Summoner Questionnaire

[Tulzscha]

It's been over 4 years since old Summoner was Old Yellered, how is everyone feeling about its replacement?

I made a little questionnaire for anyone interested in giving their input: [link removed to collect results, see next post]

I'm working on a rework of sorts for fun and am curious to know what others would like to see.

[Tulzscha]

Here are the questions in case you would rather just reply here:

1. How are you enjoying Summoner in Dawntrail?

• A: It's Perfect!
• B: I like it but it could be better
• C: The design is good but it needs a lot of work
• D: It needs a complete rework, something new
• E: I wish it was still a dot mage

2. How many summons should Summoner have?

• A: We have too many now, I want less
• B: What we have is perfect
• C: A few more would be nice
• D: A dozen or so sounds cool
• E: ALL OF THE SUMMONS

3. Would you prefer summons as pets or something else?

• A: I prefer temporary "pets" in combat like Bahamut and Phoenix
• B: I want my summon of choice to follow me everywhere and do my bidding like the oden days (minus the ghosting)
• C: Just give me big flashy attacks like Ifrit/Titan/Garuda, I don't want a pet

4. Should Summoner have a rezz?

• A: Yes
• B: No
• C: Situationally
• D: Only if it becomes a role action

5. How simple or complex would you prefer Summoner to be?

• A: I want the job to play itself
• B: Simple - Maybe a couple decisions to make, nothing too punishing
• C: Moderate - I just want to feel like I earn my output
• D: Complex - I want a struggle to overcome
• E: Punish me harder Yoshi-senpai

6. Do you prefer building up to or opening with powerful summons like Bahamut?

• A: Build up with the potential for loss of progress on death
• B: Build up without punishment for death
• C: Build up but with a way to speed it up for the opener
• D: It's my Bahamut and I want it now

7. How do you feel demi summons are being handled? (pick any number)

• A: Just fine, thank you
• B: I wish I could choose between them
• C: They don't feel impactful enough
• D: I need more Bahamuts!
• E: I would like more variety

8. Do you enjoy the mini-rotations of current summons?

• A: Yes, they're great
• B: Yes but I wish there was more to them
• C: Only certain summons should have their own rotations so they feel more special
• D: No, I prefer more consistency

9. Would you rather cycle through summons or focus on one?

• A: I want to see every summon as much as possible
• B: I want to cycle through a few but not always the same ones
• C: I want to pick the best / my favorite one and stick with it

10. How do you feel about having summons like Shiva or non-primals like Diabolos?

• A: Don't care, give me anything/everything
• B: They don't make sense in the lore, so no
• C: As long as they can be made to make sense, sure

[Chajii]

1. How are you enjoying Summoner in Dawntrail?
B+E: I like it but it could be better and could keep the DoTs

Comparing to the ShB SMN, I like how we don't need to stand still during Demi-summons to make them do their job, but I wish we could have kept the DoTs (no not refreshing with Tri-Disaster).

2. How many summons should Summoner have?
C: A few more would be nice

I don't think we need to be able to summon a lot, that might be for Beastmaster but certainly having Leviathan, Ramuh and Shiva would be nice.

3. Would you prefer summons as pets or something else?
A+B: I prefer Bahamut and Phoenix as temporary pets in combat but only if we have Dreadwyrm/Firebird Trance where we build-up towards the temporary pets, and have my summon of choice to follow me everywhere and do my bidding like the oden days (minus the ghosting, funny how they improved the pet AI in EW but only SCH can enjoy the new AI).

4. Should Summoner have a rezz?[LIST]
A: Yes

Perhaps it would be nice to keep Resurrect as it is from Lv1, then introduce a trait at a certain level to convert the spell into an ability with an appropriate cooldown.

5. How simple or complex would you prefer Summoner to be?
A: I want the job to play itself

I don't mind the job be simple or punishing, simply can't like the emptiness we currently have.

6. Do you prefer building up to or opening with powerful summons like Bahamut?
B: Build up without punishment for death (time loss)

As mentioned above, I liked the concept of Dreadwyrm/Firebird Trance.

7. How do you feel demi summons are being handled? (pick any number)
A: Just fine except Solar Bahamut, thank you but I want to see Phoenix more often.

8. Do you enjoy the mini-rotations of current summons?
A+D: Yes, they're great but I don't mind the ShB way of consistently either.

9. Would you rather cycle through summons or focus on one?
D: I want to pick the best for the situation.

10. How do you feel about having summons like Shiva or non-primals like Diabolos?
C: As long as they can be made to make sense, sure

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

1. How are you enjoying Summoner in Dawntrail?
C or D - DoT was not perfect and certainly was not "Summoner-like", but I see no benefit in turning them into lego chomper without giving the old SMN fans a place to stick around.

2. How many summons should Summoner have?
C - Pls no more 'bahamuts' lol. Learn some creativity.

3. Would you prefer summons as pets or something else?
B: I want my summon of choice to follow me everywhere and do my bidding like the oden days (minus the ghosting).

4. Should Summoner have a rezz?
C: Situationally - maybe actually give Phoenix that niche?

5. How simple or complex would you prefer Summoner to be?
C or D - There's this thing called 'the middleground', SE. Look it up.

6. Do you prefer building up to or opening with powerful summons like Bahamut?
C: Build up but with a way to speed it up for the opener - Ironically, the job that felt closer to this today is PCT lmao.

7. How do you feel demi summons are being handled? (pick any number)
E: I would like more variety.

8. Do you enjoy the mini-rotations of current summons?
B: Yes but I wish there was more to them - and the only one that I like is Ifrit.

9. Would you rather cycle through summons or focus on one?
D - Which mean this also requires few fundamental changes to the encounter design.

10. How do you feel about having summons like Shiva or non-primals like Diabolos?
C: As long as they can be made to make sense, sure - Besides, there are already odd things i.e. unable to glamour SMN carbuncle into faes or even Moonstone Carbie despite the term being essentially 'a glamour'. C'mon, make it make sense.

[NegativeS]

E: I wish it was still a dot mage

C: A few more would be nice
(note: i would prefer a 'summoner' to have a wide variety, but i also know its an mmo and there are restrictions. i would settle for more egiglamours)

B: I want my summon of choice to follow me everywhere and do my bidding like the oden days (minus the ghosting)

A: Yes
(note: at least in the context of ffxiv where it and scholar stem from the same core class, it makes sense. plus it has been part of the class for far too long to remove it now without it feeling odd)

E: Punish me harder Yoshi-senpai
(note: every job needs to be made more complex, not just summoner)

X. no opinion

E: I would like more variety

D: No, I prefer more consistency

B: I want to cycle through a few but not always the same ones

B: They don't make sense in the lore, so no
(note: shiva makes sense since she's a primal, but so far its only been primals and it would probably be best to keep it consistent)

[miraidensetsu]

1. How are you enjoying Summoner in Dawntrail?

• C: The design is good but it needs a lot of work

2. How many summons should Summoner have?

• C: A few more would be nice

3. Would you prefer summons as pets or something else?

• C: Just give me big flashy attacks like Ifrit/Titan/Garuda, I don't want a pet

4. Should Summoner have a rezz?

• A: Yes

5. How simple or complex would you prefer Summoner to be?

• C: Moderate - I just want to feel like I earn my output

6. Do you prefer building up to or opening with powerful summons like Bahamut?

• C: Build up but with a way to speed it up for the opener

7. How do you feel demi summons are being handled? (pick any number)

• E: I would like more variety

8. Do you enjoy the mini-rotations of current summons?

• C: Only certain summons should have their own rotations so they feel more special

9. Would you rather cycle through summons or focus on one?

• A: I want to see every summon as much as possible

10. How do you feel about having summons like Shiva or non-primals like Diabolos?

• C: As long as they can be made to make sense, sure

[Carighan]

It bugged out on the fourth step, gave me just a "choice 1", and then said thank you after that.

[Tulzscha]

It bugged out on the fourth step, gave me just a "choice 1", and then said thank you after that.

Thanks for letting me know, I remade it on another site and updated the link in the first post. It won't let me take it myself though so lmk if this one also doesn't work.

Ty for the feedback so far!

[Supersnow845]

1) A fusion of D and E. It’s old design wasn’t perfect but I’d prefer DOT’s to no DOT’s

2) A fusion of A and B. I want lore that supports why we are limited summons like ARR but as the WOL gets stronger I don’t mind it expanding

3) B

4) A

5) D. I don’t think anyone thought job should lack the ability to give meaningful complexity if you want it, low floor high ceiling should be the design of every job

6) A. The game serious lacks ramper’s as a DPS category

7) N/A, Demi’s should be deleted (seraph included), if forced to pick an answer then C

8) B

9) Closest answer is B, I want a summon to fit a design niche so when you need that niche that’s the summon you use

10) B. Everything must start with lore

[Carighan]

For my replieds:

1: B
2: C
3: C (this feels the most FF-summoner-y, tbh)
4: A (or C, if coupled to Phoenix, I mean that's what it does!)
5: B
6: A
7: C
8: B
9: A (with the caveat that my favorite solution gives you "sets" of minors at random, you can pick the order between the three, but not which set-of-3 you get offered)
10: A