Quote Originally Posted by Myon88 View Post
What you're missing is that summoners have to be balanced in tandem with the other two casters, because alongside black mage and red mage, they're the ones providing the caster role bonus to the party.

I assume you're aware of how role bonuses work in full parties. You get +1% mainstat for each T/H/melee/caster/ranged job that is represented, up to +5%. You have 4 dps slots in a full party, which leaves 1 flex slot after the 3 different dps roles are present. This is why even with their underwhelming numbers, you always see at least one phys ranged in full parties. You're forced to bring one, because losing that 1% mainstat is a greater loss than the amount their dps trails the stronger jobs by.

If summoner were not at least on par with red mage, you would simply never see them in parties at all, they would be even worse off than the worst phys ranged. It would be a given that your first choice for a caster would be black mage or red mage, and there would be no reason to put them in the 'flex' slot over the highest dps option you haven't picked yet (melee/BLM).

You can critique mobility when comparing different roles, but at the same time mobility is not real utility. If that were the case, where are the parties with 2 ranged because mobility is so, so great? When comparing within the same role you have to look at what they actually bring to the table, and summoner does not offer enough dps or support compared to black mage and red mage.
That makes sense, thank you for elaborating. I personally think people overvalue mobility in general to justify a dps tax, especially for mch.