Dear Arcanists/summoners...

[Billie21]

I've rarely encountered "average" ACNs in DF.

Most often, I've played with:

- Competent ACNs that are compensating well for other team members' shortcomings (often ended up 3-man -team-ing a dungeon with ACN filling up for the useless/gone tank or sometimes healer/DPS, even 2-man team'd once), making the most of their versatility (strongest point of this class imho).

- Lazy/ignorant ACNs, who had no idea how their pet worked (or couldn't be bothered), playing as if they were solo and their pet was an independent addition the game made to themselves (just attacking the targets as if they where THM, letting the IA take care of their pet on it's own).
You know, the same that goes off looting that chest or opening this door while you're all busy fighting (if it's not the ACN, look for the ARC); the one that doesn't seem to notice his caruncle is making the team's job more difficult by stealing aggro, pushing the mob away, or just running after the target when they shouldn't (second boss in Halatali comes to mind as a mostly harmless example, final boss in Haukke as a funny one).

The guy you're talking about probably was in the second category.


NB: I'm in neither, I play SCH

[Alhanelem]

Actually, the tanking pet is perfectly good at tanking in lower-end dungeons. If you form your own party without a dedicated tank it can be pretty effective, but in the duty finder you always have a tank so its redundant unless the tank is bad.

[Synra]

You didn't say what dungeon this was, but given that carbuncle pets were involved, this must be one of the low level dungeons. I would say that there is a strong possibility that if the player is new, he could have failed to fully understand what the yellow carbuncle is for. He may have simply thought it was a melee pet. With clearly higher hit points, he might have thought it was a direct upgrade from the blue one. It's also possible that he doesn't yet fully grasp the concept of group dynamics, and the mechanics behind tanking and threat.

Or he could be trolling you.

[joshdavis271]

Only time I would take out topaz carby is if the tank is terrible or cannot hold hate very well, I usually go after mobs the tank is not focusing on other then that its ifrit or emerald til I get garuda and titan. If the tank is doing their jobs thenI will stay in full dps. Being SMN is stuational but if the tank holds aggro then all you have to do is summon a dps pet and do your dots.