Why are summoners so neglected?

[Allyrion]

I think the Summoner embodying the summon is a good direction. At least, I like it over working with FFXIV's clunky pet system. But if they wanted to, they could make the pet system better. Instead they chose another path which I don't think is any less legitimate.

It is reminiscent to me of the FFX and FF13 in which you actively control the summon at the expense of losing control of the party. It may have not been a transformation (your party just becomes inactive) but gameplay wise, it may as well have been. I like that Iceheart has also set some precedence for becoming a summon and they could make some lore excuse for not consuming aether. Realistically, the dreadwyrm stance's, and even the egi's, lack of need for external crystals were handwaved without blinking an eye.

I'm not against SMN being a pet class but if the devs have a different vision, it's not being neglected. What's unfortunate is the lack of variety even in either scenario. What I think would be cool is if you can get a stance that changes you into different forms based on the spell - kind of like how Ultima works when he summons the primals.

But in the end, it will probably just be the summoner semi-turning into Bahamut more and more. He is the ultimate primal anyway.

[LunarEmerald]

The problem with adding more summons is balancing them. They already have enough trouble keeping Ifrit relevant with Garuda around. If they make a new summon that's too good then nobody will use Ifrit or Garuda anymore and if it's not good enough then nobody will use it. In this game, dps is everything. Whichever summon gives the most dps is what everybody will use.

Balance aside, what would another summon even do? We already have a melee, a range and a tank. Garuda's specialty is extending dots and Ifrit can stun. I feel the bases have already been covered. The only thing that comes to mind is having a pet that does nothing but aoe damage like Machinist's Bishop but then that kind of takes away something unique to machinist.

[Inosaska]

We already have a melee, a range and a tank. Garuda's specialty is extending dots

With what I bolded is the exact problem with the pets. They should all be damage pets end of story less issue making balance changes to the pets and remove contagion off Garuda would be a good starting point. Many issues can be solved by changing things on the job. Look at WoW it has made many changes to the classes over the years and the combat system. I don't understand what is so hard about doing it here. Yes it costs resources but that can be fixed by having the changes done at expansion time where there will be a big flow influx of cash. I can't imagine what they're going to do when Beastmaster comes to the table as a new job to be released.

[Cabalabob]

I don't see the need to split SMN and SCH, as we level up and get more job skills they'll drift further and further apart, now that arcanist is basically out of the picture getting no new skills past 50, all future skills are going to be attached to the jobs so sch and smn won't have to share toys anymore. Then if they just remove stat point allotment completely and just boost the native stats on job stones, smn and sch will never have to see eye to eye again.

As for SMN, yeah, I really don't like what they've done with it, it's just not a pet job. And what yoshi said is laughable, SMN can easily work in an MMO they just have to do it right. Honestly I think they should have just taken FFXI's SMN and fixed everything that didn't work there, which is the direction I thought they were going in 2.0.

Like making it so the party can interact with your pet, heal it, buff it etc. FFXI's pet couldn't be interacted with at all even by the SMN. Splitting the ability timers on pet abilities, FFXI's SMN basically had a global cooldown on pet skills so you could only do 1 then had nothing to do. Which brings me to the next fix, giving the SMN something to do during pet downtime, which is casting some filler DoTs and debuffs.

But they simply didn't put enough effort into the egi's and they became nothing but a glorified auto attack and the focus became the summoner and their DoTs, which is why Garuda became top dog as the only pet who could help with that.

Then rather than fix it and expand on egi's in 3.0, they decided to roll with the direction it had gone and focused on giving more stuff to the summoner instead of improving the pets. This was a bandaid fix to make the job competitive rather than make it live up to the summoner name.

[Iromi]

It's funny, "pet job" won the 1.x player poll for most wanted job and this game still doesn't have it.

They should rename summoner to something else until they can make it proper. I don't mind the job, but it does not , by any means, fulfill the pet job role..

[LunarEmerald]

It's funny, "pet job" won the 1.x player poll for most wanted job and this game still doesn't have it.

They should rename summoner to something else until they can make it proper. I don't mind the job, but it does not , by any means, fulfill the pet job role..

It feels like Summoner is more like a Witch Doctor job where you inflict disease (dots) and spread it to others.

[AnaviAnael]

It's funny, "pet job" won the 1.x player poll for most wanted job and this game still doesn't have it.

They should rename summoner to something else until they can make it proper. I don't mind the job, but it does not , by any means, fulfill the pet job role..

Or, instead of renaming it people can accept that this is FFXIV's version of SMN. Summoners have been many things throughout the FF series. Rydia was a BLM, Yuna/Garnet/Eiko were WHMs, in XI it was a pet focused job, in XIV it's dot mage. Instead of constantly asking for a complete rework of the job (a decision which may upset more people than it pleases), or a rename, why not ask for an actual pet focused job like beastmaster or puppetmaster?

[Stitches1974]

Rydia was a BLM,

Rydia was a summoner that could only use black magic. She was NOT a BLM.

"Rydia, sometimes referred to as Rydia of Mist, is a playable character in Final Fantasy IV and its sequel, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. She is a Summoner from the village of Mist, and is one of the most prominent characters in the game.

[Silverquick]

One of the strongest Classes in the game... and you're bitching about it?

Seriously?

Man... thats how you lose credibility very quickly...

Walk away from this and don't look back..

[Ririta]

One of the strongest Classes in the game... and you're bitching about it?

Seriously?

Man... thats how you lose credibility very quickly...

Walk away from this and don't look back..

I don't care about having any credibility with someone who can't see the difference between gameplay preferences and DPS numbers.

WoW still looks like n64 game 0_0;; dam

I can't say for sure since I didn't play back then yet, but judging by the mounts and pets, it seems to be a screenshot from Wrath. Warlocks don't even have Metamorphosis anymore :P