Being a summoner isn' that bad!

[Navia]

What I am at a loss to explain is how my SMN gets a ton of JP pt invites even though my search comments say I only have carbuncle and can backup cureII.
My whm as main job can sit around with PT flag on and waits longer for invite (never get tell from JP player)- so I think to myself, "whats going on here?" :confused:

JP pt's dont even use WHM, I get in parties like rdm/whm,rdm/whm,blm/whm,smn/whm(me),war/thf,mnk/thf.
With 3 mages subbed as whm in the rear guard and 1 rdm meleeing for 3ws renkei+magic burst we were killing mandragoras/goblins in yhutunga at *23* for 200-250xp nonstop :sweat:

I pretty much popped out carbuncle to keep carbuncle's protect/shell effect as needed and cureII'd.
JP players think of a summoner as a healer job primarily which some SMN will hate, but I have so much mp and auto-refresh now i'm not having trouble keeping full mp.
Losing benediction isn't that big of a deal going without WHM, we had an extra goblin link and I just pulled out carbuncle and let him tank it while the other died or BLM will sleep it.

[Mystic Fury]

what about the summoners out there (like me) who would rather not be a curetank? id like to be a summoner as a summoner, not a whm who can summon...im gonna TRY out summoner/blm and see how it works out, if it totally fails, then im gonna go smn/rdm...
but i dont think ill ever do smn/whm

[tomfin10]

Originally posted by Mystic Fury
what about the summoners out there (like me) who would rather not be a curetank? id like to be a summoner as a summoner, not a whm who can summon...im gonna TRY out summoner/blm and see how it works out, if it totally fails, then im gonna go smn/rdm...
but i dont think ill ever do smn/whm

Seems to me that you don't like change. In FFXI SMNs are mainly cure tanks. In the other FF's yea the summons are known as being powerful but in here they're not, if you want to do DMG be a RNG, want pets? BST.

[Navia]

If you don't want to be a curetank, well then you will be waiting for party invites alot.
I get invites immediately when I log on before I even put my PT flag on from JP players I have grouped with before .
I devote my mp pool/autorefresh capability to being secondary healer and enfeeble, use carbuncle protect/shell effect and thats it. Way too boring for some, but the xp flowed like water and got 4 levels yesterday :p
I really need garuda now.. but its so easy to get PT and level :sweat: but thats another matter entirely.

I've grouped with a summoner that had some avatars before, and they blew too much of their mp pool on their typeII magic attacks and leaving it out to melee, the damage was weak and it slowed us down. Summoners aren't a damage job.

RDM as a sub isn't a good choice in my opinion for SMN, as explained in the FaQ, and you wont have access to divine seal at 30smn/15whm which is great.
Noone will want a SMN/BLM, you cant heal or status cure, and your nukes wont even land or do pathetic damage.

[Kirara]

i think you people have some what a misunderstanding about summoner from all you have read

some people wish smn as a all out attacker
some people think smn is nothing but a cure tank

wrong, both of them are wrong

before you tell me off that my summoner is not high level yet (yes it's only level 39), however i have partied with a certain number of summoners at higher levels (not many because summoner and black mage usually doesn't co-exist in the same party)

before level 70, summoners are there for their area effects, blinkga is your best friend at level 25, untill you get area stoneskin later on. levianth's water at later on is also a very useful skill, area erase and heal with out hate. smn is more like a support class, and their mana makes them able to cure. however at later levels, cure3 isn't really going to save people, a party with out a whm (or at least a rdm) can be very very dangours. because no matter what, even at level 75, cure3 is all you are going to get for subbing whm.

summoner is not a bad job, it's just boring and kinda tedious before level 70, however after 70. summoners are very needed in many things, especially many HNM strat now are based on multiple 70+ smn's existance, especially hard ones that some people think they will be very hard to be defeated with out smns (well of course bst alliance is always out of the conversation)

summoner is kinda an imbalanced job before 70, and after 70, they are compensated....

i have 31 mroe levels for my summoner to get to 70... and those 31 levels will be hell (especially the last 15). but then again, if i want to get up there, it's just a price i have to pay.

all in all




smn is not designed as a job to be played with out much experience of the game already

[Spellbinder]

Yay! Kirara to the rescue ^^ I was wondering when you'd post.

[Mystic Fury]

well that certainly doesnt seem fair...to have a class suck until the last 5 lvls...does anyone else see something wrong with that?

[tomfin10]

I should not have said "SMNs are mainly a cure tank" but "SMNs are more of a support job but can do somewhat decent damage". Basically Kirara summed it up again... ^^

[sudo]

well that certainly doesnt seem fair...to have a class suck until the last 5 lvls...does anyone else see something wrong with that?



--- well I think you are missing the point of summoners, they are supposed to be hard ass to get in the first place. That's why the avatars are ONLY available through questing and you can't buy them. This job is for ppl who have already played through the game pretty much and have done most everything and want to enjoy a challenge.

[zombie2kornout]

Summoner is one of those classes that no one wants in their PT for Exping but when it comes for PvP they will be beggin you to come on board...

Similiar to the assasin class in DAoC

[Protoman!]

i have a question and 2 comments -

question - elvaan summoner - doable? efficient? at all? after seeing a couple summoners in action i'm really really sure i want to be one, but i'm not sure whether ditching my current character (who's only around lvl 15 or so, sue me, i had one up to around level 40 but it got hacked) for a tarutaru is worth the advantages in the mp and efficiency department, not to mention tarus are so awesome.

comment - from what i've seen (which is admittedly limited), summoners are not at all just curetanks. they're highly effective as general group support, and otherwise, i see summons as a kind of suicide soldier - basically all they are are collections of the summoner's mana, right? so, if nothing else, they're a totally risk free body you can throw out onto the field. hate doesn't transfer when the summon croaks, nobody is losing exp if it dies, the only thing you're losing is maybe a couple minutes downtime if you screw up. a well played summoner - one who knows his own capacity as a summoner and as whatever subjob he has (i'm partial to redmage - they're still curing, and they can throw down some status effects on top of that; besides, i fucking hate leveling WHM especially early on) and knows the capacity of his enemy and does the right thing at the right time isn't just a simple curetank, they're a very versatile addition to any team.

I think good ways to adjust the summoner would be
a) make the primes doable at MID-LEVELS. i see no point to raising a job you don't even like 30 levels past the point it really has to go in order to bring another job to full power.
b) make seach avatar more unique. different elements aren't enough - the summoner's biggest asset (versatility) should be added to by making each summon much better suited to a specific job than other summons. for example, titan is a good tank, ifrit is a good damage dealer, shiva is a good offensive caster, carbuncle a good support caster, etc. it would make the class more powerful by giving it more options instead of making it possible to do everything at once or the ability to blow away anything.