Posted this elsewhere and was recommended to post here as well, so:
Don't know if it would really be feasible without a fair amount of behind-the-scenes changes, but I believe one of the fundamental changes that Summoner needs to make it feel better would be to have two pet slots - one for a permanent Carbuncle, and one as the temporary egi/demi/other summons.
A permanent Carbuncle could allow for it to have a separate, extreme range auto attack of its own, such as setting it at like 50y, which would mean that it would never run into the issue of being just slightly out of range during an encounter. It would still only attack whatever your own target is, but as your character would still need to be within whatever normal range of spells was to begin combat, it wouldn't be able to just attack anything willy nilly out of normal combat range.
This would give the Summoner what is effectively a permanent DoT spell - for people that really want all those DoTs back! - while also enabling more interaction via Carbuncle itself. Wouldn't have to worry about things like Radiant Aegis or Searing Light being crippled from Carbuncle leaving the field temporarily during other abilities. This could also mean that many spells, such as Ruin, being changed so that they are coming from Carbuncle rather than the Summoner itself, essentially making it more of the fantasy of the summons themselves doing virtually all of the attacks/abilities, with the Summoner only sending out commands (and hitting things with its book, perhaps).
Having a second temporary pet slot for all of the other summons means they'd be able to have more control over the duration they are out, as well as helping to prevent any ghosting, since they wouldn't need to rely as much on Carbuncle coming back out. For example, sending out an Enkindle Bahamut command just before Bahamut would normally despawn could instead be made to have a slight delay to ensure the ability executed properly, and since it is no longer fully linked to Carbuncle reappearing, it would not affect any other parts of combat.
This could also make the job significantly more fast-paced, as things could be set so that it is somewhat of a combination of the attacks currently in use. You'd not only have your typical Ruin-type spam spell to use (which would now be cast via Carbuncle), but when you have one of the other summons out, the command abilities for those summons could be oGCD weaving spells rather than normal GCDs you would use instead of Ruin. The Ruby/Ifrit commands (and/or any other summons that weren't instant cast) would thus become a choice of an even heavier hitting spell than it currently is, since you would need to completely give up using Ruin + weaved command.
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Don't know if it would really be feasible without a fair amount of behind-the-scenes changes, but I believe one of the fundamental changes that Summoner needs to make it feel better would be to have two pet slots - one for a permanent Carbuncle, and one as the temporary egi/demi/other summons.
A permanent Carbuncle could allow for it to have a separate, extreme range auto attack of its own, such as setting it at like 50y, which would mean that it would never run into the issue of being just slightly out of range during an encounter. It would still only attack whatever your own target is, but as your character would still need to be within whatever normal range of spells was to begin combat, it wouldn't be able to just attack anything willy nilly out of normal combat range.
This would give the Summoner what is effectively a permanent DoT spell - for people that really want all those DoTs back! - while also enabling more interaction via Carbuncle itself. Wouldn't have to worry about things like Radiant Aegis or Searing Light being crippled from Carbuncle leaving the field temporarily during other abilities. This could also mean that many spells, such as Ruin, being changed so that they are coming from Carbuncle rather than the Summoner itself, essentially making it more of the fantasy of the summons themselves doing virtually all of the attacks/abilities, with the Summoner only sending out commands (and hitting things with its book, perhaps).
Having a second temporary pet slot for all of the other summons means they'd be able to have more control over the duration they are out, as well as helping to prevent any ghosting, since they wouldn't need to rely as much on Carbuncle coming back out. For example, sending out an Enkindle Bahamut command just before Bahamut would normally despawn could instead be made to have a slight delay to ensure the ability executed properly, and since it is no longer fully linked to Carbuncle reappearing, it would not affect any other parts of combat.
This could also make the job significantly more fast-paced, as things could be set so that it is somewhat of a combination of the attacks currently in use. You'd not only have your typical Ruin-type spam spell to use (which would now be cast via Carbuncle), but when you have one of the other summons out, the command abilities for those summons could be oGCD weaving spells rather than normal GCDs you would use instead of Ruin. The Ruby/Ifrit commands (and/or any other summons that weren't instant cast) would thus become a choice of an even heavier hitting spell than it currently is, since you would need to completely give up using Ruin + weaved command.
Continue reading...