Starting the game as Arcanist is largely unplayable now

[RivinStormfang]

I leveled arcanist/summoner up to 55 in Stormblood without ever using Topaz/Titan once, even in quest battles where they expect you to use him. I'd be very surprised if it's any harder to do that now, especially with low-level spells having been buffed a lot compared to Stormblood, and now having the option of trading some damage for a powerful shield (which is worth a lot more than Titan being able to hold aggro on an enemy for maybe a few seconds). Honestly I wish I could un-level summoner just to try leveling it up from 1 with the new changes and see what it's like, though I guess I could just level another character to do that.

[Madoka]

Overworld shouldn't be much of an issue even with the changes. ARC was always slower in the overworld than other classes since you have to spend 2 gcds on dots before you're even throwing out the same potency a lot of other classes would out the gate on the rest of your stuff, and you do have physick which actually does something then. The 20% HP shield from topaz/titan is worthless at that level though. You have like 400 hp, the shield will be gone in 2 hits and wont be available for another 30 seconds. It's like a stoneskin you can't just slap back up like early whm used to be able to. The biggest problem though is that a lot of early enemies interrupt with their attacks so you'll end up with cancelled spells a lot and ARC doesn't have a sleep or bind like conjurer or thm do to keep stuff away.

The ARC/SMN solo duties though where they intended for you to use topaz/titan are awful though. Especially if you fail when an NPC dies or something.

For anyone in i400+ gear syncing down to lv 15-20 fates saying you did fine, you still have massive stat bloat compared to what a fresh 15 would have because gear doesn't sync down 1:1 and you're using the highest tiers of quality while they'll be in vendor tier whites.

[Ferrinus]

For my money, the weirdest thing about low level ACN is that Bio deals a total 200 potency and Miasma deals a total 220 potency while Ruin deals 180 with no precondition, so it’s barely worth it to even cast your DoTs even if you’re sure they’ll tick for their entire durations. This smooths out a little when you get Fester but it’s still offputting.

[Rhais]

I started a new character when this expansion was released, SCH/SMN currently at 59, and there is really no issue playing as the class beyond low levels being a bit dull. That is hardly a unique problem though, it's something every job has to deal with to some degree right now.
The assertion by OP and others in this thread that the class is nearly unplayable or even far more difficult to play then other jobs is pure nonsense.

[CrimsonGunner]

So yeah, there is actually a massive problem with ARC/SMN.... this "rework" wasn't well prepared at all, in fact i even have doubt that it was tested at all by SE.

agreed that the rework arcanist/summoner probably wasn't tested cause with summoner, the pets become more irrelevant and its "nice to have but not that needed" and you end up abandoning summoning just for trance and fodder for bahamut/phoenix burst which in a way is sad and also very bad design wise.
arcanist quests can still be cleared but its probably a bit harder i guess from it used to be and what you guys had to go through.

[HyperiusUltima]

agreed that the rework arcanist/summoner probably wasn't tested cause with summoner, the pets become more irrelevant and its "nice to have but not that needed" and you end up abandoning summoning just for trance and fodder for bahamut/phoenix burst which in a way is sad and also very bad design wise.
arcanist quests can still be cleared but its probably a bit harder i guess from it used to be and what you guys had to go through.

I’ll have to take a look at the job then up to 15 if this person quit because of it. Also, the design at cap is lackluster because of how strict our rotation is. If you had a semblance of control on when you went into Trance it’d make it easier to use.

[RokkuEkkusu]

I have a friend that was intersted in playing SMN end game. He achieved Lv15 and was looking forward to topaz carbuncle as tank. but we discovered that all the pets are now just DPS.

So, you have a physically weak class, unable to put out the damage the other starters can but without any way to mitigate the mob aggro/damage.

He quit last night: "This is unfun, boring and tedious"
I cannot fault him on this, I delierately used a fate to sync from Lv70 to Lv15 and got destroyed.

It appears that the arcanist was changed so much it's only playable if you are with a party now and no solo capability.

It seems that your friend apparently reads FFXIV sites that do not update their content timely (lots of sites are guilty of this). The patch notes specify changes quite accurately if you took the time to read them.

Topaz/Titan lost the ability to tank ever since Shadowbringers started (which is 6/28/19 for early access.)

In addition, the tank pet is useless in Endgame content.

The ACN, SMN, and SCH roles are basically DOT mages with mobility since the beginning of ARR.

To mitigate this, you can use Physick as heals, keep your gear up to date, and use the pet ability to increase your defense by 20 percent (it comes quite often).

[LichKaiser]

if your friend found difficult at lv15 mean he sucks, he wouldmt ever survive to a end game content with this mentality and capacity.
game at early level is soo easy that you can litterally play the game without armor untill you reach lv20.

[Emeke]

I never used topaz while solo....

[Metalwrath]

Sounds like a player issue and not a content issue.If your friend quit the game that easily at lvl 15 i can already tell the kind of player they are and probably doing the community a favor by them not continuing to play.