Can someone give me an in-depth explanation why Summoner is arguably the worst DPS?

[Tex_Mex]

In the main series, SMN has typically been a hybrid role, most often having healing abilities as well. (Garnet/Dagger, Eiko, Yuna, etc.) With the exception of FF Tactics and a few other places, summon skills were not usually the only abilities that a SMN had. Because of this, I think most people outside of FF know about summons, but very few know about the summoner as a class, or would be able to recognize a summoner horn.

[Akiza]

In the main series, SMN has typically been a hybrid role, most often having healing abilities as well. (Garnet/Dagger, Eiko, Yuna, etc.) With the exception of FF Tactics and a few other places, summon skills were not usually the only abilities that a SMN had. Because of this, I think most people outside of FF know about summons, but very few know about the summoner as a class, or would be able to recognize a summoner horn.

Most people outside of Final Fantasy identify Black Mage as a Sorcerer while the Summoner is identified as a Black Mage that specializes in Summoning Magic.

[Skeith-Adeline]

You're telling me that SMNs are more iconic than BLMs? Anyways, this is waaaaaay off the OP

[Akiza]

Black Mage is a staple of Final Fantasy but anyone outside of Final Fantasy looking at a picture of a Black Mage would think its a Sorcerer. Summoner is iconic throughout the mage world they even have a few games named after them where players go around summoning gods and battling against each other while the Black Mage is only iconic withing the Final Fantasy series. Besides most gamers knows the schools of magic and that's how they recognizes the various type of magic users.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Summoner- uses summoning magic and summons Beasts Gods to fight for them in battle specializing in Spike Damage, AoE Spike Damage and Crowd Control. Summoners are also able to learn both Black Magic and White Magic spells as a Sub Job.

"Beasts gods". Meanwhile half (if not more) of these "beast gods" are humanoid or even robotic. Not in all Final Fantasy games were these summoners persistent and were used much like a spell. So this creates two versions of "summoners": One being a "spike damage" class and another as "sustained damage class". Not even all of them were capable of using crowd control and deal a lot of damage, if any, when using these summons.

The "Summoner" you are referring to here is a typical Final Fantasy XI or Tactics summoner: Which was capable of dealing a lot of damage with a single ability with their 2-hour (now 1-hour) ability and had the option to choose a subjob that allowed them to cast black or white magic. However, neither are true to the "iconic summoner" you mentioned as both the FF11 as well as FFT summoners are near polar opposites damage wise: Burst vs sustained.

Meanwhile you're also forgetting the actual summoners of Final Fantasy. Whom have nearly nothing in common with each other. Or even the summoning feature in other games: Anyone could be a summoner in these Final Fantasy installments.

You could conclude that there's nothing iconic about summoners in particular. Characters who were actually summoners or the class itself in the previous Final Fantasy games were wide and diverse. The only thing that would separate summoners from other pet users would be the fact that their pets or familiars are a deity/god.

[Viridiana]

Why are you guys arguing with Akiza? >_>

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Why are you guys arguing with Akiza? >_>

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it

[Valoiz]

Cuz ppl suck... spam >Ruin II then complain about mana issues..... i NEVER get dry on my SMN and my DPS its always 400+... i also res ppl btw

[Sentinillia]

Cuz ppl suck... spam >Ruin II then complain about mana issues..... i NEVER get dry on my SMN and my DPS its always 400+... i also res ppl btw

You might want to give some context to these 400+ numbers if you're going to start bragging. What fight was it? What kind of gear do you wear? Did you have Echo? Was your bard singing Mage's Ballad alot? Was it a serious raid envinroment?
These parses mean nothing if you don't provide some background to them.

[Tex_Mex]

Why are you guys arguing with Akiza? >_>

haha arguing with akiza is never a good idea

Cuz ppl suck... spam >Ruin II then complain about mana issues..... i NEVER get dry on my SMN and my DPS its always 400+... i also res ppl btw

Based on your comments, it is safe to say that you are not doing any FCoB content. Everyone knows that SMN is fine in all content other than FCoB. This discussion pertains to only the highest difficulty content in the game.