So according to the poll a lot of people want a pet class over classes that might actually be more helpful in more situations, so here my ideas on how everyone can get what they want. First off the job can't be overpowered or we'll just switch from stacking BLM to stacking SMN in parties, make it useful for both solo and party play.

Let it start with the class Arcanist (sp?)(ART from now on, could be ARX or ARS but we have ARC already). Give them some water and dark magic for mild DPS since no one is using it atm, also give them enfebs/debuffs (slow/stat down) and DoT's (poison/choke). ART would move onto SMN, ART30/THM15 makes sense (could use CNJ spells as 3rd class skills).

Now for the hard part, how would SMN work with only 5 special skills atm. There are two ways I think this would work. First way (and this kinda makes it a non pet class) have the summons pop, cast a spell and dissipate leaving a strong buff/debuff/enfeb for like 30sec on a 1min recast (or 1min on a 2min recast, minor detail). Second option is let the summon stay with the caster for the 30sec/1min duration and have it apply a set rotation of strong buffs/debuffs/enfebs to party members and/or mobs. With 5 skills we could get 4 summons and a 15min that 2x the duration/strength of a summon.

These are just ideas that I have been thinking about since I saw the poll results and was saddened that no on thinks we need a debuff/enfeb/DoT class/job (idc if it melee but we need one), are we gonna be taking 8 people plus 3 pets to AV/CC or Ifrit/Garuda? I think people are thinking about what they want more then what we need, maybe my ideas need more work. Just tell me what you think, I'm open to suggestions on how SMN will work in our current battle system.