Rotations: Making them DIFFERENT

[fulminating]

Not quite sure what you mean by "unalloyed"?

As I said, FFXIV's SMN feels like a hybrid of Rydia from FF4 and Clive from FF16.

Also, your picture is pretty misleading. Not only does it leave out a huge part of 5.X (and earlier) SMN (the DoTs; not to mention Egi-Assaults and Further Ruins), it ignores that Phoenix and Bahamut are also in the 6.X rotation. I get it's supposed to be a meme, but it's an example of what I'm saying.

Unalloyed as in not a hybrid. Rydia isn’t a summoner alone, but has black magic too, fairly sure ffxi jobs all take a secondary job, other summoners are also white mages, I think ffv was the one where you also have a mix of your choice, similar to ffta/2. It’s been a while since 1990,

That would be because it’s the phases. You’re pressing 3 until it’s ctrl 3 time repeatedly. I think it probably should be a picture of gem shine into ruin 3 but I couldn’t find a better one at short notice. They do not feel nearly as distinct as they did, whether or not this is a 2 minute issue isn’t really relevant, we can only compare what is there. For the record I don’t think it helps, and should they change it they’ll have a hell of a time changing it. It also suffers from the riveting gameplay of casting ruin 3 lots while waiting on the phoenix buff because high concept 2 always comes along at the same time and there’s no flexibility in how you play it and prematurely bahamuting would be a hilarious dps loss comparatively. Builder spender that operates from debt sounds a lot more interesting than the reality.

Honestly if they added current summoner as evoker I’d still be pretty annoyed about it. Even if there’s a collection of rabbits who literally just taught the beastmen how to summon properly and learning a job from them would have been a good way to expand on the world building and integrate it into the story. There’s just isn’t enough to it nor anything to justify its rigidity.

[ForsakenRoe]

It also suffers from the riveting gameplay of casting ruin 3 lots while waiting on the phoenix buff because high concept 2 always comes along at the same time and there’s no flexibility in how you play it and prematurely bahamuting would be a hilarious dps loss comparatively. Builder spender that operates from debt sounds a lot more interesting than the reality.

'We need to delay buffs by 25s because of this mechanic being trash to try and get damage out in (eg pinax), we don't lose a use of the buffs'

Old SMN: Okay I can hold Bahamut and Searing Light for 25s, filling the gap with one extra Egi Assault 1 and 2 to not overcap, the 2 Ruin IV procs, and then the Ruin III's I'd be casting with Bahamut out anyway

New SMN: My whole rotation falls apart because of this, and I am forced to spam my weakest spell for 25 seconds unless I want to misalign from raidbuffs (which is a bigger DPS loss)

I think this is what people mean by 'Old SMN was more versatile' maybe?

[Renathras]

Unalloyed as in not a hybrid.

Ah, I see. There...seem not to be man/any of those.

Given, by that token, there aren't very many non-hybrid Jobs in general. Taking FF9 for example, Zidane is a Thief but also a Squire/Fighter, Steiner is a Knight but also a Paladin but also a Mystic Knight (with Vivi in the party), Vivi seems to be the only pure Job in the bunch (other than Quina?) as BLM, Garnet is a SMN/WHM, Freya is a DRG/RDM (or maybe DNC is more accurate...) hybrid, Eiko is a WHM/SMN, Quina is a BLU, and Amaranth is never in the party. (Seems to be a MNK/Fighter). FF6, FF7, and FF8 characters can all be customized, so are generally some version of Fighter/Archer + Mage + Summoner. FFX characters kind of fit into that same camp, except without the Summoner (aside from Yuna). FF12 and FF13's characters are also hybrids. FF15s are also hybrids but in kind of a different way, and no mages. Prompto is probably the least hybrid as a MCH, I guess (when not going 3PS shooter). And FF16's main character is a Fighter + Summoner + debateably Red Mage...you know what, let's just call him a Red Caller and be done with it.

So I don't really think this is exclusively a SMN problem in that sense. You could probably make that argument related to all FFXIV Jobs.

It also suffers from the riveting gameplay of casting ruin 3 lots while waiting on...

I made a proposal a little while back in the DPS forum that was mixed reception but some people seemed to like it as a possible solution to this problem: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...tweak-proposal

Would basically address this very problem.

.

As for the AOE vs Single Target thing; they could just make two versions of each Primal for that. But then people would ask why the single target existed when they do the same damage. People already ask this all the time now. AOE gameplay in this game is more or less an afterthought at this point, I think. Agree? It certainly seems to be. Most content is either adds you bunch up (if possible; Extreme adds often seem to be static emplacements you simply have to destroy - ZodEx, HydEx, and RubiEx all did this, and the others didn't have adds) and then nuke down without thought all together; and the rest of the content is single target where it doesn't matter if abilities have an AOE effect because it's irrelevant.