
Originally Posted by
Ryuko
I've seen these "I HATE HOW SUMMONER PETS LOOK" threads pop up more than any other criticisms. /
Its Because Final Fantasy has always been about the Summons looking like eye candy. Yes they dont have to be BIG, but the fact they are so small and look like Cute Chibi baby versions of the primals is what people dont like.
As a summoner, the Summons should look like they can protect you, not the other way around. They look like Fancy Minions.
Most gamers understand that having the actual primals as pets dont make sense for the XIV lore, but SE could have made the look of the Egi more Full & Detailed.
I wish SE would have gave us actual summons that they werent going to use as Primals (Ixion, Valefor, Belias, Mateus, Fenrir, Quetzalcoatl ETC.)
There were a few "SMN don't have any burst -- this is stupid" threads during the first week... I guess until people realized we have ways around that and SMN sustained damage is more than enough to make up for our lack in burst when killing adds ASAP. (Fester charges are more than enough to pull your weight on Titan heart, for example... and planning to Bane and spreading DoTs as soon as adds spawn on Garuda will make up for the lack of burst there.)
Summoners arent very good at killing adds quicky since they dont have reliable insta damage moves. Their efficiency against adds are very situational and Inconsistent. Agaist Titans heart, sumoners dont really have a problem. The problem comes more from SMN trying to get players out of the stone titan incases them in.
The aether flow charges arent always there, and still very situational unlike an archers AOE bow, or a Lancers AOE jump. SMN has to pre dot adds, and by then 2 other DD could have taken then down 3 times.
Enkindle Should be reduced to 60 Seconds recast to fix this.
People also complain about Egi damage without actually parsing to see how much damage the pet actually does. I can't give an exact estimate, but a pet definitely does more than 10%. A summoner's damage is already pretty high... it's usually the pet that sets a summoner's full damage over other players with equal gear. Keep in mind that your pet's stats SEEM to increase with YOUR gear. (Or at least the HP from your VIT does... I haven't strictly parsed pet damage with gear on/off.)
10% is very low. The actual Summoner should do 20% of the Pet Damage Since its called a Summoner. The majority of the damage should come from the pet.
Should have been like Scholar, Healing is Number 1 and Dots are 2nd. Pet damage should be number 1, and Dots 2nd.
You can tell something is wrong when when a "Summoner" can perform very well without their pet.
The most legitimate complaint/criticism that I hear involves the fact that summoner operates VERY similarly to an Affliction (DoT spec) warlock in WoW. It's true... although the lore is different... but I can't think of a great 'fix' to this since this is a game that encourages you to ALWAYS be doing something (very rarely do you just 'stand still' like in FFXI). If anyone can think of a great fix to the "Summoner = Warlock" complaint that actually works with this game, please speak up now. Saying, "I wish our pet did more" isn't enough because standing there and commanding a pet just isn't going to work in a fast-paced game like this. We aren't playing FFXI anymore. =
Here is what i think is best.
Pets should do 80% of the Damage while the dots cover the rest.
Fester should be performed through the pet like enkindle and do various things depending what pet is out. Garuda does the norm single target damage fester already does, Ifrit could do a Cone damage version, and Titan can do a PBAOE version which generates more aoe hate.
Moving forward with the level cap increase summoner should only get abilities that involve the pet.
Summoner should Perform through their pet, while dots coming from the summoner should act as a bonus in overall damage.