SO, it appears we SMN’s are getting the shaft again. If you’re a frequenter of forums like KI then you’re probably hip to what has been talked about recently. If not, I recommend you troll thru the Summoner threads as of late and, if possible, join in the discussion. Nonetheless, here’s the quick run down…
Not out of the ordinary, a discussion sparked up about just why we SMN’s have not gotten some of the updates we were promised… primarily avatars. The discussion also gravitated towards why SMN power is so gimped. Being a looooong time lurker of forums, I’m rarely ever compelled to jump into a discussion. I’d much rather just be an observer. But someone posted up a link to this interview here, which I must admit got me pissy. If you don’t have time to check out the interview, here’s an excerpt, and i’ve highlighted the part that bugged me:
Vreeland: I have a question about Summoner. Summoner seems like a giant kluge, kind of… it’s a lot of different kinds of systems that don’t really fit together. It’s like a Katamari of systems. So, the interface doesn’t really work that well, and it’s slow, and you lose mp if an enemy moves out of range out of a Blood Pact. It just has all these little problems, and nobody wants to invite them to parties. And also, like three years ago at the first Fan Fest, we were told new Avatars would be coming, but we haven’t seen any new Avatars yet. So are there any plans for a major overhaul of the Summoner class? Because it’s such a classic Final Fantasy class, and people really want to see it succeed, but it’s been stuck in this place for a very long time.
Gann: Yeah, where’s the new Avatar?!
FFXI Staff: We are definitely looking into fixing the things that can be fixed. But something like the mp that’s been used…once it’s used, then the enemy runs, giving the mp back would be something very difficult.
Vreeland: Well at the very least, you use the mp, but you don’t lose the Blood Pact charge’s recast time?
FFXI Staff: It’s something we’ll look into.
Vreeland: Another option would be to treat Summoner’s Blood Pacts like Scholar’s charges so you don’t lose it all at once.
FFXI Staff: It’s not something we’re thinking of changing anytime soon. But once more Summoners exist, the more they raise their voice…one thing we’ve been saying consistently: if there’s enough of a voice from the community that wants to be changed…if it can be changed, we’d like to change it.
Vreeland: It’s kind of a chicken/egg problem though. People know about the problems with Summoner, so they don’t level it, and then they’re not going to request changes because no one’s leveling it.
FFXI Staff: Is that a question, or a statement?
Laughter
Gann: So when’s that new Avatar coming? We were promised it awhile ago.
Ogawa: It wasn’t me, I didn’t promise it!
Matsui: Not in the far future, it’s something in the near future, something in the works. It’ll be sooner than later. We’re afraid that if we get to next year’s Fan Festival, and we still don’t have those Avatars, we’re worried what people will say, so maybe before then…
Firstly, while I appreciate Vreeland for pointing out that SMN is a “lot of different kinds of systems that don’t really fit together” and that we have a hard time getting parties (and IMO more importantly, have a hard time being effective in our LS’s), I wish they would have driven more into that point instead of trailing the question over to avatars. New avatars is cool and all that, but I think it’s been a much more important issue that our job is underpowered in every aspect. And I won’t get too deep into the reasoning behind that… that’s what forums are for.
The highlighted part above is, again, what bugged me. I have been reading FFXI forums since before I started playing, and all I did was hang out in the Summoner forums. The general consensus that “SMN is useless/broken/underpowered” has been spoken about, constantly, for years. And the whole “once more summoners exist”? Seriously? So many people have passed through the halls of Summoner. They are attracted to the job because it’s cool looking. But once they realize they are of no substantial benefit to their parties or their linkshells, they put it up on the shelf. Do you expect people to come back to play SMN and not be effective just out of ‘love?’ Anyone who plays this game regularly (and isn’t some gear whore douche-bag) ultimately wants to contribute to the group. I mean, goddamit SE, YOU MADE THIS GAME so that we have to rely on each other so much, and yet you can’t see the flaw in making a job so useless? We’ve been shunned for a long time. The only true options at this point are:
1) stay loyal to SMN, regardless of how much power you lack, and hope your PT/LS doesn’t mind too much (my sad choice)
2) ditch SMN and play a job that actually does something that the PT/LS needs
Which of those two is it that you want us to do, SE? If you’re not completely heartless, then it’s neither. Which means that you need to fix the job.
I don’t care how it’s fixed, to be honest. Make us efficient healers. Great buffers. Deadly damage dealers. Eff it, make it so we can solo for exp better, or even band together and create out own shells for end game activities. It doesn’t matter to me (though I’d much rather be involved in groups). I just don’t like the ambiguity. And I REALLY don’t like the fact that now, we’re being treated as second class citizens by the people we give our money to, in addition to the players in the game.
Any SMN’s reading this, I say you should get involved in the current discussions. Or start new ones on other sites/forums. Clearly SE is gonna make us beg, whine, kick, and scream if we want anything. And I don’t want it to be another lame bone like “new avatar that does jack shit” again.
/foaming at the mouth off
In the meantime, Cerberus peeps, lets get Hornie again… 
Tags: avatar, FFXI, job changes, SMN, Square Enix, summoner