Arcanist is weird

[Rongway]

Aethercharge proper is a 0p GCD though, so the 50p it adds to each Ruin only nets a total of 10-60p once you account for the lost Ruin. Aethercharge's value is not in what it adds to Ruin but in unlocking the summons, and that value is funny at times, with the values of each element varying wildly over the course of SMN's career.

Back to this topic for a moment, as I've taken a bit of time to think of why Aethercharge is particularly bad.

First, its evolutions, which are mostly not problematic:

• Dreadwyrm Trance - Ignoring the first two levels, gains Deathflare and then Dreadwyrm Trance is immediately worth 500p, on its own making up for the lost Ruin.
• Summon Bahamut - Immediately worth a Deathflare and an Akh Morn.
• Summon Phoenix - Immediately worth a Revelation.

Aethercharge and Dreadwyrm Trance during its first two levels each cost a GCD without providing an oGCD that can immediately make up for that lost GCD. Do they make up for the lost GCD over the course of their duration by increasing the potency of Ruin, and then after their duration by enabling the elemental summons? Yes, of course. But their immediate effect is lost DPS.

Comparisons of pure Ruin spam vs Aethercharged Ruin spam:

Lv6-29  Potency    Running      Charged    Potency    Running    Difference

Ruin        240        240      Aethercharge     0          0         (-240)
Ruin        240        480      Ruin           290        290         (-190)
Ruin        240        720      Ruin           290        580         (-140)
Ruin        240        960      Ruin           290        870          (-90)
Ruin        240      1,200      Ruin           290      1,160          (-40)
Ruin        240      1,440      Ruin           290      1,450            10
Ruin        240      1,680      Ruin           290      1,740            60



Lv30-53  Potency    Running      Charged    Potency    Running    Difference

Ruin II     270        270      Aethercharge     0          0         (-270)
Ruin II     270        540      Ruin II        320        320         (-220)
Ruin II     270        810      Ruin II        320        640         (-170)
Ruin II     270      1,080      Ruin II        320        960         (-120)
Ruin II     270      1,350      Ruin II        320      1,280          (-70)
Ruin II     270      1,620      Ruin II        320      1,600          (-20)
Ruin II     270      1,890      Ruin II        320      1,920            30



Lv54-57  Potency    Running      Charged    Potency    Running    Difference

Ruin III    300        300      Aethercharge     0          0         (-300)
Ruin III    300        600      Ruin III       350        350         (-250)
Ruin III    300        900      Ruin III       350        700         (-200)
Ruin III    300      1,200      Ruin III       350      1,050         (-150)
Ruin III    300      1,500      Ruin III       350      1,400         (-100)
Ruin III    300      1,800      Ruin III       350      1,750          (-50)
Ruin III    300      2,100      Ruin III       350      2,100             0



Lv58-59  Potency    Running      Charged    Potency    Running    Difference

Ruin III    300        300      Dwyrm Trance     0          0         (-300)
Ruin III    300        600      A. Impulse     440        440         (-160)
Ruin III    300        900      A. Impulse     440        880          (-20)
Ruin III    300      1,200      A. Impulse     440      1,320           120
Ruin III    300      1,500      A. Impulse     440      1,760           260
Ruin III    300      1,800      A. Impulse     440      2,200           400 
Ruin III    300      2,100      A. Impulse     440      2,640           540




Lv60-69  Potency    Running      Charged    Potency    Running    Difference

Ruin III    300        300      DwT + Dflare   500        500           200 
Ruin III    300        600      A. Impulse     440        940           340
Ruin III    300        900      A. Impulse     440      1,380           480
Ruin III    300      1,200      A. Impulse     440      1,820           620
Ruin III    300      1,500      A. Impulse     440      2,260           760
Ruin III    300      1,800      A. Impulse     440      2,700           900 
Ruin III    300      2,100      A. Impulse     440      3,140         1,040

As you can see, if we consider only the Aethercharge portion of the rotation and nothing else, Aethercharge is a loss from the moment you get it all the way until Lv60. Worse, it becomes more of a loss at Lvs 30 and 54. It literally, objectively gets worse at those two levels!

And this is considering someone who is able to get all 6 Ruins into one Aethercharge. I have 40ms ping most days and I can only get a 6th Ruin if I have a 2.48s or faster GCD. There are probably people who can never get that 6th ruin, and for them Aethercharge is only a 10p gain with Ruin I and a complete loss with Ruin II and Ruin III.

This all makes it really easy for a new player to perceive Aethercharge as a waste of time.


Yeah, I know SMN already does disproportionately high damage considering its Action set as a whole; no I don't think SMN needs to do more damage. I'm just saying I understand why this looks strange to new folks, who might see that it takes, e.g., five Ruin casts to kill a target whether they Aethercharge or not so why waste a GCD on Aethercharge.

[Silverquick]

Arcanist only every had access to Summon and Summon II, which are emerald/topaz Carbuncles respectively. Summon III, which is Ifrit Egi is only available to Summoners and you can only become a Summoner after you have completed the Job Quests, which also gives you Summon III.

Arcanist never learned Summon III in any capacity.

Naw it really was there and it did exist for Arcanist.

As I was thinking back, I remember how I found it. I was reading the official guide on back then on SMN/ACN, the one on Lodestone here, and I saw that pet there and I'd never seen it. Then I thought Well I did go summoner before I got that so I pulled my stone to go try it out and sure enough it was there on the Summon III button, just like the guide said.

[Rongway]

Naw it really was there and it did exist for Arcanist.

As I was thinking back, I remember how I found it. I was reading the official guide on back then on SMN/ACN, the one on Lodestone here, and I saw that pet there and I'd never seen it. Then I thought Well I did go summoner before I got that so I pulled my stone to go try it out and sure enough it was there on the Summon III button, just like the guide said.

WayBack Machine: Archive of "FINAL FANTASY XIV Job Guide: Summoner" updated 16 June 2017
WayBack Machine: Archive of "FINAL FANTASY XIV Job Guide: Summoner" updated 30 July 2019

Summon III was only ever for SMN.

[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

[Kimmay]

Naw it really was there and it did exist for Arcanist.

As I was thinking back, I remember how I found it. I was reading the official guide on back then on SMN/ACN, the one on Lodestone here, and I saw that pet there and I'd never seen it. Then I thought Well I did go summoner before I got that so I pulled my stone to go try it out and sure enough it was there on the Summon III button, just like the guide said.

As I said before, Ruby Carbuncle did not exist before /egiglamour. Summon 3 was Smn's exclusive lv30 ability. If that's hard for you to believe, then remember anything Arcanist had Scholar would have. So where is the third fairy, using Summon 3?

[Silverquick]

WayBack Machine: Archive of "FINAL FANTASY XIV Job Guide: Summoner" updated 16 June 2017
WayBack Machine: Archive of "FINAL FANTASY XIV Job Guide: Summoner" updated 30 July 2019

Summon III was only ever for SMN.

Well there's nothing I can say to that.

[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.