SPOILER: Xelphatol

[cyborgmermaid]

I can relate to your friend, I felt insulted when they decided to name the Bard of Darkness to the Ranger of Darkness and gave her the power to combine her arrows with magic.

Clearly the First is a world where the job system actually makes a lick of sense.

[SessionZero]

My assumption is that because the boss is an Ixal, and a rather powerful-looking one at that, likely trained from birth to be a master of his arts, that he can call forth slivers of Garuda's power for the one-off attacks we see in the fight. It's not a complete summon, rather more like the brief surges of power akin to Final Fantasy Tactics summoners who call forth eikons for devastating attacks and then they disappear.

Conversely, the WoL, who starts out as a scrub with a notebook who, in lore, doesn't even know what a primal is until he blunders his way into one, can still summon slivers of those primal's powers (the egi) but at least he can keep them as a constant companion, rather than one-off powerful attacks. The summoner is not a fervent believer in the primal, rather he uses ancient Allagan techniques to rip primal powers from beyond the veil and bend them to his will.

Granted, I haven't done the 50-60 SMN questline, so maybe my information is outdated, but it seems like a simple case of wrapping lore up in game mechanics.

[Zohar_Lahar]

Did the last boss seriously just...summon Garuda? Solo? That's not supposed to be possible I thought.

It seems to be new type of summoning. The whatshisname Ixal guy described it as "calling" a sliver of Garuda's power. It's quite different from arcanima egi or the full manifestation of a primal.

[DracotheDragon]

from the card of the final boss for the gold saucer it says he is one of the few people who can call upon garuda, so my guess is just a really weak but still powerful summon, but because it isnt a full retural this is more like a simple carbuncle or egi in full form

[Niko_Kishiko]

I don't understand why the relic quest girl can summon a diamond carbuncle that's taller than I am, Alphinaud can Ruin 2 a carbuncle to Titans face and a carbuncle to snatch a enchanted flaming arrow out of mid air, and a Ixal in a dungeon can summon Garuda but Summoners can't?

Why does the Summoner quest line have us fail to summon even an ugly clay Ramuh?

I'm sick of the "It's because of the lore" "It's because it's not fair to other jobs"

BS! It's a middle finger to summoners.

[IlSire]

After that boss I feel like Summoners would be better following that concept since the whole "egi glamour" story is getting out of hand.
Carbuncles (Emerald,Topaz, Ruby) as permanent minions doing what our current Egis do, Summon Primals to flash a big attack and disappear (expanding the Trance system and a nice throwback to summoning magic of old titles ), dots in between.
Next expansion maybe?

No need for a full pet rework, would stay true to the job classic roots while mantaining its role as a dot caster.

[Zohar_Lahar]

After that boss I feel like Summoners would be better following that concept since the whole "egi glamour" story is getting out of hand.
Carbuncles (Emerald,Topaz, Ruby) as permanent minions doing what our current Egis do, Summon Primals to flash a big attack and disappear (expanding the Trance system and a nice throwback to summoning magic of old titles ), dots in between.
Next expansion maybe?

No need for a full pet rework, would stay true to the job classic roots while mantaining its role as a dot caster.

I wonder if this is foreshadowing something like that in 4.0

[Heliantheae]

Meanwhile in actual 4.0 NIN Ninja Arts get upgraded where a mini primal of that element shows up for an assist. Doton gets Titan, Kuton gets Ifrit etc.

[Kikoten]

As much as I'd like to agree with the a lot of what's been said in regards to Summoners not getting what a lot of people feel they should -- and I do agree, but what can I do, y'know? -- I wanna try to put a positive spin on it. Sure, Summoners don't get a full-bodied Primal for any kind of special attack, and sure, certain people's Carbuncles are prettier and can do circus tricks like catching fiery arrows and humping Titan's face, but the Summoners of Light are still far greater. Why? Because we draw upon the essence of Bahamut himself. Bahamut would eat all those little Primals alive.

As much as I'd like to see Summoners get a full-bodied Titan, Ifrit, Garuda, or Ramuh-egi, I think I'd really like to see Summoners get a full-bodied Bahamut-egi.