So what's wrong with Summoner?

[Shriex]

Common wisdom seems to be that Summoner is a mess and needs work. I like it best of all the jobs I've played so far. I guess it's complex compared to other roles? But to me it seems like it has a lot of options, including the ability to press a lot of buttons and put a large amount of smackdown on a single target, which appeals to me. Everyone has different tastes, I guess.

Admittedly, I'm only level 66; does the job start to go downhill or something?

[RicaRuin]

I like it the way it is too, but the argument I see most is that Summoner is not truly a text-based job and should rather focus on various Demi-Primals that can be summoned for certain periods of time to better fit the job identify.

[HyoMinPark]

I don’t play SMN, but from general conversation that I’ve seen about it, the “mess” people usually refer to are the fact that it deals way more damage than it should for a job that also has utility (e.g., Resurrection, Devotion, Phoenix’s regen thingy). Back in Stormblood (4.1) and then again in Shadowbringers (5.1), they’ve buffed SMN so much that its damage has been astronomical.

In terms of playstyle, I haven’t read many complaints—I’ve heard it’s very busy, and some people like busy. But again, I also don’t play SMN and just read conversations about it in passing. Most comments that I’ve mentioned about it fall into conversations about overall balancing of the DPS role as a whole, since I tend to read through those.

[SpeckledBurd]

I'm not a Summoner player but I was mostly under the impression that people were pretty happy with it after the 5.1 revisions. As I recall while it wasn't the most well received in that recent job satisfaction poll it was still net positive and in the middle of the pack. Before that though it was suffering from a case of development ADD where the various eras of its design weren't working very well with new additions/reworked stuff like Egi-assaults which resulted in an extremely busy playstyle and a job that was unrewarding for how much effort went into it. Honestly most of the complaints I've seen are directed at it being OP by virtue of being the strongest, most mobile caster with a rez.

[Mindiori]

I don’t play SMN, but from general conversation that I’ve seen about..

So basically it's one of few that still has some depth, effort and sense of character and we just can't have that now can we. Yawn. I know! Lets make it as mindnumbing as everything else to appease the carebear signal crew; and all be on our way to a new game, once everything is just one button spamming as it should be. Yey. /s.

[HyoMinPark]

So basically it's one of few that still has some depth, effort and sense of character and we just can't have that now can we. Yawn. I know! Lets make it as mindnumbing as everything else to appease the carebear signal crew; and all be on our way to a new game, once everything is just one button spamming as it should be. Yey. /s.

I don’t play SMN nearly enough to comment on playstyle, but I will say that I have no complaints about busy jobs. Honestly, I haven’t heard many complaints about current SMN outside of it dealing way too much personal damage for a job that also has utility (see arguments about selfish DPS versus utility DPS). I would never advocate for jobs to be dumbed down—I’ve always advocated for the opposite (like when they removed BRD’s complexity in ShB). I was just addressing the OP’s comment about SMN being “a mess” and what the comments I’ve seen about it being “a mess” have generally been directed towards. But, as I said, I don’t read in-depth, SMN-specific job design posts often. I tend to stick to posts about balance within the DPS role.

[SpeckledBurd]

I don’t play SMN nearly enough to comment on playstyle, but I will say that I have no complaints about busy jobs. Honestly, I haven’t heard many complaints about current SMN outside of it dealing way too much personal damage for a job that also has utility (see arguments about selfish DPS versus utility DPS). I would never advocate for jobs to be dumbed down—I’ve always advocated for the opposite (like when they removed BRD’s complexity in ShB). I was just addressing the OP’s comment about SMN being “a mess” and what the comments I’ve seen about it being “a mess” have generally been directed towards. But, as I said, I don’t read in-depth, SMN-specific job design posts often. I tend to stick to posts about balance within the DPS role.

It's possible that the OP saw some threads detailing complaints before 5.1, where the consensus was that Summoner was a mess.

[HyoMinPark]

It's possible that the OP saw some threads detailing complaints before 5.1, where the consensus was that Summoner was a mess.

That is fair. Or if they read some complaints from HW or early SB and didn’t notice that the information was dated.

[AbelArchaniEA]

Common wisdom seems to be that Summoner is a mess and needs work. I like it best of all the jobs I've played so far. I guess it's complex compared to other roles? But to me it seems like it has a lot of options, including the ability to press a lot of buttons and put a large amount of smackdown on a single target, which appeals to me. Everyone has different tastes, I guess.

Admittedly, I'm only level 66; does the job start to go downhill or something?

Nothing is wrong. Player’s opinions, especially common, does not equate to “wisdom” and do not define error in a job.

[Ramura_Sono]

Nothing is wrong. Player’s opinions, especially common, does not equate to “wisdom” and do not define error in a job.

That must be how the Devs justify ignoring Monk feedback for years on end.