A topic on SMN egi

[MVX21]

To start off, I've been playing SMN as main since release... or at least since however long after release it took me to get to 30. And since then I like most have been waiting for new egi's, 4 expansions later and still nothing but a practically worthless "glamour" system, however with the pet changes I feel like they now have the opportunity for something better.

Let's be honest, with the way they work now egi's could pretty much not exist. They have a single weak auto attack and then all their other uses are ogcd skills we have to use anyway so, why not scrap them?

Instead of Egi assault 1/2 and enkindle replace them with "demi assault 1/2/3" They added the perfect template for how SMN should work already, ironically on ninja, I'm talking of course about Hellfrog. Have demi assault 1/2/3 summon various demi primals for a single attack hellfrog style and the disappear. And since they seem to love the "evolving" skills lately you can do it any number of ways. Have the demi assault switch after use, demi assault 1 could be Garuda for first use, then it becomes demi Shiva, then demi Lakshmi, etc. That way we can get our new summons while not having a whole bunch of extra buttons. Or have what phase of your rotation switch it. Garuda in base, Shiva in DWT, Lakshmi after Bahamut phase.

The way the egi's work now I just feel like they should just remove them since they are just ogcds anyway and actually give us something different. I mean SMN feels kind of gypped this expansion, what did we get? We got Phoenix as a reskin of Bahamut and a pair of fire spells that replace our normal spells while in that phase. If they are going to give us a reskin as our main new toy at least give us more than just the one and reskin the rest for some other primals.

Also side note but with all the evolving skill traits I feel like it's a missed opportunity not to give a trait that evolves Physick into Demi Mog. Put it on a cooldown and make it an AOE, it would be better than the pointless heal on Phoenix.

Anyway I know I didn't really do a good job of getting my point across but i wanted to get my thoughts out there.

TLDR: Ditch Egi altogether and replace Egi assault 1/2 and enkindle with Hellfrog style demi summon attacks of various primals.

[Nyoraii]

I agree 100% with this, Egis now amount to almost nothing, a weak dot and nothing more. Changing it to follow your suggestion would bring SMN closer to the real FF SMN, and not this pseudo Warlock from WoW.

I'd really like for any dev to see this, best suggestion I've seen on this forum.

[Dyvid]

Or we could, I don't know, buff Egi damage? Crazy thought?

[Exodus-E]

As a SMN main, I won't deny that the job proper needs adjustments right now (kinda like what happened from 4.0 -> 4.1).
But changing its "foundations" (ie. relying on Egis) isn't it.

Thus, I completely disagree with people wanting to change Egis into "Demi-Primals".

Especially since those who want them gone are invariably those that:
A) Outright ignore this game's lore.
B) Want the jobs to be "closer" to those in previous FF games, in which case A LOT of others jobs would've to change as well (see: SCH).

(On a side note, I'm sick to death of SMN-related topics "devolving" into the same tired arguments. Seriously people, it's been six years now: it's time to let go.)

Or we could, I don't know, buff Egi damage? Crazy thought?

Now THIS is a more realistic/feasible answer, and I'm on board with it.
But we shall see sooner or later...

[MVX21]

I mean if you want to talk about outright ignoring lore than that would be Phoenix. Demi Bahamut was explained away as a result of the ambient aether left over from the calamity that allowed you to obtain dreadwyrm/demi Bahamut even if you didn't do Coil. Phoenix on the other hand is something that you wouldn't even know existed unless you did Coil, and even then you had to attune and absorb that aether to learn dreadwyrm. So how is FBT and Demi Phoenix suppsed to work lorewise for those who never did Coil?
What I want is for SMN abilities to feel interesting and impactful, with the changes made to egis they are now functionally near nonexistent. They have an auto attack and other than that every skill they have is a player skill now. If they want to keep egis to maintain lore that's fine but that doesn't invalidate the desire to have access to different primals.

[Exodus-E]

I mean if you want to talk about outright ignoring lore than that would be Phoenix. Demi Bahamut was explained away as a result of the ambient aether left over from the calamity that allowed you to obtain dreadwyrm/demi Bahamut even if you didn't do Coil. Phoenix on the other hand is something that you wouldn't even know existed unless you did Coil, and even then you had to attune and absorb that aether to learn dreadwyrm. So how is FBT and Demi Phoenix suppsed to work lorewise for those who never did Coil?

While I agree that it's disappointing that there wasn't any in-game justification for it (yet), there is a plausible theory for it:
When we unlocked our Dreadwyrm Trance over Carteneau, we must've also (unknowingly) unlocked Firebird's, since both Bahamut and Phoenix dispersed there.

The rest follows naturally, with us developing it further (like we did with DWT) to create Demi-Phoenix.

[MVX21]

While I agree that it's disappointing that there wasn't any in-game justification for it (yet), there is a plausible theory for it:
When we unlocked our Dreadwyrm Trance over Carteneau, we must've also (unknowingly) unlocked Firebird's, since both Bahamut and Phoenix dispersed there.

The rest follows naturally, with us developing it further (like we did with DWT) to create Demi-Phoenix.

It's been a while but did they ever explicity say when he became Phoenix? My understanding was that it happened post calamity as a result of his actions being partly "deified" since Primals tend to be born from the faith and fervor of those who believe in them. I could be wrong in this case I admit since as I said, I can't remember exactly since its been years since the Coil story lol. Even still the fact that it becomes something we would just one day notice we have as a SMN doesn't fit form me. Every other egi and primal related aspect has required us to attune to and focus on drawing out the specific aether of the primals essence.

[MVX21]

You could, but that has nothing to really do with what I'm talking about. I mentioned the low damage of egi auto attacks mainly to point out how functionally pointless they are. The egi could quite frankly not exist since the only thing it actually does that isn't a player skill anyway is their auto. They basically amount to a replacement weapon for SMN to allow them ranged auto attacks now so they may as well scrap them for something more interesting that would allow us to finally get new primals.

[RyoXander]

Summoner has always been my favorite job/class/character in the FF series since i first played FFIV with Rydia.
This game's SMN is not a real SMN, not even close. The Egis are laughable. They should change the job title to something else, make the Egis some other type of mob, and then create an actual SMN job. There is little hope in creating what SMN needs to be from the scraps of the SMN job we have now.

[Cled-cat]

Egi’s have outstayed themselves. Bring on more Demi-Summons instead!