Summoner Revamp Ideas

[PriyaJugulataris]

So I was a fan of the FFXI Summoner in that multiple summons were required and the summons were the focus of the class, where as the FFXIV Summoner plays like a Warlock and only one pet is really viable end game and our DoTs are our focus rather than our summons.
So shout out your ideas on how you'd want to change summoner!
My personal idea was making the pets provide abilities that buff the party in specific roles.
Ifrit buffs physical damage
Garuda buffs magical damage
Titan buffs physical defense
Ramuh buffs magical defense
Shiva debuffs enemies
Leviathan buffs healers.
While of course, values would have to be adjusted over all to make this balanced so as to not make Summoner the new bard (in that every party typically wants one), this would allow the summoner to be more than just a DoT class, and be switching pets as the battle requires. (This idea would also require the pet classes to not have linked CD'S)
But yeah, I just want to hear other people's thoughts on this.

[Ryuko]

Oh no... not this again. ;;

OP, if this is a topic you are interested in... I would suggest finding one of the dozens of other threads about this exact topic and contribute your ideas there.

[PriyaJugulataris]

Main reason I posted on here is because I like the minds of people in this sub forum and I wanted to hear their opinion LOL.
Also, don't want to necro the old threads.

[Garra]

I agree with this sir. This needs to be done, rather than have EVERY single summy using the little yellow birdie.

[rabbitzero]

While i agree there should be more summons, if only for variety, let go of FFXI, it was terrible. Summoner in FFXI was the most afk class i've seen. Let you pet do its thing, face away from mob, go make sandwich. I like summoner in FFXIV, i have to do things, and pay way more attention here.

Also, keep in mind, it's been made pretty clear that as level cap goes up, more summons will come in. Who knows what that will entail, only Yoshi probably.

[Deelo]

There should be a drinking game for these threads popping up all the time.

[Thorauku]

Let's say Summoner or any other class will be perfect now with all these changes that players want to happen, what else would it be in the future? No more changes as everything is already perfect?

Long story short, it's still too early. Let the dev team do adjustments in the future. As that what every MMO nowadays are doing. You can't have it all in one patch anyway.

[SkyHighDN]

Non Summoner Here..... But my wife plays as a Summoner...

While I don't think there is a need for a total revamp on the Summoner, I like the way it is.... I just kinda hope that the EGI's get balanced out for their utilization in the future....

Instead of seeing a summoner with Garuda out at all times during End game.... it'd be nice to see them have to alternate between their summons in battle... Im not sure if that means to tune a fight or two to optimize this, or tune the EGI's so they are all useful

Yes... Titan is a tank, and their is no need to pull him out unless one of the 2 tanks die in end game situations, and if this happens, its probably a wipe anyways....
But... how bout a situation where a primal battle, or coil raid switches from optimum range assault to optimum melee assault... and a good summoner would need to switch from garuda..... to ifrit..... back to garuda mid fight... and swiftcast would alleviate the need to casting time...

Maybe Leviathan comes in as a healing EGI.... so after the big aoe phases like garuda after the jump, titan after the heart... king mog when he summons.... leviathan for 45 seconds would be ideal....

Either way... its kinda dull seeing garuda shooting yellow spit for 10 mins... i'd like to be wow-ed by a cameo appearance of leviathan..... and hopefully this type of alternation will be expanded in the future...... a vanity green ifrit? a complete optional egi like mog? fenrir as an average summon but has a relic weapon like ordeal to achieve, making it a vanity commodity?

[Kitru]

Maybe Leviathan comes in as a healing EGI....

The only way that would happen is if the devs actually wound up adding the hybrid role and decided that SMN should become a hybrid rather than a straight DPS. The situations you're describing are actually the explicit scenarios that the devs would have to implement in order to "require" hybrids, which is what Yoshi has said he wants to do (such that group comp would be 2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 DPS, and 2 hybrids). Until such time, SMN isn't going to get a healing pet because that's what SCHs are there for, not to mention that it would provide explicit utility that no other class could match (and existing Titan's utility is highly conditional since it requires he be around from the start because he doesn't have provoke and all DPS keep their enmity comparatively low since Titan doesn't really have impressive enmity gen; he's also only marginally more durable than an mDPS durable; he's really just there for soloing, much like MNK Fists of Earth).

Barring the inclusion of a hybrid role and the commensurate change for SMNs, I don't really see much need to change them up. There could be some vanity modifications to the Egis, such as the option to turn Garuda-Egi into a Ramuh-Egi or Shiva-Egi, but, beyond that there's not really all that much that the job needs. The only possible tweak I could think of would be creating some kind of self-destruct capability for the Egis that would have them drop an appropriate nuke but cause them to disappear and put their summon on CD (such that you'd summon Garuda, have her kill herself, summon Ifrit, and have him kill himself when Garuda's summon is recharged, and vice versa). The only real "advantage" would be causing the SMN to have a reason to bounce Egis, but that's really all that it serves since SMN already has the ability to access their summons' nukes via Enkindle.

[Mimilu]

There could be some vanity modifications to the Egis, such as the option to turn Garuda-Egi into a Ramuh-Egi or Shiva-Egi, but, beyond that there's not really all that much that the job needs.

I really hope that they don't replace the current Egis with new ones like Ramuh and Shiva and let them be there own Egis, with something that can compete with Contagion. I really don't like that Garuda is the only summons worth commanding (Titan's a tank and shouldn't be used in parties and Ifrit is too buggy and squishy to be used often) and even then, it's for either placing or Contagion. When I compare SMN to SCH, even though most people only use Eos, you have so much more usability and control with SCH's pets. While Titan can remain the same for soloing, I wish they would fix Ifrit's buggy attack, and change both his and the rest of Garuda's moves to actually make them usable and worth controlling.