Quote Originally Posted by fulminating View Post
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.

Quote Originally Posted by fulminating View Post
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.