Quote Originally Posted by Niqote View Post
Honestly, I think the problem with SMN boils down to the fact that we are the main damage dealers and the summon itself is a tag along, which is not something that many people want in a Summoner.
In most other FF games, FFXI included; the GF/Aion/Primal is the power (DPS/Support) behind the ability to actually summon. In XIV we give the mobs a terrible flu and then we blow them up with Akh Morn while the Egi chips away and is otherwise forgettable other then a few minor cooldowns (simplified).
I can see the argument that making the pet more important something SMN is lacking. I think that is a pretty fair criticism. They could probably make it more like WoW's BM hunter where the hunter used abilities to trigger attacks from their pet. Honestly part of the issue could be the fact that SMN is shackled to Arcanist and as such has its spell pool. The only way to solve that would be to remove it from a class and do a total overhaul. Sadly that would probably cost us a new job from a future expansion so I can see why it might not be a popular idea for the devs.

I think a realistic question is what can they do, while keeping the existing link to Arcanist, to make SMN feel more SMN? Building more synergy with the pet I suppose.