VForceWave: Couple things you missed:

When endwalker first released, pet jank was still there; Searing Light couldn't be cast with Bahamut out and if you weaved Searing into Bahamut, it was possible to eat the Searing cooldown and not receive the raidbuff. The same could happen for radiant aegis.

Additionally, unlocking Phoenix was a potency LOSS at endwalker launch. It had the same GCD and Akh Morn/Revelation potency, but it didn't have Deathflare. So they had to emergency buff Phoenix's GCD to make it so lv80 didn't weaken SMN.

All of summoner's pet jank issues weren't even fixed at endwalker launch. If they just fixed the pet jank then summoner wouldn't even need a rework in the first place.

socram3254: Current SMN is, in my opinion, in a weird place of having a rotation that is super simple but at the same time extremely rigid and punishing

EverianKalim: Bahamut should have upgraded to Solar so we always get Bahamut -> Phoenix, and for next expac we should get Astral/Umbral states so we can have Ramuh,Leviathan, Shiva summons for other set of Gems.

FhtagnCthulhu: I was so excited for the summoner rework because I thought it was a good base for future additions. I like the idea of a simple rotation where the big choice was when to use each summon. Ifrit is really the only bit that matters most fights though and it is simply not enough to make the job compelling. I think picto does 'find a place for a long cast' better, and from a job fantasy point of view I hate lunar bahamut to the point where it feels like a REGRESSION to me.

I had high hopes and I was disappointed.

cryamistellimek9184: A lot of people hate the new summoner but I like it for what it is. A simple job that either lets veterans turn off their brain for the most part or act as an entry point for people not used to FF14. It may not be the strongest DPS, but having buffs, some heals, and a raise gives it a nice place in groups.

0metallix: I'll admit, I liked the reworked summoner as I hate dot management, esp in multitarget situations.

I did feel like energy drain and ruin were a bit needless and I fully admit dawntrail just giving us another bahamut annoyed me.

FrogtheJam_FGC: I would be more positive of the SMN rework is they did literally anything at all with it in Dawntrail and not make it a glorified Pranged

GarnetDust24: To me, ffxiv summoner looks like the classic ff summoner! Flashy visual effects and big booms. Honestly, if current ffxiv summoner had more summons and more buttons (I feel like I literally only use six or seven buttons on current summoner) I think it would be fine.

I wish we could have a dot class but it looks like the devs are moving away from that playstyle with each expansion.

javi7636: I'm not very attached to SMN either way, but SCH is my #1 job so I've always had it as a freebie.

DrVoodoo123: Not sure how true this is but I heard that the devs wanted summoner to feel more like the summoner from the old ff games when they were doing the rework. I like the idea of that, but then we really need more summons to really fulfill that fantasy. If they had us summon Leviathan, Ramuh, Shiva, Alexander and a bunch of other primals during our rotation I wouldn't even really care that the rotation is just spamming whichever instant cast lights up.

VForceWave: Is it socially acceptable to hate new summoner now? Took a few years but it's about time

I think the smoking gun is that it gets its full gcd kit at lv22. The class is so simple that you don't change anything in your gcd rotation at all between 22 and 86.

DariusSnjor: While I'm unhappy that DT didn't add on what EW builded , especially salty about Shiva Ramuh and Levi being completely left out for whatever garbo Salor Baha is... Despite all that ,I'm still incredibly happy that it isn't a dot job anymore, I feel sorry for those that enjoyed the old play style , but it was no summoner ,it was a waste of job fantasy that is very dear the franchise as a whole.

DroChaku: If someone joins my PF as summoner he gets immediately kicked. Useless job.

SuzakuBlitz: I am not SMN main and haven't touched SMN since HW, so take this opinion with a grain of salt - I am okay with how SMN is because it aesthetically feels what a standard FF summoner should do.

I don't mind if it gets its numbers adjusted and mechanics modified as long as the gameplay of "summon big thing to explode target" remains. I always disliked how SMN was basically a DoT mage and not a Final Fantasy summoner.

I won't speak too much else because I don't feel I have the proper knowledge base for the Job to recommend any sort of fixes or changes without sounding like an idiot, lol

Slayerlord13: I think one of the problems for a DoT-focused dps job is simply how poorly the game communicates DoTs to the player. Not only does it never tell you how often they tick (you just have to learn that via the community), it also just...doesn't really show you how much damage your DoTs are doing either. I think a LOT of players would simply gravitate towards jobs with big flashy numbers over one that might

HeavenOnHigh: unpopular opinion, but i'm glad they removed the DoT from Summoner, as long we dont Summon doom train or hades, what in the name of "Summoner" would spell "i have 3 dots and a dmg zone."

and wile a job based around DoT effects (like bard) would be cool and all, but as long square doesnt higher or remove the buff / D-buff limit of (i think) 30, there is no way we ever see more DoT in the game, they even removed vipers D-buff's soon after he showed up.

we already have problems in some team comps to have buff uptime, just ask all the tanks that "dodged" their own invulnerability.

but what i agree with is... cabunkle is practically useless, he does nothing except the shield, but not having him up removes the option to even do what the job is named: "Summon"

so all he dos is force you to spend 400 mana right after rezz / wipe to even function, but at least the cast is no longer 6 seconds.

JasperBuh: Not very related to the video, but it's kinda sad that you press default singletarget/aoe button only once every minute, or even less if you die or if things go don't full well

TheXehanorto: As someone who only joined during 6.3 with Summoner being one of my two main jobs thus far, I haven’t experienced the various reworks it has had. But here are some of the most glaring issues I’ve seen with the job.

1.) Not enough buttons: So we have Ruin 3 which aside from pre pull, you never use unless it’s during our main burst window when it’s upgraded. So we have our primary summon button, the the two one press buttons and then each summon and it’s respective button. Oh and astral flow for aether gauge, but still the button variety is so minimal, you only need three hotbars because of role skills. It needs more options to press.

2) Repetitive summons: I understand that because of the Summoner job quests, we may never get updates to Ifrit Titan and Garuda to get new summons. But quite frankly, we need something new to replace them. Aside from Solar Bahamut, we have had no new animations for the summoning portion of our kit since Shadowbringers.

3.) Garuda’s special ability: Why does this make a Doton puddle on the floor? Just make it so that every enemy hit by the AoE gets a DoT on them for the duration of the puddle. There has been a lot of bosses in dawntrail that like to move around a lot so that puddle loses a lot of its value.

4.) Aegis Barrier needs an upgrade if some kind, either putting the shield on a party member or granting a skill/buff when it’s broken. The only time I ever find myself using it is for raidwides to help the healers out or party stacks. This skill needs something to go with it.

dimondsi: For the most part I agree with you. Summoner was realistically the only job that could be this, since arcanist is a starting job, and all other mage jobs being either level gated, dedicated healers, or black mage; whoms has a more strict class identity. I'd even agree its satisfying to hammer bosses with waves and waves of upfront damage.

But the rework still took away my management mage, and my cute little multi use pet. I don't feel like a summoner any more, just a black mage with an inferiority complex and a res. And with black mage getting easier and easier with every expansion, I only feel worse and worse about the loss. Might be time for another class split? Keep current summoner as the conjurer (inspired by bravely default) for self focused damage, and bring back old summoner and update them as the summoner. Arcanist already has one split job path, it can do it again

hoenn1999: I like your expectation of "I hope they rework summoner to focus on dots and pet management". I was in the middle of leveling summoner when they revealed the rework changes. I was only about level 60 but I was specifically interested in summoner for the dot and pet management. Once I saw the rework and realize they were gutting exactly the parts of the job I was most interested in I immediately dropped it. The only reason my summoner got leveled is because I wanted to max all the healers.

Golden910: I like how summoner was before and EW but I absolutely love it after EW enough to main it that expansion. I even used it to prog and attempt a Ultimate. I do believe it's easier and I would not mind it becoming a little bit more complex in design. But i really wish they would make it more summon focused. I mean like go even deeper i to thia new design. Every spell should be monster/summon focused. My request is more lore focused not a critique of the usability.

stevoyah: I started as a summoner back during shadowbringers. When I started playing I see what they were trying to do is make it similar to a WoW warlock with dots and summons. It didn't feel like summoner as in how it is in ff tactics or even ffx yuna summoner. Now it feels more so like the classic ff summoner. Which they can easily add more buttons to in future expansions. It is easy and accessible but it's a good entry magic dps

Polarthief: "I would add a DoT-centric job to the game"

While I would like a DoT-based job, this raises problems:

- Bosses/fights that have downtime ruin

JorgeXY: What does endwalker summoner does right? The feeling of summoning phoenix after a big raidwide from the boss and healing everyone with the phoenix sound (although, shadowbringers could have done that too if they just timed the fights). Endwalker summoner gets everything else wrong! I'll die on this hill!

akiriith: I'm gonna have to watch the video then come back to it but I hope this touches on the issue with SMN which is that its rotation doesnt change at all between mid-20 and about 90-ish and how much of a slog that is. I love summoner at 90 , and it's still one of my main jobs, but anything below that just SUCKs to play. I bring it up every time people say they want jobs to have their full kit at every level. Adjusting your rotation per level sync makes jobs engaging and fun, even when its janky like with newer jobs synced down. Things not changing for about 60 levels is just miserable, especially if you're MSQ'ing on it, so thats 100s of hours.

All in all I just want more summons and maybe a few more buttons, but I like how the rotation feels. And also let Solar Bahamut be hydealyn the way it was clearly intended so help me lord. But I like SMN. The one caveat being I hope the pet people could still have a job they liked to play/for SMN to be its own new job instead of taking theirs, but I'm not gonna apologize for liking it. I just wish it was more on par with other casters so people didnt give it a side eye due to dps issues :/ Is it the rezz tax? I love having a rez but if they actually take it away they better at least make it as useable as the other casters, bc taking that away and still being so low on the fancy people's dps charts would suck.

[I will post another one once I actually watch the video lmao, I just have been sitting on this for a while. At least it'll boost the algorithm?)

conroconro: If they want summoner to be utility via off heals they need to remove restrictions on Everlasting Flight, Rekindle, and Lux Solaris.

No time limit on when they’re used. One charge that’s restored when the summon that unlocks it is used.

Allow Bahamut or Phoenix to be summoned without a target.

Jan 31 2026

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