Thread: SMN 5.1 Job adjustments

Originally Posted by Dahlinea

Having a single Egi Assault and merging DWT with Summon Bahamut would have solved a lot of the problems... but I guess it was too much for them to do that.

This would have fixed the length of time for a full rotation. ^

Those dev twits behind SMN either really HATE the class/job or have no idea what they're doing. Do they even actually LISTEN to feedback from the last time?

I freaking love the change to egi assaults.
I'm just currently trying to reprogram my brain around these habits i've had to develop to survive as doubleweave smn @@

The changes to egi assaults are very welcome and a much needed buff to quality of life.

Egi assaults originally felt bad not only because they were ogcds that required weaving, but also because what they gave you in return for that effort was minuscule. I'm sure if they did 1000 potency people wouldn't mind having to play the piano as much, but not only did you have to lose dps by casting ruin 2 in order to weave them, the actual damage they did was pathetic going as low as 50 potency for ifrit's egi assaults (due to hidden pet scaling). You did get a ruin 4, but it was negated by the effort needed to interact with the system making the whole thing feel like zero-sum busywork.

The 5.1 changes have completely flipped this equation on its head. They actually do a respectable amount of damage now (they have to, as a gcd they now replace a ruin spellcast, so that ruin damage must be added to it as well), and ifrit and titan-egi's hidden scaling factors have been raised to match that used by garuda and all our enkindle abilities. This is the "All attacks from arcanist and summoner pets are now categorized as magic attacks" from the patch notes. It makes comparing potency numbers between the different egis much easier, and frankly a job as complicated as summoner could benefit from as much under-the-hood streamlining like this as possible.

But the most important change of all is that they are now on the gcd.

This has significant ramifications for mobility because you can now use egi assault gcds to move freely at will, instead of casting a weak ruin 2. It still gives you the ruin 4 proc, which means 1 cast of egi assault is actually 2 gcd's worth of mobility.

When they were ogcds, having two charges just added to the busywork and clunk factor. But having charges as gcds is a huge boon as charges on valuable tools like this are precisely what you want, black mages know this well with xenoglossy. Instead of being weak and frenetic, the gameplay is now slower and more decisive. It gives the summoner rotation an element of agency it has been sorely lacking since the start of the expansion, and while I still miss aetherflow, egi assaults at least are in a far better spot now than at the start of the expansion.

Originally Posted by Kiteless

Anyone have any suggestions for other DPS jobs that flow similarly to how SMN did in HW? I just want some perspectives on alternate DPS jobs to play instead of SMN as it is now.

Blackmage is the only one that comes to mind.