SE, don't overthink Summoner 7.0. Just give people what they want. Just do it.

[Renathras]

The point is not whether the class is easy or difficult, but its accessibility.

I think that depends on what is changed. Making things clunky or convoluted isn't adding good gameplay or depth, imo. BRD is a presumably easy Job, but when your hotbar is exploding with procs, not so much. It also depends on the person, as some people find rigid rotations easier while others find timers to track easier, and still others prefer proc/priority systems.

Not because it's nice to play, but because the only thing you do is follow the raid mechanics without being distracted by your rotation without having any penalties in terms of damage.

For the record, that is how I would define "nice to play". That it is logical and flows smoothly enough that you can play it almost without having to think about it once you've got it down. Something that is not nice to play never reaches that "second nature" stage. As for RDM, it's honestly pretty nice to play as well. The bigger issue is that the game does a poor job of telling you when abilities proc.

EDIT:

That's what I mean. Final Fantasy's definition of a "summoner" is different than most other games because their "summons" aren't something that actively fight alongside you. You don't really control most of your summons' abilities; rather you channel them. I get why they mostly removed the "pets" because commanding the pet to do an ability was really awkward up to (and including Shadowbringers).

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Many other game summons work this way as well. Thee idea of a summon that fights with you is a RELATIVELY new concept in video games. The reason for this is because AI is far better now than it was in, say, the 90s. You started seeing the more modern "fights alongside you" summons in the 2000s. Oblivion and FFX and so on. And even in many of those cases, you didn't command the summons. Baldur's Gate had summons as far back as the mid90s, but they were often (depending on the summon) kind of independent. Oblivion's summons (and I guess Morrowind?) were fire and forget - you summoned them and then they kind of just went on their own personal rampage, regardless of what you were doing.

There's a bit of a distinction between a Warlock or Hunter (WoW) type pet class and a Summoner (high mage) type class. And even among Summoners, there are often a couple flavors of them. FF11's has both commandable avatars and "fire and forget" ones.

Let's bring Demi-Phoenix back up as an example. do you think making it a separate button from Demi-Bahamut would make the rotation more complex, or at least more "open" in terms of choosing between damage and support? would putting Ramuh, Leviathan, and Shiva on it with their own kits designed for a more supportive playstyle (while still having good damage options mind you) give at least an illusion of minor complexity by having to choose which sets of summons to use at specific points in time? how about having the Demis on their own separate oGCD's, but it's short enough (maybe something like 40-45 seconds, maybe even 30s) so that if you have to use a different set of summons before your current one is used up, you can readily do so?

A problem here is honestly FFXIV's super rigid combat system. It makes balance tight and allows for some thrilling fights...but highly limits class design.

Granted, MOST MMOs followed the WoW "Holy Trinity" instead of the Everquest "Holy Quaternary", and don't have a full on "Support" role (though WoW came close, and FF11, with its far more flexible Job system, arguably allows for it). So that ultimately limits things a lot. Like RDM, in Final Fantasy terms, should be able to be a Healer. In FF11, if it picks White Mage or Scholar as its SubJob, it can be and often is a Healer or Support/Healer in high end content in that game.

FFXIV's combat system has positives, like balance and high intensity encounters, but the downside of that is limited class design options/spaces.