My Thoughts on the 5.0 Media Tour Build of SMN

[CecMiller]

Hey there guys!

I was pretty hyped watching the new SMN abilities in the 5.0 live letter - they look great with the addition of another demi summon (lets face it, we got the better, new & shiny fire animations over BLM). I like the direction its headed in and can only hope for more demi-summons down the line. However, I have grievances over certain mechanical aspects of the new SMN cycle which I feel have changed for the worse. Also there will be some fluff so I'll get the main points out of the way soon.

This will be about the current SMN we saw in the Shadowbringers Media Tour build. I am aware that things are always subject to change – especially from the Media Tour build. But nevertheless, this is my feedback on the current look of EVERYTHING about SMN going into 5.0. This might be a long post so here is a TL;DR of the most important bits:

• Dreadwyrm Trance (DWT)/Firebird Trance (FBT) – Now inflexible. We MUST use it immediately to maintain alignment with raid buffs and not delay the summon cycle possibly even during downtime aka wasting some of our “burst” periods (if the right conditions were to occur). Worse than current AF as a “stress point” as we had time to decide when to use the 3 stacks before AF was up again in 60s meaning it was flexible as we could enter DWT whenever we wanted. Importantly, doesn’t solve the waiting for SMN’s AF problem currently as you can use it outside of combat so you could end up waiting for SMN regardless if they want to start with Bahamut if it was optimal to do so
  
  
• Aetherflow (AF) – Can no longer be used outside of combat. Still a “stress point”, but certainly not as important as before when it was linked to our SMN cycle. It is still a barrier for important damage OGCDs. Downtimes will now feel worse as a result in conjunction with the changes to DWT in all content. Losing up to 900 potency single target if a boss decides to fly away a bit faster for your team compared to others is not fun and a step backwards when compared to newly introduced abilities or gauge elements for other classes which improves their pooling of resources during downtime.
  
  
• Ruin 4 Stacking out of Combat – Currently achievable by swapping between Ifrit and Titan Egi. Can be stacked up to 4 through clever use of Egi Assault actions. This is not fun. I hope to see a change so that we are unable to do this as it would be optimal to do otherwise and would add additional wait time pre-pull if the Summoner was to play “optimally”.

TL;DR ends here.

These are the most important topics I will cover. The rest will mostly be fluff or my general thoughts on the class as a whole. In addition, I will be making use of the following interviews conducted with Yoshida:

Famitsu's Shadowbringers Media Tour Interview

Game Watch Media Tour Interview

I think the above interviews are certainly worth a read.

On deep diving into the new SMN’s mechanical changes I saw a lot of, what I feel are, regressive changes when I compared it to the current iteration of SMN. I play SMN in all pieces of content, but I have lots of experience with it in a raiding environment and so I’ll be offering a window into how many of these changes either negatively impact SMN, aren’t fun or don’t serve the purpose the designers were intending. The latter is important as we can gleam information from recent interviews about SE’s intention with SMN and how the new mechanical changes incorporate that. I’m aware their answers could be born out of a result of misunderstandings or breakdowns in communication, but I found their answers to be very interesting regardless. I hope you will come to see why I think their answers, and why what we have seen so far, does not match with the current SMN iteration in 5.0.

The Important Points:

Aetherflow, Dreadwyrm Trance and Firebird Trance:

A major change was introduced where DWT/FBT are now soley responsible for advancing our SMN cycle when previously it was Aetherflow in conjunction with DWT. On the surface it may seem innocuous, however when compared to the 4.1+ implementation of SMN, I see it has caused a few problems to occur.

DWT/FBT has now become very inflexible compared to 4.1+ implementation of DWT and re-introduced the reportedly “solved” issue of not waiting for Summoners pre-pull. Given certain situations were to occur with regards to fight length of raids, DWT pre-pull may be a reality SMN has to contend with.

Previously:

• Aetherflow to be used on cooldown for 60s. The ability to wait and decide how we wanted to use those stacks optimally for up to 60s (realistically more like 45s). Holding 3 stacks, and not expending them instantly, did not cause you to drift your cycle.
  
  
• DWT could be NOT used on cooldown. We could wait to see when the most appropriate time was to use it (i.e. for mobility reasons, deathflare timing for adds). Drifting only occured if you held it for too long.

Changes in 5.0:

• Energy Drain (Old AF) now on CD for 30s. Can be used on cooldown only if you have a target. Very easy to now lose uses over the course of a fight via downtime if no target is present.
  
  
• DWT/FBT MUST be used on cooldown every 60s for the sake of the SMN cycle. Holding it, and not using it instantly, causes drift to the cycle. Removed the ability to wait and use it at the most appropriate time(for mobility or other reasons) as a result of the impending drift and so has become inflexible.

You could argue the changes itself just means Summoner now is extremely strict with regards to timings than 4.1+ and that it is "intended". However, for me, the flexibility was a very popular aspect as I not only enjoyed the freedom, but feel it was parts of the SMN kit where you could express your “player skill”.

The changes overall speak for themselves. You are now forced into doing things when you previously weren’t. It eliminates player choice due to the penalty that now comes along with it (drifting of the cycle). If it isn’t immediately obvious, drifting of the cycle is bad. You could lose demi-summon usage (bad) and fall out of raid buffs permanently (bad) if you now hold DWT/FBT. This would result in similar issues in all areas of content besides raids i.e.. Dungeons. This doesn’t happen in the current system if you held Aetherflow stacks and expended it and the proceeding DWT within 60s. It is why the old system was really nice to play with.

The other problem, and arguably more important problem, with the new DWT is the fact that you can use it pre-pull.

In the 5.0 build, we see that Summoner cannot use Aetherflow/Energy Drain outside of combat. However, with DWT/FBT now being a 60s CD and being responsible on its own for our cycle, we could have the scenario of waiting 60s for the SMN pre-combat to use DWT to get Bahamut for the opener and so... nothing really changed. In certain situations, this would be the optimal play for the Summoner.

Yoshida has gone on record in an interview linked earlier to specifically say:

“We removed the annoying part of stacking your “Aetherflow” pre-pull as well.

If DWT/FBT can be used out of combat in this way, the problem would still exist as a requirement but for DWT/FBT instead of the old Aetherflow.

Personally speaking, I don’t see why they just did not start SMN with 3 Aetherflow stacks from the start or give them a “Hide” like ability like ninja so we could have Aetherflow ready to go after we used it the first time. This also would have “solved” the problem without introducing entirely new ones such as “AF/Energy Drain cannot be used outside of combat” and for DWT now also requiring the same tag of “cannot be used outside of combat” to avoid waiting for Summoners for 60s (as was the intended goal).

Such a change would have obvious knock-on effects in other pieces of content such as dungeons which will now just feel worse as there are now multiple things you must be in combat for when compared to 4.1+ SMN. In addition to this, changes would have to be made to the coding for Aetherflow stacks to disable them from "persisting on zone change” as covered in Nemekh’s post. The solution of simply giving SMN’s 3 stacks after wipes or entering an instance or even a “hide” ability from ninja would have been a more elegant solution and not cause further issues with other abilities now requiring to be changed so that they feel worse in all other aspects of the game.

Possible solutions:

• Allow AF/Energy Drain to be usable without a target (sacrificing the damage portion of the ability). Further, just start SMN with 2 stacks when they enter an instance and after every wipe. If you specifically want the SMN to start with 0 stacks, just tag the words "during combat only". This solves the problem pre-pull whilst allowing for AF refresh during long downtimes in raids. That said the latter option would be worse for dungeons as you won't be regarded as being in combat in the space between pulls. DWT would also remain inflexible.
  
  
• Further implement a charge system for DWT to retain its flexibility. If you could have DWT stack up to 2 charges after first use, you would gain an extra potential 60s to use DWT/FBT and not "delay" the SMN cycle.
  
  
• Reverting entirely to the old system AF/DWT system. This includes the reliance on Aetherflow/Energy Drain in conjuction with DWT. Changing cooldowns and timers would probably be necessary. Further, give Summoners maximum stacks at the start of battle whilst making it usable without a target. Starts SMN with max stacks, no need to change any rules regarding zoning into areas. Solves downtime issues, makes DWT flexible again. In effect it would feel the same as 4.1+ Summoner does now with everything else sprinkled on. I feel this would have been easier and better than the current 5.0 implementation. However, this is unlikely to be a solution realistically, but hey, I can't say I didnt try.

Whilst the first option would still mean DWT is inflexiblem I personally would want it to be flexible over it being a necessity to be used on CD all for the sake of not drifting our SMN cycle.

Ruin 4 Stacking pre-combat

This will be an extremely short topic. Simply don’t allow it to stack before combat. It wouldn't be fun and would take more time than waiting for AF ever did. It would be a bad joke to supposedly solve the issues of not waiting for SMN’s Aetherflow before combat and introduce something optimal which is far worse in regards to wait time.

Through clever usage of Egi actions and since Earthen Armour (EA1) from Titan and Flaming Crush (EA2) from Ifrit do not share a cooldown, Summoners can effectively gain 4 stacks of Ruin 4 pre-pull.

Example:

1. Use Ifrit's Egi Assault 2 in quick succession. It is on cooldown for 60s now (to get 2 charges) and you have 2x Ruin 4 stacks @30s.
   
2. Swap to Titan and use Egi Assault 1 immediately. 3x Ruin 4 @ 30s stack. Ruin 4 has 1-2s left use it again to have 4x Ruin 4 @30s. You should already have 1 of each Egi Assault back, and be charging the 2nd charge.
   
3. Start countdown timer whenever necessary to have Ruin 4 and have all Egi Assault charges back too (Expending 1 Ruin 4 and using another EA quickly would refresh the entire stack to 30s so you can hold the ruin 4 stacks for later weaving).

I hope I don’t have to explain how silly this sounds, but it would be “optimal” to do so. Please change this.

Possible solutions:

• You can longer gain Ruin 4 Stacks outside of combat.
  
  
• Egi Assault actions are "unable to be used outside of combat".
  
  

I am disappointed that so many of SMN’s skills could now possibly include the text “cannot be usable outside of combat” to cover the design flaws of the new implementation of SMN.

Final Thoughts:

The nature of restricting the use of Aetherflow takes a lot of the “player skill” away with regards to planning the usage of your AF stacks. Pushing phases of bosses before you can refresh AF undeniably worse than the current implementation.

• There exists a situation where a kill time difference of 1-2s could result in at least 1 less ED usage (900 potency) for one player compared to another all because the boss a boss was pushed into their downtime phase a second faster for one player. If the downtimes were in such a way that the boss jumped away frequently in similar intervals (See UCOB), the effect would be magnified as you could lose many usages. I'd rather keep the number of AF charges each player uses consistant with respect to downtime (and ofcourse, pressing the button on CD)

When and how we should also use DWT was also an expression of “player skill” i.e. keeping the ability for upcoming movment.

In addition to this, it strikes me as strange that many classes improved in their ability to “keep their power” during downtimes and SMN effectively lost it. BLM gained additional polygot stacks which require them to do nothing besides press transpose every now and then and the addition of umbral hearts which can be stacked to 3 during downtime very easily. Monk gained additional ways to keep GL4, Ninja gained a way to build charges on Kissatsu and more. I personally would like for us to retain our AF stacks during downtimes, even if potency numbers would have to be tuned to enable this again, and I am disappointed that SMN was taken a step back in this regard whereas others moved forwards.

I also just want to draw attention to Yoshida’s interview answers regarding Summoner. I don’t understand why some issues exist in their current form when every indication has been given to remove them. They said they wanted to remove AF wait pre-pull, but now you can still DWT pre-pull for the same 60s wait. Additionally, there exists a method where we can also stack Ruin 4’s pre-pull which would be considered “optimal” play. I hope this disconnect, whether it is in the form of communication from the balance team to Yoshida or just failing to understand the knock-on effects these changes have is remedied in the near future/future patches or preferably has already been dealt with before 5.0.

This covers what I feel to be the main issues hurting the current iteration of 5.0 SMN. I will now go over my thoughts on other aspects of SMN