SMN is now the least popular caster again barely one expansion after its rework

[Kaurhz]

Uh neither of its iterations have been too good...

It needs a little more to it, and frankly we should've had a summon different to another Bahamut.

[BiddyBatnana]

Being forced to summon 36 different Bahamut and all that jazz in a specific rotation is BORING AF.

I mean it doesn't need to be extravaganza, just give us one rotation with one Esper

The idea could be something similar to :

- SMN has basic rotation of spells
- When summoning a specific element through gem/spell/whatever we farm on each Primal, Carbuncle would transform into said Elemental Esper during battle.
- Basic Rotation would be enhanced in DMG and Apply Dots of specific element.
- SMN animation would be replaced by Esper casting the spells instead.

Each Esper would share the same spells but with different reskin. (reintroduce egiglamour)

[Supersnow845]

Honestly I probably should have phrased the title better because this was more a criticism on the idea of reworking jobs to fulfill popularity metrics more so than it was purely a criticism of the actual design of modern SMN (even though that was part of it)

[Kaurhz]

Honestly I probably should have phrased the title better because this was more a criticism on the idea of reworking jobs to fulfill popularity metrics more so than it was purely a criticism of the actual design of modern SMN (even though that was part of it)

Honestly,

I don't even think they are reworking jobs, etc., to fulfill a popularity metric... Not directly anyway

I think they are just more focused on removing possible fail states from classes to make them easier and more fail-free to play... I think that popularity metric boom is just the knock-on effect of this

[AvoSturmfaust]

Cant compare it to RDM, yes smn has a ress too but RDM is literally the prog god, i know groups which even run with 2 rdms, then the blm changes which let a lot people switch to blm so yea, wait for a few weeks, data 1-2 days after savage release is never good and accurate

[Kozh]

I know it's my fault for having too high of expectation, but when I unlock RDM, I was expecting the job to be way more half caster half melee despite it being classified as caster (right now rdm is 99% caster and 1% melee). Even though I still love that job, ngl it kinda sours me a bit as I LOVE spellsword (dps) class.

[Kozh]

Neo Bahamut in red, and Bahamut Zero in silver, and Bahamut Blast in green

Petition to change SMN name to just "Bahamut" XD

Jokes aside though, it's a no brainer to give us ramuh, shiva, leviathan in DT. Yet the didn't. Honestly idk what they were thinking. Why do they simp for hydaelyn so much that they give us not!hydaelyn summon which ends up as another bahamut because they want to avoid spoiler.

[Kohashi]

So yeahhhhhhh SMN is now a distant last in popularity amongst the casters with every other Carter having near twice the amount of clears and RDM having almost 4 times the clears (it’s even the least popular in casual dungeons and in the alliance raid)

Is this a sign that the rework was a failure? Or that reworks based on popularity aren’t always the most important thing?

How do they justify SMN’s changes as good in the longer term if all it took was one new caster and a few balance changes to send it to the bottom again

Every single role has underplayed classes. SMN is no exception. The easier it is to learn and master, the less likely they are to be played. This applies overall anyway.

Can SMN be more complex and bring more value? perhaps... Would it make sense for SMN to be top DPS as they are right now? Unlikely

[ONLYSTEEL]

Honestly I probably should have phrased the title better because this was more a criticism on the idea of reworking jobs to fulfill popularity metrics more so than it was purely a criticism of the actual design of modern SMN (even though that was part of it)

Well you buried the lede because the biggest red flag is that RDM didn't get changed at all.

So it's not an issue of people playing the latest FOMO.

[ONLYSTEEL]

SMN is no exception. The easier it is to learn and master, the less likely they are to be played.

I really can't tell if this is some advanced trolling because the SMN rework defenders all literally said the exact opposite .