Is it supposed to be like this? Am I missing something? Summoner DPS is not good.

[OhnoozeMyToes]

YES I KNOW THIS ISN'T WoW SO NO NEED TO CLARIFY THAT FOR ME.

So I'm playing my Summoner and at lvl 54 I'm pretty much getting my butt kicked if I try to take more than one bad guy at my lvl. Even one bad guy can beat on me pretty good.
I pretty much have to use my mount for a tank or it gets a little too close for comfort sometimes. Now it could be that this is how it's supposed to be or it could be that I'm doing something wrong. Both are a possibility.

So generally my rotation goes, drop dots, spread dots (if needed), drain energy/energy siphon, fester/painflare, rune and then fester/painflare again.

Generally I think that's how it should go...am I missing something?

[Edax]

YES I KNOW THIS ISN'T WoW SO NO NEED TO CLARIFY THAT FOR ME.

So I'm playing my Summoner and at lvl 54 I'm pretty much getting my butt kicked if I try to take more than one bad guy at my lvl. Even one bad guy can beat on me pretty good.
I pretty much have to use my mount for a tank or it gets a little too close for comfort sometimes. Now it could be that this is how it's supposed to be or it could be that I'm doing something wrong. Both are a possibility.

So generally my rotation goes, drop dots, spread dots (if needed), drain energy/energy siphon, fester/painflare, rune and then fester/painflare again.

Generally I think that's how it should go...am I missing something?

My first guess is that you forgot to gear for Heavensward.

[Raldo]

I'm pretty much getting my butt kicked if I try to take more than one bad guy at my lvl. Even one bad guy can beat on me pretty good.
I pretty much have to use my mount for a tank or it gets a little too close for comfort sometimes.

This sounds like you're complaining about your suvivability, not your DPS. DPS classes aren't built to tank things, so yeah it's not surprising if you have some trouble surviving pulling multiple things.

However, focusing strictly on DPS capability...

Based on your Lodestone snapshot, your problem may be that your weapon (i90) is absolute garbage for your level.

To elaborate...
i90 book: DMG 69, INT 31
Lv54 HQ crafted book (i133): DMG 82, INT 56

"Crafted? But that's expensive!" Some alternate free options...
You can get an i130 book by spending Poetics in Mor Dhona.
You can get an i130 book by spending Grand Company seals (assuming you meet/exceed whatever GC rank is required).

DMG is a HUGE FACTOR in how much damage you do, and your main stat (INT) is nothing to scoff at either. Weapon should always be your top priority for upgrade, and you're waaaay behind.

[HumanNinjaToo]

I haven't played summoner, but I have played two other dps jobs: samurai and black mage. It's tough to kill more than 2 mobs that are the same level, even tougher to clear multiple mobs that are coming one at a time but constantly. If you are struggling to kill one or two mobs, maybe check to see you gear's iLevel. I wouldn't try to kill 3 or more at once for sure though. DPS jobs are squishy.

[alimdia]

If you're moving from ARR to HW+ then yeah, you're not supposed to be pulling multiple things in open world as a dps, HW mobs hit harder and have more HP than ARR mobs., even at same level.

Also keep your chocobo on healer stance and switch to titan if you have survivability issues, titan gives you a shield for 20% of your hp when you use egi assault.

[OhnoozeMyToes]

My first guess is that you forgot to gear for Heavensward.

How can I gear for heavensward? I figured I would play and pick it up as I go.....?

[Urthdigger]

That's generally how it goes. Your gear on the other hand is WAAAAAAAAY out of date. Your weapon, belt, necklace, and bracelet in particular should have been replaced ages ago. Go farm up some poetics and buy some ilvl 120 gear in Mor Dhona and upgrade it to ilvl 130. The weapon will require that you purchase 7 Rowena's Tokens (Poetics) and an encrypted tomestone, then turn them in at the vendor next to her. To upgrade, purchase a carbontwine for all the left side pieces and a carboncoat for all the right side pieces (These can be purchased from the tomestone vendor). Then go to Drake in Hyrstmill in North Shroud to upgrade them.

You don't really need to do this for everything, your main armor, rings, and your earring are fine. Heck, if you skipped over some of your heavensward sidequests, you likely missed ones that'll give you the weapon and accessories you need to stay up to date, if you'd rather do that over farming poetics (And you should do that going forward, unless you want to buy gear every now and then, even the poetics gear won't last you until 60.) In particular, I will note that your weapon is by far your most important piece of gear, and having that out of date may be a big reason why you struggle on mobs.

Oh, and if you're doing solo content, make sure to try pulling out Titan and using Egi Assault: That's a shield for 20% of your max HP. Especially when you've upgraded your gear that'll add a fair amount of survivability.

[PyurBlue]

How can I gear for heavensward? I figured I would play and pick it up as I go.....?

There is an ilvl jump at every previous (or current) level cap:

ARR
0-50 = leveling gear = ilvl 1 to ilvl 50 > vendor/crafting/dungeon gear
level 50 content = ARR endgame = ilvl 51 to ilvl 130/135 > job reward/Ironworks (Poetics - Mor Dhona) gear

HW
50-60 = leveling gear = ilvl ~110 to 160 > vendor/crafting/dungeon gear
level 60 content = HW endgame = ilvl 170 to ilvl 270/275 > job reward/<spoilers?> (Poetics - <spoilers?>) gear


SB
60-70 = leveling gear = ilvl ~250 to 285 > vendor/crafting/dungeon gear
level 70 content = SB endgame = ilvl 290 to ilvl 400/405 > job reward/<spoilers?> (Poetics - <spoilers?>) gear

You can see there is a pattern. There are also special sets of crafted gear that count as end game for each expansion, but unless you're buying the current ilvl of the current expansion they're pricey for the stats. Shadowbringers is not outdated content so it's more layered and intricate than what I outlined, but you don't have to worry about that yet. ilvl is really what indicates the strength of your character more than your job level. According to what Raldo posted, some of your gear is heavily out of date. Being at least ilvl 120 in every slot isn't a hard goal to reach for when entering HW. Right now you're trying to do ilvl ~120 content with an ilvl 90 weapon. You're 30 levels low on weapon damage/weapon HP and even lower on HP with some of your accessories.

[Raldo]

How can I gear for heavensward? I figured I would play and pick it up as I go.....?

There are various options. Strictly referring to weapon (since that's the only absolutely critical upgrade):

Option 1 - Buy the lv50 (i130) book with Poetics. This process is stupidly convoluted, but you will only need 600 Poetics.
- [100 Poetics] In Mor Dhona, buy ONE Encrypted Tomestone from Auriana (sub-menu "Allagan Tomestones of Poetics (Other)")
- [400 Poetics] In Mor Dhona, buy TEN Rowena's Token (Poetics) from Auriana (sub-menu "Allagan Tomestones of Poetics (Other)")
- [100 Poetics] In Mor Dhona, buy ONE Carbontwine from Auriana (sub-menu "Allagan Tomestones of Poetics (Other)")
- In Mor Dhona, go to Aelina. Select the "Ironworks Gear" sub-menu. Trade for an Ironworks Magitek Grimoire.
- In NORTH SHROUD, go to Drake (in the village in the north-east side of the map). Select the "Ironworks Gear Augmentation (Weapon)" sub-menu. Trade for an Augmented Ironworks Magitek Grimoire.
- Congrats, now you have an i130 book.

Option 2 - If your GC rank is high enough, you can just buy an i130 book from your GC for 35,000 GC seals.

Option 3 - Just buy a level-relevant HQ book off of the markets. The lv52 book is i125 and the lv54 book is i133. They're both way way superior to your i90 book.

[Edax]

How can I gear for heavensward? I figured I would play and pick it up as I go.....?

"Crafted? But that's expensive!" Some alternate free options...
You can get an i130 book by spending Poetics in Mor Dhona.
You can get an i130 book by spending Grand Company seals (assuming you meet/exceed whatever GC rank is required).

DMG is a HUGE FACTOR in how much damage you do, and your main stat (INT) is nothing to scoff at either. Weapon should always be your top priority for upgrade, and you're waaaay behind.

It's easy to miss but you should go to Mor Dhona and spend your tomestones on getting the level 50 gear. Between expansions are a bunch of patches that release better and better gear, so by the time the next expansion starts, there's a huge gap between your old leveling gear and the new expansion gear. When you reach Stormblood, the same thing will happen so you should visit the poetics vendor in Idyllshire and get the level 60, (item lvl 260) gear set or else the SB mobs will beat you up again.