SMN changes in 5.08

[Sequora]

Q3: Summoner has many buttons to press and is very busy. Additionally, it bothers me that refreshing DoTs at the timing you activate Dreadwyrm Trance/Firebird Trance causes DoTs to fall off for a few seconds even when using Tri-Disaster. Are there any plans to reduce the amount of button pressing or the adjusting the duration of DoTs?

A3:
The dev. team is working on adjusting the difficulty of needing to press so many buttons. Regarding DoTs, we've received lots of feedback saying that players would like DoT durations extended, but we are instead considering reworking the potency of Ruin spells to be higher dependent on the number of DoTs inflicted on the target.



I’m confused about what Yoshi is saying about DoTs. Higher dependent? Did he mean lower? One of our problems is our dependency on DoTs to buff ruin. Is he saying he wants to increase this further?

[dinnertime]

The impression this gave me is that he wants to increase it further, but some other translations say they want to actually decrease the dependency. Either way it doesn't really solve the DoT falloff problem.

[GUkraine]

Sounds like he's referring to reworking the requirement around ruin needing dots to increase the potency. It's the only way I can read it and have it make sense, otherwise they're literally changing nothing.

In regards to DoT fall off, and it being something that we care/qq about. Just make it so the duration of Miasma and Bio is increased by 3 seconds for each Rune III/Outburst cast upon the target.

[TaiyouSeishin]

Sounds like they are not extending DoT durations asked, but going to buff ruin potency, depending on the amount of dots on the target.

instead of duration increase its just a damage increase?

[Lina_Slayer]

Sounds like they are not extending DoT durations asked, but going to buff ruin potency, depending on the amount of dots on the target.

instead of duration increase its just a damage increase?

The problem is that damage is already increasing by number of DoTs on the target (for example Ruin III is 100 without any of the DoTs 150 if there is one DoT, and 200 if the target is affected by both), so it doesn't make any sense the way it's worded, I really believe it was either a translation error or Yoshi made a small mistake and what it means is that the damage of Ruin will be less dependant on DoTs not more. (for example going from 100,150,200 to like 140,170,200)

[ChaoticCrimson]

Yeah, basically I understood it as "increasing the potency of Ruin spells more while under Ruination". Honestly, instead of extending DoT timers, why not just reduce the cooldown for Trances by a few seconds? This would make things flow a bit better imo, and will make Tri-Disaster more consistent. Another change I would still like to see is bringing back Aetherflow, but with a thirty-second cooldown like the current Energy Drain has.

As for Energy Drain, just return it to its original function, but give it the same treatment Bane received and make it a regular OGCD. This would help with mana management by a nice degree, I feel. Energy Siphon doesn't need to exist, as far as I'm concerned. Furthermore, changing the Egi Assaults so that they can be ordered during casts would be nice, so as to make the job less reliant on double-weaving. The least likely thing to be fixed at this point, but would be greatly appreciated if they could, would be to either keep the demi-pets rooted where they are originally summoned or to greatly expand the distance between you and them before they start moving. Their attack range covers a lot of ground, so they really don't need to move, and it just feels bad to have Wyrmwaves/Scarlet Flames delayed or flat-out not casting at all. Also cutting off EAs and the Demi-Enkindles when an enemy dies and wasting them feels super bad.

[NovaBismarck]

I'm glad they are looking at the rotation for what can be done. This makes me happy to hear.

Overall, I've found dots to be one of the most exasperating issues in general content. Dots can fall because of no fault of your own, via odd bosses (say the shark bosses that swap), a tank that full stops then pulls again, or just extreme movement at the beginning of a fight that forces you at full stop for a bit. Long enough to have to recast dots before bahamut which is super annoying and dps plummets. I grumble every time they fall in a bad situation. Decreasing dependency would be better than increasing it imo and would better deal with niche situations where things go south.

If I had to pick 3 things to deal with on smn without changing the rotation I'd simplify at least one thing we have to use to make the rotation less busy at the beginning esp, set a fixed position on bahamut and phx with a heel option (I know that might not be easy to fix), and fix the dot issue. If I had a suggestion on how to fix it, I'd give it but I just know if feels off and don't know how it'd be better.

[Aomine1992]

All they need is 33 secs on the dang dots lol come on SE stop being silly and freaking listen to the player base or like someone else said lower trance CDs but one of the two has to happen to make the dots not be such an exhausting part about the job. Or final lazy move just buff ruin without the dots but do something lol

[NovaBismarck]

Ah, here's something that Nemekh posted that includes the Japanese to English translation on the Live Letter if anyone needed it:
http://www.akhmorning.com/news/pll_53

The Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LIII Update Thread had me confused a bit.

[Dyvid]

Well the question seems to more related about skills line up together and less about DoTs themselve. Personally I don't think we have too many skills, just skills that aren't working together in harmony. The job feels "busy" because it's not smoothly going through a rotation.