"SUMMONER" 7.0 Wishlist.

[SieyaM]

There are plenty of things they could have added, SE's excuse has always been weak. The problem is and has always been demi-summoning acting as a forced petswap gumming up the job. So they did the totally reasonable thing and... removed everything else from Summoner just to mask the problems of demi-summoning. They're still in the same problem they were before EW released, they can't add anything without this one mechanic screwing it up. Unless they (finally) rework or discard it we might get a single GCD and some color swap 'upgrades' at best.

So what would you have added to the old kit for EW, what new skills that are not a single GCD and upgrades of existing skills?

[SoloWingMetatron]

So what would you have added to the old kit for EW?

Could ask you the same question....please share your own wishlist of what you want for SMN's future.

what new skills that are not a single GCD and upgrades of existing skills?

You say this as if it's not something that's an issue in some way and to varying degrees with every single job...

[Flana]

So what would you have added to the old kit for EW, what new skills that are not a single GCD and upgrades of existing skills?

Well first of all I would have deleted demi-summoning because it is a godawful mechanic that is utterly hamstringing Summoners design. Removing this one long overdue disaster provides all the space you need to continue iterating on Shadowbringer's design without reducing it to crayola consummoner. You can even retain the flare by having a seperate vfx summon that is Bahamut arriving to use Morn Afah as a bigger finisher compared to Deathflare, or something more thematically appropriate to BCoB like Teraflare or Megaflare. Pheonix can likewise be replaced in the same matter. Boom, I just solved the major ghosting problem that Summoner has been riddled with for a time that conveniently matches how long it has had demi-summoning. If SE can be allowed to deleted everything else in Summoner for EW, I think I can be justified in deleting this one mechanic to preserve everything else and open up a world of design options.

But I doubt that's the answer your looking for, so:

First merge Energy Drain and Siphon. No reason to be 2 buttons when they accomplish the same thing, just give AoE falloff to ED. Merge the rest of the buttons that don't need to exist. Deathflare cannot be used without Dreadwyrm Trance, merge them. Enkindle Bahamut/Phoenix doesn't need to exist when summon blue banana/red pepper exist as their own buttons. Now we've freed up some space without removing anything (besides the worthless Energy Siphon).

DoT Consume: A GCD that deals increasing damage based on the duration of your DoT effects and then removes them from the target. This makes DoTs slightly less vestigial while solving their 'lost potency' problem of having a boss jump. My derision of 'a single GCD' isn't that such moves are bad, its that new Summoner only has room for 1 GCD replacement and will then cut Ruin from the rotation entirely. This skill doesn't replace Ruin in a rotation, but is instead a niche and useful ability to shore up the class's weakness when fight design would otherwise render it weaker than intended.

Pet Action III: Two more stacks of a Pet ability that further defines Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda into their designated niches. This also allows for two more stacks of Ruin IV to be gained, which provides more mobility and if desired a slightly higher burst damage. If you want to keep burst damage the same, keep the Ruin IV stack maximum to 4. Now you're required to spend two in your rotation and further reduce the number of generic Ruin III casts outside the burst window.

Astral Flow: Whenever you summon an egi, you gain a matching buff. This buff lasts until you summon one of the other three egis or you log off. A clunky way to solve the nonsense idea of demi-summoning killing your pet, but there we go. You get a new ability based on which buff you have that can be used on a nominal cooldown. Perhaps Ifrit could give you a dash, harkening back to his trial. Maybe Garuda could put down a big ol windpuddle that heavies enemies in side of it. This ability did not require the gutting of Summoner, it would have worked fine in the old version. I'm putting it here to prove SE's point was weak using new Summoner skills.

Quasi-Trance: How about something weird. Add 'mini-trances' where you can pre-select a primal to gain a buff. Perhaps it augments Ruin II/III and gives them new aspect or trait to play around. You could do something related to the other ARR primals here, since we haven't abandoned the lore of Summoner just yet, although I think something else would work better. Since there are 3 missing primals, that might be a bit much for a batch of CDs you push (most likely in your burst phase as additional damage). Pick 2 somewhere else to lower the number and make it a more interesting choice. Odin and Alexander? Shinryu and Thordan for MSQ? Hell Ravana and Susanoo for MSQ battle bros that make you laugh while casting. Make it a buff that stacks with Trance, or one we use when Demi'ing.

Enhance Egi: An oGCD buff that makes your next Pet Action better. Perhaps it adds a dot, or makes your Titan shield bigger, or maybe it gves you a weaker variant of the other two non-active pet's Pet Action X that you chose. There are a large number of places to take this just off of what Pet Action III would be. You could have a lot of space to play around in this one. As an oGCD this gives you flexibility in where and why you use it, and what effects you want.

Alternatively we could make Summoner a little more supporty with some buffs or debuffs. You could add a debuff to reduce the enemy's damage dealt for a few seconds, or a small shield around all your allies. Heck, we could even make it a HoT and replace Phoenix's with something else so that you can now actually plan around it and use it when wanted. Maybe we want to be boring and just give them Magick Barrier 2: Aetheric Boogaloo for parity sake since we as developers have an idea that another DPS caster is right around the corner. Maybe we want to be spicy and give them an aoe attack speed buff that works on our pets too, so we can really triple down on Meleewalker.

Lets make a boring finale: a buff button that gives you 4 stacks of Ruin IV. There now you can just dump trance and go straight into Bahamut without needing to tell the pet to do anything.

You can pick any of the above, or none at all. I'm not a developer, but these are just a few ideas and there are thousands of others. New traits, new Aetherflow skills + ways to get aetherflow. More kit cohesion. Ramp up mechanics. Heck you could even add big flash VFX summons as buttons and as long as they dont run off the godawful demi system of killing your pet they work fine in the old version. I doubt you want to know what I personally would have added, because that first skill should tell you all you need to know, but I would have returned to form on DoTs. There is infinite space to make DoTs an interesting component to the class, and as a DoT lover I would gleefully exploit that. I had to settle on the one just to give the old design space for all kinds of fights. I debated a few other ideas that involved keeping EW Trance+Demi design but that in itself is a whole other can of worms and I'm not here to redesign Summoner from the ground up, only show that there is plenty of design space left in the old kit even if we kept demi-summoning as was.

But my main idea now is the same as it was at the start of the post: scrap demi-summoning and replace it with something else. Not scrap the entire job just to 'save' this one mechanic.

[SieyaM]

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So Bahamut and Phoenix are summoned along with your current pet, or instead of? Maybe I am just not reading very well but I cannot tell how you want these two to actually summon. It seems like you want them to summon as Ifrit, Titan and Garuda do now, or maybe just have them as an ability you use independent of these pets. As far as Pet Action III, what are these actions going to be what will they do. DoT consume is very situational and I have a feeling will be considered the new Fluid Aura of the game. Enhanced Egi sounds like rouse but instead of just buffing the pet for a duration buffs one attack, and Quasi-trance if it just changes ruin will do nothing that gemshine doesn't already do.

[SoloWingMetatron]

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Would still like to see what changes you would make to SMN. So far all your replies have been focused on how other peoples ideas may not work or are flawed in some way, without actually offering an alternative or suggestion to improve/build upon an idea, which would be nice to see.

[Flana]

So Bahamut and Phoenix are summoned along with your current pet, or instead of? Maybe I am just not reading very well but I cannot tell how you want these two to actually summon. It seems like you want them to summon as Ifrit, Titan and Garuda do now, or maybe just have them as an ability you use independent of these pets.

Works exactly as it did in ShB. As I said, I debated working around the EW merge but that causes even more problems than it solves (besides being boring as sin). I did nothing more than show multiple options that could have been added to ShB's design.

As far as Pet Action III, what are these actions going to be what will they do.

Literally does not matter, they can be whatever you want them to be. The point is that there is design space for the ability.

DoT consume is very situational and I have a feeling will be considered the new Fluid Aura of the game.

You do realize boss jumping is exceeding common, right? In this expansion alone P3, 5, 8 (multiple times), and 12 all despawn during the fight and 'waste' DoT uptime. That's just savage. DSR and TOP have bosses that jump multiple times per phase multiple phases in a row, to say nothing of extremes. This is an extremely common design choice by the devs.

Enhanced Egi sounds like rouse but instead of just buffing the pet for a duration buffs one attack, and Quasi-trance if it just changes ruin will do nothing that gemshine doesn't already do.

Both could be added back in, and Gemshine is a completely different button so that only further proves my point. SE saying they had no where else to go with the old design was a weak argument.