Necromancer Identity Crisis

[xJimmehx]

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Oh, of course not! That would be horrid. I ment moves that use false "items" that arent actually there. Something like mudras does sound cool. Even slots with random effects would amuse me.

[ZhaneX]

Not like it would be hard to rename Summoner. What with the Job's lore being that it's an artifact of Ancient Allag, it'd be super easy for the quest-relevant characters to discover new information revealing that "Summoner" was a mistranslation of what the Allagans called it, thus revealing the "Real" name.

[Blueyes]

Summoner is the primary DPS job that I play. I actually really enjoy the combat style, however, the assumption cannot be made that everyone that actively plays as a Summoner believes that what we have is a well-conceived interpretation of the job because I am not one of them. I wholeheartedly agree with the stance that the job feels and plays like a Necromancer more than anything. Swap out the egi with undead and no one would bat an eye.

The only part that makes the job feel like a Summoner, in my opinion, is the Dreadwyrm Trance and Deathflare combo (and even then I feel inclined to say that Ninja's new frog summon abilities does it better). Now I'm not necessarily saying that I agree with the decision to not give more power to egi (here's hope that the Stormblood New Actions video won't have the egi sitting there doing absolutely nothing) however I appreciate that they at least gave us something to try appeasing fans who were dissatisfied with the version of Summoner we had at level 50 which was little more than a poison mage.

I consider it unlikely that we will receive "Reworked Summoner" as a new job down the line which is why I hope that with each increase in level we will see Summoner taking leaps and bounds towards reaching that Summoner experience so many players wish to have.

[Shurrikhan]

What you are suggesting is ludicrous. They can not simply go back and change all the FFXIV lore, story lines, quests, and everything with summoners in them.
This is the card we are dealt with and we should learn to enjoy it.

Perhaps its been too long since I've rewatched the ACN/SMN cutscenes, but I can't recall any of that saying why we ended up DoT-centric or why our pets have such limited contribution. Nor is there much explicit text or explanation that would conflict with the majority of requested reworks. Even the term "Egi" is rarely enough defined as to take more than some dozen lines of adjustment if the concept were to be changed to <the brief appearance of an primal's image before a like manifestation of aether into a powerful spell> rather than <a persistent unit with access to like elements of magic through 2 basic skills and 2 unique abilities>; the only issue then would be the combat against the Egis in the quests themselves, assuming the term couldn't take either meaning contextually... And, at the same time, most of the requests for a more functional and effective pet presence in Summoner gameplay could be met without making anywhere so drastic a change. I really don't see what, lore-wise, is preventing a more Summoner-like (or otherwise more engaging) Summoner.

[magnanimousCynic]

Perhaps its been too long since I've rewatched the ACN/SMN cutscenes, but I can't recall any of that saying why we ended up DoT-centric

SMN is DoT-centric because that's the ACN part of SMN where we use Arcanima for dealing damage, which just happens to be DoTs.

Besides, letting SMNs do flashy summons often would be asking for terrible lag in 24-man duties or 72-man PVP if a pre-made decided to troll with multiple SMNs.

[Shurrikhan]

SMN is DoT-centric because that's the ACN part of SMN where we use Arcanima for dealing damage, which just happens to be DoTs.

And where in the geometric/tactical motifs given to the Arcanists did it explain "this is why we give people diseases" or tell us that to Arcanist is to "DoT em up, bro"? Really, the "lore" leaves these surface matters pretty well untouched. Significant amounts of gameplay can be changed without actually having to go back and replace much, if any, text.

[Silverquick]

As for SilverQuick, stop throwing shade at people who aren't happy with the massive overhaul 3.0 did to jobs.

They main'ed those jobs long before you even started playing, most stop playing because of the slap in the face it was. For everyone who started playing FFXIV after 3.0, the main complaint is simple. back in 2013 SE added a "pet" job called Summoner that played very similar to vanilla WoW Warlock, which is fine since BLM cover the glass cannon dps. We had our beefs like tri-disaster, egi size and appearance, and Garuda's contagion. Yoshi-P said in the next expansion we could expect to get Ramuh, Shiva, and Levi as pets. Then 3.0 hit and we got a Bahamut head with pew pew lasers. The problem is, like many other "enhancements" 3.0 did to other jobs, it didn't further the original design people played for 2 years.

If you think veteran summoner's are mad, go talk to Veteran Bards and how much they enjoyed wanderer's minuet.

Yeah I get that... but dude... lets face reality here.

The changes in 3.0 and moving towards the Dreadwyrm Trance and Bahamut Teraflare really ARE the direction people wanted to go with. The job is much more powerful... and popular than it ever was.

This one is starting to fit the actual FF Summoner.

Some of these people really are just living in their own little world.

While I understand they want to go backwards to the old version of the job or the half assed version that was the FFXI summoner. The reality is, that old FFXIV Summoner was incredibly unpopular... and by all accounts weak. And I can personally vouch for how crappy the old FFXI Summoner was too.

The people who actually play the job want to move in the direction of the Heavensward changes... that IS what really made the job good and fun to play.

As to the old Arcanist powers that are still with the SMN, I have no problem with it, because it was the BASE job... and the Summoner was the Prestige job. So I accept it still will use the old powers of the base job as a base layer to work from with the additions of the things you learned later as a Summoner.

Nothing wrong with that, given the history of the individual who started as an Arcanist and how he became a Summoner and is still learning how to be one.

Still no one can argue with the fact the Heavenward changes have made the job incredibly popular and powerful now.

[Nerisu]

I think the best thing they can do now is just change the animations and names of the Bio and Miasma spells into something more related to the other primals when the SMN soul crystal is equipped to at least make it feel like Dissidia Yuna. I don't see them doing it though but who know?

I'm more worried about the animations of the next egi-glams, though (that is, if we're still getting actual egis and not just more recolored carbies). I don't want to see something like Ramuh-egi farting out wind attacks or Shiva-egi dealing flame damage.

[spelley]

They would never do a massive rewrite like that of an existing class because it would upset the sizable portion of the audience that enjoys the Job/aesthetics as it stands. This would be an order of magnitude more disruptive than the Bard-cast-time change and people lost their minds over THAT. Can you imagine either fundamentally changing the SMN Job as a whole, OR completely warping the aesthetic of the entire Job out from under them? The playerbase would riot, and it'd be completely justified.

[Tsilyi]

I accepted the disappointment that was Summoning magic in XII, XIII, and XV. It's why I'm largely disenchanted with the Final Fantasy franchise.

what did you prefer summoning to be like?