Ideas to make smns more summoner like without pet micromangament

[cookiecutter]

I think summoners are really lacking the appeal of a typical final fantasy summoner. They're built more like warlocks in wow. I know SE doesn't want summoners to get too complicated where you need to have full control of your pet to maximize dps potential. Another aesthetic problem with the summoner is that their egis lack presence due to their diminutive stature. So with that in mind I thought of a possible solution to make summoners more appealing to those who want to see a more typical final fantasy summoner without breaking the game. Instead of enkindle, a new spell should be added to transform you into your currently summoned egi for 20 secs. Thus making the summoner a humanoid sized sized avatar (there is actually lore in the game that this type of event happens so it should reasonable to fit in lore wise with a few adjustments). When in this form, the following dots (miasma, miasma II, bio, and, bio II) will replaced by attacks that are typical used by the primal summoned. All other abilities will be greyed out besides aetherflow, energy drain, swiftcast, and raise. Now with these ability summoners would have greater burst potential so some of its skills might have to be adjusted such as removing ruin II or reducing dot potency but, they're already used to adjusting damage accordingly so it should be doable.

Another thing they could implement is making multiple summons more viable by allowing summons in their transformed state to provide an elemental debuff. For example Shiva would add the debuff frostbitten which increases the fire based damage of Ifrit and Leviathan would add the debuff waterlogged that increased the lightning based damage of Ramuh (I couldn't come up with a name for Titan-> Garuda but the idea makes sense). Now I realize this idea is a little less likely since summoners would have to blow more of their swiftcasts to switch out summons. Thus, lowering their raise potential. It would probably increase summoners burst potential too much where it would lack the sustainable dps it is known for. I still think its nice idea worth considering though. Anyone else have other ideas to make the summoner more appealing for prior final fantasy players?

[kidvideo]

Sadly, at this point, I think we're stuck with what we have in XIV.

[BreathlessTao]

Face it, the main problem is that SE doesn't want anything to be as complicated as to them having to let go of our hands and not be able to guide us anymore. Problem with this is that the only challenge this allows in-game are instant death mechanics piled on top of one another, which just isn't really a challenge, more like an annoyance, especially with all the lag the game has; unnecessarily overcomplicated crafting and gathering; and RNG even where RNG should have no place to begin with.

It's sad when the apparent (~having seen numerous threads on here and reddit as well) case is that most of us would be ready for our hands to be let go, levels of difficulty introduced, going after our own heads and figuring things out for ourselves. But of course that would mean having to give up on catering to the biggest major general "casual" audience. (And yes, how good they are doing that is also a discussion of its own entirely.)

[Nalien]

Honestly? Just make Enkindle like Ninjas Ninjutsu and each of the Egis Enkindle move like Trick/Sneak Attack.

Put Enkindle on a low cooldown. Put Inferno/Earthen Fury/Aerial Blast on high cooldowns, and untie their cooldowns. In fact untie all the pet cooldowns, it's annoying and limits their utility.

Done. Pop Enkindle, have Garuda-Egi do Aerial Blast. Enkindles recast is lower than Aerial Blasts, so pull out Ifrit-Egi to pop Enkindle and Inferno. Lose a bit of DPS from switching Egis around, but hopefully frequent Enkindles would make up for that. Probably too much micromanaging too. Fixes most of the issues though, in my opinion. The Enkindle moves I find impressive, using them frequently makes up for the "unimpressive" stature of the Egis themselves. Switching between Egis frequently involves summoning them frequently in battle - Just like Ninja is Ninja because it's constantly using Ninjutsu, Summoner becomes Summoner because it is constantly summoning, rather than summoning once and then DPSing.

Still also think Ifrit-Egis moves should be changed; Crimson Cyclone should be a Shoulder Tackle type move (so he can close the distance instantly). Radiant Shield should have the Seer effect Ifrit has in Trials rather than being a damned Tanking skill... Those are the only changes I'd make to the Job though, granted I don't play it much anymore though.

You know what would also be nice, actually? Since Conjurer got Stoneskin II as a QoL extra, give Arcanist a Swiftcast II style ability for QoL reasons; Just have it only apply to Summoning skills.

[Naelle]

I'd like to see the egi's cooldowns separated and encourage swapping more often. Add some sort of buff that lasts 30 seconds from the time they're summoned and cast the enkindle ability. This way you'd be able to add more burst damage and make the actual summoning feel more substantial. You could change enkindle to simply replicate the summoning effect. Numbers might have to change but I feel like a change of this kind will bring back the flavor of summoners in the old games.

[Zarzak]

Another thing they could implement is making multiple summons more viable by allowing summons in their transformed state to provide an elemental debuff. For example Shiva would add the debuff frostbitten which increases the fire based damage of Ifrit and Leviathan would add the debuff waterlogged that increased the lightning based damage of Ramuh (I couldn't come up with a name for Titan-> Garuda but the idea makes sense). Now I realize this idea is a little less likely since summoners would have to blow more of their swiftcasts to switch out summons. Thus, lowering their raise potential. It would probably increase summoners burst potential too much where it would lack the sustainable dps it is known for. I still think its nice idea worth considering though. Anyone else have other ideas to make the summoner more appealing for prior final fantasy players?

I doubt people would stack summoners but that is beside the point.

Overall the suggestion isn't a bad one but you would basically be bringing back the elemental wheel which despite "most" (I think have no evidence for this) players wishing the elemental wheel existed... Square removed it so I doubt they would do this.


I do agree with the overall sentiment though. At the moment a summoner is a dot class with a auto attacking pet which basically amounts to a visual dot. Instead of being a pet class.