Giving Carbucle more to do (an easy to implement SMN change)

[Equitable_Remedy]

While not a SMN main, I do enjoy SMN, and my preference would be for carbuncle to just go away permanently.

Summoning Bahamut = cool. Summoning carbuncle = not cool.

[Ayden]

While not a SMN main, I do enjoy SMN, and my preference would be for carbuncle to just go away permanently.

Summoning Bahamut = cool. Summoning carbuncle = not cool.

I agree with you. Carbuncle should just be removed. If Carbuncle were to deal damage, it would likely result in a reduction in the damage output of the Summoner itself.

[Ayalu]

The reason why carbuncle stays is probably because its anchored into the Arcanist Storyline and needed there.
But thats a common occurrence that the class story references and talks about things that are not true anymore.

I wouldn't mind carbuncle would go to us scholars instead Alphinaud showed some nice support stuff with it and would us suite more than the Angelic route.

[rawker]

The reason why carbuncle stays is probably because its anchored into the Arcanist Storyline and needed there.
But thats a common occurrence that the class story references and talks about things that are not true anymore.

I wouldn't mind carbuncle would go to us scholars instead Alphinaud showed some nice support stuff with it and would us suite more than the Angelic route.

Yes please. Also, I don't mind having to control 2 pets at the same time, 1 for offensive purposes, the other for healing.. I mean, even as SCH, we're still ACNs and are able to summon Carby.

[AlphaXXI]

A lot of people like having Carbuncle around, there's emotionnal attachment involved. Removing it completely would disappoint a lot of people. Like I don't think giving it to scholars is a bad idea (even though they can already glam their fairy into one, that's what I personally do), but removing every aspect of having a pet from summoner would remove a big part of its identity.

I REALLY think the solution is to find a way to make it less pointless, if my initial idea doesn't seem appealing to you maybe suggest other things ? Be creative people, there's more possibilities than "remove this or that" or "go back to old thing I liked".

[Ggwppino]

A lot of people like having Carbuncle around, there's emotionnal attachment involved. Removing it completely would disappoint a lot of people. Like I don't think giving it to scholars is a bad idea (even though they can already glam their fairy into one, that's what I personally do), but removing every aspect of having a pet from summoner would remove a big part of its identity.

I REALLY think the solution is to find a way to make it less pointless, if my initial idea doesn't seem appealing to you maybe suggest other things ? Be creative people, there's more possibilities than "remove this or that" or "go back to old thing I liked".

Ideally the best option to not have a useless carbuncle is to have it coexist with the demes, so have "Carbuncle" entities and "Demi" entities that coexist and are two very distinct physical objects in the game.
At this point, since you have freed the carbuncle from the demi, you can make it do whatever you want.
Problem: They had about 7 years to implement a new entity for Demi, it was the best way to eliminate ghosting, yet they didn't do it. So I really imagine that the main problem is the inability to create it due to factors of skill or factors of how the engine sucks (even if it's not a valid excuse for how much money we give them to sqe between subscription, expansions and shop).
If they had implemented it, by now we would have the rotation we have now (which is a little different from always spamming ruin 3 although not by much), but we would still have the possibility to manage the positioning and the various resources of the pet.
We could have had a pet with HP, emnity and stamina.
We could have had a pet with the 3 roles DPS, Tank, Healer.
We could have had a pet with a dot to place on the ground
We could have had a pet with autoattack
We could have had a pet that dragged us to its position
We could have had a pet that buff
We could have had a pet that could give an area shield
We could have a pet that had a heal
Instead we have a pet that stands still and stares at us, ready for the next expansion to be eliminated completely and a pet bar that is unusable, because the commands literally do nothing.

[ShadowNyx3]

Hot take from someone who hates current SMN: Carbuncle is fine.

IMO, Carbuncle serves its purpose quite well with the redesign of SMN. It's your companion for the entire leveling process and is the entity through which you channel more powerful Summons as you grow.

Mechanically, Radiant Aegis is an amazing tool in higher level content and the only reason it has two charges is because it's balanced by the current summoning mechanic. You axe Carbuncle and you kill that second charge, making SMN and BLM have identical personal mitigations.

If you are lamenting old pet class gameplay then I feel for you but that playstyle is gone and it isn't coming back. Perhaps Beastmaster will bring back some of that flavor in some capacity, but it's dead and buried on Summoner.

That being said, there are some minor things you could add that bring back some of that flavor, however they would really only apply to higher level content. For example, since a theme of SMN utility is that its restrictive you could have a Passage of Arms effect unique to Carbuncle where it creates a small, localized shield that effects all party members within. This gives you a party mitigation similar to Red Mage but restricted by needing Carbuncle out and having to place the shield on the map.

[rawker]

Some abilities got removed but was given back.. Energy Drain on SCH. It's not impossible for the old pet gameplay to return to SMN.

Using beastmaster as an argument is problematic as we have blue mage that can do everything. Why shoehorn a gameplay to a limited job only?

[Ggwppino]

Hot take from someone who hates current SMN: Carbuncle is fine.

IMO, Carbuncle serves its purpose quite well with the redesign of SMN.

So fine, that in the middle of expansion they remove searing light from it. Actually they dont know what they are doing.

[ShadowNyx3]

So fine, that in the middle of expansion they remove searing light from it. Actually they dont know what they are doing.

Your point being...?

The change to Searing Light was objectively positive. Hence, Carbuncle is fine. Should I have said: 'Carbuncle is currently fine?'

Some abilities got removed but was given back.. Energy Drain on SCH. It's not impossible for the old pet gameplay to return to SMN.

This would be a better example if they had removed Aetherflow entirely from Scholar and decided to bring back the whole mechanic. Instead, you are trying to equate adding a single button press back to Scholar's kit to adding back the entire concept of having to place your pet within the arena. Not to mention that the game has since expanded the area of effect of all party skills to encompass entire arenas, further putting a nail in the coffin of the idea of pet placement. Even if you added a party buff to Carbuncle, it would still hit everyone no matter where the pet was placed, which is why I specified a localized effect in my suggested example to try and add some of that flavor back.

Using beastmaster as an argument is problematic as we have blue mage that can do everything. Why shoehorn a gameplay to a limited job only?

Who knows what Beastmaster will be able to do? Will it just be a copy of Blue Mage? Will it have some sort of new progression mechanic? We don't know right now. All I said is that maybe it will have the pet job flavor. Whether you like seeing that on Beastmaster is wholly up to whether you enjoy the content Beastmaster will offer.