SMN: A modest and slight tweak proposal

[Renathras]

The proposal is this:

60 CD oGCD ability. This ability allows you to summon any one of the Primals without consuming a gem. This can be done whether or not the Primal has been summoned within the current Demi-Summon phase.

What is the point of this?

1) Specifically the reason I came up with this - when talking with someone who told me SMN feels bad when you need to hold burst (as a party) for some mechanic, and how SMN has no option but to desync with the rest of the party or spam Ruin 3. This would allow a SMN to push back a Demi up to ~15 sec if needed while still delivering damage.

2) To give SMN more variation in its rotation. This would allow you to summon any one of your Primals an additional time per cycle. Moreover, it would allow you to use the Favors just like normal (so it's a full Primal sub-phase, not JUST the summon animation/attack). I'll give an example of the normal rotation below, but this would also allow you to choose if you want to clip one, and which one.

3) To allow a bit more complexity for those who wish to use it while not really changing the core rotation much otherwise - in practice, you'd simply be replacing one Ruin 3 per cycle with a second Primal summoning and then roll into the next Demi.

4) And to achieve this without totally reworking the Job (again) out from under people who like it as it is; the only change they would need to make to their rotation is to tap this oGCD and then Titan before their next Demi where, right now, they hit their Ruin 3 button instead.

Standard Rotation:

Bahamut, Titan, Garuda, Ifrit(?), Titan (summon only, clipping out the rotation and going into...), Phoenix, Titan, Garuda, Ifrit(?), Titan (summon only, again clipping into...)

Hold Burst Rotation:

Bahamut, Titan, Garuda, Ifrit, Titan (full summon and all 4 Favors spent), Phoenix, Titan, Garuda, Ifrit, Titan.

In theory, you could replace your earlier Ifrit with a Titan and have Ifrit be the one you clip. Or Garuda. Dealer's choice.

The one concern I might have is that this could lead to some unintuitive bit with newer players (like BLM or old PLD with the unintuitive Atonement drops), but I don't think there IS a way to add more complexity that doesn't lead to some unintuitive optimizing that new players won't get off the bat.

The beauty of it is, it's not a burst CD, per se. If you DON'T need to hold burst, you can use it as one, moving your rotation one GCD to the right in the first minute and then having Titan (Summon only) be the first GCD of your burst, followed by your Demi. But in the case that you DO need to hold burst, you do the exact same thing, but you play out the Favors instead of clipping them.

This would overall increase the skill ceiling a touch, have people need to learn that it's optimal to clip Primals (but that's hardly the most unintuitive thing this game has ever exposed players to), and fix the problem of needing to hold burst by up to about 30 sec (since you could also play out part or all of the Summon preceding the last Phoenix as well to pad that a little more).

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I'm not saying it's a cureall, but it's just a micro change that could be interesting and address some problems while not significantly changing things for the people that like the Job at present.

[Ggwppino]

I like. This way you can delay the rotation by up to 13.5 seconds (with ifrit) and I guess this ogcd can also be used in opening, should it be necessary to delay the burst in opening. Also this way the smn has a little more optimization during the lego phase because it needs to pay attention to the timing window of the lego phase and so, should it not want to delay the burst phase, not use more resources than necessary.

[Rongway]

3) To allow a bit more complexity for those who wish to use it while not really changing the core rotation much otherwise - in practice, you'd simply be replacing one Ruin 3 per cycle with a second Primal summoning and then roll into the next Demi.

As long as summoning requires Carbuncle to be out, this can't replace just one Ruin. Summoning a primal makes Carbuncle disappear for two GCDs, so you would (replace one Ruin and also drift your demi by one GCD) to do (a Summon and an elemental ruin).

[Ggwppino]

As long as summoning requires Carbuncle to be out, this can't replace just one Ruin. Summoning a primal makes Carbuncle disappear for two GCDs, so you would (replace one Ruin and also drift your demi by one GCD) to do (a Summon and an elemental ruin).

You are right, because elementals have a summon lock about 6 seconds, but i think it's good: the summoner has to pay attention to the timing lego phase window to not use more resources than necessary and really pay attention to the different cd of the elementals rite and flow.

[Renathras]

I like. This way you can delay the rotation by up to 13.5 seconds (with ifrit) and I guess this ogcd can also be used in opening, should it be necessary to delay the burst in opening. Also this way the smn has a little more optimization during the lego phase because it needs to pay attention to the timing window of the lego phase and thus, should it not want to delay the burst phase, not use more resources than necessary.

Thanks!

It'd be such a little change, but actually have some interesting optimization potential, while also allowing people who like the current gameplay to just kinda keep doing what they're doing. And it would allow people a little more flexibility if, for example, they wanted to just clip Ifrit after the big boom and not have to deal with being locked down during his mini-phase. Also:

As long as summoning requires Carbuncle to be out, this can't replace just one Ruin. Summoning a primal makes Carbuncle disappear for two GCDs, so you would (replace one Ruin and also drift your demi by one GCD) to do (a Summon and an elemental ruin).

Since holding burst is kind of niche and high end anyway, it wouldn't affect general players just doing their roulettes and stuff, and since casual content players generally don't align burst anyway, it wouldn't cause any issues with them. The people who would be actively doing it would make this adjustment. What you'd probably do is swap Ifrit in the standard rotation for a second Titan, then just clip the last Topaz Rite/Mountainbuster for an early Ifrit summon, cast Ruby rite or Crimson Cyclone, then roll into Demi. For the standard rotation optimized. For the standard rotation "idiotproof" you'd just cast the Ruin 3 and ignore the ability exists. And for high end players optimizing the holding burst, they'd arrange their Primals based on movement requirements of the fight and play out as much of the 4th one as needed before beginning the burst phase (presumably that would be more than 2 GCDs of the Primal, otherwise you're not really "holding" burst; and that's enough time for Carby to reset)

[Karshan]

OR

Put Energy drain on a 60 seconds cooldown and have it give the 3 gems instead of the summon.

it's about to be your Bahamut two minuts window but the group wants to delay (like in P7S before purgation) ? That's okay, just press your energy drain on cooldown and instead of entering Bahamut right away you do one of your regular summons first. Then Bahamut on the delayed burst. Then two summons, ED, one summon then Poenix, etc...

To compensate the loss of 2 festers (600), just put 3 stacks instead of 2 per ED, and add 100 potency on each 3 summon to increase the "big move" idea.

[Rongway]

Really though I'd probably just be happy with a one minute Call spell to replace the filler Ruin. Maybe 30s with 2 charges.

Summons a Primal selected at random from among the Primals you have previously defeated and orders them to execute their signature attack. Deals damage to target and all enemies within 5 yalms with a potency of POTENCY for the first enemy, and FALLOFF less for all remaining enemies.

Can be executed while Carbuncle is not summoned.
Current pet will not leave the battlefield while the called Primal is present.

Ideally this should include "all" Primals other than Titan, Ifrit, and Garuda, but newer spoilery primals could wait a few patches before being added.