Obsidian Fire
Ahk Morn!
- AKA
- The Engineer
As far as Black Mage and Summoner go... Black Mage is the Samurai of mages. They have no raid utility and only bring damage to the table. They're also not that far ahead of Summoners as far as raw damage goes, but they have a way easier time of it if they die/mess up on their rotation. Oh, but they have to stand in one spot to keep their damage up. Summoner has a way easier time dodging with less DPS falloff.
Summoner has a lot more raid utility then Black Mage does. They're the only source of Magic Vulnerability now even if it's only for 15 sec every 60 sec. For all that Devotion can't be aimed, it's still a 5% damage increase so it at least does something and costs no MP. If SE fixes it to be something other then proximity based, then that would go a long way to helping the class (Devotion on Samurai <3). Technically speaking they also have a Physical Vulnerability skill too, but since that relies on somebody being hit to activate, it's a lot spottier, but it's still there.
The big problem with Summoner is it's insane rotation build-up time. And by insane I mean it's worse then Dragoon's is. Summoner has shifted from a DOT upkeep class to a burst phase management class. It takes 2 minutes minimum to bring out your max burst damage (Bahamut) and if you mess up on your Aetherflow stacks or die you set yourself back an entire minute if not more (if you get Raised before Aetherflow is available you're looking at something like 2.5-3 minutes before Bahamut can come out again). It also requires you to time your burst around boss phases so you need to have a really, really solid understanding of boss mechanics to optimize your rotation. Like, we're talking tank-level boss mechanics understanding here. There's a reason I find most of the other DPS boring and that's because they're so much more forgiving then Summoner is.
Also... the fears that it would be a Ruin spam class were really unfounded. Ruin I, III, and IV are the spells you regularly use that have cast bars. All the other stuff you use is oGCDs and you use those a lot. It's still the most button heavy class in the game. Especially as Bahamut's auto attack has a 1.5 sec cd. So you're wanting to alternate between Ruin II, Ruin IV and all the oGCDs you have when he's out. Like, the most time I spend "Ruin spamming" is a 30 second window between the first and second Dreadwrym trances and even then I'm also trying to get 3 Festers off, use Devotion on cooldown, use Shadow Flare on cooldown, etc. And even then it's better to use the second DWT sooner rather then later so you don't end it after Aetherflow comes off cooldown. So it's more like 20 seconds of "Ruin Spamming" across the entire 2 minute rotation. Yeah. It's a ton of fun. You have no idea how many people ask me in dungeons if Lvl 70 Summoner is as boring as they think it is...
So Summoner is a lot like Dragoon. Dying/messing up rotation sucks more then it does for any other class, you've got some raid utility that needs improving, but you at least have raid utility on top of a solid damage output so you're not complete garbage either. It's just that Summoner meta has really shifted and you need to strategize more then ever with it to get it working right.
I feel like what would help a lot is to (A) make Devotion target-able or make it only target the closest DPS role. and (B) make it so that you at least keep something of Aetherflow/Atunement/Dreadwrym stacks even if you die. Something as simple as forcing Aetherflow to go off cooldown when Raised would be awesome as it would *only* be 2 min before Bahamut comes out, not the 2.5-3 minutes it currently is. Keeping the Aetherflow/Atunemnt ratio would be even better and would still require at lest a whole minute to rebuild Bahamut again. And do something about Blood of the Dragon while you're at it. Dragoons have the same problem we do, it just takes a little shorter for them to build up their burst phase and it even falls off during phase changes (thank god they fixed that for Summoner).
Summoner has a lot more raid utility then Black Mage does. They're the only source of Magic Vulnerability now even if it's only for 15 sec every 60 sec. For all that Devotion can't be aimed, it's still a 5% damage increase so it at least does something and costs no MP. If SE fixes it to be something other then proximity based, then that would go a long way to helping the class (Devotion on Samurai <3). Technically speaking they also have a Physical Vulnerability skill too, but since that relies on somebody being hit to activate, it's a lot spottier, but it's still there.
The big problem with Summoner is it's insane rotation build-up time. And by insane I mean it's worse then Dragoon's is. Summoner has shifted from a DOT upkeep class to a burst phase management class. It takes 2 minutes minimum to bring out your max burst damage (Bahamut) and if you mess up on your Aetherflow stacks or die you set yourself back an entire minute if not more (if you get Raised before Aetherflow is available you're looking at something like 2.5-3 minutes before Bahamut can come out again). It also requires you to time your burst around boss phases so you need to have a really, really solid understanding of boss mechanics to optimize your rotation. Like, we're talking tank-level boss mechanics understanding here. There's a reason I find most of the other DPS boring and that's because they're so much more forgiving then Summoner is.
Also... the fears that it would be a Ruin spam class were really unfounded. Ruin I, III, and IV are the spells you regularly use that have cast bars. All the other stuff you use is oGCDs and you use those a lot. It's still the most button heavy class in the game. Especially as Bahamut's auto attack has a 1.5 sec cd. So you're wanting to alternate between Ruin II, Ruin IV and all the oGCDs you have when he's out. Like, the most time I spend "Ruin spamming" is a 30 second window between the first and second Dreadwrym trances and even then I'm also trying to get 3 Festers off, use Devotion on cooldown, use Shadow Flare on cooldown, etc. And even then it's better to use the second DWT sooner rather then later so you don't end it after Aetherflow comes off cooldown. So it's more like 20 seconds of "Ruin Spamming" across the entire 2 minute rotation. Yeah. It's a ton of fun. You have no idea how many people ask me in dungeons if Lvl 70 Summoner is as boring as they think it is...
So Summoner is a lot like Dragoon. Dying/messing up rotation sucks more then it does for any other class, you've got some raid utility that needs improving, but you at least have raid utility on top of a solid damage output so you're not complete garbage either. It's just that Summoner meta has really shifted and you need to strategize more then ever with it to get it working right.
I feel like what would help a lot is to (A) make Devotion target-able or make it only target the closest DPS role. and (B) make it so that you at least keep something of Aetherflow/Atunement/Dreadwrym stacks even if you die. Something as simple as forcing Aetherflow to go off cooldown when Raised would be awesome as it would *only* be 2 min before Bahamut comes out, not the 2.5-3 minutes it currently is. Keeping the Aetherflow/Atunemnt ratio would be even better and would still require at lest a whole minute to rebuild Bahamut again. And do something about Blood of the Dragon while you're at it. Dragoons have the same problem we do, it just takes a little shorter for them to build up their burst phase and it even falls off during phase changes (thank god they fixed that for Summoner).
).
It'll probably have to be on the other new world, Louisoix. Regardless, I think we probably made the right decision staying on Cerberus.
