What I envisioned for Summoner

[Cabalabob]

snip

Well this goes both ways to be honest. You see FFXIV making the summons look appropriate, I see FFXI accomplishing the same lore as FFXIV without making the pets look like scribbles. In FFXI they were a sliver of the celestial beings power projected through the summoner. You were getting a weaker image of the true being. Yet they didn't have to make them 1/3 of the size of the summoner to pull that off.

Now while this may not work in FFXIV cause the true primals are enormous, they could still be sizeable and have detailed models without ruining the image of them as weaker than the true primal.

[Inosaska]

We are seriously having this discussion again?

Any person who is a fan of the summoner will never let it drop and will constantly pester the developers until they say no change is ever happening to the class or they finally fold and overhaul it.

[Shamirah]

Any person who is a fan of the summoner will never let it drop and will constantly pester the developers until they say no change is ever happening to the class or they finally fold and overhaul it.

Or you can just be a little smart and guess that the dev won't overhaul it ? They can create a new class/job to be more like the summoner of FFXI or whatever but they will never change the Summoner. At least not in the near future. You can't overhaul and totally change a job mechanic just like that. Not when a lot of people like it.

Common sense, use it.

[Akiza]

People like the fact that the Summoner is it's own job but they also want some changes as well

[Bubba_Drunk]

Could still easily salvage the class by building up to the summons we want with the current damage abilities slightly tweaked (kinda like mini Limit Breaks), could even incorporate something like what FF13 had with different build ups making different attacks from the summons ect.

Then again, the same could be said of the other classes too, people are just not happy with how the classes turned out. I was severly disappointed in SCH, BRD, and SMN, so I don't play any one them, MNK is incredibly fun though! (Playing WHM either way hahah).

[Kyreanna]

What is a summoner exactly?
In FF4 - Rydia was a BLACK MAGE who "also" had the ability to summon monsters for a 1 time attack

In FF6, FF7, FF8 - No summoners, just monsters utilizing a singular power attack that, depending on the animation time vs. resilience of the enemy, could either shorten a battle or make it longer than if you'd just hit Attack.

In FF9 - Garnet and Eiko were WHITE MAGES who "also" had the ability to summon monsters for a 1 time attack

In FF10 - Yuna was a WHITE MAGE who had the ability to summon, and when the summon was active the entire party was disabled in favor of the Aeon.

In FFXI - Summoners were basically just classic esper/aeon/eidolon designs who happened to have a human standing there to lend a reason as to why they were on the battlefield

In FF12 - A hybrid of 6-8 + 10 system in which the goal was the ultimate attack, but it took some time/preparation

In FF13 - 1 per character and had the feel of "there just for the sake of being there" and more important to the storyline than the actual gameplay.

So comes FFXIV - Summoners up to this point have been attachments and add-ons to other jobs or largely forgotten in the face of the summoned monster itself. For the first time in its existence, the Summoner has been granted its own spell set, and the ability to have a summoned pet out full-time.

While I agree wholeheartedly that the interaction between summoner and pet is lacking, the job itself can finally stand on its own. As far as I can tell, the first and foremost thing that must happen for a pet roster expansion is for the elemental resistances to be fixed. In their history, almost every summon has been based on one of the prime elements (4-8 + unaspected, depending on the game) so for there to be more, wind and fire need to actually be wind and fire, not caster or melee.

[Akeda]

The only thing I would really change about SMN are the egi abilities. Realistically (and from a game code changing perspective), If people were to get the devs to change anything it should be this. It would be much easier, and I think better overall, to change abilities then overhaul SMN.

At the very least they should change Ifrit's Radiant Shield ability to something actually useful. I dunno what the devs were thinking when they thought 'Lets give the melee DPS Egi a damage shield'. First of all DPS shouldn't be taking any damage, and secondly in a party the PC tank will have all the aggro so it's completely useless.

I manually control Garuda though so it makes more sense to me, most SMN seem to just let them go on auto-pilot.

[Blackcanary]

You know what i would like to see If we had an ability to summon 3 Egis at the same time this would drain all ur Mana Points. Once you run out of MP they withdrawal from battle.

[Blackcanary]

I envisioned a class thats spells all summon a primal to do specific things. Casting a heal summoned charbuncle to do a heal. Casting a variety of different dmg spells summoned ifrit, shiva, ramuh, ect.

Also, a limit break that lets you summon a primal as a pet for a short duration. Hit LB then a spell containing the primal you want.

That reminds me of summoner from FFXI but in a 11 useing ur LB would allow to keep ur summon out longer.

[Akiza]

I don't want a complete overhaul to the Summoner but I do agree it needs more job related skills.
-Add a skill with an instant recast time that's cast on the pet which causes it to become the corresponding primal for 30s and drains all our mp. Once the player uses enkindle or the timer hits zero the primal automatically uses their ultimate attack and reverts to Egi form.
-add skills to the Egis and change out Ifrits radiant shield for radiant plumes or eruption.
-add weight of the land and tumult to Titan Egi
-add down burst and twisters to Garuda Egi.