SMN redesign in expansion?

[Orrias]

There are lots of way to improve the current summoner iteration without affecting acn or sch.

The problem is that SMN's woes stem from the inefficieny of the mana returns from Aetherflow and Energy Drain, as well as Energy Drains low potency to warrant it's use over Fester to maintain competitive dps. Both of these abilities are linked to SCH because both Jobs are coupled with the ARC class.

In my opinion, the SMN job comes across as a rather lazy and possibly rushed after thought by the developers, to try to add their own Job to the mix, and it feels like it was just left to see where it would naturally progress to w/o much care or thought.

[Romsca]

And I have stated in past posts smn should have its piety to mana conversion increased. A blm with no extra piety sits at ~3700 whereas smn is at ~3000. This small adjustment would improve our mana management without affecting acn or sch.

[Akiza]

I just want Summoner to be redesigned so it has the uniqueness and flavor like other jobs. SE lazily designed Summoner instead of making a Summoner they made in Arcanist with Fester and Egis.

[Sequora]

As much as I want a redesign, I really just don't see it happening. I just feel like it would be too much work for them to redesign a job at this point. They're too busy creating new jobs to really go in depth with redoing an old one. I would say that out of all of the class > jobs in the game, SMN feels the most out of place. Most of the jobs feel like natural extensions of the classes they come from. Then we have SMN. Arcanists are casters who use strategy to outmaneuver their opponents. I feel like poison spells fit the lore of arcanist very well. Then we have scholar. While it's a little odd that a DPS class turns into a healer, scholars use knowledge and strategy to support their allies on the battlefield. Even the weapon (a book) seems like a better fit for SCH. Then we have summoner. A mage who fights using the power of the primals. The poisons spells we learned from our arcanist base class feel really out of place to me.

[Exodus-E]

As much as I want a redesign, I really just don't see it happening.
I just feel like it would be too much work for them to redesign a job at this point.
They're too busy creating new jobs to really go in depth with redoing an old one.
I would say that out of all of the class > jobs in the game, SMN feels the most out of place.
Most of the jobs feel like natural extensions of the classes they come from.
Then we have SMN. Arcanists are casters who use strategy to outmaneuver their opponents.
I feel like poison spells fit the lore of arcanist very well.
Then we have scholar.
While it's a little odd that a DPS class turns into a healer, scholars use knowledge and strategy to support their allies on the battlefield.
Even the weapon (a book) seems like a better fit for SCH.
Then we have summoner.
A mage who fights using the power of the primals.
The poisons spells we learned from our arcanist base class feel really out of place to me.

To be fair, you could argue that the Arcanists' knowledge extends onto the Summoner's as to how they actually bind and call forth an essence of a Primal (still through the use of aetheric geometries/mathematics).
Thus, explaining why they can still use skills such as Bio and Miasma.

On-topic, I don't mind either way but if it stays the way it is, then it should definitely have some changes (make all egis viable, buff some key skills, adjust MP consumption, etc.).

[Cariborne]

I like the Summoner as a DoT based class. We have the BLM as a Burst Caster, looking at Rydia in FF4 she was a Black Mage that Summoned. In this game, the Black Mage got the Black Magic, so Summoner got the Negative Effect spells (Poison, Disease). If you made the Summoner have casting spells it'd basically be a Black Mage with Pets, and there wouldn't be much of an issue. The only change I feel it really needs is you need to make it feel more different then the Arcanist. The Arcanist crippled and slowly bled out their enemies with Poisons, Summoner does the exact same just with different summons. Give them some burst, like it was mentioned above when you start as a summoner you had to channel the Aether. Why not have a channel ability added in the expansion that does more damage the more DoTs you have, so you actually have a high damage ability when you aren't refreshing dots or moving?

On top of that, make Mana more manageable so we don't need to meld for piety or have a bard there to hold our hands.

With the Summons, remove Garuda's Utility and make it an actual Cooldown for the Summoner. Make the Summons all have a niche but all actually relevant. Like, Titan will remain the Tanking pet for when you're soloing. Ifrit should stay the Melee pet, Garuda should remain the Ranged pet. If we're getting Leviathen and Ramuh like people think though? Make Leviathen the AoE pet, and Ramuh have a bit of support with his Kit. Like, Ifrit and Garuda would both still be able to AoE, but Leviathen is actually made for it. But I dunno, haven't played much Summoner since I re-rolled my character but from an outside look this could help to make it feel a bit different and a bit more of a natural upgrade.

[Akiza]

The problem with Summoner is it's based off the WoW Warlock with a stronger pet. WoW was one of the last MMORPGS that had a crowd contol/enfeebling sytem and true support classes. DoT in WoW was primarily used for crowd control and increasing DPS for the party by enfeebling enmities which DoT excels at. In this game SE doesn't have support classes or any content that required crowd control its all about putting up big numbers and nuking enemies so DoT DPS feel out of place and pointless because of the way this game designed.

[Sequora]

For me I guess it's mostly aesthetics. I don't feel like I'm harnessing the power of ifrit, garuda or titan. Disease and poisons just feel out of place for a job that deals damage by controlling a portion of the elemental primal power. Elemental DoTs would make more sense to me. Maybe helix spells from FFXI (cryo-helix, ionohelix etc.) or even the elemental dots (rasp, shock, drown, etc) and then fester would be replaced by "tri disaster" (same effect as current fester.). I do want more pet commands like enkindle though. More of the damage should come from interaction with the pet. Maybe more off GCD abilities similar to enkindle.

[Lilyarel]

For me I guess it's mostly aesthetics. I don't feel like I'm harnessing the power of ifrit, garuda or titan. Disease and poisons just feel out of place for a job that deals damage by controlling a portion of the elemental primal power. Elemental DoTs would make more sense to me. Maybe helix spells from FFXI (cryo-helix, ionohelix etc.) or even the elemental dots (rasp, shock, drown, etc) and then fester would be replaced by "tri disaster" (same effect as current fester.). I do want more pet commands like enkindle though. More of the damage should come from interaction with the pet. Maybe more off GCD abilities similar to enkindle.

Im so glad I'm not the only that thinks that way. I still dont see the connection with arcanists and illnesses.

[Exodus-E]

Im so glad I'm not the only that thinks that way. I still dont see the connection with arcanists and illnesses.

It's a bit of a stretch, but given that Arcanists are strategists that use aetheric manipulation through math/geometry, it stands to reason that their skills take a while to "conceptualize".

Thus, creating something that harms the enemy while they're planning their current/next moves sounds logical (think of it more like altering the enemies' biological/mechanical/whatever integrity to degenerate instead of regenerate).

At least, that's the way I see it.