If you were part of the DEV team what adjustment will you make to Summoner?

[IlSire]

I wrote something in the 4.06 changes thread, it's basically this:

I like the design behind our current SMN; dot mage building up resources for a big summon burst is a good concept and it's a nice callback to the roots of the job in Final Fantasy.

The problem is that the job feels very clunky, has only caster friendly utility, is doomed to have useless ability slots due to being linked with SCH (like Phisick) and the egi situation is overall a big mess.

My personal view:

The first thing that I think should have been done long time ago is to detach SMN and SCH but I guess that can't happen anytime soon, sharing basic ACN abilities is bad for both and brings us to situations where we have useless skills on our bar (Phisick) which could be swapped for something useful (Sustain).

Bane is in a very bad spot right now, it's almost pointless on very big pulls and kind of defeats the entire point of it being our main AoE skill, it should be buffed back.

The Ruin family of skills is also kind of a mess, we are supposed to spam Ruin, a level 1 skill at level 70, because it's mana efficient...but we really don't want to since it's a big dps loss and forces SMNs to resort to hardcast Ruin III...which is supposed to be our "Use only under DWT" ability.
I suggest to have Ruin III entirely replace Ruin when it's unlocked (with Ruin mp cost) and have it upgrade to Ruin IV temporarly when under DWT.
This gives us a better spammable ability, moves away Ruin IV from the rng roulette and saves us a spot in our bar.

SMN utility is kind of bizarre: Magic vulnerability provided by Contagion is nice but forces us into a single egi and doesn't even last long enough for the entire Bahamuth summon.
Devotion is also not good in its current form: as it is now it's basically a choice between using it randomly and hope it doesn't go to the healer or move near someone else and lose personal dps...and also hope that person wont move away during that.
I think it should be either a party wide buff, mimicking the Balance card or at the very least turn it into a selectable ability so we have actual control on who gets it.

Demi-Bahamuth is a good idea and it's a great way to make FFXIV SMNs feel like an actual Summoner...however even that is very clunky, like the entire job itself right now.
Making it smaller won't really change anything except forcing SMNs who want to keep it as it is now to be bullied by other people in the party.
I think the best idea would be to leave it as it is now but have it filtered out like any other spell effect in the configuration panel.
It should also not move at all (it's not like it has range issues) giving SMNs control on where to put it (and it's not like it stays out for long) and use Wyrmwaves as normal autoattacks: forcing SMN to use every instant spell (Addle included) to get more Wyrmwaves is not good design and takes most of the fun away from summoning Bahamuth (omg must spam everything before it goes away!!!).
A bit of a peeve of mine but I also think that Enkindle Bahamuth should make it Cast Mega Flare instead of Akh Morn. Having your level 70 ability cast...the very same spell you have been casting since level 60 is a bit boring and not that rewarding, Mega Flare is the classical Bahamuth signature ability in Final Fantasy and would make for a nicer spectacle (same damage, just a different graphical effect).

And then we get to the Egis.
Egis have always been a problem since the release of ARR, we were promised more of them but then the entire job philosophy changed with DWT (and Demi Bahamuth) and they are basically just there, stuck as relics form the past with no clear design.
Not to mention that we basically use the very same one (Garuda) since ARR aswell, with Ifrit being ok but not quite (say goodbye to Contagion!) and Titan being totally useless even for solo activities (not to mention that Bahamuth sends it away, showing incoherence into the entire design of the job).
If I may suggest something I'd say to just...scrap them and rework it so we only have one, making "Summon" a generic ranged egi built mostly around Garuda, removing the knockback ability and putting in Radiant Shield giving us more utility without having to choose between that and Contagion.
This would turn the Egi into our generic support pet and free Summon II and III ability slots which could become something more useful (Sustain? Passive Pet healing trait?)
Carbuncles, Ifrit, Titan etc can become glamour skins, this will also make everyone able to use their favourite pet whenever they want and SE may even add more of them in the future.

SMN has been my main job since 2.0, I still like it and I can see what the devs wanted the class to be and I'm not complaining about turning it into something totally different.
However the job still has major polishing issues and I really hope we'll have our fixes eventually, FFXIV never had that big class balance issues but the situation as of now is pretty dire, I hope to be able to keep on playing the class I like even in "serious" content.

[Raikai]

Someone also suggested that SMNs should keep the carbuncles as the basic pets and make the Egis - I like that idea very much, and the carbuncles would still be unique, since SCH use faeries anyway.

[inhaledcorn]

I posted some ideas earlier, but, after reading around, I'm making some changes.

1) Devotion instead becomes a team buff, or it gets replaced with the "Rot" idea as suggested by Silkerin. I would rather the latter than the former, especially since I hear SMN mains upset they lost Bio I in the SB release. (The Devotion change is probably easier to implement since it's already in the game whereas Rot would need to be created). In addition, Rot could cost Aetherflow, giving SMN another good single-target Aetherflow action. (Alternatively, they could get both, putting Rot in at 45 since SMN no longer has a lv45 Job skill due to the loss of Spur).

2) Bane gains a trait on SMN that has it no longer cost Aetherflow. I heard SMNs complain that, when going into DWT, they can't spread the stronger DoTs granted by the reset Tri-Disaster. This should help with that.

3) I agree with others that Ruin III should upgrade into Ruin IV automatically when in DWT, and Ruin III automatically upgrades from Ruin I when learned.

4) Instead of Quickened Enkindle Trait, it is instead a Quickened Aetherflow trait that lowers the cooldown of Aetherflow for every Ruin IV cast while in DWT. Tentatively going with 5s, but, basically, SMN wants to aim for an Aetherflow cooldown of 30s, so that Demi-Bahamut is available every minute. This can also help slightly in the event of death.

5) Also agreeing with Silkerin with redefining Titan Egi as an AoE focused pet rather than a tank pet (as in its basic ability is an AoE but doesn't generate Enmity). I think instead of a speed buff for Ifrit, though, one of his cooldowns should be replaced with a gap closer (and Ifrit will automatically attack another enemy should the first go down instead of running back to the SMN, then running back to the mobs to attack the next one).

6) Tri-Bind gets buffed to 50 potency normally and 70 potency in DWT.

[Saefinn]

My thought on this, taking it further, let's face it, my idea of 2 jobs is less viable. I feel like instead, based on a proc or a stance, SMN moves could be replaced by avatar moves, which replaces your egi with the avatar during the animation. They are more powerful, but slows the job down, for the balance. It could be a proc, a stance or to replace Dreadwyrm.
Examples:
Shadowflare -> Inferno
Tridisaster -> Judgement Bolt (electric versions of the dots)
Bane -> Whirlwind (maybe apply original Contagion to the baned DoTs)
Painflare -> Diamond Dust
Fester -> Tidal Roar (only works with Judgement Bolt, water + electricity = damage)

Not an idea that has to work exactly like this, but I think a principle that could work. Preferably as a stance, it can allow you to hit harder and be more effective but slows the job down, 1) to allow animations to work and 2) to allow both stances to be viable for content.

[Mature]

Some of the ideas for SMN in this thread are absolutely insane. Cheers for sharing and hopefully team is looking at them.

[Elkanah]

Giving a katana sword to him and renaming the job to "Sammuner" would solve most of the DPS and rotation problems. *duck* *cover* :-P

I snickered, I'm sorry.

[AxelDH]

They could give Summoners a new ability called 'Summon RDM'. This powerful spell calls upon a Red Mage to take the summoners place in battle.

[Neela]

They could give Summoners a new ability called 'Summon RDM'. This powerful spell calls upon a Red Mage to take the summoners place in battle.

Honestly I would really love to see a Mime character cls in the future - I had a lot of fun in Final Fantasy Tactics with Mimes <3



But I doubt if they can't get the pet-system work fluently, they won't be able to adapt this kind of cls to a mmo either ._______.

[Sinsain]

Scrap whatever that little green shit is and put in a real garuda egi, with some booty like in 11

[Dralonis]

Make the summons more temp with massive damage, possibly make them like bahamut where you have a enkindle bahamut( ifrit, and garuda). Depending on which you summon, make Ifrit AoE, Garuda ST or something. Also, get rid of them as pets, just have a bahamut like egi but for Ifrit and Garuda (maybe even make it random eventually and make garuda possibly be replaced by shiva and Ramuh replace Ifrit and what not). have dreadwyrm refresh aetherflow and when bahamut is gone (and the dreadwyrm stacks falls off so you don't just go straight into dreadwyrm again right after bahamut), or get rid of Dreadwyrm and maybe aetherflows.

it is in tune with SMNs lore in the past games to make them only there for a short bursts like Bahamut, scale them down slightly, and would no longer need crappy egi's. Personally, I don't care for dots either.