"I don't want to think while I play, so no one should be allowed to."

[aveyond-dreams]

So goes a large portion of responses to discussion threads about wanting jobs to be complex and diverse again. This is especially rampant for healer discussion, being that it's the role that takes the least effort to play with how simplified they've each become. A lot of people seem to like healers as they are now. Totally valid. However much of the playerbase they represent, beyond me! But either way they're ever present ready to tell us that healers as they are now represent what their idea of a healer is, and their idea is the correct one.

All I know is that there is simply no way I could main a healer in this game and play it as regularly as I do tank and dps jobs. The core issue of having not enough damage to heal prevents me from making full use of my kit in most situations. There are a lot of common sense solutions that would be beneficial to both groups of players when it comes to healers, such as:

- Condense the single target heal into one button (Regen healers)
- Add in fun crowd control spells like PVP Miracle of Nature for WHM, I suppose the equivalent for SCH might be to turn things into tonberries.
- Simple 1-2 combos for damage rotations
- An aoe dot spell

There are many more ways to make healers more fun for everyone, but at the moment none of these options are being pursued. Now as an AST enjoyer I have to be concerned as to whether or not Lord and Lady of Crowns will be removed from the job for the 2nd time in 6.2, instead of condensing several other buttons that have no business being separate in the first place.

Is this title aimed at Summoner players? It's my main job so I'd know!

There are people that like easy jobs only (me). For example, in Shadowbringers I loved Red Mage and Dancer, and never touched Summoner because it was too complicated for me to learn.

If you don't like your favorite job anymore because of new changes, just go find another job to like! There's nothing much you can do.

I believe the constant belittling of players who enjoy new Summoner has deepened the rift between them and fans of the old version, whose grip on the job for the past 8 years culminated in there being no way forward except a rework from the ground up. Trying to make Warlock Summoner work at any cost led to the stacking of disjointed systems directly on top of each other alongside various bugs and glitches. I cannot and will never be able to see eye to eye with those who prided themselves on being able to manage that situation when by the time Shadowbringers came and I played that version of the job, I made the decision to never play it again because it was just too much of a mess -

That being said, the job is still the victim of 8 years of total mismanagement and the rework, while necessary, came incredibly late into this game's lifespan and thus we find ourselves with a lackluster (though easier on the hands) levelling experience and the greater part of our pantheon of summons missing. Again, common sense solutions can be applied here in order to appease current Summoner players - because trying to win back the people who still to this day clamor in their own megathread for the return of dots and ruin-stacking is an exercise in futility that would anger more people than placate them. Those people need to take the advice you've given and that I will echo: find another job, there is no going back to the situation that collectively made both players and the devs throw their hands up in the air in defeat. Hopefully one day they get their Necromancer job, but until then I imagine their "fixes" that include bringing back irrelevant abilities like Bio and Miasma will go ignored, because the job has finally broken free of its old direction.

(Watch the "Rydia was a poison mage!" person come back and try to argue how "unique" the job was, yeah so unique that Final Fantasy fans considered it the single worst iteration of the job in the entire franchise. Please.)

Once again, simple and logical solutions are the way to move things forward without undoing all the good that the rework actually did do in terms of affirming the job’s identity and giving it a basic gameplay loop that resonates with far more people than ruin-stacking/dots/and trances all stacked right on top of each other:

- The addition of Shiva/Leviathan/Ramuh as the second round of gem summons, bringing with them unique Astral Flow abilities and different ways to make use of their gem charges. This could be any number of things but I do like the idea of WoW’s new “channelled spells” and would like to see them on Summoner if possible.
- More reliable utilities that can be used with less restrictions. This is an obvious necessity.
- A gauge to build up to greater summons like Alexander or Odin, filled by fulfilling a set of requirements that require a degree of engagement rather than being solely based off the passage of time.
- Adjusting the levelling process to include elemental mastery traits earlier.
- Revamping Energy Drain/Fester/Painflare/Ruin IV into more meaningful, thematically relevant actions.
- A channelled spell like Astral Stasis that can be used in fight downtime to charge their gauge for Alexander/Odin or reduce the cooldown timer of Bahamut, while granting group utilities like a regen or defense buff.

Adding this as an edit because I know that someone will probably come in here with this argument - do not allow ARR "lore" to hold this job back further. Add the summons missing from its pantheon, make it meaningful, and make it good. If I'm summoning Phoenix right in front of Alphinaud and Alisae's face then I can quite literally do anything!