Returning Summoner question

[Anathaer]

I just picked up Summoner again after not playing one for ages. I last played a SMN when it had DoT skills and Fester spread them to other enemies... But it has changed big time it seems. What bothers me though and I wonder if I am just missing something, Carbuncle no longer attacks AT ALL.

Despite having steady and Guard (of which Guard says no attacks until attacking or being attacked) it just stands there doing nothing. When I check it says I already have Guard up, but then Carbuncle should do attacks when I am attacking or being attacked...

The only Carbuncle that seems to do ANY attack, is when I temporarily summon Ruby. So what gives? am I missing something, or was the first Carbuncle rendered useless?

[MagiusNecros]

Carbuncle is now just emotional support.

[Anathaer]

So...pointless. Since I am not having any emotional issues at this moment o.0 Poor Carbuncle!

[rawker]

Yes.. pointless. The pet haters won the battle.

[Anathaer]

Dangit, I like the extra attack power... Not to mention I miss my DoTs

[Ryskim]

SMN has been ruined.

Removed auto-attacks from all pets. They can't be targeted, they can't tank, most skills are replacements for others. I think it's currently the job with less buttons in the game. They have literally destroyed it and the worst part is that they want to to the same to every job.

I'm surprised that a PVP'esque version of every job is not a thing yet. I'm sure that level of simplification is the goal game-wide.

[AlphaXXI]

I'm surprised that a PVP'esque version of every job is not a thing yet. I'm sure that level of simplification is the goal game-wide.

Yeah no it's not. Let's not needlessly extrapolate out of disappointment.

[Ggwppino]

literally sqe has seen fit to keep the pet bar unusable as if it were an alpha game

[AlphaXXI]

The only thing Carbuncle does is Radiant Shield (when endwalker released it also has Searing Light, but that's now a regular action summoners do themselves), otherwise the job is now about summons and getting spells from them. It's a real shame. I don't expect them to go back to the old system but there needs to be a point to it being there, which is why in another thread I suggested it should at least do ranged auto-attacks and have a purpose in the rotation, like a buff it would give (automatically when it disappears or something) depending on which summon was just used (example: spell speed increased by Garuda phase, which would be useful when going into Ifrit phase), to make it so phases influence each other and Carbuncle is at the center of it.

It's really dumb the old pet commands are still here if they don't do anything though. I'm guessing they'll be reused by Beastmaster or something.

[Sigiria]

Summoner is now much more like what it is in traditional FFs. Calling summons to do a big flashy move and disappear.
In a game relying on GCDs a pet job will always end up feeling like an illusion of control tbh. The pet would either become your main rotation or a fancy oGCD.
It does feel stupid that carbuncle is out doing nothing on the field aside from looking cute, at that point they could just rework it to either be an auto attack or just make you summon it every time you use a barrier or something.