Arcanist and Summoner: a possible solution

[5trange]

It seems as though with the recent changes to SAM and NIN, a lot of the focus has shifted away from the controversial situation Summoner is currently in. I would like to bring back some attention to it and propose a — in my opinion, simple — solution that will hopefully satisfy most people. First of all, I'd like to say that everything I will write about the specifics of the solution is up for debate and I'd love to hear everyone's feedback to improve my idea. Now, will it serve any real purpose? Will things change for the better? Probably (and sadly) not, but it would still be interesting to see people's reactions and comments about a different direction the devs could have taken — and could still take for that matter.

A lot of people have argued that the core issue of Summoner has always been the big discrepancy, lore-wise and theme-wise, between the roots of the Arcanist CLASS (with its canon toolkit of pet&DoTs) and the direction taken by the Summoner JOB especially after HW. So, my question (which is also my solution) is: why are Arcanist and Summoner connected at all? It may have made sense in a day when Jobs had to spring up from Classes, but since this is no longer the case, it really makes no sense for two things that are so different lore-wise and theme-wise to be together.

The solution, as stated, is easy: make ACN have its own development and make SMN be its own Job. By doing this, you not only get the chance to preserve and perfect an old playstyle that many used to love and are now missing dearly, but you also keep the new-SMN lovers happy with their new toy. Two birds with one stone — three birds actually, if you consider that you get a fourth caster for free, with minimal effort!

What is actually required for this change to work? On the Summoner's side, very little is to be touched and I will be indicating now the required steps:

1) Remove Carbuncle and make Radiant Aegis a personal oGCD.
What is carby to a SMN right now, especially after the changes to Searing Light? Absolutely nothing. It is something that provides you with a shield from which you are often locked out of due to the summoning replacement mechanic. The rest of the time it just kinda... stands there, staring blankly. It sucks to see it reduced to such a state. At this point just put it out of its misery — get rid of it and give it back where it belongs and where it can function properly. It naturally follows that Radiant Aegis should become a personal cooldown that you can finally use whenever you want/need.

2) Change the Ruin-line of spells with something more thematically fitting.
They don't really need to do it I guess, but for the sake of further separating ACN and SMN, I feel they should change the basic spammable spells. Gemshine and Precious Brilliance can have a basic, non-Primal version to fill this gap.

3) Remove the Ruin IV mechanic.
The way it is now, it feels like a lazy remnant of what was once a mechanic with actual purpose. It only adds rigidity to an already rigid rotation and furnishes the CASTER-type Summoner with yet another instant-cast spell, furthering the Ph. Ranged feel. This one, too, should be given back to its rightful owner: not only do you get rid of something that doesn't really fit in, but you also free a button-slot for something that can hopefully interact with the summon.

4) Remove Energy Drain/Syphon, Fester and Painflare.
A lot of people have rightfully pointed out that these skill, separated from their relation to DoTs, feel like really generic and boring damage oGCDs, mere remnants of a job that no longer exists and just there to fill some glaring gaps. They take up a space that, once again, could be used to make the EW Summoner kit more interactive with the actual summons and more varied.

That's really it for Summoner. Like, if you remove me being a little verbose, they are SUPER simple and require very little thinking. Not only that, but they provide a simple way to build up on the new SMN style without risk of button bloat (not that there was any danger, lol) since you free up 7 extra slots. [Proposed changes to EW Summoner are being discussed in the thread].

The harder part will be to make Arcanist exist like a standalone Job, as there will be more gaps to fill considering that not only you'd need to create the level 81-90 toolkit, but you'll also need to find replacement for assets that rightfully belong to SMN — namely: Dreadwyrm Trance, Summon Bahamut and Summon Phoenix. You basically lose completely the level 60, 70 and 80 capstones and you need to come up with something for the level 90 one. I've been working on a few ideas to create a new toolkit that will complement that of the traditional ARR and HW Arcanist by integrating it with elements from StB and ShB and finally adding the missing parts. I will be presenting what is basically a complete "Arcanist job guide" in the style of the official site, with leveling information from 1 to 90. Of course, feedback and suggestions are more than welcome: nothing is set in stone and my objective is to perfect this as much as possible with everyone's help. To ease the way towards a common understanding however, I will lay down a few rules I followed:

1) Steady damage, not flashiness, is the way of the Arcanist.
I don't mean to say this hypothetical Arcanist should not have nice animations. What I'm saying is that in creating new actions to cover the missing ones I've tried to avoid big burst spells and abilities in favor of things aimed at slowly corroding the opponent or that give the vibe of rhythmically pulsating damage instead of a big bomb every once in a while. I'm not against having a little bit of that (as you shall see), bit I think it would be nice to keep this theme in mind.

2) Two DoTs with a 30s timer — one with a cast time and one instant — is the same as having a single DoT.
One thing I always found unsettling was the change to the DoT timer of Miasma in Stormblood from 24s to 30s. I can understand why the decision was made, considering the class shift towards big burst summoning phases. However, as that is no longer the case since that part of the toolkit has been removed, you are free to focus on DoT upkeep and interactions. You should also keep in mind that the OG Tri-distaster would be back. Besides, let's be real: people in HW had to deal with THREE timers (18s, 24s and 30s) plus an odd GCD Shadowflare and they all survived the ordeal. I'd say 2 DoTs and a single odd timer are manageable. Also, having to reapply Miasma or Miasma III at odd points in your rotation might help break the monotony of the Ruin-spam segments which are a traditional part of Arcanist gameplay.
On a side note, I've kept the Bio DoT timer at 18s for the low levels because things tend to die super quickly there. It also interrupts the Ruin spam more often at lower levels where you don't have too much else to do, which I feel is always nice. The timer goes back to 30s with Bio II.

3) There should NOT be a way to reset Tri-disaster cooldown.
Again: since summoning is no longer part of your standard rotation, and you can freely focus on pet management and DoTs, there is no reason to have Tri-disaster up as often. Besides, is there even a reason to have GCD DoTs be the baseline focus of the class if you have such an easy time reapplying BOTH by pushing one button? I have even increased the Tri-disaster cooldown from 60s to 120s so it's only there to align with party buffs.

4) Carbuncles are back to being functional pets.
No Egis, no Demi-summons: only Carbuncles. Everyone that plays Scholar knows how responsive the Fairy has become in Endwalker (not perfect, perhaps, but a HUGE improvement compared to before), so the "pet janky, pet bad" excuse is no longer valid. Carbuncle should be back in its full capacity and its management can once again be an integral part of this play style.

5) Consolidate certain skills to keep the number of buttons at bay.
This has mostly to do with Energy Drain/Siphon and Fester/Painflare as it makes no sense to occupy 4 key binds for something that could just as easily occupy half of that.

Now again, without further ado, I present the exposition of Spells and Abilities from 1 to 90 of this revamped Arcanist. A lot of it will simply be old Summoner with very few edits, adjustments and additions so bear with me — I've decided to write them all for the sake of completion. What I'm mostly looking forward to however is everyone's feedback on the actions that will be replacing the removed summoning aspect at higher levels (it would also be cool to better determine potencies and rotations, but maybe that's for the future lol). Here we go:

• Level 1: Ruin (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 1.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 300 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 160.

• Level 2: Bio (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 400 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 35
Duration: 18s

• Level 4: Summon (Spell)
Range: 0y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 1.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 400 Mp
Effect: Summons a caster-type Emerald Carbuncle to fight at your side.

❖ Gust (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: 1s - Recast: 3s
Effect: Deals wind damage with a potency of 30 to target and all enemies nearby it.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

• Level 6: Miasma (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 2.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 500 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 25.
Additional effect: Unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 25
Duration: 24s

• Level 10: Egi Assault (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 30s
Effect: Orders your pet to use Downburst if Emerald Carbuncle is summoned, Glittering Topaz if Topaz Carbuncle is summoned and Ruby Cyclone if Ruby Carbuncle is summoned.
Can only be executed while in combat.

❖ Downburst (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: 1s - Recast: 1.5s
Effect: Deals wind damage with a potency of 100 to target and all enemies nearby it.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

❖ Glittering Topaz (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 30y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 1.5s
Effect: Creates a barrier around you that absorbs damage totaling 30% of your maximum HP.
Duration: 30s
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

❖ Ruby Cyclone (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 3y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 1.5s
Effect: Deals fire damage with a potency of 250.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

• Level 12: Resurrection (Spell)
Range: 30y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 8s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 2400 Mp
Effect: Resurrects target to a weakened state.

• Level 15: Summon II (Spell)
Range: 0y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 1.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 400 Mp
Effect: Summons a support-type Topaz Carbuncle to fight at your side.

❖ Gouge (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 3y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 3s
Effect: Deals earth damage with a potency of 60.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

• Level 18: Aetherflow (Ability)
Range: 0y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 60s
Effect: Restores 10% of maximum MP.
Additional Effect: Aetherflow III
Can only be executed while in combat.

• Level 18: Energy Drain (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 3s
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150.
Additional Effect: Restores 500Mp and absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP.

• Level 18: Fester (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 10s
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100.
Additional Effect: If target is suffering from a Bio or Miasma effect inflicted by you, Fester potency is increased to 200 for one effect or 300 for both. Effect only applies when the original effects were cast by you.
Aetherflow Gauge cost: 1

✵ Level 20: Maim and Mend (Trait)
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%. Also increases base damage and HP restoration of your pet by 10% (ACN/SCH only).

✵ Level 26: Corruption Mastery (Trait)
Upgrades Bio to Bio II.

• Level 26: Bio II (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 400 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 30
Duration: 30s

• Level 30: Bane (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 8y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 10s
Effect: Spreads a target's Bio and Miasma effect to nearby enemies.
Potency is reduced by 60% for all remaining enemies.
Additional Effect: 15% chance that Bio and Miasma durations reset if shorter than original effect duration.
No effect if target is not affected by Bio or Miasma effects inflicted by you.

• Level 30: Summon III (Spell)
Range: 0y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 1.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 400 Mp
Effect: Summons an attacker-type Ruby Carbuncle to fight at your side.

❖ Burning Strike (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 3y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 3s
Effect: Deals fire damage with a potency of 80.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

✵ Level 35: Absorption Mastery (Trait)
Upgrades Energy Drain to Energy Siphon.

• Level 35: Energy Siphon (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 3s
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Additional Effect: Restores 500Mp and absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP.

• Level 38: Ruin II (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 600 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 120.

✵ Level 40: Maim and Mend II (Trait)
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%. Also increases base damage and HP restoration of your pet by 30%.

• Level 40: Egi Assault II (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 30s
Effect: Orders your pet to use Glittering Emerald if Emerald Carbuncle is summoned, Shining Topaz if Topaz Carbuncle is summoned and Glittering Ruby if Ruby Carbuncle is summoned.
Can only be executed while in combat.

❖ Glittering Emerald (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: 1s - Recast: 1.5s
Effect: Deals wind damage with a potency of 50 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time.
Potency: 50
Duration: 9s
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

❖ Shining Topaz (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 0y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 1.5s
Effect: Deals earth damage with a potency of 250 to all nearby enemies.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

❖ Ruby Crush (Pet Action - Spell)
Range: 0y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 1.5s
Effect: Deals fire damage to all nearby enemies with a potency of 250 for the first enemy and 50% less for all remaining enemies.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

• Level 40: Outburst (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: 1.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 300 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 70 to target and all enemies nearby it.

• Level 46: Miasma II (Spell)
Range: 0y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 900 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 50 to all nearby enemies.
Additional Effect: Unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 20
Duration: 12s

• Level 50: Enkindle (Ability)
Range: 30y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 180s
Effect: Commands Carbuncle to use its signature attack.
Can only be used while in combat.

❖ Emerald Blast (Pet Action - Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant
Effect: Deals wind damage with a potency of 350 to target and all enemies nearby it.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

❖ Topaz Fury (Pet Action - Ability)
Range: 0y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant
Effect: Deals earth damage with a potency of 300 to all nearby enemies.
Additional Effect: Creates an area of molten earth around the caster, dealing damage over time to any enemies who enter.
Potency: 20
Duration: 15s
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

❖ Ruby Inferno (Pet Action - Abiliy)
Range: 0y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant
Effect: Deals fire damage with a potency of 300 to all enemies in a cone before it.
Additional Effect: Fire damage over time.
Potency: 20
Duration: 15s
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

✵ Level 52: Fester Mastery (Trait)
Upgrades Fester to Painflare.

• Level 52: Painflare (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 10s
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Additional Effect: If the primary target is suffering from a Bio or Miasma effect inflicted by you, Fester potency is increased to 200 for one effect or 300 for both. Effect only applies when the original effects were cast by you.
Aetherflow Gauge cost: 1

✵ Level 54: Ruin Mastery II (Trait)
Upgrades Ruin to Ruin III.

• Level 54: Ruin III (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 1.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 300 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 200.

• Level 56: Tri-disaster (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 120s
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 500.
Additional Effect: Afflicts target with Bio II and Miasma.
Duration: 30s

• Level 58: Shadowflare (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 60s
Effect: Envelops a designated area in a veil of magicked shadows dealing damage with a potency of 50 to any enemies who enter.
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Slow +5%
Cannot be used with any other area creating actions.

• Level 60: Ruination (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 60s
Effect: Afflicts target with Ruination, increasing damage over time inflicted by Bio and Miasma effects by 100%.
Additional Effect: Increases potency of Ruin spells against afflicted enemy by 50.
Duration: 15s

✵ Level 62: Enhanced Ruin (Trait)
Grants Further Ruin upon using Egi Assault or Egi Assault II.
Maximum Stacks: 4
The Egi Assault or Egi Assault II used must be an Action.

• Level 62: Ruin IV (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 300 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 300 for the first enemy, and 60% less for all remaining enemies.
Can only be executed while under the effect of Further Ruin.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

• Level 64: Aetherpact (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 60s
Effect: Orders Carbuncle to execute Contagion.
Contagion Effect: Extend the duration of Bio, Bio II, Bio III, Miasma, Miasma II and Miasma III effects inflicted by you.

❖ Contagion (Pet Action - Abiliy)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant
Effect: Extend the duration of Bio, Bio II, Bio III, Miasma, Miasma II and Miasma III effects inflicted by you.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

✵ Level 66: Corruption Mastery II (Trait)
Upgrades Bio II to Bio III and Miasma to Miasma III.

• Level 66: Bio III (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 600 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 45
Duration: 30s

• Level 66: Miasma III (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 0y
Cast: 2.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 500 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 55.
Additional effect: Unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 55
Duration: 24s

✵ Level 68: Enhanced Enkindle (Trait)
Reduces Enkindle recast time to 120s.

✬ Level 70: Aethertrail Attunement
Obtain 1 Aethertrail Attunement stack whenever you spend an Aetherflow Stack.
Maximum Stacks: 3

• Level 70: Resonance (Spell)
Range: 0y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 50s
Effect: Increase magic damage dealt by 10% and reduce the cast-time of all Spells by 2.5s.
Duration: 15s
Aethertrail Attunement cost: 3

✵ Level 76: Enhanced Outburst (Trait)
Upgrades Outburst to Tri-bind.

• Level 76: Tri-bind (Spell)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: 1.5s - Recast: 2.5s - Cost: 300 Mp
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100 to target and all enemies nearby it.

✵ Level 76: Enhanced Bane (Trait)
Extends the duration of Bio and Miasma applied by Bane to the full duration of their original effects.

✵ Level 80: Obsidian Blessing (Trait)
Grants Obsidian Blight Ready after using Egi Assault or Egi Assault II.
Maximum Stacks: 4

• Level 80: Egi Assault: Obsidian Blight (Ability)
Range: 30y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 50s
Effect: Commands Carbuncle to use Obsidian Blight.
Can only be used while having 4 stacks of Obsidian Blight Ready. The Stacks are consumed upon executing this Action.

❖ Obsidian Blight (Pet Action - Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 5y
Cast: Instant
Effect: Deals unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 100
Duration: 30s
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

✵ Level 82: Enhanced Miasma II (Trait)
Increases the Potency of the damage over time effect of Miasma II from 20 to 30.

• Level 86: Egi Assault: Moonstone Shimmer (Ability)
Range: 30y - Radius: 0y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 120s
Effect: Commands Carbuncle to use Moonstone Shimmer.

❖ Moonstone Shimmer (Pet Action - Ability)
Range: 0y - Radius: 15y
Cast: Instant
Effect: Creates a barrier around self and all nearby party members that absorbs damage totaling 15% of maximum HP.
Duration: 30s
Additional Effect: When the effect duration expires, a healing effect is then applied.
Cure Potency: 400
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

• Level 90: Pulsation (Ability)
Range: 25y - Radius: 8y
Cast: Instant - Recast: 20s
Effect: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 400.
Can only be executed while under the effect of Resonance.

Total buttons: 22 + 3 for Summon I-II-III + 5 for Role Actions — for comparison: Red Mage and Black Mage have about 28-30 buttons in total. Also let's be honest: who has Sleep in their hotbars, lol?

So, there you have it. I realize this quickly turned into a wall post and I'm sorry about that. Hopefully you guys enjoy this idea and can give me some much needed feedback.

[cjbeagle]

I don't play summoner (or scholar for that matter), so I have no idea what your grievances or solutions entail, but I wanted to commend you on thoroughness if nothing else - holy crap, well done - have a like and a bump.

[FalfaK]

This brought a year to my eye...
They don't even have to do animations or anything, most of it is already in the game. Sure, there are a few skills on the list that are currently on summoner, so maybe we'd need a replacement...
But I'd want this soooooo much...

[Eloah]

Not saying this post is bad, but it points out one fundamental thing. No matter what SE does no one will be happy with Summoner.

[ThorneDynasty]

Not saying this post is bad, but it points out one fundamental thing. No matter what SE does no one will be happy with Summoner.

Well Square did that to themselves in 6.0.

The best thing would be to use the rework as a base but increase the complexity exponentially going forward. The people who've come attached to new-SMN for it's simplicity will just freestyle anyway which will not matter to the normal content they play, and the people who liked the old will at least get more meat on their job again.

[Eloah]

Well Square did that to themselves in 6.0.

The best thing would be to use the rework as a base but increase the complexity exponentially going forward. The people who've come attached to new-SMN for it's simplicity will just freestyle anyway which will not matter to the normal content they play, and the people who liked the old will at least get more meat on their job again.

You realize this new rework is a new base for them to branch off of, right?

Besides the cap Summoner reached, people always complained that XIV's Summoner wasn't a "true/real" Summoner, which isn't even a thing. Now XIV's iteration is closer to that idea and people still aren't happy.

Also, does the OP know that the classes are just pre-versions of the jobs.

[xAFROx]

You realize this new rework is a new base for them to branch off of, right?

Besides the cap Summoner reached, people always complained that XIV's Summoner wasn't a "true/real" Summoner, which isn't even a thing. Now XIV's iteration is closer to that idea and people still aren't happy.

Also, does the OP know that the classes are just pre-versions of the jobs.

I believe the OP is aware of that fact, but they also stated that jobs now have no longer needed such a restriction since HW. I'm assuming they want SMN to be separated from the base root of ACN due to the discrepancy of lore and play not blending between the two, if I read the first post correctly.

[ThorneDynasty]

You realize this new rework is a new base for them to branch off of, right?

Yeah, uh, the whole "the rework isn't perfect but it's a good base to work on, right, right??" thing hasn't really worked out in the past, has it. I had the same hopium for 5.0 tanks.

[FalfaK]

Yeah, uh, the whole "the rework isn't perfect but it's a good base to work on, right, right??" thing hasn't really worked out in the past, has it. I had the same hopium for 5.0 tanks.

*Glances at healers*

Yep, checks out.

Also deleted the previous post cus I'm dumb and can't use the forums apparently.

[Eloah]

I believe the OP is aware of that fact, but they also stated that jobs now have no longer needed such a restriction since HW. I'm assuming they want SMN to be separated from the base root of ACN due to the discrepancy of lore and play not blending between the two, if I read the first post correctly.

While the class/job thing is now a relic of the "past" it's too ingrained in the game now to alter. That's why SMN and SCH are still connected, despite being as seperated as possible without altering the code. If anything, this new Summoner rework allows them to add a new job that is DoT based.

Yeah, uh, the whole "the rework isn't perfect but it's a good base to work on, right, right??" thing hasn't really worked out in the past, has it. I had the same hopium for 5.0 tanks.

I understand the skepticism, but the key difference there is, that was a rework for a role, but this is a single job.