Another Upset Summoner

[Dyvid]

Flaming Crush is 3y what ever he's hitting will at least get hit by it, but why cant you simply have him attacking the mob in the middle of the group? Even if he wasn't. Lets just look at the single target damage.

Three mobs not lined up in any particular way. Garuda 30 second cd is her only AoE attack at 90 potency.

Well lets be realistic though, 3 mobs was before everyone learned about speed runs. We are talking a minimum of 6 to 9 mobs to AoE. Normally the tank is moving around alot to dodge AoE so the middle mob soon becomes the back mobs and vice versa. Give garuda a try on your next speed run and you might be surprised on how smoothly it goes, but you have to use aerial blast or shes useless as speed run pet.

[Havenchild]

Well lets be realistic though, 3 mobs was before everyone learned about speed runs. We are talking a minimum of 6 to 9 mobs to AoE. Normally the tank is moving around alot to dodge AoE so the middle mob soon becomes the back mobs and vice versa. Give garuda a try on your next speed run and you might be surprised on how smoothly it goes, but you have to use aerial blast or shes useless as speed run pet.

I don't get it. Why are you ok with assuming Garuda's AoE is going to hit 6-9mobs but Ifrit's can't?

Using your own example about how the middle mob moves to the back, why would the one Garudas targeting be immune to it? Hers would hit fewer targets as well. If you were to then say well you can click another mob and use Aerial slash on the new mob, why is Ifrit incapable of retargetting a new mob and using his AoE?

My point is, it's hardly a difference maker. You can play both of them to their benefits and correctly, and Garuda barely edges ahead but its all on Contagions benefit.

[Dyvid]

I don't get it. Why are you ok with assuming Garuda's AoE is going to hit 6-9mobs but Ifrit's can't?

Aerial Slash has a 5y radius, Flaming Crush has 3y. Garuda has a larger kill box.

[Havenchild]

Aerial Slash has a 5y radius, Flaming Crush has 3y. Garuda has a larger kill box.

You see that add to the bottom right of the tank word bubble? Can easily click obey on that and flaming crush all of those, with pretty much minimal movement, not enough to miss a GCD and worth the cost because it would do 20 more damage per mob over Garudas.

Also I like how the picture is skewed a bit to not appropriately reflect an actual mob clump. Usually every mob would gather on the tank unless casting some ability. Also unless you are targeting the invisible mob in the middle where Ifrit would be located, the center of your circle could not possibly be located on Ifrit this is also entirely assuming, the mob Garuda is targetting automatically is somehow in the middle. You would eventually have to refocus her to even attempt to properly display what your picture is showing to aim that Aerial Slash.

[SoloWingMetatron]

I think ultimately if Dyvid's idea was going to work without much balancing issues, it would need to be simplified down. Maybe each Egi could each get an attack that adds a single status effect debuff.

Shiva - Freeze
Ramuh - Paralyze
Leviathan - Silence
Titan - Petrify
Ifrit - Heavy
Garuda - Confuse

Even then though I'm not sure this really gives the SMN enough of a reason to actively use each Egi. Some people will always just use the Egi's that they find most aesthetically pleasing, not caring about added status effect debuffs or an extra bit of DPS. Some players are more casual in their play style (choosing to only use Sic for example) which is fair enough, but they also need to be accommodated. SE probably made the right call with the glamour system and choosing to focus on building up the Ranged, Tank, and Melee Egi types. Any other method will either cause an unnecessary balancing issue, or just be small, simple changes (like status effects) that make negligible difference to the Egi's overall.

What would definitely be useful though is more healing spells for SMN to use exclusively on the Egi. After a while Sustain just doesn't cut it, especially in Keeper of the Lake. Or maybe if Egi's were added to the party bar for all to see then the healer could keep them up.

Actually the lack of decent healing abilities to keep the Egi alive kinda makes the whole emergency tank Titan idea fall apart. Even if Titan were to get a proper provoke his HP will still start to fall very quickly once he gains hate, which Sustain/Physick would not be able to counter that well. Therefore Titan would either die rather quickly, or SMN would have to sacrifice DPS in order to focus on healing Titan and would still likely fail in a proper emergency situation.