Summoner revamp

[Loggos]

See the original comment. I didn't know I can expand the character limit by editing so I ended up double posting. Sorry for that.

[Loggos]

See above.

[Keramory]

Although we would all be happy with egi glamor...in fact to most, that would save the job...I for one would still not call this class we have a real summoner job.

We could call it another class. Since it likes to poison and do little involving the "summons" themselves, because thats what it is. Another class. A summoner class move should be involved around it's summons, not just a little dps addition plus poison moves.

The class now isn't bad, I actually like it for what it is, I just wouldnt call it summon. Either rename it, make an actual summon class...or redo the class itself.

And before people say its too late, let me remind you we've remade classes completely in the past. Hell, we took out the elemental wheel lol.

[Dyvid]

So less summoning, more shape shifting?

[Jandor]

I posted an idea in the lore sub-forum of all places. It's not a revamp really, but I imagine a lot of existing Summoners don't particularly want that anyway.

I don't know about new abilities, but I do wish you used the power of an Elder Primal to summon that primal temporarily.

I'd have been all over Summoner 50-60 if Dreadwyrm trance was Summon IV, temporarily summoning Bahamut-egi for as long as you can safely do so. Level 60 skill could have been Enkindle II - make Bahamut-egi unleash a powerful attack at a cost of him disappearing after.

Would have tied in nicely with egi glamour as well. Pick Bahamut for Summon IV and have him mega-flare, or Odin with Zantetsuken, or Alexandar casting Divine Judgement. They're all essentially just casting Deathflare, but IMHO it'd be cooler this way .

[Sidra]

Thematically, FFXIV's version of SMN is definitely different than past Final Fantasy version. I was a longtime FFXI player where the Summoner consistently summons and most of the skills they use come from their pets. And when you think back to Yuna or Eiko you aren't exactly thinking Dots.

But I gotta say - this version works in this game. It struggled in 2.0, but ever since 3.0 SMN is a fun, engaging job to play and it's power level is at a good place. It's not what I would expected it to be, but I hope it receives no major changes.

[Dyvid]

So giving the basic takeaways from this thread we can see three issues; Egi Appearance, lack of Egi summons, and Egi rotations. I thought of an idea a few weeks back about time limited pets and summon/release type gameplay with summoner. The basic premise was Egi summoning rotation were you have a base line pet, carby, that is basically a place holder pet. The idea is you would summon an Egi that takes the place of carby for a set amount of time the returns back to carby until you cast the next Egi. The Egi's would have three different styles of purpose; AoE attack, Single Target, and Emergency tank. Each Egi would have a different ability to help out with the fights and preform their signature move when the timer is up.

Examples, and I stress examples, to you a basic idea of what I mean:
---Nevermind, examples always throw people off. The goal really is to have each Egi in the rotation do something different than it's counter part. You don't want Garuda and Ramuh abilities doing the same things.

Egi time limits would be 60s or 90s for Ifrit and Levithan, 30s or 45s for Garuda/Ramuh, 15s to 30s for Titan/Shiva. The idea would be to rotate Ramuh/Garuda on AoE trash mobs, Ifrit/Levi on single target stuff, and temp tank for either AoE or single target until party recovers.

As for Egi appearance, they need to look better. I would say Hume height that mimics the movement of the primal; some float and some walk. Keep the basic idea of element infused with primal Aether. An example would be Ifrit Egi as living fire encased in molten armor giving an appearance of the primal but have the horns, talons, and tail as flames. Garuda would be molded wind encased in feathers.

Also instead of Trance, create Bahamut Egi as a second pet that attacks the current target of the summoner. Last for 20s then does death flare and goes back to the aether.

P.S. - Excuse the grammar errors but don't have time to proof right now.

[Deliciou5]

It just goes to show if they can't get this pet class right, how are they going to bode if they add anymore? They probably wouldn't even add anymore, they developed themselves into a corner with their own mentality when it comes to this game, not just pet classes but all classes with the way the game works and how parties are built. It's not about fun and new things for the development team probably when developing new classes...its about how to work around the current system and not break the current balance. As much i love FFXIV, and i am very disappointed by the decisions of the development team ever since they said they introduced the broken class/job system when introducing ARR in the first place.

The only way i can see summoner truly being able to feel like the older version is if they revamped the job, and made all its ability not about summoning a pet but having different moves that are linked to summoning a lesser version of the primal temporarily. Like Titan for Earthen Ward, or Levi for Spring water etc. However as i said before my disappointment in how they designed the game and how limited their vision of what parties should be (tank/healer/damage dealer) Make it very hard to balance this properly, so this version of summoner couldn't have a lot of cool utilities..that were very powerful, otherwise it would make them too versatile or powerful. I believe that's why yoshi never wanted to introduce summoner in the first place cause a true summoner would be insane to balance, unless you made it bland and all the moves were attacks and not utilities. That's how we ended up with this mess of a summoner job, where most of the abilities are focused on the caster it just makes more sense for the caster to be all about doing damage, whereas a more focus on summons would disappoint people even more when comparing it to FF11 and other games were summoners had more varied abilities.

The way i see them balancing summoner is that they were allowed to choose a role beforehand(tank/healer/dps) and could gain access to certain summons/abilities based on what they choose so they are locked as that role for that fight when going in the duty.Once again though, that might make them too powerful, or too versatile. Why not bring a party FULL of summoners then? How do you add versatile abilities to summoner without destroying the current party system? As much as i love summoner and FFXIV, this whole game is a hot mess in its underpinnings.

[Caliburn]

I really think they should:

a) split SMN/SCH into ACN > SCH and Elementalist > SMN, or some variation where SMN and SCH stem from two separate classes.

and b) Rename Summoner to Evoker and retain the term "Summoner" for storyline NPCs or for a possible future job.

I'd be perfectly happy with that.

[Minas-tepes]

I agree with a lot of part.

For me the best solution is to totally get rid of the actual summoner.

However the gameplay is good. And it'll be a waste to throw it up.

So here is my solution :

- Rename "Summoner" to "Sage".
- Rename Wyrmtrance to something else.
- Remove the egis for the carbuncle.

So the sage keep the actual summoner gameplay.

I like the idea of "Trance"

- Create a Summoner
- Use Trance wich grant him the power of primals.
- The summoner use direct spell that summons primal's parts (Like Yuna on dissidia)
- The LB3 summon a full primal only to use his signature attacks (like diamond dust, hellfire...)
Because you use the power of 8 warriors of light seriously.

And everyone's happy

-The end.
Yoshida hired me => 10M subsribers

xD