Quote Originally Posted by Exinias View Post
tldr; Current SMN matches FF lore perfectly. I just want the astral flow changes I mentioned 2 paragraphs above this and Shiva, Ramuh and Leviathan. Oh, and the option to summon either Bahamut or Phoenix after Solar Bahamut, our choice, then it's back to a 2-minute rotation.
Agreed, and I very much like the blend of Rydia and Clive as you said. I sympathize with those who liked it as a pet class, but it was clunky and it just didn’t feel like Summoner to me. (I also sympathize with the fact that BST - an actual pet class - is going to be a limited job.)

I’d like Shiva, Ramuh and Levi added as gem summons, but then split all 6 into astral/umbral teams and give us the SMN equivalent of BLM’s Transpose to switch between them. The actions/skills of the team’s summons would be the deciding factor of what you want to use at any given time, so keep their potencies roughly equivalent so as not to create a meta option. I think this would make the job feel more complete, along the lines of how Picto feels like a well-designed, complete job with room for additional skills as time goes on, without adding to button bloat. The gems were a good framework, now add at least three more so SMN gets all the main elemental summons and doesn’t have the repeat the same three gems in between the Demis they keep adding!

Having played 16 (and loved it!), I could see a setup where, depending on exactly what they’re planning for jobs after level 100, we either get to choose from a bunch of different skills for each summon for some customization, or additional gems get added over time and you can choose new gem triads to use within the astral/umbral framework. If they go the latter route, we could get a new gem Triad (or two, but I’m trying to be realistic!) every expansion, increasing the variety while not creating any more button bloat.

Just getting Ramuh, Shiva and Levi every other Demi would be good enough for me, as that’s my only real issue with the job as it is now. But I can see where the rework has the potential to expand in a couple directions if they’d just take advantage of it!