SMN - boring and neglected

[stupiddog]

Apart from the obvious issues (need to do an excellent rotation to match the DPS of a mediocre RDM or BLM), there is a more pressing problem for me in 4.x:

I am bored. Seriously.

Yes, the 3.x SMN rotation was difficult. Carefully choosing when to pull your DWT was cruicial for being an effective DPS. Since Aetherflow abilities are now completely cut off in DWT, this has gone. And yes, so has the fun. I miss it. Spamming Ruin-3 all day is BORING.

I don't blame the RDM for being able to rez - this is central of what a RDM is supposed to be, and the job has every right to have it. However, when the SMN has (vastly) inferior DPS compared to BLM and RDM, I expect something in return, which would be utility. The weak Devotion, which also is next to impossible to target to a specific player, does not cut it by a wide margin.

To end my post with something constructive, here are a few ideas:
- Restore Sustain. This is not raid-relevant, but it would make Titan-Egi somewhat useful again.
- Make Ifrit-Egi USEFUL. Not useful as in "for one fight in a series of twelve, in a specific situation (T11)", but _actually_ useful as a general-purpose pet. Radiant Shield could be something really good, but it needs much more oooooompf. Also, Titan-Egis dies way too often (esp. without sustain) - fix that. Make him move around quicker - it is way too slow.
- Restore the two DoTs at least to the potency the three DoTs previously had.

And, most importantly, this is NOT something you devs can delay until 4.2. Obviously, a lot of time has already been let pass since 4.0 without doing anything substantially, and lots of people are already switching jobs.

[XenabelleS]

Ya I was shocked last night : on my level 50 SMN in 115 gear with some Ironworks, when I started in Heavensward, it would take over 30 seconds to down a single normal mob.

Last night I got my BLM to 50 and with just a few more pieces of Ironworks, I can down a mob in 4 casts (~10 seconds).

I'm seriously considering switching.

[Greedalox]

Ya I was shocked last night : on my level 50 SMN in 115 gear with some Ironworks, when I started in Heavensward, it would take over 30 seconds to down a single normal mob.

Last night I got my BLM to 50 and with just a few more pieces of Ironworks, I can down a mob in 4 casts (~10 seconds).

I'm seriously considering switching.

As much as SMN isn't in the best place right now, never use a level 50 class as a benchmark. A lot of classes change from 50-70 (All of them)

[Guulu]

I'm not a SMN main but I played a bit SMN recently, I really don't get the change for SMN in this patch. Yes it does make it less punishing for using fester before dots are applied but that is not the factor why SMN is doing bad now. Any decent SMN shouldn't encounter that problem at all and it just feels bad doing so little damage for very long rotation with rarely a mistake. Also I'm using lucid dreaming as much as possible since Ruin III is needed to reach okay dps. Devotion is pretty weak and contagion is kinda distracting to use. Also demi bahamut is really causing troubles in fight. Hope SE really fix SMN soon.

[Claviusnex]

I'm not a SMN main but I played a bit SMN recently, I really don't get the change for SMN in this patch. Yes it does make it less punishing for using fester before dots are applied but that is not the factor why SMN is doing bad now. Any decent SMN shouldn't encounter that problem at all and it just feels bad doing so little damage for very long rotation with rarely a mistake. Also I'm using lucid dreaming as much as possible since Ruin III is needed to reach okay dps. Devotion is pretty weak and contagion is kinda distracting to use. Also demi bahamut is really causing troubles in fight. Hope SE really fix SMN soon.

One of the problems with Fester and Bane that isn't a player error is you can show your DoTs up on the client but they haven't hit yet on the server or they show up near the end on the client but have already timed our of the server. The change helps this situation as well as the player mistakes. In either case missing one Aethertrail resulted in some pretty heavy punishment as not only did you have to wait for Aetherflow to come off CD but you also wasted any unused Aether once the bar filled.