Quote Originally Posted by AlphaXXI View Post
I really don't think we can expect there to be so many summons (including Carbucle, those you mentionned add up to 12) unless you completely rework the job again.
My suggestion at the end with adding Fenrir/Carby + "big summons" would absolutely require a rework, but that is simply the direction I'd like to see them take the class if I had it my way, and not something I would ever actually expect to happen. However, the other three primals would not require a full rework. You're simply replacing round two of Ifrit/Garuda/Titan with them in the same sense Phoenix already replaces Bahamut, and the class would otherwise flow exactly the same for better or worse. Would it largely feel like they are just doing what Ifrit/Garuda/Titan are already doing right now? Honestly, probably, but that's really just the way the game is rn. Having different summons come in doing largely the same, but slightly different things is pretty much like how SAM has 2 diff "1,2,3" combos + a "1,2" just to get different stickers. Or BLM switching from Fire IV to Blizzard IV then back again.

Would it take a lot of time and development to implement? Yeah, just as much as they put in for Endwalker when they added the first three, but honestly my sympathy for that work is a bit low atm since this is all stuff that should have been slowly implemented 10+ years ago. The reality is they waited a long time to course correct this class, and now that they clearly are trying to there is a lot of catching up to do.

I get the arguments that some want the current ones to be fleshed out, and that is something they should do eventually, but thematically having 3 elements + 3 random finishers is not rounded out. Pokemon starters work because they make a "rock, paper, scissors" triangle, but FF has their own established 6 sided version in the elemental wheel, which only half is represented right now. In hindsight they should have started with 3, added the other 3, then worked their way up to Bahamut/Phoenix/etc, but that's not what they did. So it kinda feels like a mess atm.

That said, with the exception of Solar Bahamut feeling like a bit of a set back, I feel like SE has been making great strides in making SMN thematically how it should be within FFXIV. So I def want to give them credit there. I'm hoping that in 8.0 and beyond the class gets fully realized.