Why Summoner Needs Help

[Dyvid]

Okay so here is my list of changes:

Aetherflow: Change it so were a "miss" doesn't cost a stack of AF. This would make the system a lot more forgiving when players make mistakes.

Devotion: This is a tough one for me. Either have it where the SMN can select the player to buff or give it an AoE splash to near by players.

Pet Enkindle: Now this seems so low in DPS considering it's the signature move of your pet. 180s recast but does less damage than Death flare that SMN does every minute. Part of me thinks a huge potency increase would fix it while another part thinks about just replacing Death flare with Enkindle and adjust damage potency to make it equal to DF. You could even rename DeathWyrm Trance to Eikon Trance and even make it to where pets would become a little bigger, hume size, and similar to the actually Primal. Either way Enkindle needs some work.

Demi-Bahamut: Ah the big guy. Honestly I don't like the optimal way to use him; waiting for AF so you can spam as many Wyrmwaves as possible. The community hates that he is in the way. Many feel his sneeze is unimpressive and Ahk Mohr and Deathflare are too similar. Maybe he should be reworked into a real pet; still temporary but has a pet bar and abilities.

Give him say 30s of staying power with his abilities Wyrmwave - 3s recast, Mega-Flare - 10s recast, Akh Mohr - 20s recast, Embolden - Increases rate at which target takes direct hit by __%, and Tera-Flare as his Enkindle.
Give him Range Caster AI meaning he'll stay in one place and cast similar to Summon I instead of following the SMN.

[Angry_Evil]

Well summoner damage buffs are pretty smalls. Devotion is overall dps loss if it used for healer that not even do the damage because you have to sacrifice your pet dps using devotion. Devotion delay your wind blade attack by 2 second that is like 14 dps loss from yourself. If you can use it for dps class that do steadily 4k dps that boost the person damage by 33.33 dps over 90 seconds. So average what you gain from devotion is around 20 overall dps. SMN have contagion as well, but majority of setups favor physical damage only. If double caster would be viable SMN would boost other caster around 100 dps, but because blm is so far behind from samurai it is not worth run with double caster. Using radiant shield boost physical damage, but you lose around same amount damage from contagion yourself than what radiant shield bring for the party.

Okay, I don't know if your math is sound (and actually don't care) but after I read this I've got this THOUGHT that actually summoner should do more damage than not only BLM but also SAM because of a single and simple fact that our utilities and skills are STUPID. Like just think about it - we have 2 utility from which devotion is just dumb and weak, and contagion is pretty pointless cause we don't have relevant mage party composition(4 SMN meta here I come). Then we need to pay attention to ridiculous amounts of CDs(aetherflow, pet skills, contagion\RS, enkindle(which is not even consistent cd time), rouse, SF, Addle(!ADDLE lol), 3D etc.) But not only that we also must line them up properly and use them perfectly in time when half of them can't even be used in time cause of stupid pet's ai. And somewhere between all this we need to properly do fight mechanics. Just look at this. And worse of all - even if I DO line up everything and execute everything properly I will still do subpar DPS. This is ridiculous. Job design is ridiculous. Square should fire everybody who designed or came up with this travesty. Seriously.

[Mature]

After doing SSS Ex and V1234 I think SMN needs a bit of a buff to be on par with RDM if not BLM.

A good SMN deals a good chunk damage without buff or food, but it can't be possible that a SAM and BLM are doing much more damage.

I think they should increase Enkindle + Ruin 3/4 damage.

[Angry_Evil]

Literally they didn't say anything useful about SMN on live letter except dumb "bahamut too big" and "we don't know what to do with sustain"... What a joke

[TripPsyc]

This has me a tad worried they talked about a great deal of the job changes to others, but with smn nothing was mentioned besides the bahumut size which won't even be in 4.05. I mean i'll hold out until I see the notes on Tuesday but if there is nothing of substance to address its rotation punishment it is going to affect raid groups. The blm changes alone will widen our gap to even worse than it is now. Groups will be asking why bring smn when rdm will offer just as much while having the easier time with sustainability.

[burgil]

Honestly I haven't been too upset with the changes to SMN. Initially I was really missing my extra dots and the extra bane damage, but I feel the blast damage they've changed us to build is a fairly satisfying replacement in the end. However the rotation is very unforgiving, and while the difficulty can be fun in its own right, it'd be nice to see it tweaked a little so it wasn't so harsh.

Specifically if you accidentally screw up on a stack of aetherflow, you're stuck there waiting until the cooldowns up again; and boy does that feel like the longest 45ish second wait...

I'm also super glad they mentioned sustain in the recent live letter because admittedly for me, out of anything, I miss sustain the most. Titan egi is almost useless without it and it really cuts down on survivability should a 'oh shit' situation arise.

[Ariomi]

Honestly I haven't been too upset with the changes to SMN. Initially I was really missing my extra dots and the extra bane damage, but I feel the blast damage they've changed us to build is a fairly satisfying replacement in the end. However the rotation is very unforgiving, and while the difficulty can be fun in its own right, it'd be nice to see it tweaked a little so it wasn't so harsh.

Specifically if you accidentally screw up on a stack of aetherflow, you're stuck there waiting until the cooldowns up again; and boy does that feel like the longest 45ish second wait...

You do realize that even with Miasma 3 and Bio 3 Summoner's dots went from around 135 potency per tick with all of them to 80 right?
Even Bahamut's Ahk Morn is hardly any increase blast damage.


Old Heavensward Summoner with Raging Strikes had their deathflare hit for around 528 potency total. Currently Ahk Morn and Wyrmwave are scaled down to your pet's potency. Ahk Morn is realistically 544 potency (Less than both Red Mages Verholy/flare and 106 potency less then Black Mage's foul. Black Mages foul is also on a 30 second cooldown)

If you played Summoner in Heavensward and saw what a Summoner could really do... Your opinion would change.

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/vCGkn...pe=damage-done

This is what old Summoner could do. Before the class lost 2 Damage increasing abilities, lost 50 potency on their strongest spell, lost the ability to do an advanced Mechanic where Summoners hold aetherflow to use it in Dreadwyrm trance so they get it buffed.

The class is a shadow of what it once was. And if what the live letter is 100% true, If Summoner receives no buffs the upcoming patch, Summoner will be the lowest dps class, with classes that can do everything Summoner does, But Better.