We have finally come full circle, SMN's need help!

[Sunako]

I have ilvl 120 now my SMN and i feel like my damage is almost same than what it was lvl 110. Only accuracy and spellspeed is increased in every step i get more gear. I have 554 accuracy now and 64+ spellspeed. I do not even wanna know how much it will be if i m gonna buy that poetic weapon. It is almost must have that new 125 relic on SMN before t13 weapon.

[RinchanNau]

(Not including BRD as they are DPS/Support and will easily contribute more dps to the raid than any other class in the game)

I'm sorry, but this simply is not true. In our config with MNK, NIN, BRD, BLM I do not contribute enough with utility to compensate for the massive difference in damage dealt. T10? 50 - 80 behind melee. T10? 50 - 100 behind melee (partially because I deal with balancing the two nodes in add phase). T12? 50 - 90 behind melee and BLM (I deal with redfire, but that will only affect maybe 3 GCDs). T13? The one I am most competitive in due to downtime. 20 - 50 behind melee. 5 weeks t13 farm. So it isn't just inexperience. The gap widens the more melee familiarize themselves with these fights.

I'm not going to make a ranty thread about how bard needs a buff, but please don't exclude bard as a DPS job when making whiny 'game isn't balanced, waaaah' threads.

[Minorinz]

I'm not going to make a ranty thread about how bard needs a buff, but please don't exclude bard as a DPS job when making whiny 'game isn't balanced, waaaah' threads.

Bard will always be a required class for progression... whether there is a dps gap or not, every other class is being compared with another..
Also other classes/jobs are always shuffled, bard has always been the one and only class that's been in most statics if not all..

[Gallus]

How I would change SMN:

1 - Food should affect both pet and SMN.
2 - Pet should have the same accuracy cap as the SMN.
3 - Make SMN gear different from THM/BLM gear. Have SMN gear give Det, Crit and Piety instead of Det, Crit and Spell Speed.
4 - Make attribute points affect pet also (currently they don't).

Suddenly, SMN is a consistent class.

[Xyldarran]

Posting to agree entirely on this issue. MSN issues are terrible.

The itemization was like a smack in the face. My raid screamed at me to switch to SMN in SCoB, and now I'm getting "why not give BLM a try for FCoB" all the time.

SMN needs help, desperately.

[HakuroDK]

They're already planning to overhaul SMN in 3.0 with the introduction of Levi, Ramuh, and Shiva-egis.

This is probably just a precursor to that.

[Sleigh]

They're already planning to overhaul SMN in 3.0 with the introduction of Levi, Ramuh, and Shiva-egis.

This is probably just a precursor to that.

We really don't want to deal with a completely outclassed DPS for 5~ months if we can help it. Every other class is now reasonably balanced within their role (including DRG now, they did great there), while SMN has extremely obvious issues that should have been fixed in testing for FCoB.

[Judge_Xero]

Haven't got to T13 yet but in all the FCOB turns so far SMN seems to be in a great position.

It might be my pt composition (BRD, MNK, BLM, SMN) playing a part in that too. Bard plays Paeon and Foes.

As long as we aren't overlapping resources then pt DPS is higher VS padding a single class's damage.

[Lavieh]

Haven't got to T13 yet but in all the FCOB turns so far SMN seems to be in a great position.

It might be my pt composition (BRD, MNK, BLM, SMN) playing a part in that too. Bard plays Paeon and Foes.

As long as we aren't overlapping resources then pt DPS is higher VS padding a single class's damage.

Replying with your experience and basing your view on your group isn't a good representation of How SMN lines up in competitive scenarios. You could be playing with an Average MNK and an Average BLM but your SMN could be really good. You just see numbers spread across 3-4 DPS not numbers spread across a whole. If SMN's thought they were in an alright place than SMN's that play in top-tier groups would be posting their parsers and telling me how wrong I am, but that simply isn't the case.

[Judge_Xero]

Replying with your experience and basing your view on your group isn't a good representation of How SMN lines up in competitive scenarios.

From a design perspective of how FCOB is laid out, it seems to be much different than the previous Coils. In the previous coils you could essentially just zerg any mob as long as you were following the mechanics and win. FCOB seems to be tuned much harsher in that you need to split your resources between team members to be most efficient. (until better geared)

FCOB Spoilers

T10 - Split damage on adds - good potential for smn/blm aoe while melee finishes off individual adds. a couple mechanics that could disrupt drg, mnk, blm, brd damage, but smn is mostly unaffected. mnk, blm, drg, nin have a higher potential output, but can do a lot less do to rng/mechanics, vs SMN consistency.

T11 - Add phase is a good example of splitting resources. Multi-Dot + Ifrit on Sphere to help push with melee. Good time to refill MP with Energy Drain while balancing Cube/Sphere. Ifrit helps soak Repelling Cannon for healers, so they can dps, increasing party dps.

T12 - Bennus are on a 60s timer which allows SMN to Contagion/Bane every spawn (saving MP). SMN is a great choice for doing Red/Blue fire as they are able to still do damage with existing dots. This free's up other dd's and healers.

Because of my party composition, BLM and Monk can stay on Phoenix to get their full rotations in. BLM does Flare on Black Fires. SMN and Bard (Internal Release @ 60s + WB/VB only) focus on the Bennus (+Garuda with Rouse @60s) this allows for very low initial enmity for the tank to pull to position and is enough damage to kill the bennus in 15s. This is a dps increase for SMN/Bard while allowing Monk/BLM to stay on the boss maintaining their dps. It also saves MP for SMN.

You could have the BLM Flare/dps the bennus as well when they spawn if they can time it well. This would be an increase to BLM damage, but a loss in party dps and a waste of resources.

Phase 3 on is just a controlled burn of each bennu + placement. SMN, BRD, and Monk take care of the big bennus so BLM can do it's thing and wear the bennu's down. This allows the greatest dot up time for bard/smn to increase overall party dps.

T13 - Haven't had the opportunity to experience yet.

Better stat itemization on gear, rear acc for pet, and a potency increase for Ruin, Ruin II, and Miasma II would be welcomed, just to bring single target dps up a bit more. (Ruin/Ruin II 90 Potency, Miasma II dot potency 15)