Summoner Thoughts

[Kevee]

- The 2.5 sec GCD triggering for DoT's increases our ramp up time, which is already too high. It takes 7.5 seconds to start doing your full DPS. This is not the case for the other classes. DoT's and instant spells should be on a separate 0.5 sec cd or off the GCD entirely.

We need a ramp up time for how much damage we do over time. It is the case for other classes, they don't just start using 300 potency attacks. We can start with with 350 potency attacks, it just does the damage over time.

- The pet's command set, while good potentially, is hampered by the GCD as you cannot command while casting or under the GCD. This is pretty important as some instantkill spells are somehow affecting pets, yet we can't command the pet to move in time.

GCD has nothing to do with commanding a pet. You can't command a pet while casting, or under the animation from an instant spell/off GCD spell. Between those time, during GCD, you are free to command your pet.

- The lack of burst really hurts in most content as there are phases where you NEED immediate damage to not risk a wipe. Fester and Enkindle were supposed to be our burst buttons, but the first requires 7.5 seconds of DoT application to deal the potential burst damage, while the other is a whopping 5 minute cooldown to do about only 20% more damage than a Fester, which is on a much lesser CD.

Where does it hurt?

The solution is to revamp Fester and make it apply the full damage bonus if ANY dot is on the target.

No thanks.

- Debuffs affecting the pet. Sustain should apply a periodic condition removal on top of increasing the effectiveness of the heal. Asking healers to take the additional burden of cleansing the pet hurts this class as the other classes don't place these burdens on the healers when they do their job.

I can agree with this. Sometimes it's just not feasible to move your pet, and an ability to cure them of debuffs is something that would be nice.


----

- Ruin is too weak. Even with the combination of the pet auto it falls behind the bread and butter of the other classes. Ruin II is problematic as well because the Paladin himself already applies Blind, making the incentive of using this spell outside the purpose of squeezing instant damage weak. Ruin II could afford a cooldown of like 3 seconds and see its damage increased.

Ruin needs to be weak because of our pet. It doesn't fall behind the bread and butter of other classes. True Thrust/Impulse Drive - 150/180 potency. Boostone/Dragon Kick - 130/150 potency, Heavy Shot - 150 potency. These are all their "spammables" and ruin+pet is either equal, or greater, than these.

- Tri-Disaster is a horrible spell. 3 second cast for an aoe bind as the damage is pitiful just doesn't work well. It's sorely disappointing and overshadowed by the BLM's sleep.

While I agree Tri-Disaster is horrible, it still has a place. It's still an AoE bind, and when fighting 4+ targets it's better than ruin after applying your DoTs.

- Miasma II does way too little damage.

It's good for AoE. After applying DoTs, you should be using Miasma II before Ruin in an AoE situation. It being instant helps.

- Sustain needs a healthy buff in healing done. Additionally, it should remove one debuff off the pet per periodic tick.

Healing is fine, I agree with the second portion.

- Enkindle should be a 15-20 second cooldown for what it actually does. With Rouse and Spur both up, an Ifrit egi enkindle is hitting for a pitiful 440-500 damage. This is what a black mage with astral fire does on his spammable nuke at 50.

Are you forgetting about everything else we have? Fester and our DoTs?

To think that a 400 damage skill is on a whopping 5 minute cd is horrendous. Hell, building a lv1 limit break is faster and does more damage than it!

It gives us burst AoE which is the one thing we're lacking.

I also think the cast times on some of the summoner spells are a bit high, namely Shadowflare and Tri-Disaster. The DoT's should be 1.5-2 second casts, as should Ruin. This would greatly help with reducing the silly ramp-up to damage.

Tri-disaster should be instant, shadow Flare should be 2.5s just like the other DoTs. Shadow flare also needs to have a click/press-to-cast function so we don't have to click an area after we press the key for the skill.

On the Tonberry King I had to slap 2 dots and a Ruin II on an add to chop off 60-70% of its HP in a sequence. The neighboring Blackmage had to press at most 2 buttons with no cast times and the add was immediately dead.

Did you command your pet to attack it? No? Did your tank know how to function with a SMN so you could Bane the adds? No? Did you have Shadow flare properly placed? No? I'll admit, burning down adds when people don't know what they're doing as, or with, a SMN is very bad and frustrating. If you know how to do it, you're golden. Most peopel say SMN is bad for Garuda, but you're actually VERY good for it.

If you're going to design many fights with DPS checks and burst necessities, then the Summoner needs to be tweaked or it will be replaced in favor of other classes. The summoner has good sustained damage, but not something that the BLM or other classes aren't matching, and those classes have burst to boot.

Most classes aren't matching, and especially not BLM. We do have burst if you're playing with competent people.

A really good example of where SMN runs into trouble with not being able to kill adds quickly enough is in the Sunken Temple. I mention this because it's a 37 dungeon and you'll be ready for it soon. On the first boss, there are two bees that periodically spawn. You need to down those two bees before it's too late, or the bees will 'Final Sting' someone for a LOT of damage. (Like in XI, final sting is dependent on how much HP the mob has left... but it can be deadly.) Even with Energy Drain and spreading dots (if the mobs stay together), you will have trouble killing these adds quickly enough. Hopefully, you will be partnered with a DPS who knows what to do and will help you down them quickly.

The last boss of that dungeon also spawns a lot of adds (staves) that need to be killed over time. The tricky part about these is that you have to keep moving (you'll see why -- I don't want to give it away). Your dps against these adds that can't be brought together will be very low compared to the other DPS. At some point, you will need to 'solo' one of these staves in a set time period. Unless you have cooldowns (fester/drain), you won't be able to kill it in time. Killing it is important because it reduces the dps of an AoE that hits the party. When I did this run with a black mage, the difference in our ability to down stuff quickly was really apparent. I can only imagine that these two examples are a sign of 'things to come'.

Is this a joke? Is this why people are saying SMN are bad?

Sunken Temple, first boss. Bees always spawn in the same place. Make the tank tank there, Bane. The adds are dead.

Last boss, Command pet to help(they can pass through the barrier, btw) -> Bio -> Ruin Spam -> Dead staves. You also have the option of saving energy drain for these, but it's not needed.