Summoner and DoTs

[Alhanelem]

Does it strike anyone else as odd that we, being the premier DoT class of FF14, have ZERO interaction with our DoTs? I mean, we have one extension ability (contagion), and one nuke "based" on DoTs (fester...but thats really a stretch...all it requires is the existence of DoTs, not actually interacting with them).

You're also forgetting Bane, which adds a LOT of free damage to mob groups if you use it after Contagion.

Keep in mind that when we get more levels, we're also likely getting more job specific abilities, which will develop the job's theme further.

Frankly i like the high sustain SMN offers. I have a feeling it's going to do well in PvP with it's core ability set, though we'll have to see how the new PvP actions affect things.

[Karnage720]

You're also forgetting Bane *snip*.

Why does everyone forget about Bane??? I dont EVER see it being used by any SMN i have partied with so far. It is great for adds. I dont have Fester yet so I cant speak on behalf of the damage that it gives but my current lvl SMNs dont even use Bane. I think SMN gets a bad rep, which is why people are yelling for changes(apart from the "not being a classic smn), because people dont know how to play their job. A lot of people play it as a ruin spammer.

[Kevee]

because people dont know how to play their job. A lot of people play it as a ruin spammer.

This.

"omg Summoner is weak and useless."

Learn to play.

[Karnage720]

This.

"omg Summoner is weak and useless."

Learn to play.

I play with my RL friends and one of them has every job to 50 just for the hell of it. While leveling SMN he said it sucks pretty much. Sometimes when we do dungeons together, he brings out his SMN and I, because its a habit now, always check all dots and i notice he never keeps his dots up apart from initial rotation. Nor does he use Bane, AND he still uses ifrit post 40. Even tho I told him he should be using carby, no garuda yet, for shining emerald but he says ifrit does more dps, which technically is correct, but for the amount of dps you lose without shining emerald and amount of time ifrit dies due to AOE, it is worth the SLIGHTLY lower blow for blow dps that carby does.

[Veis]

I'm totally over the argument of more pet focused vs why we have dots, but I wanted to discuss our current mechanics.

Does it strike anyone else as odd that we, being the premier DoT class of FF14, have ZERO interaction with our DoTs? I mean, we have one extension ability (contagion), and one nuke "based" on DoTs (fester...but thats really a stretch...all it requires is the existence of DoTs, not actually interacting with them).

*SNIP*

What are your thoughts?

Please just no. I left monk because of people wanting them to be super complex, it is EXHAUSTING during raid nights.

If you think summoners are boring, you are not managing your pets correctly and letting them do what they want. A stand out summoner is one who manages his pets positions/abilities in raids.

As a raiding summoner, I say leave them alone.

[pandabearcat]

Moving my pet doesn't scream complex to me. I move my pet, and then I kinda just afk spamming ruin until I need to refresh dots again.

My Garuda has ONE ability that is useful, and managing it is basically just making sure I have popped my ONE cooldown first, which is really only once every 3 minutes, which is only like twice, maybe three times a fight, which honestly if I forgot to hit wouldn't make any difference in my dps at all.

[Mindcl0ud]

If you are using your GCD correctly, there are a lot of other spells that summoners have that are better use for a GCD then ruin. You should be trying to use these abilities more then ruin. I think I feel like i'm ruining too much when I do like 5-7 in a row. If you get to that point, you've been spamming ruin too much.

[Hiroradius]

No summoners have the slowest start for dps, but in the end of a boss fight we have the highest. I've recently done a CM run, 3 summoners, 1 bard.. after the 3 summoners put up our dots, we ended up skipping phases of the boss fights. Or try 2 summoners on garuda story mode, I've seen her because of the dots do 1 teleport, then teleport to the middle and destroy all the rocks. The longer the fight the higher dps is from a summoner, on trash fights black mages and bards are better, instant damage.

Now it is true, what we should have is something that, when our dots crit our pets get a quick buff, like a 3 second damage buff, just to give us something to rotate in, OR a buff that if say Miasma crits, Enkindle timer dropped by 10 seconds, when Bio crits, our pets 4th ability dropped by 10 seconds, and when Bio 2 crits maybe our next Ruin 1 spell will be instant with no globlal cooldown.

[pandabearcat]

You all ruined my thread D=

I should make it clear this is not about dps in any way.

I just want a more interesting rotation, and would like your ideas to

1. Make our rotation less frustrating (if it is)
2. Make our rotation less boring (it totally is)
3. Make our rotation have more to do with DoT interaction (it currently does nothing with dots, other than they "existing").
4. Give us some neat pet interactions more than Rouse/Spur and moving them.

[Alhanelem]

Another thing is most people just leave the pet on automatic, even though, especially with garuda, manual control yields significantly better results (They need to fix the AI, Garuda can use Contagion with Sic even if there are no dots on the enemy at all). In order to use Ifrit-egi against Ifrit, you need to put him on manual control to prevent him from stunning ifrit and contributing to stun resistance.
Commanding your pet to move with Place can also be valuable. Fighting Hydra, you can move your pet to the tanks to soak up Triumvirate damage (Your pet will die a lot, but it makes things easier on the tanks and makes using 1 tank more possible)

1. Make our rotation less frustrating (if it is)
2. Make our rotation less boring (it totally is)
3. Make our rotation have more to do with DoT interaction (it currently does nothing with dots, other than they "existing").
4. Give us some neat pet interactions more than Rouse/Spur and moving them.

1) it's not really frustrating to me
2)this is subjective, but I don't think it's boring at all- We use more abilities on a regular basis than most any other job.
3) I'm not really sure what kind of interaction you want. We already have a damage spike based on active DoTs, and an ability that spreads dots in an AoE and has a chance to reset their duration. The only other idea I would have would be an ability that consumes the DoTs to do something.