Arcanist is weird

[Reimmi]

I still have no idea why they made the pet basically a mascot
why can't it at least do auto attacks like the fairy can with heals

[Ryskim]

ACN will be discarded entirely. Same for CNJ, THM, MRD, GLD, and ROG

Yoshida said several times already that all Classes will be gone at some point and there will be only jobs.

Although I'd love ROG or THF to be an actual job on its own.

[AnomalyGlyph]

I agree, arcanist/SMN having a carbuncle that is only there is what really makes the class weird at the early levels. However, I would disagree that level 86 is where people come to terms with SMN as the hype and excitement does not last.
Sure, you enjoy finally summoning true primals outside of the Demis, but you just repeat those 3. furthermore, its not like we haven't seen those animations before from actually fighting those primals.

I feel that not only does this make Arcanist a weird class by having it rely on a pet you can't rely on, since you seem to summon a new carbuncle for 1 attack, but SMN as well loses its own shine as well. Just by reading the lore of SMN and how they were Allagan units that were praised for their efforts makes you wonder how far such people could have gone with just a ruin buff and an egi that only did one command.

I am fine if they wish to keep summoner in its current state, but Arcanist and Summoner need something done to make them stand out. Their ruins are all the same until the later levels, their outbursts to tri-disasters are all the same as well. The carbuncle does nothing, they have no DoTs, they are a boring class/job, and the egiglams have yet to be fixed. they just need to sit down and have a very long discussion on Arcanist, and SMN to figure out how to make the pets work.

They should also get rid of the only 3 gems motif of SMN and replace it with the ability to mix and match gems. After all, the next levels SMN is getting are most likely just trait skills rather than actual new skills (yay more ruin buffs), it feels like they could return some of the complexity SMN had by allowing you to summon other primals. Makes no sense to limit a job when primals were fought most of the time.

In the end it is a tall order for the devs to make such miracles happen right now because they would need to put in alot of work to make it all function without errors.

[remiff]

In any case, the Summoner's rework seems rushed.
It feels like they released a half-finished job, almost closer to level 60 in terms of rotation, rather than level 90.
Furthermore, they didn't even bother to create decent animations for lower levels; they simply reused two old animations.
This shows how little effort they wanted to invest in it, and it's currently causing issues for both the Arcanist and Summoner as a whole.

[chip793]

Aethercharge is a huge DPS gain (+50 Ruin potency/+20 Outburst potency over the 6-7 casts it lasts for is a total of 300/350 potency for ruin and 120/140 for Outburst) when fighting anything beyond overworld trash mobs. You NEVER want to avoid using it off cooldown in duties as it's how you get your arcanums which add even more damage. Carbuncle exists at low level because of Radiant Aegis which should also be used early and often to help the healer(s.) It's also how you access your arcanum spells after Aethercharge expires which will later include Enkindle damage. Never use any of the GCD AoEs on less than three targets.

For the most part, it's a little dry at low level. But I find it much more fun than the older version where it was just DoT upkeep and Ruin spam with Egi-Assault I/II off cooldown. At least now you can't lose an entire charge of pet damage to the target becoming untargetable or the pet AI simply deciding to not do what you tell it to.

[Mikey_R]

Aethercharge is a huge DPS gain (+50 Ruin potency/+20 Outburst potency over the 6-7 casts it lasts for is a total of 300/350 potency for ruin and 120/140 for Outburst) ....

If you then take into account the GCD it costs to use Aethercharge (which could have been another ruin), you potency gain is only 60 potency for Ruin 1, 30 potency for Ruin 2 and it is a loss of 10 potency for Ruin 3 (you only get 6 casts in, might be less if you take into account the cast time). Whilst yes, it does provide the gems, it doesn't stop Aethercharge, as an action, feeling underwhelming. Once you hit 58 and get Dreadwyrm Trance, it does pick up, as you do significantly more damage. To add, just to be complete, Outburst is a 20 potency gain, same points as above.

[Post]

Like funky ShB ACN, you cast your pretty lousy GCD not for the action itself by what it brings. 200 and 220 potency over 30 second Bio and Miasma sucked but was made worth it by Fester (and Bane); Aethercharge is made worth it not even by Gems but the summons themselves. The difference being they are big, slow, and not very strong until 50 (dealing 400 until Enkindle) and not very responsive til 90 (Ifrit and Titan slowly wandering up, and guess what, all the egis and Demi summons still ghost attacks, only now it matters way more since they're a larger component of your damage and you don't get a resource from them swinging like ruin IV charges). By contrast, Fester and Bane as the reward for your weak slow low level dots were powerful and responsive oGCDs that at the very least changed up your gameplay priorities or approach to a fight, kinda like what ACN claims to be about in an the quests.

And before, DWT used to give you a free set of DoTs via Tri-Disaster, be oGCD, grant instant casts for the duration and a shorter resurrection timer all without delaying your rotation if you decided you wanted to use the whole action for movement or for utility. You could still end it early if you wanted to launch into Bahamut sooner at no DPS loss.

Point being it's not hard to be better and feel better than Aethercharge, and given the variety of things SMN used to learn while leveling it doesn't seem unreasonable to conclude that they reworked its leveling experience just enough to copy its 90 rotation, not to make it interesting or engaging in its own right.

Should probably mention that the math on Ruin 3 there is screwed, because ruin 3 doesn't reach 310 potency till 84 due to the ruin mastery 4 trait. At 54 it's still 300 potency, meaning it breaks even over 7 casts (Aethercharge + 6 empowered ruins 3 for 350 each). Why they choose to display the full level 90 strength of the actions and only potencies added in the traits instead of just stating the total value at that level I couldn't tell you, but it makes comparing actions needlessly difficult at anything other than max level. Which, again, reinforces that they don't think about other than max level.