Summoner Issues & Player Feedback

[DiaDeem]

With so many primals available, I just fail to understand why we're getting just another Bahamut.

[SkyCake]

I don't like new Summoner at all. But, even I was a little sad after watching the job actions trailer for it.

[Vandso]

They had one job, and it was to add Ramuh, Shiva and Leviathan during Phoenix phase. Instead they chose to reskin Bahamut. What a disappointment. This is the proof they don't listen to their playerbase.

[Kaurhz]

Having a 4th in the form of Ramuh would've been great for me.

Just give it the appearance of a Grey Arbiter, and then have 1 of the attacks be Thunderbolt.

Shiva I don't think would fit because of some obvious reasons. But Ramuh or Leviathan? These would have been fine.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I know the devs are scared of button bloat, then make the Shiva / Ramuh / Leviathan replace Titan, Garuda, Ifrit during Phoenix phase.

I play on controller, so I am also scared of button bloat. lol I don’t mind another version of Bahamut. But to get the next demi before getting a new set of gems/summons in-between just feels out of order. I get that maybe they wanted to put in “something big” for the level 100 skill, but still! (Also, was kinda hoping for Shinryu for the next demi… lol)

I love SMN and since not much is changing, I’ll still love it, but damn I really wanted my Levi-Shiva-Ramuh to complete my rainbow of gems and get more summons without extra buttons! Really hope that they are watching feedback enough to know just how many people want it. Just sad that it’s going to be at least 8.0 before it can even happen.

[RobinCoyote]

Old Summoner always felt really clunky to play. It was my first job, and I played it for the MSQ through each expansion. I have a lot of good memories tied up in it, even if I didn't find the old playstyle particularly palatable.

On the other hand I'm not really a fan of new summoner. It's a bit too simple for me. Even so I continued the tradition of playing it for the Endwalker MSQ. I'm really happy people enjoy it at least, even if I find it really bland.

The job action trailer for SMN in Dawntrail was a huge letdown. A few particle effect updates for existing spells and a second Bahamut? Really? You had so many cool primals to choose from and you chose a second Bahamut? I went in looking forward to seeing some cool stuff for my old main in anticipation of maintaining my tradition of playing SMN for Dawntrail MSQ and I left underwhelmed and disappointed. All you had to do was reskin the filler primals after Phoenix phase and I'm sure people would have been happy with even a lazy update like that.

But you gave us almost literally nothing.

[LittleArrow]

I play on controller, so I am also scared of button bloat. lol I don’t mind another version of Bahamut. But to get the next demi before getting a new set of gems/summons in-between just feels out of order. I get that maybe they wanted to put in “something big” for the level 100 skill, but still! (Also, was kinda hoping for Shinryu for the next demi… lol)

I love SMN and since not much is changing, I’ll still love it, but damn I really wanted my Levi-Shiva-Ramuh to complete my rainbow of gems and get more summons without extra buttons! Really hope that they are watching feedback enough to know just how many people want it. Just sad that it’s going to be at least 8.0 before it can even happen.

I couldn't agree more. I'll still really enjoy summoner, but man what a let down. I was so sure this was the most obvious direction they were going to go. I'm sure Neo Bahamut will be cool, but ugh, gutted they didn't add the most obvious Shiva / Levi / Ramuh. I don't care about the story implications - they can 100% write around and they have many many many times. There's no excuse of them not putting them in there. The salt in the wound is 2+yrs worth of waiting just to see if they'll add them in the next expansion. Meh.

Still happy to play summoner, sad to see the direction they went.

Totally agree with almost all of the comments in this thread.

[Minali]

(Original Post)

All of the above and all of the following

Yoshida's vision for summoner being an actual summoner was 100% the correct move.

I ADORE the new Summoner! Summoner was always my favorite class in every final fantasy game, even the ones that didn't have it - I was so excited to get the new summon materia, guardian force, whatever they called it! Those cutscenes were one of my favorite things in all the final fantasy games, which is why I'm so confused we're getting neo-bahamut.

I 100% agree, I do NOT want a Bahamut mage. I want a SUMMONER. I want Shiva, Ramuh, Leviathan, Titania, Anima - I want all of the classic summons and I want new summons too! I know the devs are scared of button bloat, then make the Shiva / Ramuh / Leviathan replace Titan, Garuda, Ifrit during Phoenix phase. Give us a OGCD of Alexander for a party shield / buff. Give us more summons please!

What we just saw with another Elemental phase with the same summons and then Solar Bahamut was just more of the same. Might as well just have kept it as it is because the buttons I press will most likely be exactly the same as in the normal Bahamut and Phoenix phases, the primal will just look different.

I played Summoner since Shb and I like the new version very much as a good solid foundation to build on, to expand. But not by stacking just more of the same at the end of the rotation for Carby's sake. Explore more options for oGCDs with the Aethergauge and add more slots to that, include other primals that we actually met and have a reason to be there, give Carby a reason for existence... Many things you could do. Please do them.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I'm sure Neo Bahamut will be cool, but ugh, gutted they didn't add the most obvious Shiva / Levi / Ramuh. I don't care about the story implications - they can 100% write around and they have many many many times. There's no excuse of them not putting them in there. The salt in the wound is 2+yrs worth of waiting just to see if they'll add them in the next expansion. Meh.

Still happy to play summoner, sad to see the direction they went.

I mean, between the Eden questline, and some conversations you have in Elpis, they wouldn’t even have to try that hard to write around them, they’ve pretty much already laid a foundation. lol

I still think it’ll happen eventually… it’s literally the easiest way to add to the job without adding a ton of extra buttons… just hope when they do, they don’t forget our Aquamarine, Sapphire & Amethyst Carby glams!

[Nakira]

I am EXTREMELY disappointed in what they've done to smn. We did not need a new random imposter Bahamut. And I don't buy it if the excuse is 'we wanted something super big and flashy for the 100 skill!' You know what would have stunned and and shocked and excited smn players? The 3 new egis we've been asking for for a decade. The new Bahamut does absolutely nothing other than just extend a 2 min cycle of 'summon demi Bahamut 1 and demi Bahamut reskinned' to a 4 min version of the same cycle, but it forces us to continue to cast the exact same basic, bland rotation we've had since the rework. And assuming this new flavor of Bahamut doesn't have a heal, which I believe is the case since it's intended to be the new burst demi, it means smn has also lost some of it's already limited utility it had with Phoenix, since it's now only available once every 4 min instead of every 2. Yeah, Phoenix didn't do a whole lot but it did have its uses. They also had so many choices for a new demi from among the primals/entities that already exist in the lore, and they went with something they pulled out of their asses.

I like the current smn, don't get me wrong. But I always thought it to be way too simple and basic, and always believed the intent was to expand on it in the next expansion once they had time to see how it did and balance it. But no, they are literally doing nothing but adding another Bahamut copy that looks to be the exact same mechanics that the current 2 have, and we're still stuck with the most basic egi rotation in between (adding filler spells to fester/searing light does not make it more engaging.) It just made so much more sense to me personally to leave the 2 min rotation smn has now as it is and add the new egis, which would make it much more interesting than just spamming the same 3 egis all the time. But even so, I'd have been ok with a new demi, if they had used something that was already in game, not 'Solar Bahamut'. I could sit here and tell myself they'll add the new egis in 8.0 but with how this went I just now both doubt it and no longer care. I will try smn and get it to 100, but I currently severely doubt I'll stick with playing it, which is a shame because it's one of my favorite jobs, not just in XIV, but across all the FF's I've played.

The biggest slap in the face though is their continual insistence that they 'listen to feedback' when it's very clear that they've ignored all the feedback smn players have given them over the course of the game.

I think half the problem stems from the "-egi"'s basically looking nothing like a summon we expect (ye ol "titan chicken nugget"), so what would Ramuh , Shiva, and Leviathan look like? Ramuh and Shiva end up looking like recolored Ifrit-egi's , and for lore reasons, logically we can not summon the actual primal. Players would probably re-glam them to carbuncle just so they occupy less space on the screen.

So maybe what is called for here is to make the primal-egi's at least be able to be glammed to the minion appearances. It's not like the game doesn't have those assets.



But maybe people like the existing ones. Another path to go is to take a page from "World of Final Fantasy" (Basically a game that you collect final fantasy monsters) and have alternate transfigurations of Ramuh (Ramewl), Shiva(Shivalry), and, Ifrit (Ifreeta), it's not like we didn't see an allusion to this in the first during the Eden's Gate raids. They made entirely alternate versions of each Primal.

There are plenty of other things Yoshi-P can let the summoner summon, and ways of customizing/glamor'ing them to suit the players taste.

They've retconned so much of the lore already that it would just be easier (and likely mainly accepted overall by players) to just slap the actual primals in, regardless of the lore stating it's not possible. With how much they butchered Ast, as an example, it wouldn't be really all that wild for them to just put the primals in. And they would not even have to worry about designing egis, since smn's 90 trait upgrades them to the primal forms.