Quote Originally Posted by Mycow8me View Post
Endgame summoners had free mp cost diabolos and fenrir as well as 45 second bloodpacts with an ability that eliminated bloodpact recast.. camon. higher level unlocked staff skills were very strong. Sub was strictly redmage for refresh and convert. Elemental siphon for mp as well. We practically never had to heal for mp.
These much-needed changes came VERY late in FFXI's timeline. The only avatar that came close to free for a long, long time was Carbuncle - and Poison Nails wasn't exactly what anyone would call l33t deeps.

No, until SE caved in to years and years of complaints, party SMNs were healers, and endgame SMNs were... well, not wanted, except for certain niche fights that called upon specific skills - usually Astral Flow, but occasionally also for long, drawn-out fights where the enmity cap was a serious enough issue that you had BLMs logging in and out to reset hate; Avatar attacks are VERY low enmity (or, rather, the enmity was all on the pet, not the SMN, and the pet taking hate and dying was a trivial concern), which made them an attractive option for fights like Kirin that could take an hour or longer to complete.

Yes, SMN eventually came into its own as a legitimate DPS class, and even had a few non-Carbuncle avatars that it could keep out perpetually. Heck, by the time of Adoulin, SE even reduced Avatar costs to the point where a SMN could keep ANY Avatar out. Even so, even at its finest, SMN was passable DPS, not great. A party leader given the choice would pick almost any DPS over a SMN, with the possible exception of PUP or THF (and PUP was actually pretty good DPS in the right hands; so few people could play it properly, though, that party leaders rarely gave them the chance to show it). Again, except for certain niche fights where SMN-specific talents were particularly desirable.

Well, at least until SE decided partway through Adoulin that all endgame NMs should have aoe attacks that murder any non-tank without Utsusemi (and sometimes, even then), making bow SAMs and RNGs the only DPS worth having. SMN were okay there, too (even if they were a distant third choice, after SAM and RNG). :P