Quote Originally Posted by fogboundturtle View Post
Yes , the fact that I am unable to use a pet as a tank is the biggest downfall of all summoner. It was the essence of playing SMN in the FFXI Online days. Sent your pet first to slaughter while your DPS down the mob down as much as you can before it comes running towards you and finish it. I an only level 54 but I found group of mobs really difficult to survive as a SMN. While my SCH can heals and survive for days, my SMN gets mowed down pretty quick. It comes down to an issue that was mention multiple time before. We have too many skill on GCD. So I get a wave of 3 enemies (MSQ stuff), I burned all my cooldown to get it down which leaves me very little for the next wave. By the time the 3rd wave is in, I am praying my cooldown are done so I can burn them all again.

Seriously, I had to switch to SCH to be able to do some quest. I just stand there and spam BIO, Ruin II all day while throwing an occasion heal. I can do this for a very long time. My ability to survive is bar to non compare to SMN. If we are going to be frail, we need more DPS to compensate. I think getting rid of some of the GCD would achieve that.
I mean, SCH is a healer. Tanks can also pull large groups of mobs and burn them down without dying. All DPS, and I mean all of them, have varying degrees of trouble soloing groups of mobs, and this has been true since ARR. SMN was an exception to this because of Titan-Egi, now it's the same as all the other DPS in that it can't aoe large groups without a very strong risk of dying. It just comes with the territory of not realistically being able to increase your effective health at any point in the fight.