Summoner would not work with FFXIV current state.

[Neptune]

Crazy idea...

Rather than the traditional FFXI style sommoning,, what if the Summoning magic had incremental effects?

For instance:

SMN begins to summon Shiva. Total casting time = 30 sec

• 0:00: Casting begins and a large spherical field (see: Limsa's opening story) appears. snow begins to fall inside field and ice elemental attacks are enhanced.
• 0:05: A friendly Ice Elemental appears and begins to attack the mob.
• 0:10: Enemies within the field suffer the Frost effect and Paralyze.
• 0:15: A second friendly Ice Elemental appears and begins to attack the mob.
• 0:20: Party members within the field gain Ice Spikes and enBlizzard
• 0:25: A third friendly Ice Elemental appears and begins to attack the mob.
• 0:30: All Party and Mobs within the field are transported to Shiva's realm where Shiva appears and unleashes Diamond Dust. When the sequence is complete, the field and all it's effects end and the game returns to normal.

*Note: The final sequence would only be visible to party members within the field, all others would see the 'bubble' frost over and become opaque

I would make this magic rather fragile so that if the summoner gets hit or moves, the field and its effects immediately end and the spell must be restarted. This would also force tanks to work very hard to keep mobs within the field and yet away from the summoner. Also the summoner's emnity could increase gradually as the spell is being cast, thus making it more difficult to maintain the spell.

That is a great idea! I'd love to see that!

I actually can see a summoner class quest where you have to visit the beast tribes to gain their knowledge of summoning, and learn from their Paragons.