How Would You Do... Summoner?

[Okamimaru]

Incorrect...

Its never a pet job... ever, with only a few exceptions... one is FFXI... which that model doesn't fit this game...

The rest it was always a large flashy nuke... a one large single target AoE hit that wipe out enemies...

Which is exactly what Deathflare currently does... what few if any of them ACTUALLY have... is a pet that sticks around.

FF10 summons could be controlled and even leveled up.... ff12 summons rampaged around beside you until the skill wore off usually with a nuke to end it's rampage...ff13 had summons that could be controlled while they were summoned as well... in addition to what you've said about 11... seems to me they wanted to go more summon control... 10, 11, 12, 13... by your logic because most of the series is turned based 14 should be too...

[Lambdafish]

FF10 summons could be controlled and even leveled up.... ff12 summons rampaged around beside you until the skill wore off usually with a nuke to end it's rampage...ff13 had summons that could be controlled while they were summoned as well... in addition to what you've said about 11... seems to me they wanted to go more summon control... 10, 11, 12, 13... by your logic because most of the series is turned based 14 should be too...

14 is a massive callback to the original game pre-7 though. I think the new Bahamut animation perfectly captures what SMN should be, a job about big flashy summon animations that are temporary. Summons aren't iconic for being persistent, they are iconic for their signature attack, regardless of how later games (post sakaguchi bear in mind) have tried to change things up.

Saying that SMN is about pets is like saying that RDM is a pure caster with support skills.