Another Summoner thread

[AxlYin]

So, being a player from the FFXI community transitioning to FFXIV after some years, I find, like most people, that Summoner is a little lackluster in the feels department.

I understand that they're strong and bring status effects and whatnot to the table, as well as it being the kind of "WoW Warlock" class of the game, but that's where I feel cheated. Final Fantasy has always been Final Fantasy, you have your summoners, your time mages, your black mages, white mages, fighters, dragoons, the list goes on. At what point I ask, did Square feel like the Summoner wasn't a strong iconic role, and felt like it needed to be a watered down WoW Warlock? I mean the Summoner gear is classic, it's gorgeous, and carbuncle is cute as a button.

Continued below~

[AxlYin]

Then you get to the primals and start fighting them like, OH MAN IFRIT LOOKS BADASS! I CAN'T WAIT TO SUMMON HIM! Wait.. what's this little........spritely, mildly menacing, fire elemental? THIS IS MY SUMMON? WTF?! And to top it off, your summons just feel like... a passive. You have a couple of buffs for your summon, and that's it. Everything else revolves around the caster it'self.

Now don't get me wrong, I do understand the reasoning behind making the summoner it'self strong, as it helps balance upcoming PvP. But perhaps it was gone about the wrong way. I think there should be more interaction between the summoner and it's summon. For example, perhaps shave the damage off of the DoTs, and make it so that whenever you cast an ability, the summon does something as well.

Continued below~

[AxlYin]

Examples of what would happen with your summon after casting a spell.
Miasma/Bio II - Summon's next attack get's + x potency/enmity(for titan)
Bio - Summon uses x defensive ability
Miasma II - Summon uses x aoe ability
Ruin/Ruin II - Summon gains + x potency for 2 seconds, stackable up to 10 times
Shadow Flare - Shadow Flare gives summon X stat while inside of the effect of Shadow Flare.

And for the love of god, if you aren't going to give us our iconic summons, and decide to stay with these elementals, at least make them larger.

[AxlYin]

Perhaps add in other non-primal summons, like Alexander, maybe even be able to transform into alexander and be able to tank for a short time.

[Karnage720]

Perhaps add in other non-primal summons, like Alexander, maybe even be able to transform into alexander and be able to tank for a short time.

I respect that this is your opinion, and there is nothing wrong with your opinion, but with that being said. If I see another SMN thread by someone complaining about the feels of a smn, I may go crazy.

[Awka]

FFXI Summons:

Carbuncle
Garuda
Ifrit
Leviathan
Titan
Shiva
Ramuh
Diabolos
Fenrir
Fire Spirit
Ice Spirit
Air Spirit
Earth Spirit
Lightning Spirit
Water Spirit
Light Spirit
Dark Spirit

FFXIV Summons:
Ifrit, Garuda, Titan (Summoner)
2 Fairies and a Carbuncle (Scholar)

In FFXI Summoners, who had 17 different summons available, had a 2-Hour ability to unleash their particular summons most powerful AoE Attack, along with 8-10 different abilities per summon.

In FFXIV a Summoner (Anarchist and Scholar included) only have 3 summons apiece with only 5 abilities each.

Having the summoner class the "DoT" class feels like we're being really cheated out of what a summoner is actually supposed to be. Summons themselves need to be more of the focus on a "Summoner" class rather than the amount of damage the summoner themselves can dish out. I like the idea of having your character abilities tied to those of your summon.

[Babydoll]

To be fair...Summoner wasn't released until about a year and a half or so after FFXI's release. It also took SE quite a long time to tweak FFXI SMN. At first it was just mostly a /WHM. At 70 you could do the powerful attacks...so it was nice in end game but still they'd do that every minute (If MP allowed it) and then spam cure/NA stuff. >.>

Give it some time...hehe personally I enjoy SMN a lot but I see what people are saying when they feel its underwhelming compared to the traditional FF games ^^;

[Kevee]

OH MAN IFRIT LOOKS BADASS! I CAN'T WAIT TO SUMMON HIM! Wait.. what's this little........spritely, mildly menacing, fire elemental? THIS IS MY SUMMON? WTF?

Yet another person who either:

A) Didn't read the lore

or

B) Didn't do any research.

It could be both, too!

[Leigaon]

I don't mind the look of them plus like someone said, lore. It goes fine with the story, I wouldn't mind some sort of buff to our pets. I'm not looking for 170 potency on everything. I do like the idea of additional perks to our pets through dots. Or give our pets some more elemental like abilities, making Earthen Ward AoE or ifrit's counter AoE..would be wonderful, reduced recasts..all fun stuff.

I look towards the next patch see what we get adjusted!

[shinros]

Yet another person who either:

A) Didn't read the lore

or

B) Didn't do any research.

It could be both, too!

Personally I think the summoner lore sucks. Currently doing monk and its a lot more interesting learning about battlefields and how it affects aether, the very planet, animals and even people. Plus the said history behind the battle too. Now that I think about it we don't really learn anything about the allgans or extra details about the primals like I was hoping for.

It was pretty much capture their aether, summon it and wack it over the head to tame it.