove Ruin and Outburst and just have an ordinary form of Gemshine and Precious Brilliance as your filler GCDs. Having four buttons for what is essentially the same thing is ridiculous and it only has a purpose before lvl. 72, when you still want to use standard Ruin III in place of Emerald Ruin. Instead, adjust Garuda-Egi attack potencies to make them stronger. This way, the filler GCD of Summoner no longer ties to that of Arcanist.

• Remove Aetherflow and Aetherflow-related skills. Also remove the Ruin IV mechanic, since there is no Ruin anymore. In their place, new oGCDs that will work in tandem with Summoning magick.

• A given, but: put Carbuncle out of its misery and turn Radian Aegis into a personal oGCD which you can maybe use on allies like in PvP (if you really want to include a Carbuncle in its animation, in honor of FF tradition, I guess that's fine).

With those basic changes, there's a lot of room to add buttons. We removed 8 buttons in total (Ruin, Outburst, Ruin IV, Summon Carbuncle, Energy Drain, Energy Siphon, Fester, Painflare). But in itself this solves nothing: the rotation would still be the same, which means it's still inflexible without room for anything new. I would propose the following changes, some more simple than others:

• Titan, Ifrit and Garuda stay around for about 15s after being summoned (maybe they auto-attack a bit?). You also get something like an "Enkindle Primal" button which works like and oGCD that orders the Summon to do something. You have ample chances to weave this during every Primal: Titan and Garuda have instants all over the place, Ifrit has Crimson Cyclone/Strike which give you potentially 4 weaves. "Enkindle Primal" can work as "Enkindle Egi" at lower levels and you weave the Ifrit one with your standard 1.5s filler Spell. After all, the only way the Summoner can interact with its kit is for summons to stay out a bit, like Bahamut and Phoenix.

• Enkindle Bahamut/Phoenix are split into 2 uses like they were in ShB — lower their recast time according the duration of the summon, which was 20s before and is 15s now. That's an extra oGCD to use during those 100% instant-cast phases. You also get to see a cool animation more often

• Return the alternating GCDs during Phoenix phase. A little thing certainly, but many people liked it. If it creates issues with AoE in Dungeon pulls, just make the single target hit an AoE with fall-off damage.

That said, I think the idea of Primal Summons giving you certain special buffs is pretty neat (it could even be AoE like Everlasting Flight, but Primal-themed and with different effects), as is the idea of shortening the Primal-phase of each cycle — which you can achieve also by cutting in half the Attunement stacks if you still want to Summon all 3 Primals every cycle. Of course, doing that means you need to fill the remaining space with meaningful things, otherwise you'd have created space for nothing x') I don't think forcing the summoning of Bahamut and Phoenix more often is a good thing... they are already TOO accessible which makes them feel less impactful.