How can we be DoT Mages with no DoTs?

[Shurrikhan]

People complained about Summoners being DoT mages and not summoners. They are clearly trying to fix that.

I'm going to plop my response in another thread directly in here. You still have dots, but thats not exactly the point. You need to start looking at how your job works AS A WHOLE. Not just 2 or 3 actions.

This doesnt just apply to SMN but to ALL jobs. You must look at your job's kit as a cohesive unit. Not just bits and pieces of a unfinished puzzle.
SMN has alot more dynamics now than just cast some dots and spread them all over. Now you can do that and so much more. Your pets have a greater purpose now as well instead of just using Garuda for contagion.

Well, it's not about to be fixed by leaving the filler just as numbingly dull after removing one of the few parts that felt decent on the job, such as the three DoTs down and three DoTs back flow of Bio II, Miasma, Bio.

And the fact that there were 3 of them is what made their AoE damage burst not quite insane.

Instead, SMN has effectively lost their ST focus options in AoE, as Painflare will always do at least as much damage as Fester, and longer-term AoE has been badly gimped. I'll admit that SMN AoE may have been a bit too strong this expansion, but when SE actively reduces some of the AoE penalty on BLM AoE (e.g. minimum 70% damage on Flare, up from 50%) and allows for more frequent Flare usage, it's far from in sync with other job's progression or apparent design ideology. BLM was not nearly so far behind as to not simply flip the imbalance on its head—and then some—now.

...And then there's SCH.

For an expansion that allegedly prioritized balance, it seems like two out of every three changes are trying to distance themselves from exactly that.