SMN - Most Glaring Issues

[Zarabeth]

I agree with the op that things do need to be fixed. I've taken to using energy drain instead of bane as bane messes up my rotation at least half the time. If no need for energy drain (full of mp) i go with another painflare. I also try to move back before popping Bahamut. It's not like we can't hit our target from across the room anyway.

[Neela]

(snip) But just blatantly shrinking the Lord of Dragons after we just received him as an immediate FIX.... I think NOT!

yeah! :3 #Xio4president

[Gallus]

Your suggestion sounds a lot more complicated than just making bahamut a bit smaller. Being able to move bahamut would require some change in the programming, also, it would be bad because the time it takes you to move it you are missing out on wyrmwaves, so bad solution. Making Bahamut transparent or making a toogle so that other players can decide not to see it works too, but is far more drastic than just making it smaller. I honestly don't get you guys, you are fine with making him transparent or invisible to other players, but you are so adamant to slightly reducing its size?
With all due respect this makes no sense...

[Neela]

making him "slightly" smaller wouldn't solve the "problem" itself - making him as small as Ruda is right now, won't fit him in lore. so yeah toogle might be the best option imo: those who complain can just "delete" him out of their screens - those who wanna see him in fullsize can enjoy him without being a punchingball for complainers – win/win i would say : /

[inhaledcorn]

I've been thinking about how SMNs got shafted this expansion (it's arguable who got it worse between SMN and SCH, but they're both pretty bad off), and here's what I would do:
1) new trait for SMN: This trait is a sort of replacement for the lost Enhanced Pet actions. Instead of increasing spell speed (which wasn't that great a buff), each crit on a pet action or DoT tick has a chance (tentatively 5%) of reducing Aetherflow cooldown or grants an Aetherflow stack. This can help ease the burden of mistakes (and god forbid death). However, I don't know if the current gamestate can allow the addition of a single Aetherflow. (tbc)

[inhaledcorn]

2) Ruin IV, DWT, and Summon Bahamut: DWT in 4.0 doesn't work as nicely as it did in 3.0. Before, since you could Fester 3 times to build Aethertrail, there was a rather nice ebb and flow between DWT burst periods and Aethertrail build periods (give or take the limited duration of Aethertrail stacks). Now, however, DWT keeping the same duration but quicker activation makes things flow less wonderfully. Rather, I think having Ruin IV be a DWT extender would make the Job more interesting and more appealing from a cool standpoint. Constantly channeling the power of Bahamut? Sign me up! (tbc)

[inhaledcorn]

Sure, Deathflare takes a nosedive in usefulness (it becomes the new Tornado Kick) unless they make it more like how Geirkosgul (I likely butchered that spelling) used to be, but that might be more complexity than they want in a Job. And, like how BLM is now, maybe for every 30s or so in DWT, you get a buff that allows you to summon Demi Bahamut for 10-15 seconds. For funsies, as long as Demi Bahamut is out, you can use Aetherflow actions without needing to spend Aetherflow. There ya go, SMN gets its big summon, they're less DoT based and more damage spell based, and they get to blow shit up on a global scale like BLM does. Sure, all sorts of potencies probably need to go down to balance this, but WOULD THIS NOT BE AWESOME?!

Also, Devotion needs to be a buff the SMN gives out and not the pet, and Tri-bind needs to have an increased potency, to 60-or-so.

[Vallhallix]

Your suggestion sounds a lot more complicated than just making bahamut a bit smaller. Being able to move bahamut would require some change in the programming, also, it would be bad because the time it takes you to move it you are missing out on wyrmwaves, so bad solution. Making Bahamut transparent or making a toogle so that other players can decide not to see it works too, but is far more drastic than just making it smaller. I honestly don't get you guys, you are fine with making him transparent or invisible to other players, but you are so adamant to slightly reducing its size?
With all due respect this makes no sense...

You reduce the size of my Bahamut, I will transfer to Ragnarok, and i'm coming for you, Gallus. We will protest naked in the streets of every major city, and I assure you, you don't want to see Au Ra naked, it's not pretty. We shall form the largest fps destroying line you have ever seen. Until we all get bored and eventually queue up for something.

[AristocraticCorgi]

Things that I think could improve SMN substantially:

1. Make Bahamut smaller, it's quite a nuisance to raid with him around and I am sure that other members of my static feel the same but they are polite and don't mention it. It's too cumbersome.
2. Summon Bahamut should be an OGCD, not something we use Aethertrail to have access to. If we die, that's it, our DPS will be drastically lowered in the process as we lose our aethertrail attunement.
3. Make Shadow Flare a DoT again, please, SMN was supposed to be a DoT management based class. It doesn't look that way nowadays.
4. Remove the lock on Aether stacks while in DWT, what's the point of that anyways?
5. Make bane great again, please. Bane in its current state is kind of pathetic.
6. Make death flare great again as well, let all the mobs suffer the SMN's wrath!
7. Make devotion applicable to all party members. As it is right now we can't even control WHO GETS IT! That is so absurd.

Thank you.

[ElasmoFan]

There's no way with all the demand for a traditional summon, they're going to change the size of bahamut, especially not without an insane amount of fallback since they gave it to the summoners that have been wanting it only to take it away again. Even if it's more work, it makes more sense for them to offer a toggle (and let's be honest, mch got one for gauss barrel) so players can just manually have it off or to just let it sit where it was summoned.

I do think there are a some tweaks and small changes that need to be made as a whole to the job though I don't think it's as sky is falling as some seem to make it out to be.