Newbie Rant - Summoner Pets

[KenjiChan]

This is less of a rant and more of a niggling thought.

Okay, I'm perfectly aware that Summoners, when mastered, are quite flexible and can pour out a great amount of DPS. I'm not talking about their gameplay style or criticizing them. It's just...

Why do Summoner pets look so bloody unimpressive?

I mean, I can understand the concept - you have elementals who have the power of the primals. I can dig that. However, why must they look like chibi primals? I mean, half the time I see one of them, I just want to pet the damned thing (if Square Enix actually made plushies for these and they sold at a reasonable cost, I'd totally buy one btw). Can't we get something bigger, more... weighty and make people feel like the totally badass Summoner they are?

If you're wondering what my suggestions are, it'd be this -

Attacker-type Summon - Instead of Ifrit, I'd say replace him with a drake. You know, one of the wingless dragons we see every once in a while. Same concept and functions, but wouldn't it be awesome controlling one of these guys?

Tank-type Summon - I'd say we either get a giant to replace them, or perhaps one of the Dulahan (sp?) armors. Both have an impressive bulk to them and definitely feel like they can take a hit and return it in kind. They'd be somewhat larger than the Summoner themselves obviously, and make it obvious they're a tank.

Caster-Type Summon - Erm.... I'll be honest, for some reason my mind is drawing a big fat blank here. Suggestions are welcome.

Anyhoo, here are my two cents, yet again. Thank you for reading my rant and have a pleasant day.

[Gralna]

[Dererk]

LOL I JUST ROFL'D AT THIS it fits.

[kyuven]

The summoner from FF is iconically linked to the traditional summons. Especially Ifrit, Shiva, Garuda, Leviathan, Ramuh, and Titan. (we're actually getting Ramuh and Leviathan Egis in 3.0, and there's a story reason for why there's no Shiva Egi yet.)
You're not going to be getting anything that isn't based on them. And the only reason we get the egis instead of mini versions of the primals is because of the need to streamline them. They can't be too big or they start congesting space.
After playing FFXI as a summoner, I actually fully understand this now: The summons in that game are about the size of PC models or a little bigger, and can make seeing things a royal pain. In FFXIV raids, being unable to see things because a massive Ifrit thingy is in the way is detrimental to victory.

Though don't get me wrong, summoning Titan and seeing his big ass rise from the ground in FFXI is pretty awesome. Having his big ass block my view isn't lol.

[HeavensSword]

Though don't get me wrong, summoning Titan and seeing his big ass rise from the ground in FFXI is pretty awesome. Having his big ass block my view isn't lol.

Instead he was replaced with a chicken nugget in 14.

[AreeyaJaidee]

What op is suggesting sounds more like a Beast Master! I've been hoping for BST and BLU in ffxiv since 1.0! Will be super excited if we get them

That being said... I also played SMN heavily in FFXI and... The size of the summon was super cool aspect of summoner to me, it just felt right since I grew up playing FF and was used to seeing summons be bigger than the player the majority of the time.

Oh well to each their own. I personally would love to see correctly proportioned summons as pets in XIV but all the immersion nerds would hang Yoshi P in a fit of rage if that ever happened.

Side note: i find it funny that players complain about ffxiv smn wanting summons the size of summons in FFXI but don't complain about monsters being too big... I mean a big ass dragon obstructs your view more than a Titan summon would. Its comical that ppl act like they play ffxiv in first person mode just because there is third person view optionally available. Guess they just really have a too big summon phobia and it stops them from sleeping well at night or something.

[kyuven]

Side note: i find it funny that players complain about ffxiv smn wanting summons the size of summons in FFXI but don't complain about monsters being too big... I mean a big ass dragon obstructs your view more than a Titan summon would. Its comical that ppl act like they play ffxiv in first person mode just because there is third person view optionally available. Guess they just really have a too big summon phobia and it stops them from sleeping well at night or something.

Big monsters exist so they're easy to see and target.
Big players and pets shouldn't exist because they're easy to see and target.
also, FFXI didn't have telegraphs and magical rainbow skittle marks that you needed to look out for. Just the boss's motions. Plus it was made when MMOs were a new thing. It's impractical for player features to be larger than the players themselves, as while it may not obstruct YOUR view, a melee pet that's bigger than the caster stands a good chance of standing on top of someone when, say, a mechanic such as t9 meteors is thrown out. Or, to use dungeons, Anchag's magical kill laser of doom.

And they're also impractical outside of combat. FFXI's summons had a key mitigating factor that prevented them from being REALLY annoying: they were ostensibly temporary. They drained MP and thus couldn't be kept out indefinitely. Which means you couldn't create a massive lagfest of summons in Jeuno to block NPCs for longer than a couple minutes if at all.
In XIV, summons last until the caster changes jobs, one or both dies, or manually desummons it. Thus the need to ensure they don't take up as much space even in the field. Can you imagine how congested Mor Dhona would be if summoner pets were the size of fat chocobos?

[Warlyx]

Big monsters exist so they're easy to see and target.
Big players and pets shouldn't exist because they're easy to see and target.
also, FFXI didn't have telegraphs and magical rainbow skittle marks that you needed to look out for. Just the boss's motions. Plus it was made when MMOs were a new thing. It's impractical for player features to be larger than the players themselves, as while it may not obstruct YOUR view, a melee pet that's bigger than the caster stands a good chance of standing on top of someone when, say, a mechanic such as t9 meteors is thrown out. Or, to use dungeons, Anchag's magical kill laser of doom.

And they're also impractical outside of combat. FFXI's summons had a key mitigating factor that prevented them from being REALLY annoying: they were ostensibly temporary. They drained MP and thus couldn't be kept out indefinitely. Which means you couldn't create a massive lagfest of summons in Jeuno to block NPCs for longer than a couple minutes if at all.

pets were forbidden in cities back then ... so no lag in jeuno...

no one ask for fat choco size ....just better models and bigger 1.2 the size or something like that

plus how many summoner u see in content that matters 1 or 0 ...

[Lemuria]

FFXI's summons had a key mitigating factor that prevented them from being REALLY annoying: they were ostensibly temporary. They drained MP and thus couldn't be kept out indefinitely. Which means you couldn't create a massive lagfest of summons in Jeuno to block NPCs for longer than a couple minutes if at all.

Not entirely true. There is equipment to drastically reduce the MP costs to less than or equal to the Summoner's built-in Refresh effect for many of the summons. You could happily keep Titan out forever.

Appearance aside though, I miss their impact. Summoner doesn't feel like a summoner. It's just another DPS caster. The 'summon', while not useless, is just another half to the same whole. They don't have many skills, and the few they do have are relatively weak. Compare that to Garuda's Predator Claws from FFXI or Fenrir's Eclipse Bite. There's just no comparison. The balance here was that the summoner was weak on their own, so their pets weren't just an addition, they were a necessity.

Say what you will about them, they at least lived up to their job title.

[Kiara]

While I agree with the sentiment of somehow getting more of that "classic Final Fantasy Summoner" feeling (via jaw-dropping Summon Attacks, etc.), the limitations of having hundreds of Players (all w/ the Summoner "Pets" out at once in a crowded area) is an unfortunate reality and limitation.

I made a suggestion a while back about maybe paying tribute to the classic Final Fantasy Summoner feeling via:

* New Summoner Limit Breaks in 3.0.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-s-Ramuh%21%29


It's certainly a way to give a bit of that feeling, while limiting it to only major battles in Raids where you can amass a Level 3 LB and use it. And it's not like it's spammable.

Win-win. I hope they consider it.