I am very excited for Dawntrail, but as a Summoner main, I find myself disappointed in the information coming from the media tour on the job. SMN was my first job in XIV when I started in 4.4 and it's been my WoL's canon job in my mind through the MSQ for each expansion since. I raided through all of Eden (even on 5.0 SMN) and enjoyed the complexity and skill expression the job had. I think the Endwalker version of the job captured the job fantasy well, but it has robbed the job of skill expression and feels very simple and boring to play now.

It feels like the dev team might not know what they want to do with the job or how to expand it, but I would hope that we will not have to play this same version for another 2+ years waiting on the 8.0 job reworks.

Looking at Pros and Cons -
Endwalker/Dawntrail SMN Pros -
  • Straightforward rotation. Easy to learn.
  • Establishes core rotation early.
  • Expresses Job Fantasy Well

Endwalker/Dawntrail SMN Cons -
  • Very little skill expression
  • Samey feeling of Demisummon phases
  • Phoenix feels less exciting than Bahamut
  • Carbuncle feels vestigial.
  • No longer feels like a casting job.

My following post will discuss some possible adjustments to counter these cons.