So about Summoner...

[Megguido]

Though it's very comfy to have a RDM in the team when you're going in a brand new fight and you don't know / never did the mechanics. RDM can cover some of the party's mistake (a verraise in dungeon can save the run if the healer stood into stupid and died for example).

We're not quite on a competitive game where balance is key. Only a tiny fraction of the playerbase is actually in competition for speedkill runs and ultimate world first. Should the GDs balance the jobs around this ? And take the risk of having some jobs absolutely OP or useless at casual levels ?

LoL is a great example of this GD dilemma. There's a champ which is overpowered at competitive level, so they nerf it to a point pros can use it and not roflstomp their opponents. But then, once nerfed, the champion is complete garbage for casual players. So they either make it balanced for 0.01% of the playerbase and have fair competitions, or balance it for the majority and have the champ banned 100% of the time.

SE probably took the opposite decision and chose to balance jobs around the majority of the playerbase. Wouldn't BLM be insanely powerful outside of optimized raid teams if it were balanced to match DRG or BRD's damage in the same conditions ?