I Enjoy Summoner

[GrizzlyTank]

Current summoner have a nice flow and not too many buttons. Which is fantastic.

[lugiaXD]

I'm probably the wrong demographic to be talking about how much they like current summoner as a Bard main but I didn't like any of the casters that much until they changed summoner in EW.

now it's the only caster I enjoy playing because it feels like an inbetween leading to red mage. Because of summoner being how it is it actually got me interested in at least leveling black mage and Picto to see what having a shit ton of cast bars can be like with a kit designed around giving small moments of movement rather than the cast bars being a window to fit into a relatively instant cast rotation.

I will say I think there needed to be more done in DT to give the class more fun additions to the rotation. I agree with a pretty popular CC named Larryzaur that they should give each demi summon more unique mechanical differences rather than just being a different design and slightly stronger than the previous demi summon till you loop back to Bahamut who is the weakest demi summon. I would have preferred seeing the other 3 ARR elemental summons finally make appearances as our level 100 ability or even the level 92 one. They could have done a lot more design wise with Shiva Ramuh and Leviathan. Shiva could have had a melee combo like Ifrit given her fight and then had one long cast that applied a DoT like frostbite. Ramuh could have had a shorter duration but focused more on landing as many casts of what I guess would be called Amethyst Catastrophe to build up stacks of Ramuh's favor which would dictate how much damage the button press would do almost like wildfire it would be best to have these on a 2 second cast time to create tension for dodging AoEs and getting more casts in. Leviathan could have had casts similar to titan as a less busy movement phase but have its favor ability apply a debuff to the enemy that increases the damage summoner deals to the enemy by 10% so they have something of a selfish buff that would slide in around the minute mark but could be moved around given how summoning works.

TL;DR

All in all I still enjoy how summoner plays but that's because I enjoyed EW summoner and I wish they'd either done more to differentiate the demi summons or given us Shiva Ramuh and Leviathan after Phoenix

[Equitable_Remedy]

The team didn't have to make Summoner fun for me, but they did. I didn't enjoy it back in the day because it felt like I was playing a WoW Warlock rather than an actual summoner, but it feels great now. I wish we got Alexander this expansion instead of Bahamut though. Just wanted to give a thanks to the dev team since there's so much negativity around here. Wish there were more positive posts.

I also really enjoy SMN and would never have played it pre-rework. Were I to switch mains to caster, SMN would probably be my choice.

[Ramiee]

It's not shocking that you two like new SMN.
It has no cast times and it's flashy, that's all you really need for a magical job to appeal to melees and Phys range. It's pretty clear that SMN is kinda designed for that camp considering it has 2 casts in its entire 100 rotation. It's simply a job that went from being a caster to a simple magical option for people who don't like casters, it does suck that it was done to summoner though, really should of done this to a new magical job instead of basically removing an entire play style from the game and not giving it back in some form at all.

[Tunda]

It's not shocking that you two like new SMN.
It has no cast times and it's flashy, that's all you really need for a magical job to appeal to melees and Phys range. It's pretty clear that SMN is kinda designed for that camp considering it has 2 casts in its entire 100 rotation. It's simply a job that went from being a caster to a simple magical option for people who don't like casters, it does suck that it was done to summoner though, really should of done this to a new magical job instead of basically removing an entire play style from the game and not giving it back in some form at all.

I agree..

I don't think the current summoner is for people who enjoy casters..
it is for people who like range jobs but with summons.. which is bad IMO

[Connor]

It's not shocking that you two like new SMN.
It has no cast times and it's flashy, that's all you really need for a magical job to appeal to melees and Phys range. It's pretty clear that SMN is kinda designed for that camp considering it has 2 casts in its entire 100 rotation. It's simply a job that went from being a caster to a simple magical option for people who don't like casters, it does suck that it was done to summoner though, really should of done this to a new magical job instead of basically removing an entire play style from the game and not giving it back in some form at all.

In my opinion they’d have been better staying with the Summoner we have now (ideally a better designed one lol but in concept at least lol) and creating a new job to accomodate its old playstyle. My main reasoning behind that is that Summoner ended up a little weird as it progressed until the remake, because there was a bit of a clash between the Arcanist ‘DoT’ aspects, the ‘Summoning’ aspects where they ended up vying for the design’s attention. You either end up with the old ‘Poison Mage’ type Summoner that some argue doesn’t feel like a ‘Summoner’ at all, or the current ‘Plonk down big primals and run in circles while attacking’ type Summoner that some would argue ‘isn’t an FFXIV-Summoner at all’.

Naturally when I say ‘new job accommodating SMN’s gameplay’ I don’t just mean giving something else its abilities and calling it a day. But I think a DPS job specifically built around DoTs, debuffs, powerful abilities interacting with DoTs, would be able to do the playstyle even more justice. It wouldn’t end up weighed down by things like needing to be doing ‘Summoner things’ on top of the ‘Poison/DoT’ things.
I think it could be like, a perfected realisation of what they were going for originally with Summoner without any of the baggage that came with being a traditional FF job

[mallleable]

I think it's kinda fine that it's just primal spamming, but I think I would enjoy it a little more if each summon button had a short cast time, more filler primals, and primal mechanics that are more varied. As it stands, it's too much instant spell spam.

[Connor]

I think it's kinda fine that it's just primal spamming, but I think I would enjoy it a little more if each summon button had a short cast time, more filler primals, and primal mechanics that are more varied. As it stands, it's too much instant spell spam.

I said before but as hot a take as it seems to be I like the Summoner we have now. Or, maybe, I think the Summoner we have now has what it takes for me to like it lol. But, having played the old Summoner too (it was actually my first class to 50 in 2.0 since I’d levelled Bard in 1.0!), I do get why people who liked that one really don’t like this one.

They’re complete polar opposites to the point that if you looked at the abilities before/after rework without context you’d have genuinely believed they were two different jobs entirely. Even the way ‘summons’ works is the complete opposite to before, where from what I remember Egi Assaults gave you some fairly high apm moments since they activated as speedy gcds.

I like the idea of the summons themselves having cast times, it’d add a bit more ‘caster flavour’ to the job itself, and it would feel very ‘classic ff summoner’ too lol. Honestly I feel like they really need to do something about Demis. The current Solar - Bahamut - Phoenix cycle is just weird and super long. Over the course of a fight you barely get to see Phoenix once, and chances are you won’t get any actual usage from Everlasting Flight or Rekindle. Also Lux Solaris is just weird. I get that they’ve like specifically designed fights to have an AoE at 120s, but I still don’t get the point. It’s not much of an emergency heal if it’s never an emergency and you can’t use it when there is one lol.

Maybe it’d be cool if they made Bahamut/Phoenix interchangeable like in PvP? That way you could choose between the two based on the situation, then have Solar stay where it is for bursts?

[FuwafuwaMii]

I agree..

I don't think the current summoner is for people who enjoy casters..
it is for people who like range jobs but with summons.. which is bad IMO

It's bad that people like the thing they like?

[Laerune]

Not every job needs to be complex or have a high skill ceiling. Playing classes like: Summoner, Dancer and Warrior is very relaxing.

Just wish we got other primal.